House of Prayer

Have you ever prayed along thousands of people in a public field? The Methodist did on the 1st of May 2011. The occasion was the culmination of a national prayer convention held in Sibu over the Labour Day weekend. 3500 people of various ethnic backgrounds and ages converged in this town to join hands in praying for the country and the church.

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14) was a major theme repeated throughout the convention. Basically this convention was about prayer even though there were many other sessions throughout. It was the desire of all that God would heal our land. The participants had ample opportunity to pray either in big groups or individually for various issues of our country and our church.

We had the privilege of hearing Mr. Graham Power, Chairman of the Global Day of Prayer from South Africa and Rev. Dr. James Shia, Evangelist and Bible Teacher from Taiwan as the plenary speakers. Though they taught the participants many lessons on praying, it was their lifestyle of prayer that inspired many in the power and necessity of praying. We also had Bishop Hwa Yung and Dr. Dion Foster as speakers in the convention. One afternoon, many workshops on various topics were conducted for the participants.

The last day of the convention was an eventful day. All the participants converged in the Sibu Town Square for a time for praying for the nation at 5am. All the participants had to walk about one kilometre to the venue. And the quietness of the morning was broken with people young and old praying. We ended the day converging again at the Padang for a huge prayer event. It was graced by close to 10000 people from all over Malaysia. It was an exciting experience for many to see the openness and willingness of all to pray in public. Though the rain threatened to disrupt the event, it drove the participants more into prayer. Truly indeed it was blessing to witness and participate in this prayer convention this year.

By Michael William