Mark Dawes, Religion Editor

A few years ago, a group of born-again Christians began meeting on Friday evenings in the Oakridge, St Andrew, home of businesswoman Shirley Chong to pray. They prayed about issues in their lives. But their main concern was the continuous moral and spiritual decline in the nation.

Out of that gathering of believers, another national prayer movement was birthed which is now having a ripple effect in at least four other Caribbean territories.

The gathering at Chong's home grew fairly quickly. Most of those who came were drawn from the Pentecostal tradition. After three or four years of meeting, the group, which by then was numbering about 40, had become too big to be suitably accommodated in Chong's home. Alternate accommodation was sought and found at the Medallion Hall Hotel in St Andrew, where meetings are held on Sunday evenings.

The thinking, Chong explained, was not to take people away from their home church, but to be a context where Christians from various denominations could meet to pray. Hence, the time of the meeting was carefully chosen to allow persons to attend their home churches on Sunday mornings and the prayer fellowship at Medallion Hall on Sunday evenings. But God had other plans, Chong said, as seven years later, this prayer movement has indeed evolved into a church, which goes by the name Oakridge United Prayer and Deliverance Ministry. It meets at 39 Lady Musgrave Road on the grounds of Eden Gardens. It has a membership of 75 and an average attendance on Sundays of 100. Chong serves as the senior pastor there. The church has 11 persons who are being trained to go into the pastorate and related ministries.

God told them to pray

In August 2007, Chong and others in her organisation sensed God telling them to pray for the nation for the 366 days of 2008.

According to Chong, "The Lord has said 'Call the nation into serious repentance'. He said 'Jamaica must repent. We have gone so far from him'. He said also, 'Pray for righteous governance. The nation must be led righteously and not the form of godliness and denying the power thereof. Where you get people to obey, moral law and, therefore, civil law will be obeyed. And, also, pray for the healing of the land - the body of Christ and the nation and that love will be restored, and pray for revival to be manifested'. He said to call back the men into their purpose. So, when we go into these prayer meetings we make special announcements for the men. The men are turning out to the meetings. God has been drawing them out and they have been coming."

When the directive to go islandwide came, Chong acknowledged she and her team were initially uncertain how to pursue that instruction. Before long, they decided to go across the nation, a parish per month. So, on January 1, they started in the Corporate Area with an all-night prayer meeting. On December 31, at midnight, Chong will lead a group to Fellowship Tabernacle 2, Fairfield Avenue, in Pembroke Hall, St Andrew, for the last all-night prayer meeting for the nation having covered all the parishes during 2008.

The prayer movement is facilitated through Life Connections International (LCI), an entity Chong founded to mobilise and augment the prayer activities in Jamaica. It has the blessing of having on its board a number of pastors/church leaders who have both distinguished themselves in the local prayer movement, and who also enjoy wide respect in the evangelical community. The organisation works in partnership with other local prayer bodies and networks. So, when Chong and her team visited a parish for an all-night prayer meeting, they were accompanied by such persons as the Reverend Maria Harbajan of the National Intercessory Prayer Network and Yvonne Coke of Hands Across Jamaica for Righteousness.

Typically, before entering a parish, LCI would do spiritual mapping - that is, an investigation into the spiritual history of that parish. This is primarily to determine the nature of spiritual bondage with which the parish has been afflicted; and also to discern the spiritual strength and giftedness of the parish.

LCI would also first meet with the parish's ministers' fraternal to secure their blessings. Then, LCI would meet with persons with strong prayer ministries within the parish to explore avenues for cooperation. A liaison officer for the parish is usually appointed who mobilises the Christians to step up their prayer levels and to encourage them to be present at the all-night prayer meeting which would be held in the parish, typically on the last weekend of the month.

Prayer via telephone

Prayer mobilisation in a parish, Chong explained, is facilitated through mobile phone company Digicel. Chong explained that prayer via telephone conference calls with up to 50 persons is a feature of the ministry of LCI. It is powerful, she explained, and it allows more persons to come into agreement for a petition directed at God.

Furthermore, she explained, it allowed for prayer to be offered up quickly in emergency-type situations.

The telephone prayer network idea has attracted the interest of other church groups in the Caribbean where Digicel operates. Already, four Caribbean islands have hooked up to the prayer network and are in solidarity with the LCI as it promotes prayer for Jamaica. "God is not only a Jamaican God, but also a Caribbean God," Chong said, as she announced that the Digicel-facilitated prayer network was attracting the interest of prayer groups in the Caribbean Diaspora, such as Reconciliation Ministries, which is based in the United Kingdom and led by the Reverend George Miller. Reconciliation Ministries are the publishers of the popular devotional, A Word for Today.

At the beginning of a month, LCI would inaugurate their ministry in the parish with a church service - typically in the sanctuary of a New Testament Church of God building. On the evening of the all-night prayer meeting service, the LCI team takes with them flags of Jamaica to help the Christians become more nationally sensitive in their prayers.

The LCI team also takes with them photos of every member of parliament. They encourage persons to lay hands on the photos and to pray for the individual.

Pastor Chong explained that in visiting many churches, she discovered that "people did not always know who formed the government and their specific role". Furthermore, the touching of persons and photos was important to prayer. She stressed that the Lord commanded Christians to lay hands on persons and to stand in proxy on their behalf in prayer.

Developing rapidly

Recognising that the prayer movement is developing rapidly and that persons are increasingly expressing a desire to be trained biblically on the art of prayer, Chong is building what she describes as a prayer citadel on the grounds of her Acadia home.

When completed, it will facilitate 24-hour prayer for the nation, and also function as a secretariat for LCI.

As LCI's 12-month prayer expeditions throughout Jamaica draw to a close, Chong believes it has been a year well spent. She cites as positives the escalation of interest Christians have in praying. She said: "Persons are being mobilised into prayer. There is a new consciousness in terms of what the Scriptures require in terms of prayer. Until we get to that level in prayer, we will not see the manifest power of the Lord working in the land.

"Churches are becoming more and more aware of the importance of prayer in terms of becoming more active. What I found going around the island is that most churches don't pray 10 per cent of what they ought to pray. People are coming into prayer.

"If prayer was not at the level it is in the country, things would be worse."

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