In the first two weeks of November, delegates from almost every nation will be gathering in Glasgow, Scotland for a huge United Nations climate change negotiation. Called Conference of Parties 26 (COP26) it will be one of the largest international events ever hosted by the UK, with up to 30,000 people in attendance. Many world leaders, including the Pope and Queen Elizabeth II, will be there, along with policy experts, diplomats, and scientists. YWAMers have been prayer walking the site and YWAM in the UK has planned an outreach during the event. Please join with us through The Invitation, one of YWAM’s prayer initiatives, as we pray for God to use this event to bring restoration to the world. Please pray right now and on our prayer day, October 14.
Topic suggested by JP in Belgium; written by Ben Richards, Phil and Christy Summerton and team in England. Photo of YWAMers prayer walking a COP26 site in Glasgow, Scotland.
Pray for God to use this conference to bring healing to our world. Problems such as climate change reflect our broken relationship with God, each other, and with the land God has entrusted to us to steward (Gen 1:26). This is a controversial topic for some, but the consequences of insufficient action are serious, particularly to poorer parts of the world. Alternatively a just, practical agreement could improve the lives of many people. Pray for the delegates to this conference and also for the Body of Christ globally that we would steward what we have been blessed with, not only for our own good, but the good of the generations to come. “A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children” (Prov 13:22).
Pray for the negotiations. Pray for God’s presence to bring diverse peoples together for common purposes. Pray for truth to come into the light, and for deception to be revealed. Pray for good translation and communication. Pray for help for poorer nations with smaller delegations to be able to participate fully and for humility between countries. Pray for reconciliation between nations and those impacted differently by changes in climate.
Bless the city of Glasgow. Pray for city leaders and residents as they prepare for the influx of people from all over the world and as they organize hospitality and security–all while dealing with concerns for Covid19.
Pray for the YWAM street outreach to Glaswegians, COP26 delegates and activists. Pray for opportunities to share with those who have fears for the future and to communicate the hope Jesus brings to any situation.
Suggestions for Group or Individual Prayer
Use the video in the letter to help you pray through the sites of COP26, or follow along with the audio in this podcast:
Take Action
Pray every day of COP26, November 1-12, at 12 noon in your time zone. Go to a green space, get on your knees and call out to God for reconciliation and justice between the land, humanity and our Creator. “If my people would humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chron 7:14).
Visit this website for more info and to sign up for news updates: ywamcop26.org.
Join The Invitation
Learn more about this YWAM prayer day, called The Invitation, at ywam.org/theinvitation. Please let us know how you prayed at prayer@ywam.org. Please also tell us if you would like to recommend a prayer topic for The Invitation.
As the school year begins in many parts of the world, a YWAM prayer initiative called The Invitation is focusing on universities. Please pray with us for God’s purposes for higher education. More students than ever are enrolling in universities. A newly updated study by the ICEF Monitor, the leading market intelligence resource for the education industry, shows that the number of students attending university has doubled in the past 20 years and is projected to double again in the next 20 years. The future will be shaped by these students and their ideas and practices as well as the events that occur on their campuses. Please pray for these students right now and on our prayer day, September 9.
Topic suggested by and written by John Henry, in USA. Photo of YWAM university ministry in Cartagena, Colombia
Pray for universities and students near your community, and for any institution of higher education where students you know are enrolled. Pray for those suffering from anxieties and other mental health issues. Pray for those experiencing Covid-related stress. Pray for good relationships between students and their parents.
Pray for former YWAMers and other believers currently studying in university. Pray for their continued spiritual formation and active engagement in Christ’s mission. Pray for believing students to study abroad as a means to become ambassadors for Christ in other nations. Pray that stories of faith and courage on campus would be retold and published to encourage a new generation of students to join Jesus’ mission.
Pray for international students from unreached people groups and creative-access nations, for the planting of campus fellowships for them. Pray that these students would be empowered to reach their own people throughout the world.
Pray for YWAM’s Campus Ministries. Pray for YWAM’s University of the Nations Student Mobilization Centre (http://stucentre.com), which aims to mobilize university students of all nations on every campus worldwide to God’s purposes for their lives. Pray for a new wave of student interns led and hosted by YWAMers and friends of YWAM (www.ywamconverge.org). YWAM interns have established therapy routines in orphanages, set up working pharmacies, developed healthy nutritional plans for hospices, taught forgiveness education to refugees, and created curricula for schools. Pray for the equipping of new YWAM missionaries to universities through training programs such as the School of University Ministries & Missions (https://uofn.edu/course/a0c1600000FFWFkAAP).
Suggestions for Group or Individual Prayer
Take two minutes to jot down a list of former YWAMers and other people you know who are currently in university.
Visit a local university and pray there.
Take Action
Show hospitality to international students who are far from home by providing transport, sharing a meal, or through language practice.
Help students to serve and learn about issues of poverty, disease, illiteracy, impure water, human trafficking, domestic violence, drug abuse, homelessness, at risk youth, etc.
Partner with student organizations to distribute Bibles and conduct Bible engagement activities.
Set aside time to pray on campus and then post a video or blog about the prayer time. #PraytheCampus
Join The Invitation
Learn more about this YWAM prayer day, called The Invitation, at ywam.org/theinvitation. Please let us know how you prayed at prayer@ywam.org. Please also tell us if you would like to recommend a prayer topic for The Invitation.
Please pray this month for Bible translation. The End Bible Poverty Now initiative exists to see a Bible in every heart language made available to every individual on earth. More than 1,000 languages still do not have a single portion of the Bible in their mother tongue. YWAM is committed to help change that statistic. We recognize that the great majority of those who speak a Bible-less language are oral learners, and the Bible will be at its most impactful in audio format. YWAM is working on Oral Bible Translation (OBT) for these remaining languages. The goal is to have 30 carefully selected passages translated orally into 1,000 languages by the end of 2025. Please pray with us right now for these Bible translations and pray on the prayer day called The Invitation on August 12.
Topic suggested by: Loren Cunningham, in USA. Content written by: Seth Aumock, in USA.
Pray for 72 YWAM locations to start Oral Bible Translation training. Through this training facilitators are taught to oversee the start of new languages for Oral Bible Translation. Pray for many students to come to these programs. Pray for the training of the trainers, which will begin with a big program in September in eight locations.
Pray for 33 OBT hubs. An OBT Hub is a YWAM location strategically located near a Bible-less people group. Hubs will be intentional in their efforts to reach the Bible-less people groups near their location.
Pray that the goal would be accomplished of 30 carefully selected passages translated orally into 1,000 languages by the end of 2025.
Pray for the new OBT school plant in Madang, Papua New Guinea this fall. YWAM Kona, Hawaii and YWAM Ships are jointly sending a team to plant an OBT school in Madang. Papua New Guinea has over 175 languages without the Bible, and is a strategic location to begin Oral Bible Translation training.
Suggestions for Group or Individual Prayer
Experience what it might be like to communicate the Bible orally. Read Luke 7:11-17 two times, or have two members of your group read the passage. Then pair up and each person tell the story to the other, without looking at the Bible text. If you don’t have a group, try to say the story out loud. The goal isn’t to memorize the words or to comment on the meaning but simply to convey all the elements of the story. You can take this exercise a step further by having a facilitator ask questions, first about the elements of the story (“What does Luke tell us about the boy and his mother?”), then analysis questions (“How do you think the crowd’s view of Jesus changed?”) and then application questions (“How do you respond to Jesus?”). During the next week, look for an opportunity to tell this story to someone else.
Take Action
Join End Bible Poverty Now Kona’s team in their monthly Zoom call this month as they pray for the Oral Bible Translation efforts. This will be on August 25 at 10 a.m. Hawaii time: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83015492807.
Continue to pray for the Bible-less by signing up for the End Bible Poverty Now monthly prayer newsletter at endbiblepovertynow.com/pray.
Join The Invitation
Learn more about this YWAM prayer day, called The Invitation, at ywam.org/theinvitation. Please let us know how you prayed at prayer@ywam.org. Please also tell us if you would like to recommend a prayer topic for The Invitation.
As athletes from around the world begin arriving in Japan for the Tokyo Olympic Games, please join with YWAM in prayer for the nation of Japan. For the Olympic outreach, YWAM in Japan has joined with the Japan International Sports Partnership. Prior to the pandemic, they did outreaches and provided evangelism training in churches. Now that Japan is facing many Covid-related restrictions the focus has turned primarily to prayer. The partnership hopes to mobilize one million hours of prayer for Japan. The Olympic Games begin July 23. Please take a moment right now to pray for Japan and please pray with us on the YWAM prayer day called The Invitation on July 8.
Topic suggested by Jose Diaz, in Japan.
Prayer content by Marty Woods, in Japan.
Photo credit: YWAM Olympic outreach in Oita, Japan; by Jose Diaz.
Pray for unity of the Spirit amongst Japanese believers. According to YWAM Tokyo there appears to be a new level of openness in the hearts of the people, churches are uniting and supporting each other and ministry pioneers are rising up all over Japan.
Ask God for a spiritual awakening among the Japanese people. It is estimated that fewer than one percent of the people are evangelical Christians. The national religions of Buddhism and Shintoism are closely tied to the Japanese identity, so choosing to follow a different religion can be perceived as rejecting your family.
Pray for more discipleship and church planting initiatives in Japan. There is believed to be only one missionary for every 64,000 people in Japan.
Ask God to guide the Japan-wide sports outreach through the work of the Japan International Sports Partnership. Within the national Covid-related restrictions some outreaches are still taking place.
Take Action
Participate in 50 minutes of bilingual prayer and worship in English and Japanese each day leading up to and including the Tokyo Olympics July 23-August 8 and Paralympic Games August 24-September 5. Go to: www.youtube.com/user/onfirejapan.
How We Prayed
June 2021 – Covid in South Asia
An intercession group in Perth, Australia reported that they prayed 2 Chron 7:14 for the poor and needy, they prayed against death, they asked for miracles in the hospitals, and sensed God leading them to Isaiah 40:31, that YWAMers and others would not grow weary but would reap a harvest.
Join The Invitation
Learn more about this YWAM prayer day, called The Invitation, at ywam.org/theinvitation. Please let us know how you prayed at prayer@ywam.org. Please also tell us if you would like to recommend a prayer topic for The Invitation.
Please pray with YWAM as we focus on the suffering of countries in South Asia that have been hit hard by the pandemic. Recently India reached a peak of cases (400,000 per day) and deaths (4,000 per day). Other countries in South Asia such as Nepal and Sri Lanka are now facing Covid outbreaks. YWAM South Asia has lost more than ten staff and family members to this disease and over 100 YWAM staff and family members have been infected at any given time. Several are still hospitalized. Please join the prayer day called The Invitation as we pray for healing. Please take a moment to pray right now or join us on our prayer day, June 10.
Topic suggested by: J.T. in India.
Prayer content by: Elisabeth Cochrane in USA. Photo credit: Firos-NV on Unsplash
Pray for our YWAM family to be ministered to by the Lord as there has been so much loss and pain. A couple of locations have lost two leaders and staff and many have lost at least one relative. Pray for the kids and spouses of those who have passed away. Pray against a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7).
Pray for God to give wisdom and strength to the healthcare workers treating people with Covid. Pray for the doctors treating YWAMers who are in the hospital.
Pray for protection for all the YWAMers out ministering to the poor during this crisis. Many of the poor are daily wage earners and have lost their funds for food. Some people have had to use food money for medicine. We have so many YWAMers involved daily helping others. One or two locations have started Covid relief homes. They’ve also been getting oxygen cylinders out to people. Pray for basic needs of medicine and food for all.
Pray for this surge to end.
Suggestions for Groups or Individuals
Read 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 and seek wisdom from the Lord regarding sins that need to be confessed. Allow God to show multiple layers of sin. When all sins have been confessed, pray as above or as God leads.
Take Action
Donate for YWAM’s basic provisions of food, medicine and medical equipment. If you would like to help you can go to ACEDevelopmentfund.org.
How We Prayed
May 2021 – Human Trafficking
A survivor of human trafficking who is in an emergency shelter reported that she prayed for the people involved to do unto others as they would have done unto them.
A woman from Canada was led to pray for very young children who are trafficked. She met some of these in Cambodia during her YWAM Discipleship Training School outreach. She sensed God prompting her to pray daily for the children’s freedom and she felt led to Luke 17:1-3.
Leaders from a new anti-trafficking organization called Recover Hope were encouraged to know that others were praying for this topic. They prayed for every single person to fulfill his or her role in God’s kingdom, that no one would look away from another person’s suffering.
Multiple people thanked us for inviting them to pray and committed to pray regularly during The Invitation.
Join The Invitation
Learn more about this YWAM prayer day, called The Invitation, at ywam.org/theinvitation. Please let us know how you prayed at prayer@ywam.org. Please also tell us if you would like to recommend a prayer topic for The Invitation.
