Morung Express News
Dimapur| May 29
It only takes a spark to get the fire going. What started off as one man’s conviction, a South African Christian businessman, Graham Power’s call for prayer with a vision based on II Chronicles 7:14 in the year 2000, today has become a global phenomena with an estimated 2008 millions of Christians from 214 nations united in a day of repentance and prayer.
Interestingly, Dimapur too has its own share of Graham Powers in the form of the core team of the Heal Dimapur Movement that was launched September 21, 2008. Also based on the same scriptural foundations, the Heal Dimapur Movement has given a call to the Christians of Dimapur to pray in unity and to back it up by living a repentant lifestyle. This when done, Heal Dimapur believes, God would hear the prayers of His children and will heal the land.
This year’s Global Day of Prayer (GDOP) in Dimapur to be held at DABA Church 4:00 PM is being spearheaded by the Heal Dimapur Movement. All churches in Dimapur have been invited to Sunday’s prayer meet. Pastors and church leaders from different churches in Dimapur will be participating at the GDOP meet. GDOP envisions it a necessity for Christians to pray in unity cutting across all churches, ministries and denominations, to live in repentance and to pray for nations across the globe.
The core team of the Heal Dimapur spoke to The Morung Express just days ahead of Sunday’s prayer meet. The core team consists of seven young people from across different churches, denominations and ministries. What is strikingly refreshing, at this year’s GDOP meet, is the renewed sense of rediscovering the potential in the power of prayer for the healing of the nations. As Heal Dimapur puts it: ‘what happens in prayer, is that the individual who is genuinely praying, is in the process changed, at the same time prayer really changes things.’
Asked to respond to the growing criticism that argues against the need for another prayer event, Heal Dimapur made it very clear that this is not something new or unique. People have been genuinely praying and what Heal Dimapur wishes is to substantiate the call and remind Christians of the need to continually pray in unity and in repentance. Heal Dimapur wants to encourage Christians in Dimapur to say prayers as a result of one’s “intimacy with God”. ‘Once we begin to pray such prayers borne out of intimacy with God’, the core team opines, ‘it will be the way forward to healing and transformation’. There have been instances in the past when such corporate call for repentance and prayer has been given. What Heal Dimapur seeks is to make the corporate call for prayer on a large scale involving all churches in Dimapur to be on a more regular basis rather than being just a one-time event.
On being perceived to be a movement of the younger generation, Heal Dimapur emphatically reminded that although it is a movement initiated by the younger generation, the invitation is open to people of all age groups. What is encouraging, a core team member said is that a number of parents are also part of the movement. The past few meetings of Heal Dimapur have certainly seen a steady increase of older people joining the prayer meetings of Heal Dimapur.
“We would really like to see more people of the older generation at the prayer meet,” a core member said. Perhaps what best portrays the need to bridge the gap if any between generations is, for the younger generation not to discard the older generation but honouring and respecting them, while also the older generation to come out in support of the need of healing in society by affirming and recognizing the efforts initiated by the younger generation, echoed a core team member. This in a way would assure the young people of the much need support of affirmation any generation longs for from its predecessors. So far, a lot of Churches and Pastors have been very welcoming and open to this initiative of young people, a core team member said.
Eight months may be just too early to assess the impact of a movement but one of the early inroads made by Heal Dimapur Movement as shared by one of its core members is a change in the mindsets of people. Perhaps in a very small way people are beginning to see that this is one thing people need to do: “to come in unity and to pray”, said a core team member.
The call to prayer in unity and in repentance has been given. As Dimapur joins the rest of the World on May 31 GDOP, hopefully the spark ignited by the Heal Dimapur Movement will catch on with the Christians in Dimapur across all ages, churches, denominations and ministries. In a message ahead of May 31 Global Day of Prayer meet, one of the core team members reminded: “God is doing something new in the world, the Spirit of God is doing something great, so don’t be left out.”
