10 Days: 30 Cities
Prayer is one of the most humble activities we can engage in as human beings. It’s a ceding of the power to act for the humility of asking and waiting. It’s also God’s chosen means to bring about the transformation of human hearts, impossible circumstances, and even entire cities and nations.
We’ve been riding waves of encouragement in the past weeks as new cities have joined, resulting in over 30 cities/regions participating in 10 Days. Each place has a testimony, and we are privileged to hear incredible stories each day.
We wanted to feature just a few of those stories here:
Bridgeport, CT
Pastor Luis Burgos of City-Wide church in Bridgeport heard about 10 Days at an Impact CT state-wide event. The Lord gave him vision to mobilize the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut’s most populous city, for 10 Days of 24/7 prayer. God led him to ask his local church leadership team to “take vacation time.” He felt that this was too much to ask, so hen he cast vision to his volunteer staff for 10 Days, he didn't mention it. However, they immediately responded, “we need to get those days off from work” without him saying a word. As Luis shared, that moment confirmed what he was already sensing: God’s favor was on this!
Luis invited Gregg Healey and me to share with 50-70 Bridgeport pastors in August. Then about a week later, he invited me down again. “Can you come down next Monday to share the vision? We’re going to get another 80 pastors together.” Luis’ enthusiasm and a can-do attitude are pretty contagious, so of course, I made the trip the next Monday night. I was amazed to see a different group of 70 or so pastors, more than the first meeting, mobilized in less than a week.
It turns out "spontaneous" is something of a specialty in Bridgeport.
Pastor Gabrielle Beam shared how in the last week, God had provided a tent for 1,000+ people. After several near misses, they persevered in faith, experiencing incredible favor with the city to put up the tent near a local stadium. The plan was simple: mobilize a whole city for 24/7 prayer and host nightly city-wide gatherings with an evangelistic message. The time-table to pull it off: barely two weeks. As Gabrielle shared this vision, the electric presence of God was tangible in the room.
The churches of Bridgeport are doing something very special, very spontaneous, very Spirit led this fall.
San Antonio, TX
This Spring, while sitting across from Allan Parker and having dinner, this thought hit me: “I’m may be having dinner with a modern-day William Wilberforce”.
Allan, a lawyer, shared with me how God had given him an impossible dream that’s also a life-calling: overturning Roe v. Wade. He’s been working on an issue as intractable as the slave trade was in Wilberforce’s Great Britain for 16 years. His quest has led him to interview thousands of women harmed by abortion, to provide legal counsel for “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade, and to argue before the Supreme Court. Ultimately, it’s led him to be part of the prayer movement as he realized that no natural forces would be able to dislodge this institutional evil.
Armed with a simple message, America’s only hope is to return to God, Allan, David Brown, and their team in San Antonio, Texas have done an incredible job mobilizing congregations across the city of San Antonio for 10 Days this fall. I can’t wait to see how God moves through the extraordinary prayers of the saints in San Antonio!
Allan Parker of The Justice Foundation invites San Antonio, TX to 10 Days of seeking God together.
From Cleveland to…Africa?
Earlier this year, I was led to visit Africa with the hope of sparking 10 Days on that continent. While there, I felt great hope that God would establish something in Africa. However, after following up from my visit, it didn’t seem like any seeds were “coming up” right away. I hate pushing something—I want cities to do 10 Days because they’re responding to God, not me, and so I waited and trusted what I had heard from the Lord.
A few weeks ago, I responded to an invitation to come and minister alongside new friend Carole Ward of “Favor of God” ministries. After just a brief phone conversation, our hearts were deeply connected. Carole had experienced the life-changing power of consecrated time in the hardest places in Africa where they “stopped everything” in order to fast and pray for one week at a time. They saw nation-shaping answers to prayer in the face of incredible violence and hardship in war-torn Northern Uganda and South Sudan.
Carole was longing to see that same kind of prayer in the USA. As it turns out, I was longing to see it in Africa. In that sense, we were an answer to one another’s prayers.
After doing several meetings together in Cleveland, God sparked 10 Days in several cities, including Cleveland, Akron, and northern Uganda. Praise the Lord!
RESTORE: October 12 in Northfield
Finally, we’re excited by what’s happening on the historic Northfield Campus this fall. Founded by DL Moody in 1879, this campus was home to a secondary school for girls in need and the Northfield Summer Conferences. The most famous Northfield Conference was in 1886, and led to the launching of the Student Volunteer Mission Movement.
This campus, purchased by Hobby Lobby in 2009, has been mostly inactive since 2005. Believers from around New England and the nation are gathering there beginning the evening of October 7 for five days of 24/7 prayer.
On October 12, the New England Alliance is mobilizing believers from the four corners of the region. We hope to fill the 2,500 person Moody Auditorium with the sounds of praise, prayer, and the testimony of Jesus. We hope you’ll consider joining us for what we anticipate will be a powerful conclusion to 10 Days this year.
Dr. Roberto Miranda shares about the life and impact of D.L. Moody at Northfield, MA and beyond. Invitation to RESTORE: A New England Convocation