Fourteen Years Since the Red Moon RosePete Greig - 20 Feb 2014

Fourteen years ago today, a red moon rose over a semi-derelict nightclub in Guildford England, and we formally launched the 24-7 Prayer movement.

If you'd walked into that club that night, across the sticky floor, through the crowds of young people, and told me what would happen next I would never have believed you. You'd have doubted it yourself, when you saw just how dodgy Bojanglez was that night and how terrible my haircut.

We prayed a lot and I preached from the book of Joel about God's logo for the last days: the blood red moon and the way that the Spirit will be poured out upon an entire generation, and 'all who call upon the Lord will be saved.' And then we yelled a lot and somehow the Spirit showed up and fresh vision bubbled up and forty people stuck their hands up and surrendered their lives to Jesus for the first time (although I've no idea why any self-respecting non-Christian would attend the launch of a prayer movement in the grottiest club in town).

All this took place on 20th February in the year 2000 under a blood red moon. Just as the prophet said. 

Tardis

Bojanglez nightclub is still standing (just) but it's even more derelict and no longer open for business. But the movement Bojanglez launched has impacted more than two million people in most denominations and more than half the nations on earth.

True to its name, the 24-7 Prayer meeting has continued night-and-day, non-stop from that moment, through 9/11, the war in Iraq, a few presidents, a couple of popes, the global financial crisis and the discovery of One Direction.

Countless people in many cultures have met with Jesus in Prayer Rooms, night after night, from the US Naval Academy to the slums of Delhi. We've planted nineteen Boiler Rooms in eight nations - including the one here in Guildford. New businesses and ministries have been born in Prayer Rooms including initiatives like 24-7 Ibiza and Prayer Spaces in Schools which have attracted media attention. We've reached the poorest of the poor and rulers of nations. Last year they even held a mass for 24-7 in Salzburg cathedral where Mozart lived and I kept shaking my head in amazement, gazing at the priests in their red robes and the breathtaking domed ceiling above us and thinking 'Wow, we're a long way from Bojanglez'.
 
So, if you were to jump in your personal tardis and travel back to Bojanglez on this day foruteen years ago just to mess with my head by telling me even half of what I've just told you, I would have freaked out. Wouldn’t have believed you. The biggest thing we were imagining that night was the impossible idea of filling the year two thousand with continual prayer...
 
A fistful of dollars

When I came out of the venue the moon had returned to its normal colour, and a Venezuelan American came up to me in the street with a whole fistful of US dollars. Said he wanted to 'sow into the vision'. To be honest it felt like some kind of shady drug deal. That was the first money anyone ever gave us, and I hope he feels like he's got a good return on his investment because, by the grace of God, we've never failed to pay a single bill in fourteen years and 115 nations.

We often cry out to God for provision and we've never yet gone without. Prayer has always worked. Miracles of provision again and again.
 
As we enter our fifteenth year of non-stop prayer since Bojanglez, let's recommit our lives afresh to Joel's vision and the army of young people filled with God's Spirit, and the harvest of a generation who 'call upon the name of the Lord'. If you've been blessed in any way by this accidental movement please join me in giving thanks to God for the countless prayers he has answered. And if you have a fistful of dollars you'd like to invest in the next chapter… well you know what to do!

All images are used by permission in accordance with commons copyright license terms: Feature image is a derivative of the image 'Blood Moon' by Hanzlers Warped Visions, 'Crimson Moon' by Alexander Boden and Bojanglez Images from Photobucket and Derelict Places