Maritime House of Prayer

by Richard Long

    This week at Nhop we are having a consultation with other Houses of Prayer from across Canada.  Here on our blog, it gives us a chance to showcase some other ministries who are similar to ours.

   For example The Maritime House of Prayer which has it’s administrative centre at Prayer Mountain in Steeves Mountain, New Brunswick is actually a very innovative group.  They coordinate prayer over the whole region using seven 24-7 sites.

Here’s the explanation from their website.

“The unique aspect of MHOP is that it is a Mobile Maritime House of Prayer.  We believe that in many cities, towns, and villages of the Maritimes there will be a group of local people who will come together one day a month in their own city, town or village.  This “day” will be a date of the month that will be chosen by the core group and they will take responsibility for ensuring that this twenty-four hour period (midnight to midnight) of worship and intercession will take place in their location each month.  The physical location (building) may change monthly but the geographic location will be consistent.”  

You can learn more about the Maritime House of Prayer (MHOP) on their website.

Unite Canada: 24-7-365-2010

by Richard Long,

  This is the first time you will be hearing about a special prayer initiative in 2010.  It won’t be the last, I promise.

  As 20 national prayer leaders met in September of 2009 to seek the Lord for the season ahead, one of the major discernments was that we needed to make 2010 a Year of Prayer for Canada.

  Coming out of that conviction was the desire to see every hour of the year covered in prayer.  Daria Tomiuk from 24-7 Prayer Canada is the best positioned to enable this to happen, so we have asked her, as other prayer leaders, to take the lead in getting this organized.   Soon there will be a dedicated website for this, where churches, cities and prayer networks can sign up to take a day or a week in the overall effort.

We will give you the heads up as soon as the link comes available.

In the meantime please pray for Daria as she works on this.  We are also working to raise $20,000 to help pay some salary for her and to create the website and other literature.

Your prayers and dollars would be welcome!  Donations can be made online at 24-7 Prayer Canada.

QP

by Richard Long,

  Around the National House of Prayer we schedule the middle part of our day around QP.  QP is Question Period.  We try to have some of our team (and often the visiting prayer teams) up in the Gallery from 2 – 3 every Monday to Thursday.  The M.P.s now expect to see us there.

  Today was a very encouraging day in this regard.  Standing in line with us waiting to go up to QP was our visiting team from TACF (Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship), a day team from DOC (The Dominion Outreach Centre here in Ottawa) and also the Josiah Team members who are here in Ottawa with the My Canada effort.

  Once we were up in the Gallery I also saw that Mel and Susan Finlay from NAP (Nation at Prayer) were in attendance as were Gerry Sherman and his team mate Darlene from The Christian Embassy.

  We had them surrounded in prayer today!

 

Special Prayer Request for Wanda Fost

by Richard Long,

If you’ve met her, you will never forget her! 

Wanda Fost is loved all over the nation as a fun-loving, prayer-warrior woman.  She lives in St. John’s NFLD and has among many other things, recently launched a House of Prayer in that province.  She regularly brings teams from the east coast to intercede at our facility in Ottawa.  She has prayed in pretty well every other corner of this nation.

Today Wanda is in the hospital.  She has been there for the last couple of days and is very sick.  Would you consider saying a prayer of blessing over her life today?  We need this dear woman to be raised up again, full of health and energy.  Hundreds of her friends (and you may already be one of those lucky people) are standing together asking the Lord in His mercy to heal her and put her back in the saddle.

I.D. Ministries

by Richard Long,

   We have just had the huge blessing of receiving the teaching and ministry of Terry and Melissa Bone over the last day and a half. They came to NHOP to lead us through their “Power of Blessing” seminar that they do all over Canada and the world. Twenty of our Nazarites, Prayer Missionaries and staff were blessed by their insights into blessing.

You may have caught them on 100 Huntley St. or seen their books in your Christian Bookstore. It is really good stuff. You can check it all out on their official website at Power of Blessing where they have lots of sample teaching and videos.

Guest Blogger: Jill Weber

by Richard Long,

  Our good friend, and the director of the Greater Ontario House of Prayer (GOHOP), Jill Weber, is starting to do some regular blogging on prayer topics.  I really enjoyed what she wrote this weekend.  You can get her weekly thoughts at the GOHOP website and/or if you sign up to her GOHOP Facebook site.

Here’s her reflection on what the future of the prayer movement might look like …

“So What Do You Think it Will Look Like?”

 I’m often asked that question.  I guess because of the time I spend both in the prayer room and in our communities connecting with leaders, people assume that I must have some sense of what is going on from a God’s eye view.  Eeek.  At that point I try to look wise, nod my head and smile my most sagacious and mysterious smile while I frantically try and figure out what to say.

 So I decided that it was time to actually reflect on what I think IT is going to look like.  By IT I am referring to the work of God, especially as it pertains to the prayer movement in our region.

 And I’ve decided that IT looks like an English Garden.

 You’ve seen them, I’m sure.  Wild and chaotic – flowers and grasses exploding every which way – multiple layers of color and texture.  Things seem to have no rhyme or reason – a garden having a riotous bad hair day.  But what seems like it would be cacophonic is actually a symphony to the appreciative eye.

 And I think the prayer movement is like that.  One of my mentors (he never let me call him a mentor, but I followed him around for years anyways) once cautioned me against trying to “broker” the prayer movement – against being the “go to girl” for prayer – against trying to replant the garden into tidy rows.  Instead, I should just wander from patch to patch, watering and speaking encouragement (plants like it when you talk to them!).  He even cautioned me against weeding, because some of those weeds are just as pretty as the plants, and who gets to decide what is a weed and what is a plant anyways?  I always thought the designation was somewhat arbitrary.

 Right now I’m seeing Hamilton bloom, and it’s exciting!  Multiple prayer conferences, new revival prayer meetings and mobilization, prayer teams going to local skateboard parks, 24/7 prayer events popping up out of the ground – it’s like crocuses coming through the snow every which way, and I can’t wait to see the garden in full array!  I just know the city is being beautified, right now, this very moment.

 That’s what I think IT looks like.  You all are going to have to figure out another question to ask me.  )

 Jill

(By the way Jill has her own personal website where you can learn about her music.)

Seeds of the Kingdom – online devotional thots

by Richard Long,

  Here at NHOP we really appreciate the work of Ellel Ministries.  Many on our team have received ministry at one of their retreats or learned valuable lessons at their schools over the years. 

  When Terry and I had a chance on our vacation to visit the eastern Canada centre called “Derbyshire Downs”  near Westport, Ontario, we learned about the new daily devotional resource that they now provide.

  Check it out at Seeds of the Kingdom.  I believe it will be a great boost to your prayer life.

  Learn more about Ellel Ministries Canada here.

Vancouver 614 Community

We continue to encourage you to check out the 24-7 Prayer movement.  They are growing all over the world and also here in Canada.  They have also totally redesigned their website recently.

The Vancouver 614 group that lives, ministers and prays in the Downtown Eastside is an inspiration.

Here’s part of their introduction to themselves from the official website …

“In our five years, we’ve learnt that the purpose of prayer is not intercession or petition (though these are parts of prayer, whether we know how they work or not), but rather intimacy and obedience. Prayer takes our attention off of ourselves, refixing our gaze on the only one worth looking at (Colossians 3). He receives our prayerful attention, and then teaches us to see the people around us, often for the first time. As we grow in this discipline of intimate attention, we see with Kingdom eyes, seeing evidence of life and beauty where others see only death and ruin. We become aware of the seeds of the Kingdom that Jesus has sown around us already, in unlikely places and among unlikely people, and we get to witness its growth. The Kingdom, Jesus tells us, starts small, invisible and even buried, but it grows and eventually covers the whole garden. We’ve seen the Kingdom growing, bringing release from captivity, freedom from oppression and hope for change. We’ve seen some of these people inspired to become re-builders, restorers, re-newers. When prayerful community is formed along these lines, with people from all kinds of differing backgrounds and experience, the Kingdom seed sprouts and spreads branches in surprising places.

Prayer is the main thing. Honouring the father was the primary passion in Jesus’ life. It must be ours as well. Prayer is no add on, nor something we use to make our programs more effective. Coming before God in thanksgiving, humility and praise, desperate for intimacy, is the greatest pursuit of our lives. When we’re in the busy places of ministry, despair and obvious need, we can easily sideline prayer. We trust that God knows and cares for these things more deeply than ourselves. In an intimate encounter with Jesus, we learn to be obedient to his commands, capture something of his plan of renewal for the forgotten places.”

Read the full description of the Vancouver 614 community’s vision for prayer here.

For the official Vancouver 614 website go here.

Saskatchewan House of Prayer

by Richard Long,

   The Lord has been raising up Houses of Prayer for government across the provinces.  One that we have seen develop quickly with a lot of divine favour is the one in Regina, SK.  We love what Patricia Fraser and Richard and Joanne Lepp and their whole team are doing.  For example if you go to their website you will see that they have identified 11 provincial gates which they pray through as a ministry. 

  If you are a resident of Saskatchewan we highly encourage you to connect with them and support their important ministry to the government of Premier Brad Wall.

  We have a picture plaque sitting on our office desk commemorating the Province of Saskatchewan which reminds us to pray for them.  If we didn’t, then one of our interns, Megan MacQuin would be on our case, since that is her homeland.

Prayer Mentoring: The Gadite Track

by Richard Long,

  Some of the best training and mentoring for experienced intercessors is provided by Cityscape Prayer Ministries.  Although they are located in Vancouver, through their conference calls and the internet they are very capable of providing good first-hand relationships.

  Here at NHOP we partner very closely with Sara Maynard and her team.  If you have been to any of the National Schools of Intercession you will know that the teaching comes from leaders from both of our ministries. 

  Many intercessors have already been a part of the Gadite Track in the last couple of years.  Cityscape is taking applications for their next group.  You can read all about it online at their website.  Make sure you scroll down the page to see the details.