40 days of prayer and a sovereign God

‘So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.’ (Ezra 8:23)

This was the verse with which Sister Anne, board member and prayer coordinator of IS/IVCF Belize, began the meeting. We’ve just reached the final week of the CARIFES 40 Days of Prayer, with one more meeting planned for 7 July. Students, staff, graduates, supporters, and board members of the Caribbean movements have been praying individually and corporately online. For this Prayerline, let’s join them, to pray for the points raised at their latest meeting, on the theme of ‘Thriving on New Ground’. Here are a handful of prayer requests from the meeting, for the whole global fellowship to lift before God.

Movements are being pioneered on the island of Saint Martin, on the French (Saint-Martin) and Dutch (Sint Maarten) sides of the island. Let’s pray that God would give new contacts and provide new opportunities to begin ministry in Sint Maarten, and that in Saint-Martin God would renew the strength of existing leaders.

GBEUH Haiti needs prayer for greater structure, and for the ministry to be expanded throughout the country. Pray also for political, economic, and social stability. Thank God that he will make the GBEUH the light that shines in Haiti.

ISCF/UCCF Jamaica asks for prayer for a specific situation – for ‘teachers who feel overwhelmed, and students who need comfort after the deaths of relatives’. Pray for stability, wholeness, and healing, and that God would use this situation as an opportunity to draw them close to him. Pray for boldness of students to live out the gospel in a youth culture that looks down upon them.

Ministry is continuing in ISCCF St Lucia, but there is a specific need for more Christian teachers to serve in their schools. Pray also for the possibility of a student leadership training retreat in August. Pray for ISCCF to recommence face-to-face in schools in the next academic year.

‘Prayer is always our only viable option’, says Brother Lawrence, ISCF/UCCF Jamaica board member, during the meeting. ‘And student and schools ministry is so important. Our schools are the bottleneck of society. While many young people bypass the church, everyone passes through school.’

Pray with us for the CARIFES region:

Thank God for this spirit of prayer; pray that CARIFES and the whole global fellowship might ‘pray without ceasing’ (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

Pray for the strengthening and flourishing of all 15 affiliated student movements in the Caribbean, plus those being pioneered. Pray that more students would hear the gospel and commit their lives to Christ.

Many places need more workers; pray that God would raise people to serve students in many ways.