The above photo tells the story well. Twenty two smiles from twenty two amazing leaders. You can see the joy and the passion in their smiles. The “stayers and the prayers” in the poem and there were other leaders in the room who did not make the stage in time for the photo.

The regions very first Prayer Pop-Up – ‘Together for the Illawarra’ Combined Church Prayer Meeting was history in the making for a whole host of reasons. The first combined church prayer night for 14 years.

Praying for the Illawarra, the Church and Nation: focusing on Mental Health, Evangelism Explosion and the Youth of the Illawarra. It was a glorious night of prayer in every respect. The many leaders present prayed from the stage, people also prayed in groups interspersed with songs of worship to God!

There were a lot of amazing answers to prayer at the combined church prayer meeting. Too many to fathom and too many to recount. Except to say Soli Deo Gloria.

 

One lady who attended the prayer meeting shared a poem about this momentous night of combined church prayer.

A gathering, not a scattering.
Diversity in unity.
The stayers, the prayers, the unremarkable persevering for God,
their faces turned towards the light.
His face shining on them.
The heart cry of the body of the Lord in this place.
Light, growing brighter.
“By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

 

The poem shows the precarious work of the Kingdom and the grace of God’s love towards the church leaders of the Illawarra. The poem is a celebration of grace!

“The stayers, the prayers, the unremarkable persevering for God, their faces turned towards the light.”

We are all reminded of the words of Bob Dylan song Precious Angel. We all need each other and we need God’s help to pray!

Now there’s spiritual warfare and flesh and blood breaking down
Ya either got faith or ya got unbelief and there ain’t neutral ground
The enemy is subtle, how be it we are so deceived
When the truth’s in our hearts and we still don’t believe?

Shine you light, shine your light on me
Shine you light, shine your light on me
Shine you light, shine your light on me
Ya know I just couldn’t make it by myself
I’m a little too blind to see.

We want go on the public record to thank Ps Scott Hanzy from Awaken Church to thank him for his sacrificial service for unity and prayer in the Illawarra!  It was poetic and beautiful for the church of the city to come and pray in the Awaken church building.

The people of the Awaken Church have prayed long and hard for the churches of the Illawarra to come together in prayer based unity. It must encourage the Awaken church greatly to see the fruit of their prayers.

Ps Scott Hanzy honoured Rev David Bartlett from the Presbyterian church at Woonona and asked him to pray for the next generation.

The prayer taskforce wants to thank the Rev David Bartlett for his leadership in prayer & unity in the city in the nineties. We also want to thank Rev Darryl Stewart for his continuing ministry of prayer & unity in our city!

Who knows what God will do because of all the prayers uttered by all those present at this historic Combined Church Prayer Meeting? Alfred Lord Tennyson said, “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”

Warwick Marsh, Loani Falconer & David Eldridge

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