The 1,000-seat auditorium had 960 seats filled for the annual Hispanic Ministries prayer rally in January. The rally was a culmination of 40 days of prayer for Hispanic churches before the launch of small group ministries.
The atmosphere of the room was electric!
“The auditorium was maxed out. It was like a parade of nations with each district coming forward with their small groups for a prayer of blessing and consecration,” said Randy Maxwell, Washington Conference vice president for administration. “There were children, older people and everyone in between. It was a powerful time of unity and excitement about the mission of the church.”
But this wasn't the only instance of prayer-filled energy.
That same day in Tacoma, regional churches gathered at Mount Tahoma Church for Days of Celebration, an annual time of prayer and unity, to prayerfully take the next steps in preparing for a city-wide summer evangelism campaign in Seattle with Breath of Life Ministries.
“Last Fall, our team started seeing an increasing trend of interest in prayer,” Maxwell said. “We had renewed interest in family worship and prayer through The Altar Project in October, and then local churches adopting 10 days of prayer, 40 days of prayer, weeks of prayer and more. The interest in prayer is definitely on the uptick.”
The Altar Project for 2022 encouraged 1,150 email recipients to apply Jesus’ command, “Peace, be still,” in their lives to make room for family worship and prayer throughout the month of October and beyond.
November 2022 brought the God First Stewardship Week of Prayer. A higher-than-normal level of public prayer requests were shared each day during a noontime prayer teleconference hosted by Tacoma Central Church and a nightly broadcast hosted at Volunteer Park Church.
The year 2023 opened with 21 Days of Prayer for God to give churches fresh wind and fresh power for engaging in ministry post-pandemic. Each day, 1,600 people are engaging in personal prayer with opening and watching daily devotional videos, joining a 6 a.m. prayer call hosted by Chehalis Church, or participating in a weekly Zoom prayer time.
“I am enjoying the morning prayer time [and] this opportunity to meet with like-minded brothers and sisters in Washington,” said Lonna Milburn, prayer participant.
When Dana Schafer from North Cascade Church saw the 21 Days of Prayer plans, she decided to take it a step further with an in-person prayer time at the church.
“I felt impressed to give our church family an opportunity to participate locally,” she said. “I basically follow the same format as the 6 a.m. prayer call. We have had up to six join. God is blessing!”
“There’s a sense of passion and genuine appreciation for prayer that is being fostered through all of our prayer encounters,” Maxwell said. “I’d like to encourage our prayer warriors to keep it up! Let’s keep building our prayer ministry to see what God will do!”
