THE TURNING - PRAYER CAMP 2003
At a Prayer for the Nations prayer conference held in Ashburnham, Hastings UK, children were gathered, whilst their parents participated in the adult sessions, to experience prayer in new ways.
Each session was begun with praise and worship. As the week progressed the children became freer and freer in expressing themselves to God. The leaders were very much led by the Holy Spirit and allowed the children the freedom to hear from God and take a lead themselves. Although there had been a planned agenda, by the end of the first session it was ripped up as God began to lead through the children.
One of the outcomes of this journey with Father God was that the children broke up into groups choosing which gifting from the Holy Spirit they wanted to nurture and develop.
One of the groups was made up of children who wanted to pursue the prophetic. One child at a time went and sat in the middle of the group, and the children around were quick to draw/write what they sensed God was saying. One little girl had prophesied that she would become a famous writer and illustrator. When questioned, her sister quickly told us that all this little girl ever did was write stories. One little boy had prophesied/drawn that he would be working with people who live on the streets. When questioned, it turned out his father already worked with street people and the boy often went with his father. These children did not know each other, they were a random group of children who had come together because their parents wanted to attend a prayer conference so they had no way of knowing each others backgrounds and it was astounding how in tune they were with the Holy Spirit.
The most challenging part for one of the leaders was at the end when each child was given a bookmark with a summary of the things God had spoken. One of the children had a prophecy about healing animals and to the shame of the grown up who made the bookmarks, this was left off because it didn’t quite fit in with their theology!
In conversation with the mother later it emerged that her son preferred the scribbled pictures to the neatly produced bookmark because the pictures had more of what God said! A sober lesson in not becoming offended by the ‘sound’ that comes from heaven through these little ones, remembering that it would be better for a mill stone to be put around our necks and to be thrown into the sea, than cause one of these to stumble
WORLD WEEKEND OF PRAYER FOR CHILDREN AT RISK
The World weekend of Prayer for children at risk is held the first weekend of June annually. It became apparent that the majority of people praying over the weekend of prayer were children at risk themselves.
Photo's come in from Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and many other Nations showing children on their kness before God on behalf of children at risk.
J2 SHEFFIELD 2003
On the Saturday after a prayer summit held in London there was a gathering of children in Sheffield. This gathering was named 'J2' based on the scriptures in Joel 2 verses 15-16.The tangible presence of Father God rendered at least one of the grown ups in attendance physically speechless. One sensed that the children had the ear of God bending low to listen and it left one with renewed hope for the Nation.
There is a growing conviction that the Lord would have us respond to the prophetic word on behalf of the children. Father God is calling for advocates and facilitators to act on behalf of children, spiritual Father's and Mother's who are tapped into the heart of God for the sake of the next generation.
If as the prophetic word proclaims, God is wanting to use children significantly to turn around this Nation, then we as examples and models need to be in the right place to enable that and work with Father God to establish it. These are exciting times and there is a sense that NOW is the time.
Since that first J2 there have been similar gatherings of children to pray in Bognor Regis, Oxford and Nottingham
