Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter 
Pastor Nalia Ricketts, executive director of Prayer 2000, as he walks on the grounds of Family Church on the Rock, in Kingston. - Photos by Peta-Gaye Clachar/Staff Photographer
Prayer 2000, one of the nation's premier parachurch organisations, has big plans next year to train persons in the ministry of intercession. Also, it will be seeking to augment its welfare and social intervention strategies by its newly-cemented relationship with Somebody Cares International.
Rev. Nalia Ricketts, executive director of Prayer 2000, in an interview, disclosed that his organisation will be starting the new year with a series of prayer conferences at various locations islandwide.
These prayer conferences have become a regular part of the calendar of events within the local Christian community for the past six years. In 2008, the conferences will begin on Thursday, January 3, at the Church of God in Jamaica, in Chapelton, Clarendon, and will continue nightly. The series will culminate on Friday, February 1 at the Kendal Camp & Conference Centre, in Manchester. The conferences begin each night at 6:00 p.m.
Prayer 2000 is a non-denomina-tional organisation which seeks to promote prayer as one strategy to bring positive transformation to individuals, families, communities, churches and the nation. It is intended to augment existing levels of prayer taking place within the nation. It is a catalyst to other prayer organisations and works in partnership with Christian groups that seek to promote prayer.
The organisation has been able to bring together every major denomination and church group in Jamaica. By his estimation, Rev. Ricketts posits that Prayer 2000 has a working relationship with about 95 per cent of the churches in Jamaica.
Rev. Ricketts also disclosed that the organisation will establish The Transformation Institute Jamaica early next year. The Transformation Institute is seeking to produce 'prayer soldiers' i.e. persons who can do intercessory prayer with a strategic intent. "Prayer 2000 is raising up "prayer soldiers" or strategic intercessory prayer persons who will take their communities, take their cities, take their streets for the Lord. We are going to be training them in strategic informed intercession. We are going to look at how to identify the different spiritual climates that cover our nation. We are going to be training the people in spiritual mapping ... so they can determine the spiritual climate. So that persons can pray strategically for communities."
Positive things to come
Spiritual mapping, Rev. Ricketts explained, involves studying a community's cultural, social, economic, and political history to detect the nature of the satanic oppression that is prevailing there.
Generally speaking, Rev. Ricketts explained, "If the spiritual climate is good, you are going to see positive things that are happening in that community, that includes the economic. If the land is blessed, positive things are going to happen. If the land is cursed, negative things are going to happen."
He explained that communities which record high levels of murder tend to experience economic stagnation and decay. "Where there is bloodshed, that community chases out some manifestation of the presence of the Lord. If the presence of the Lord is chased out, what presence do you think replaces it?
The Transformation Institute, he said, will initially offer certificate courses. But the course offerings will be upgraded as the learning institution attains recognition and stability. Plans are afoot, he said, to link the institute to a university.
Rev. Ricketts told The Gleaner that among dominant demonic forces holding the nation in bondage are a spirit of jealousy and a spirit of divination.
He said the nation's high murder toll is the fruit of that spirit of jealousy. Christians have been missing the mark, he argued, as many have prayed against a spirit of murder, when they should be confronting murder at its root by rebuking the spirit of jealousy.
He said information reaching Prayer 2000 confirms that widespread throughout the land is the prevalence of the spirit of divination which manifests itself in witchcraft. Without much elaboration, he said, many forms of witchcraft were unwittingly being embraced by churches. He is unhappy with the embrace of some churches who have members and leaders who are members of lodges and secret societies.
Moving forward
For Jamaica to move forward spiritually, it will need to renounce divination and everything that is occultic. Furthermore, there must be, he said, "identificational repentance". This means that the nation acknowledges its sinful past, and renounces and repents of the misdeeds of the past.
Rev. Ricketts warned that there are aspects of national celebrations that will invoke demonic powers which will serve to bring more bloodshed and mayhem on the country. He was particularly critical of recent Emancipation related celebrations where there was ancestral veneration. The way it was done, he said, has opened the doors for more demons to oppress the nation. "These spirits were dormant and were awakened. These spirits need to be expelled and placed into dormancy again," he stressed.
Identificational repentance, he said, must include churches and Christians seeking forgiveness from God for their part in the slave trade and other aspects of national wrongdoing.
A resident of Portmore, Rev. Ricketts used the interview to decry a call made a politician during the run up to the December 5 local government Election. The politicians wanted the Port Henderson Road to be transformed into a 'Hip Strip'. Rev. Ricketts warned that such a proposal would be opening up the city for destruction by the forces of darkness which would become manifest with increased prostitution, increase in illegal drugs trade, and generally more crime.
Relief agency
A woman weeps with deep emotion at the 'Heal the Family - Heal the Nation' fasting service at the National Arena in 2006. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer
When one prays, Rev. Ricketts said, one ought to be open to be used by God to be the answer to that prayer, where possible. Such behaviour, he said, would make the love of God become visible and evident. It is with that in mind, that Prayer 2000 has forged links with Somebody Cares International, a relief agency and a network which pursues spiritual and economic transformation of communities. Somebody Cares won favourable reviews as it was among the early relief agencies that got to New Orleans and other sections of the United States which were ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Somebody Cares gave up to US$30 million in gifts and assistance to those who were affected by the hurricane. Similarly, Somebody Cares International was in the forefront of bringing relief to South Asian nations that were hit by the 2005 tsunami.
Seeking a location
Rev. Ricketts said Somebody Cares Jamaica has not yet settled on a suitable site for its operations locally. Ideally, he said, the Somebody Cares Jamaica offices will need space to accommodate at least 40 trailers, as it will be a huge operation. Somebody Cares Jamaica, he said, will operate cooperatively with other compassion ministries in the island.
Next year, Prayer 2000, in partnership with the International Fellowship of Transformation Partners (IFTP), will be doing more ministry regionally. Rev. Ricketts, who is the local representative of the IFTP, has responsibility for 29 Caribbean states. He will also be assisting other territories to establish Transformation Institutes and chapters of Somebody Cares. As the IFTP regional representative, Rev. Ricketts is responsible for the distribution of the series of videos documenting spiritual and economic transformation that have been produced by the Sentinel Group. Already documented and made into a film is the transformation that has occurred in Fiji, Colombia, north and south Uganda. Rev. Ricketts believes revival is coming to Jamaica.
Already, the Sentinel Group has documented the Jamaican reality of crime and poverty. The Sentinel Group is waiting for God to bring revival to the nation before they return to document the transformation that has occurred in the land.
"We believe God will move but it takes a particular approach. The approach has to be one of unity, one of desperation, and one sustained intercession," Rev. Ricketts said.
Send feedback to mark.dawes@gleanerjm.com
