10 Days 2022 Report
We’ve just concluded another amazing year of 10 Days. Following that time, we had four hours of hearing testimonies from around the world. While we’re never able to hear from everyone, I’ll do my best to summarize the overall picture and share some specific stories of what the Lord did this year during 10 Days.
When we Pray
I don’t pretend to understand how it all works, but I can tell you this: When we pray and worship more, God does more. People hear God talking to them, and then what God is whispering begins happening in real time. Someone prays for you and somehow knows things about you that you’ve never told anyone. Shy children start praying bold prayers. People get saved, healed, and delivered. Weird coincidences happen. People always seem to be in the right place at the right time. My daughter Sabbath commented on the unity that comes when we pray together over many days—“it’s as though we all start to share the same mind”. That’s exactly what unity in the Spirit is—walking together in “the mind of Christ”, the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:16). Some 10 Days gatherings are gentle and contained, like a warming fire on a cool evening—others are wild and intense, like a forest fire that rages whether you like it or not. In the midst of it, the goal is simple—let God be God and dwell in the midst of His people.
God’s Presence Changes Everything
The fire at the heart of these gatherings is the presence of God. Ernest Griesel, who led a 24/7 10 Days expression in the middle of the New Mexican desert, shared how the presence of God was the main attraction, and the main thing that people commented on. People were sad to leave after hours of prayer—they came to the middle of nowhere for the presence of God and found God there in the desert.
Joseph Torrez who networked 10 Days expressions across New Mexico shared that, yes, God did send rain in the desert. The Rio Grande river had dried up earlier this summer and now water levels are high. Other desert regions in the US like Lubbock, TX also reported God sending rain during 10 Days, a beautiful and unusual sign in the natural world of the refreshing God was bringing in the Spirit.
Historic Flooding opens doors for the Gospel in Pakistan
While certain areas desperately needed rain, Pakistan has been experiencing historic flooding. The flooding has affected 70% of the nation—people are homeless, foodless, jobless, and experiencing diseases from the water—malaria, cholera, and the like. Pastor W. shared about how believers have been stepping up with medical help, food assistance, and preaching the gospel to those who have been affected.
This year, Pakistan had 22 locations during 10 Days. The theme for them this year was overcoming spiritual warfare and learning how to persevere through warfare into victory. Pastor W. himself dealt with many battles before and during 10 Days, including sickness and divisions among believers. In spite of this, they persevered and saw great answers to prayer. In one area that had open violence, they saw the fighting subside after four days of prayer—God’s presence brings peace and people from outside the community recognized that peace had come through prayer! In other places, they saw healings, salvations, and people repenting of drug use to follow Jesus. Many of the women have awakened to the power of corporate prayer and are continuing to meet together regularly to pray.
300 Locations Globally and Praying in the Middle East
This year, we were able to confirm over 300 different 10 Days events hosted around the world. Once again, international gatherings (220+) far outnumbered gatherings in the USA (about 80) —Praise God! These gatherings ranged from city-wide events where believers from many different congregations came together, to home prayer gatherings with small groups of believers.
Over 130 Events could not be linked or listed due to being in areas of the world that are in danger of persecution. This included numerous events in North Africa, the Middle East, and throughout the Islamic world. As we continue to grow in relationship with church movements that are exploding in persecuted areas, we’re having to adapt some of our metrics and methods—you can’t have a public city-wide event in many of these places, so small and secret is better than large and loud. Given where the church is currently growing, we anticipate that 10 Days will be a majority underground church movement in the upcoming years.
One event in the Islamic world saw 10 different organizations work together to host two daily times of prayer. The venue moved throughout their city including meeting in homes and public places. These 10 groups were not partnering together prior to last year’s 10 Days, so these times of prayer have been a catalyst for ongoing unity, partnership, and love amongst the believers there.
In response, they reported a Muslim family openly attending a church meeting on the final day to learn about Jesus (which is not permitted) and also a significant increase in interest in hearing about the gospel online from people in their city. Praise God for increasing unity and the visibility of His Son in the Islamic world.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, over 100 home church gatherings numbering about 7,000 people took place as part of the same network, praying in their own homes but then connecting at times online for prayer. People were revived, healed, set-free, saved and encouraged as they experienced the presence of God together! Finally, we were honored to partner this year with the All-Nations Convocation in Jerusalem—some of our dear friends including African Coordinator Edward Matovu were able to travel to Jerusalem to attend.
Beautiful Testimonies
As always happens, God moved in many specific ways in people’s lives. What follows is simply a list of reports or stories that I remember—just a small sample of what God did.
Joel Frazier, part of our US team, was able to attend 10 Days events in Uganda—pretty amazing! Joel saw many miraculous things happen on his trip to train and equip ministry teams, but was able to deliver a Ugandan woman of demonic attack after a 10 Days event near the Entebbe airport. Also, after one of our 10 Days testimony times, Joel also reported that many people received physical healings on Zoom—Praise God!
In the Dominican Republic, there was an amazing God encounter during 10 Days. A man whose wife had died leaving him with three small children was so desperate and impoverished that he prepared poison for himself and his children. When his son said to him, “Daddy, I’m hungry” he repented and threw the poison away. Shortly after that, at the moment of extreme desperation and crying out to God, he heard a voice tell him to approach a certain man on the street. He ran up to the man saying “I think you are a Christian, can you help me?” The man was the husband of the leader of 10 Days in that city (Cecilia). The desperate man made a profession of faith and has found work and help with his children. When we pray more, God does more!
In Sierra Leon, a local church received a large amount of musical instruments on the final day of 10 Days. This was one of the dedicated reasons of their fasting. God answers prayers!
In St. John’s, Florida, the team was frustrated that they could only fill 7/10 evening gatherings. Then hurricane Ian showed up. The nights that were unfilled were nights when the hurricane made gathering impossible—The Lord knew! Every evening went off as planned and the hurricane did not stop the prayers.
In North Africa, an unusual wave of mourning in intercession for the Jewish people to be saved came forth in the middle of 10 Days. Many other groups reported similar visitations of the spirit of prayer and mourning for Israel, for the salvation of other nations, and for the Lord’s return.
In Western Massachusetts, a prayer request was brought forward for a 100 year old Chinese woman who was sick and possibly near death. Her grandson wanted to share Christ with her before she died. However, she speaks a very rare Chinese language that not many people speak, so even sharing with her via a translator was impossible. So, the prayer was for healing, and to somehow find a believer who spoke her rare language. On that night, we had a special visitor from CT who was only there one night. As a white American, no would suspect a connection to the Chinese church. But as it turns out, His dad pastors within an extensive Chinese Church network in the USA. By the next day, they had made a connection with a believer who spoke her very rare dialect in her city and the grandmother was healthy and went home.
In Syracuse, NY Paul shared about how in 2020 he and his wife had tried to start 10 Days there with limited success. It was a little discouraging. However, in 2022, without any knowledge on their part, another group launched 10 Days in the city bringing together four local congregations and 6 ministries. Paul was able to join in those gatherings which were an answer to their prayers and seed sowing in 2020!
Conclusion
God, we thank you for your presence. We thank you for showing up in every place where people worshipped, prayed, fasted, and sought your face. Jesus, you are good and completely worthy of all this and more! May all glory and honor be unto Him who sits on the throne, and unto the Lamb! Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus!
Yours,
Jonathan Friz