The Salvation Army Chatham

Nigel Day writes about the Global Day of Prayer event in Medway last Sunday.

Nigel Day

A wonderful warm evening enabled a crowd of over 200 to gather in the marquee erected on Jackson’s Field, Rochester to take part in a worship evening led by songwriter Dave Bilborough (Abba Father and All hail the Lamb) which started off the weekend Pentecost celebration.  With percussion backing from his wife Pat and son Dan, Dave led us through two hours of singing and testimony with the music attracting attention from numerous passers-by.

Similar weather on Sunday ensured that there was a capacity congregation of over 500 who worshipped God with the aid of a group made up of musicians from eight different churches throughout Medway. The enthusiastic singing was great to hear and even better to be participating in. A stirring, strong message from Rev Peter Marchant left no-one in doubt that God is expecting his people to take action and reclaim the world from the evil one who currently holds power. We were challenged to get out into the community and make a difference to the residents of the area and to show them that the church exists for them not for us. God was praised throughout the whole meeting and much prayer took place culminating in the congregation splitting into four groups, representing north, south, east and west covering the four areas of Medway. Interestingly, the west group was led by Sheila, the CO from Strood and the south group by Theresa Tranah who’s group prayed for the Chatham area.

Despite the heat, another large crowd attended the final service of the day in the afternoon where a three hour prayer meeting took place in the tent once again. All very reminiscent of the early days of William Booth’s ministry! This was not a quiet prayer meeting by any means as there was considerable sung worship led by the group and much praying aloud by hundreds of people all at once. But then we have a great God who is able to hear all our prayers. The prayer sections were a mixture of free prayer and written prayers which were being used throughout the world in this world-wide ministry – Global Day of Prayer – now in its 10^th year. Among the free prayer time we were encouraged to pray for the various countries of the world and it was estimated there were about 30 countries represented in the crowd that afternoon. Also the United Kingdom was covered in prayer asking for renewal in the churches and for the mission of the church as well as the leaders of our nation. Finally Medway was brought to God for him to bless the work of the local churches, for renewal, protection and growth, for healing and the ongoing ministry outside the church walls.

Further prayer time was given to ask God for ministry gifts to be recognised and used by church members, for servant authority to be evident in leaders and for new wine skins that we might find new ways of reaching people. Finally there was a call to pray for every member of each church to be wholly in tune with God’s will, to work more closely together and be accepting of his guidance.

The highlight again this year was the “Blessing of Medway” as the whole congregation lined up along the bank outside the tent overlooking much of Medway. As the Ram’s horns were sounded we lifted our hands to God and blessed the whole area collectively in full view of the many people sunbathing on the grass! This aroused much attention and was a wake-up call to us all that there is a great work to be done in this huge area of Medway.

A great weekend for all those who attended what may be the last such gathering as the organisers have felt led to stop the event after this year. We now wait to see what God wants the churches in Medway to do in the coming years.