“We celebrate the already. We anticipate what is to come.”
This is a quote from a prayer led by Sara Groves during worship at IJM’s 2012 Global Prayer Gathering (GPG). It’s also how I would describe this year’s GPG weekend, in a nutshell. (And I must confess, it is VERY hard to cram all that happened at GPG in a nutshell, or even in just a paragraph or two, but I will do my best!)
This year was my first time attending IJM’s annual Global Prayer Gathering. Having seen friends return from previous years’ gatherings transformed, full of passion about prayer and overflowing with excitement for what God is doing, I went with the hope that I would get a glimpse of how God is working in the world and a gain a deeper understanding of the importance and power of prayer. I was not disappointed.
Much time was spent hearing how God has been faithful over the past year, answering many prayers and restoring hope around the world: Land restored to the widows and orphans of Zambia it was stolen from; the precedent-setting conviction of a Cambodian official for his involvement in providing protection to known traffickers; justice for women and children in Ecuador who suffered domestic and sexual abuse; freedom for Men who were wrongly accused and illegally detained in Kenya; citizenship for the members of the Hill Tribe in Thailand; and the hope and continued restoration provided to many children, women, and men through aftercare partnerships around the world. These are only a few examples of the many answered prayers we celebrated.
We learned from IJM field staff the critical and most pressing matters that needed to be lifted up in prayer, and then we prayed. And oh how we prayed. I experienced such an amazing feeling of connectedness in prayer, such a deep sense of how, while we prayed together in one voice, God was intently listening and moving. I returned home with a strong expectation to see what God will do next, and such excitement to continue praying.
One of the Field Directors shared this vision: “The world is full of injustice. God hates this injustice and wants it to stop. We, his people, are his plan for stopping injustice.” We are all invited to be a part of this plan for stopping injustice; we are all invited to pray.
You can respond to this call to pray and learn more about the critical prayer needs for IJM’s work around the world by signing up for updates at IJM.org/PrayerPartners.
You can also read more about this year’s Global Prayer Gathering at IJM.org/gpg .
- Robin Soendlin
