As this is such a historic evening, I decided I would at least attempt to live blog. How you live blog a prayer meeting and worship party is a challenge! I cant really capture the amazing sense of celebration that was there. But it was in this massive sense of jubilation and faith that we united to storm the heavens.
Lee Yarborough who leads the team based in Mexico led us in praying for Latin America. We prayed first for church plants in Rio, Brazil and in Bolivia. In Mexico several church plants are under way. They have also recently sent a lady to be trained in foundations for farming in Zimbabwe. On her return she has planted some land following these principles and soon plans to take them to others. Helping people increase their yield of food is a powerful way of helping the poor and demonstrating the love of God. We then prayed for the whole of the America’s and asked God for a great harvest of souls in all those countries.
John Lanferman who leads the team based in the USA explained that his vision is to plant 100 reproducing churches in the top 100 cities of the world. We focused our prayer on our Newfrontiers church plant in Chicago which has a population of almost 10 million. It is a melting pot city that is crucial for us to see the gospel extended in. The plant has doubled in recent months. We want to see more growth, the release of a larger venue, and more leadership to emerge. There is already a social justice burden the plant is feeling for human trafficking that is a major problem there.
Jeremy Simpkins leads a Newfrontiers apostolic team based in the North of England, but also works into Canada among other nations. He introduced my old friend Rhys and Sarah Scott who are going to move in 8 weeks to plant a grace-filled Spirit-empowered church in Vancouver. It is a multicultural city. Over 50% do not have English as a first language. People call it hongcouver as there are so many Asian people. We prayed for the team to grow and for salvation in the early days of the plant.
David Stroud then led us to pray for the UK who gathers the team of apostles based in the UK. Antonymous apostolic spheres are being recognized, and we are staying together. We need rockets and pilots. One incredible statistic that was shared is that there are 105 people groups in the UK, around 20 of which would be described as unreached. We prayed for a massive increase in the number of churches we have in this nation, which is currently 240.
We cried out for revival in the UK. It was great to hear thousands praying passionately for a massive powerful breakout in this nation. David Stroud then urged churches to be looking for the most intractable problems in our communities, and pray that we could be involved in solving it. We need the grace and wisdom on the church so that we would do our communities good.
We then turned to pray for mainland European nations. We have a great burden to see churches planted into city after city. There are 27 nations in the EU and a total of 40 in broader EU. Lord, would you give us at least one church in each nation? Multiplication of apostolic teams across Europe. Many of these nations have tiny numbers of evangelical people.
We prayed more specifically for Finland, and Helsinki. We believe God will open a door for us, but nothing much has happened. But now there are some people interested in seeing a plant there. We still need a key team leader for that.
Also Stockholm in Sweden. We have a number of churches in Scandanavia. This is a critical place. Phil Whital is flying tomorrow am to Sweden with his family. Aiming for the church to grow. Praying for that to become a bridgehead. One of the leading secular nations. We need to see demonstration of God’s power in that city.
We prayed for Berlin where we have a church plant on the ground. They are in the very heart of the city and going public this autumn. 82.5 million people live in Germany.
We also prayed for St Petersberg where our church plant has outgrown its building in just 18 months. They are already thinking about other towns nearby.
Istanbul was also prayed for where 15 million people live and we have a church planting team. Their goal is to launch publicly this September.
We then prayed for Africa, John KpiKpi who leads Newfrontiers West Africa led us. They have a number of churches, and have a media work with radio and TV preaching. There are Newfrontiers churches in Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Togo, Liberia, and Seirra Leione. In every costal city which tended to be capitals they want to plant churches that will then reach out. We also prayed for Cote DeVoir.
Edward Burio who leads our East Africa team, led us in prayer for Ethiopia where they are seeking to see the church in the capital to grow further into an apostolic base. We celebrated that we have churches in the worlds newest nation: Southern Sudan. We are working into other nations there.
Guy Miller who heads a Newfrontiers apostolic team that supports the work in India led us to pray to this nation with 1.2 billion people. There are 2,223 unreached people groups there. There are 43 cities with more than a million people. India will soon be the largest nation in the world. We have many churches there already with national leadership. Praying for more church plants. There are 34 churches and plants all going on, there are 25 new opportunities. The church in New Delhi is doing well. There are churches of thousands emerging in other movements, God is working in the nation. Vinu who leads the church in Mumbai asked that we pray his church would grow to be a mega church.
Pete Brooks who leads the pacific rim team, led us to pray for that region. Tom Eaton, a great friend of mine leads a Newfrontiers church in Japan and we prayed for that nation as well as Cambodia.
Then we prayed for all the new apostolic team leaders who are taking responsibility together with their wives.
The people prayed for were:
Andrey Bondorenko, Karen Khachatrynyan, Pavel Savaliev, Valery Seleznev, Yuri Selenznev (not here), Vladimir Gorbochev (not here), Pervez Sohail, Pete Brooks, Mike Betts, John Lanferman, John KpiKpi, Jeremy Simpkins, Edward Buria, Steve Oliver, Scott Marques, PJ Smyth, Stephen Van Rhyn, Guy Miller, and Lee Yarborough.
I found myself thinking at the end of the evening, when you think what God has done through one apostolic team, what will he do through this multiplication of teams?
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