24-7 Japan The Time is NowPete Greig - 21 Mar 2011

You are to set apart Jon Petersen and send him to Japan as soon as possible to bless the nation in its time of brokenness.

During heartfelt intercession for Japan last Tuesday the Holy Spirit spoke to us about turning our prayers to practical action. It was an exciting moment that felt a bit like Acts 13:3

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.

Remembering this we laid hands on Jon, commissioning him to return to his beloved homeland on the next possible flight and since then the Lord has confirmed His word to us in a supernatural chain of events which underlines his absolute love for the Japanese people as they suffer the ongoing apocalyptic affects of a massive earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown.

You may recall that last weekend the world's leading Twitter trend was simply #PrayForJapan. As we prayed for Japan we realised that people needed help to know HOW to pray for such a vast set of tragedies. Then we watched a very moving video of Japanese youth holding up signs saying 'Thank you for praying' and God spoke to us about sending Jon.

What happened next left us in no doubt that God was on the move.
 
'The Lord popped Etienne Piek's face into my heart as we prayed,' says Jon.  Etienne has been the International Coordinator of Global Day of Prayer based out of South Africa and he has contacts in Japan already who are senior leaders dedicated to prayer.  'So I turned to him and said "Etienne, are you suppose to go to Japan with me?" and he didn't hesitate at all.  "Yes" was all he said.'
 
'I then got the impression that we needed one more person and an American girl called Wendy Andrews popped into my heart. Two hours later, Wendy emails me saying the Lord has been speaking to her about going to Japan'. God was clearly building a multinational team for Jon but he still needed a solid invite from Japanese leaders themselves.

'The next thing to happen was that a friend emailed me from Tokyo saying the situation was dire, people are in a state of shock, supplies are missing from shelves, transportation is crawling and many foreigners are leaving the land...  He then asked if I could please come with a small team at the soonest possible date to meet with himself and key leaders to establish a prayer response to the events occuring in Japan.   There was our invite!'
 
God has blessed us with key Japanese contacts in business, church and publishing. We hope to get Pete Greig's book, "Red Moon Rising" into Japanese urgently with a dedicated foreword from Pete to the Japanese people. Etienne, Wendy and I will be boarding a plane as soon as we possibly can.
 
'That evening I received a text from a small 24-7Prayer community in Thun, Switzerland donating $1600 to help our team go to Japan. If you too would like to give money to help us respond to the emergency in Japan, please use our online donation facility or make checks out to "24-7 Prayer' and Indicate for "Japan Fund"

North America:  24-7 Prayer USA - 3829 Main St #2, Kansas City, MO 64111
Europe: 24-7 Prayer international: 8a Tileyard Studios, Tileyard Road, Islington, London, England N7 9AH

We will of course be keeping the 24-7 blog updated with developments as things progress but you may also like to check out www.crashjapan.com who are on the ground in Japan and helping to coordinate aid and prayer.

Linked blog posts:
2 Prayers For Japan
Thank You for Praying
How to Pray for Japan

Home page image courtesy of our friends at Revolt Collective - Part of a range of images to stir prayer for Japan.