Praise Report on Bill C-2

by Wendy Turpin 

Praise the Lord, because the Lord has seen to the passage of Bill C-2!  

You will recall that Bill C-2 is the government’s omnibus anti-crime bill, which among other things raises the age of sexual consent to 16 from 14 years of age. You will also recall that the government held a non-confidence motion in February to have this bill passed by March 1^st, 2008, which the Liberals abstained from voting on. As a result, their abstention allowed the motion to pass and the pressure was now on the Senate to meet the deadline, which some in the Senate were saying they would not be able to do. Despite opposition from some Senators, the bill was passed, however, due mostly to pressure applied by the leader of the Liberal party, Stephane Dion this week.

If you take a good look at our Canadian government these days, you will see the hand of God moving as He realigns it to His purposes for this nation. The passage of Bill C-2 is a direct answer to prayer from Christians across this nation. I hope this praise report encourages you to continue in your prayers for the passage of Bill C-484, the Protection of Unborn Victims of Crime Act, and Bill-30, An Act to establish the Specific Claims Tribunal  which is to do with First Nations Land Claims. Prayer does work and does effect change as evidenced by the passage of Bill C-2.    To God be the glory!!

New website launched!

by Richard Long

Well, the day has arrived!  After many months of discussion, webdesign, and translation work, our newly re-created website is up and running.  We are grateful to Dominic Poirier of Studio Justgraphx for coaching us as we learned how to create the more functional site.

Essentially our own team of website novices have been learning how to work with a simple-to-use template using the WebBaker software.  You will find it much more visual, with tons of pictures and many more resources.  We will keep adding pages to create more resources for prayer teams across the country.

We also have a commitment to full bilingualism, so we are grateful for the work of Philippe Germain as he translated the whole mirror site into French.  Please tell your Francophone friends about it!

Check it out at the same old address.  www.nhop.ca

Does Prayer Matter? – Philip Yancey

 

by Richard Long

In the sixth chapter of his book on prayer, Philip Yancey writes this answer to the question, “Does prayer matter?”

“After surveying Jesus’ practice of prayer, I realize that his example does answer one important question about prayer:  Does it matter?  When doubts creep in and I wonder whether prayer is a sanctified form of talking to myself, I remind myself that the Son of God, who had spoken worlds into being and sustains all that exists, felt a compelling need to pray.  He prayed as if it made a difference, as if the time he devoted to prayer mattered every bit as much as the time he devoted to caring for people.”

Want to get to know Philip Yancey a little better? 

Here’s his website …. http://www.philipyancey.com/

Budgets and Other Things

by Wendy Turpin 

It’s budget week and we’re praying strategically into it asking that the Lord’s will be done.  The budget is an automatic confidence motion which means that if the opposition doesn’t like it, they can vote and bring the government down, which is a fancy way of saying that we could be having an election in a few short weeks.

The budget speech will be read by Jim Flaherty, Finance Minister at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time, February 26th (today), so if you have time and can watch CPAC either on TV or online, you can watch it from the comfort of your own space.   We here at NHOP will be at any rate.  Please pray about this speech for today and for the days after as this will be the time that the opposition determines what their strategy will be. 

Apparently, Mr. Flaherty has resoled his shoes for the speech presentation, as opposed to the previous finance minster/budget tradition of buying new ones, and Mr. Dion has purchased new glasses, which some are are saying is for the purpose of a possible upcoming election.  You can read whatever you want into these two symbolic gestures, but I know from news reports that Mr. Flaherty is hoping to appear fiscally responsible.  I’m not sure whether Mr. Dion’s last pair of glasses broke or if it’s an opportunity to update his image for an election, but I like the idea that this could be prophetic statement that he will be carrying a “new vision” for Canada!  

On another front, Bill C-484 will be coming up for a vote on March 5th, 2008.  This is the private members bill that I’ve previously written about, which is the Protection of Unborn Victims of Crime Act.  This is an important vote and I ask you to read an article written by EFC that will shed light on what the bill is about and the importance of the upcoming vote.  Please click here to see the article.  Thank you all for your prayers — they are so important to the future of this nation!

God cares about the Economy

by Richard Long

Tomorrow is Budget Day on Parliament Hill.  If you have been following developments in Ottawa then you will know that there is a concern that the government will be defeated on this important issue.  Budget presentations are always confidence motions, so in a minority government situation, it becomes a matter of much prayer.

Given the state of the economy in the United States, and its spillover effect on our Canadian economy we need to pray for wisdom for our Finance Minister – Jim Flaherty as he steers the ship amid rough seas.

So there are 2 major prayer requests we want to emphasize over the next couple of days.

1. Pray for the reactions of the opposition parties to the budget once it is tabled on Tuesday afternoon (Feb. 26th) and also the media who like to stir the pot.  The final vote will probably come on March 4 or 5, but the staking out of their positions will come in the hours following its presentation at 4:00 PM tomorrow.

2. Pray for great wisdom for Minister Jim Flaherty and his advisors as they deal with the North American economic challenges affecting all facets of our society, from banking, real estate, manufacturing and exports to consumer confidence and spending.

Jesus, I plead your blood…..

(you can see a larger image of these pictures by double clicking on them)

by Wendy Turpin

I had the privilege yesterday of joining a team of young people deeply convicted to pray against abortion in this nation, in their life-siege outside a local Ottawa hospital. There were about 14 of us in total and after a time of worship, prayer and communion, we all piled into a couple of cars to our “siege” destination. When we got there we found a good location off the property but still in sight of a hospital where abortions are performed and placed red tape over our mouths with the word “life” or “vie” written upon it. And then, for an hour we stood looking straight at this hospital, in the cold, praying silently against abortion.

According to 4MyCanada’s website, which arranges these life-sieges, Since the lifting of all legislation on abortions in Canada approximately 3.3 million Canadians have been aborted (based on Stats Canada numbers). This is a conservative number because it only reflects ‘reported’ abortions and does not include the morning after pill, which is, the earliest form of pregnancy termination. If you do the math this works out to at LEAST 20% of our generation in Canada that has never made it past the womb. If you include unreported abortions and the pill the number could be as high as 30-40%. This works out to 2-3000 Canadians per week and about a baby every 1.5 minutes that abortion clinics are open. In your 15 minute prayer block it is probable that 10 babies (statistically) will be aborted….we believe your prayers will be direct intervention into these stats. Go for it! And go for it we did — proudly!

As someone who joined the over-40 set some time ago, it is inspiring to me to see youth and young adults taking on a cause of such high importance for the future of this nation, but they were very clear to tell me more than once that they were glad I had joined them in the siege. This is not an age group thing for them they said, they want people of all ages to get involved! If you’re not already, you can start by joining me and millions of others in praying a 22 word prayer written by Lou Engle that goes like this: JESUS I PLEAD YOUR BLOOD OVER MY SINS AND THE SINS OF MY NATION. GOD END ABORTION AND SEND REVIVAL TO CANADA” Please also take the time to read more about this initiative at 4 My Canada

Trainspotting

by Wendy Turpin

The first part of  this week has been pretty quiet here at “the house” because Parliament is not in session and there are no visiting teams with us,  but last week was a pretty busy week.  We had a team from New Brunswick here and another from Dove Ministries.  As you may know Parliament began January 28th, and with them the teams began to roll in and it’s interesting to see what God does with each team individually when they get here.  There’s always a special assignment for them and it’s exciting to see it manifested in and through them.

Last week’s team’s assignment was especially intriguing because it seemed that they were here to finish what the team from Peterborough County, who were here in the previous week, had begun.   It all began with a dream that someone from Peterborough had about a steam engine that was sitting on the tracks ready to go, steam blasting, but stationary.  It had a crown on it and the number 484.  After some discussion we more or less arrived at the consensus that the steam engine was representative of the Senate (as they felt strongly they were here to pray for the senate) and that the 484 could possibly be Bill C-484 which is the Unborn Victims of Crime Act that I wrote to you about previously.  As a result, this team prayed a great deal into this dream.

But what’s really interesting is the following week someone from the Dove Ministries team had been given a prophetic word even before he got here that he was being given a bag of coal to keep a steam engine going and it was his job to keep the fire burning.  Unbeknownst to him, when his team was praying together as a group he began to pray, in his prayers for the nation, about a train rolling down the tracks!  So, we believe that the prayers from the previous week had borne much fruit because the train was no longer standing but in movement down the tracks and gaining momentum.  Isn’t God great??! 

Meet the Prayer Missionaries

by Wendy Turpin

In case some of you come to the National House of Prayer and see these three faces and wonder what the heck they’re doing there, let me introduce you to (from left to right) Joan Jones, Kirsten Harty and Wendy Turpin (the author of this little report), prayer missionaries.  We three have come here under our own volition to support and come alongside what the National House of Prayer is doing in Canada.  Kirsten arrived here from Calgary, Alberta, via Kelowna, B.C., in January 2007 (has been with NHOP since June), and Joan from Trenton, Ontario and myself from Hamilton, Ontario, in September 2007 and we’re each here for up to a year.    

 A prayer missionary is different from an intern here at the house.  We stay longer, provide our own support so we can, and we are less involved in the ”student” end of things.   Not only do we pray several hours a day (which is our primary focus as we each feel a very strong call to pray for our government and nation) but we help out in the kitchen,  help with some office and housekeeping duties, provide tours throughout the building for drop-in visitors and lead prayer times with our visiting teams.   You’ll also see us often at Question Period and interacting with the visiting teams throughout the day and we are sometimes called to attend city-wide events to lend our intercessory prayer support which we are very glad to do.

So, that’s our short bio.  Everyone one of us loves what we’re doing here and we enjoy meeting the people who visit here from all across Canada.  Next time you’re here, please remember to say hi!

At a “Gathering”

by Richard Long

According to the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) there are 27 national prayer movements in Canada.  The good news in all that fragmentation is that most of these ministries work together and share information.

One of the venues that many of them connect at are the “Gatherings” that are hosted by Watchmen for the Nations.  WFTN is a very strongly led prophetic prayer movement that draws together many others to wait on the Lord, coporately listen to His voice, and then obey what they discern the Spirit is saying to the church in the nation.

Our directors, Rob and Fran Parker, spent the first days of this week in a WFTN national team meeting.  Richard Long (that’s me) is down in Toronto for the Ontario Gathering for the next few days.

Watchmen for the Nations has a great website with tons of information about the journey they have been on for over a dozen years, videos, music and resource articles.  Check them out at www.watchmen.org.  

Mother Teresa’s secret to prayer

by Richard Long

I’m reading Philip Yancey’s book Prayer:Does it make any difference?  Like all his books, he is a master at researching and quoting all kinds of sources on the topic.

Here’s his quote from Mother Teresa of Calcutta… 

“My secret is a very simple one: I pray.”

Wow!  How do you get better at praying?  By praying. 

He goes on to quote her little rhyme.

“Prayer is simply talking to God.  He speaks to us: we listen.  We speak to him: He listens. A two-way process: speaking and listening.”