March 6 - April 14, 2019
This is Your Invitation to Join The Journey
In 2013, the Body of CHRIST united around the things GOD cared about on 2nd street in El Cajon, California. This set us on a path to continue to expand each year to what is now known as 40 Days of HOPE for California. The LORD used a street full of homelessness, underage drinkers, and businesses struggling, to ignite the Body of CHRIST to pray, love the lost, and be a part of the solution to these problems.
Today, across California, the Body of CHRIST is being invited to unite around the areas that we all value; to pray, fast, worship, and do outreach together for 40 Days leading up to Palm Sunday to be a part of the solution to California's problems.
This is our first year opening up this initiative to California. Will you join us, and believe with us, that GOD's heart is fixed on California? HE loves California and is awakening HIS Body to join HIM in bringing HIS power and solutions to our great state.
Here is how it works...
For 40 days we are asking you to pray with us by following our daily prayer prompts and fast, as the LORD leads you, during this time.
We are also asking that you join or lead prayer meetings, worship events or outreaches and open them up to your community so other people from different congregations can unite and join with you. (Don't miss this part...when the Body is joined together in our regions and state, this is where the power of GOD is poured out.)
An invitation is going out across Europe for a unique gathering of 3,000 young people from all 51 nations of the continent, taking place in July 2019. United Prayer Rising (UPRising) Europe will draw together believers for 72 hours of united worship and prayer with a mandate to contend for a youth awakening across Europe.
JJ Waters, Director of UPRising Europe said, “Following God’s lead, we are incredibly excited to gather together people from every nation in Europe to contend for a youth awakening. This is such a critical time for Europe – much is being shaken whilst at the same time God is moving powerfully in many nations. We believe He is doing something beautiful in the hearts of young people, in what is now one of the most unreached continents on earth. Now is the time to come together from different nations, across denominations, honouring fathers and mothers, and to worship and pray for a mighty move of God in Europe.”
We want to invite young people and anyone with a heart for Europe, to save the dates – 8th to 11th July 2019 and to plan to be part of this event.
The backbone of UPRising Europe will be 72 hours of non-stop worship and prayer led by worship teams of young people from all over Europe. We want to see young people from each of their nations bringing their own unique flavour, style of music and worship songs in their own language alongside English songs. These are the grassroots, passionate worship and prayer leaders who are faithful to where God has placed them and willing to contend for Europe.
Out of this will flow prayer and intercession for Europe, with occasional inspiration from speakers in our main sessions and seminars. There will also be prayer for these young people to be sent with a lasting fire to see their cities and nations changed by Jesus.
UPRising Europe is part of the global UPRising movement that was birthed out of the World Prayer Assembly in 2012 in Indonesia. The first UPRising event was in Seoul, South Korea in July 2016. Since then, there have been UPRising events in the Philippines, South Africa, Mongolia, Bolivia, Malaysia, Canada, Chile, Mexico and California.
UPRising Europe will take place at Ashburnham Place, Battle, East Sussex – a Christian retreat and conference centre set in beautiful grounds with three lakes, gardens and an abundance of nature. Delegates will be able to stay in Ashburnham place itself or camp in the spacious grounds.
We want to bring together young people from every nation in Europe and to make this event accessible to all. In order to do this, we intend to make ticket prices reasonable for those from all parts of Europe. If anyone or any church wishes to help subsidise these costs, please contact us via the website.
Anyone interested in finding out more and pre-registering for UPRising Europe can do so at the website:
www.uprisingeurope.org Also, follow us on social media. Pricing and tickets will be released shortly.
Justin Welby has spoken of his daily discipline of praying in tongues and seeking words of knowledge and prophecy from others, in an interview with Premier at the launch of ‘Thy Kingdom Come’, now in its fourth year. He said, ‘It’s not something to make a great song and dance about. Usually it’s extremely early in the morning and not an immensely ecstatic moment.’ Speaking in tongues, words of knowledge, and prophecy are common practices in Pentecostal and charismatic churches. ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ has united over a million Christians from more than 65 different denominations and traditions, in 114 countries, to pray for evangelisation. During prayer times many noticed that God’s Spirit came.
Slaves rescued from factory
25 Jan 2019
Recently IJM supported local officials and NGO partners in rescuing two men and nineteen boys from bonded-labour slavery at a factory near Chennai. They had been trapped there since June 2018, making fried Pani Puri snacks popular in north India. These impoverished villagers were recruited with loans of as little as £108, which they were meant to pay off with their labour. Instead, the factory owner charged them impossible interest rates and controlled their every movement so that could never repay the debt. He verbally abused them and beat them viciously if they slowed down during the 18-hour working day - ensuring they were always afraid of him. On 12 January they were successfully rescued. Although the factory owner absconded, a second accused is in custody and has been charged under India’s anti-slavery and child labour laws.
J John: pray about Brexit
25 Jan 2019
J John has recently commented: ‘However Brexit is resolved, it offers both encouragements and challenges to us who pray. Brexit is a symptom of a world that appears to have gone off-script. Many of the pillars of our world have either been destroyed or are shaking badly. Within a lifetime we have gone from a culture founded on solid Judeo-Christian values to one in which the only fundamental truth is that there is no truth. In the dysfunctional world we live in, prayer and praising remind us that, however spectacular the damage to these pillars is, they do not in fact hold up the world. Underneath and over this world is God, and he remains immovable. Psalm 11 says, “When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne.” Nothing has changed. Prayer reminds us that where the world sees only instability, we can focus beyond to eternal stability.’
From 20 January, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI) joined in a week of prayer for Christian unity and dedicated prayer for the political situation in the UK. CTBI said, ‘This is a time in which many feel anger and anxiety over the future, and we need to pray that those who have the heavy burden of political leadership in our country may find a unity that brings our communities together in the task of serving the common good.’ Archbishop John Sentamu has encouraged everyone to pray three times a day, at 6am, 12 noon, and 6pm. He has written a special prayer to use: see
Parliamentary prayers argument
25 Jan 2019
Conservative MP Crispin Blunt has tabled a motion for the tradition of saying prayers at the beginning of parliamentary business to be abolished. This call comes with the backing of eight other MPs and the National Secular Society (NSS). Mr Blunt, an honorary associate of NSS, stated on its website, ‘Whilst religious worship occupies a strong part in some people's lives, it should no longer play a role in the way we conduct our political affairs as an independent, open and diverse nation’. The House of Commons’ main daily prayer, first used in 1558, asks for God’s guidance so that MPs ‘never lead the nation wrongly through love of power, desire to please, or unworthy ideals’. Keith Vaz suggested an amendment to Blunt’s motion, resulting in the bill saying the opposite of its author’s intention: see
Violence against clergy
25 Jan 2019
Among CofE clergy, one in ten have experienced violent behaviour in the last two years, and the same percentage are experiencing more hate crime than they did two years ago. Over 66% have received verbal abuse and one in five has experienced threatening behaviour. Most threats were to harm the cleric personally, but 20% had relatives threatened and 35% experienced threats to church property. 25% of cases were because they declined to give money to someone who asked them for it. Clergy who have suffered violence are likely to find their work ‘more challenging’ than they did previously. This situation has necessitated National Churchwatch to produce a personal attack alarm for clergy; it looks like an ID badge, but has a button on the back to press if they feel at risk or needs assistance. The button connects immediately to a control room which can monitor what is going on and call the police if necessary. See