We were excited when we heard about the Heartache initiative that called for 24 hours of prayer for the youth of Aotearoa. Heartache called on people around the nation to create prayer gatherings whether for a few hours or a full 24 hours.
We had to get on board! So we created a 24 hour pop-up prayer room thanks to South City C3 who made their upper rooms available to us. Thank you!
The Heartache Vision: Our Rangatahi have been weighing on many of our hearts, so we are responding by joining together with others to pray.. A recent 2017 statistics,has shown that New Zealand’s teen suicide (15-19) rates is the worst in the world. So Heartache is birthed out of the knowledge that collective prayer can be a powerful catalyst of change with such pressing issues. You’re invited to join us as we commit 24 hours to praying for the young people of this city and this nation. Our Addition Focus: We also spent some time praying for atheist Richard Dawkins who spoke at an event in Christchurch at the same time Heartache was happening. (Dawkins is a English Ethnologist & evolutionary biologist, who’s written books like “The God Delusion”.) We prayed for his salvation but also for those influenced by him. Dawkin’s message does not offer truth or hope. At this time in NZ, our youth are in need of both truth and hope. WHY POP UP PRAYER: We would love to start having more intentional prayer spaces in the city. A pop up style prayer room is a great way for communities to experiment with 24 hours of prayer and see how a prayer room can function. Learn more about starting a pop up prayer space. We had Friday session with corporate prayer for Richard Dawkins and the youth. Then from 9pm Friday we broke off into the individual prayers schedule. On Saturday we converged around 6-7pm to conclude the 24 hours of prayer together.
