January 2008


We are
grateful to God for every expression of prayer by all the churches in the town.
He is raising up Houses of Prayer all across the nation and the nations. We started
half nights of prayer in 2,000 to increase the prayer canopy over the town.

On
1st September, 2006, we began to meet every Friday in Crossway, Clinton
Place. SHOP continued meeting every Friday throughout 2007 from 10:00 - 16:00
. The average attendance is between 20 and 30 people. We continue to follow
the format of the Lord's Prayer. Usually there are four different churches
represented, but at various times throughout the year, members of six churches
attended.
Our motto is:
"this one thing I ask, that also I will seek. That I will dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his temple"

We are deeply grateful for a committed team of ten persons, who support the administration of the day and who pray and worship. Without their dedication we would be unable to continue in the present format.

We passionately value the worship anointing and we are so thankful for three young worship leaders, who attend regularly and lead us into the Presence of God in a powerful way. This in turn, facilitates prayer. Because God is worthy to be praised at all times and in all places, we continue the worship during the whole day. There is at present a quiet meditation session in the middle of the day, where prayer for the sick has been offered and individual prayer requests are interceded for, up to forty times. As we "wait upon the Lord", this is also a time for personal re-vitalising and re-commitment to our "first love", obeying the command to love Him first and then our neighbour as ourselves.

"Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour."

Within this context, we pray for the locality, the nation and the nations. The local time is well attended and full of passionate prayer and petition and often tears. We seek to start with thanksgiving and then pray for the Mayor and Town Councillors and all in authority in the town and area. On one occasion, we were particularly blessed to have both the retiring Mayor and the new Mayor attend. We pray and give thanks in groups and as individuals, for our Mayor and Town Council, for the Police and Emergency Services, for the NHS, for schools, for the youth, for Waves, for the Christian Youth café, for the churches and ministers, for CTS, for Hope 08, for our streets, businesses, shops, for local events, for the Fair Trade initiative, for the Beachy Head Chaplaincy, for Lewes Prison, for the port of Newhaven and the Newhaven Mission and the raising up of HsOP to the west of us. Latterly, we extended the time from 11:00 - 12:30 to facilitate prayer for all these areas (and others as visitors share the burden of their hearts, e.g. Ian Chisnell, introducing Hope 08, Maeve from 'N Vision, an outreach in Brighton, Keith Haydon, informing with regard to the work of God in Hastings.)

We have had many answers to prayer. On one recent occasion, Lesley, who is a facilities manager in the NHS and is in charge of Hospital cleanliness asked us to pray about the outbreak of C Diff., which is a life-threatening infection. This had resulted in the closure of several Hospital wards locally.
As a group, we stood up and prayed together and then split into small groups to pray individually. When Lesley returned to work on Monday, the number of infections had reduced in all the local Hospitals and all but one of the wards had been re-opened. The infection continued to decline with only one or two patients being treated and with no known fatalities.

Throughout the afternoons, we had various missionaries visiting us from France, Nigeria, Cambodia (06) and USA! We also prayed with those being sent out to Ghana, S. Africa, Uganda, Rwanda and the Congo.

In addition, we hosted evening meetings at St. Thomas Moore Hall for leaders from IHOP, Kansas City and Ffald-y-Brenin, Wales and Prayer City, Nigeria. On the latter occasion, we ended up witnessing a beautiful marriage blessing and re-dedication ceremony!

On the first Friday of 2008, we hosted Brian Mills all day and he also spoke in the evening. Brian is regarded as a "father" of the prayer movement in UK. It was a great privilege to receive wisdom from these anointed servants of God.

On 7/7/07, at the same time as all London Boroughs and other Councils throughout the UK, with permission from Mayor Ralph Taylor, we were blessed to be able to meet in Hurdis House to pray blessing on our town and town councillors. There were prayers for each ward and prayer for His Kingdom to come and His will to be done, here in Seaford, as it is in heaven. Councillors Laurie Holland, and Eddie and Rosemary Collict attended. This initiative came from "A canopy of Prayer" over the nation.

This year, we would like to invite those working in the town to attend in their lunch-hour (12:30 - 13:30) (if the times correlate). There will be a time of quiet meditation and prayer for healing, as well as the opportunity to ask for prayer for their businesses/ personal situations etc.

We would also like to work towards our aim of 24/7 by increasing to two days a week. This would need a building and finance. We would like to host another 24/1 over the Pentecost week-end, Friday 9th May, 10:00 - Saturday 10th May 10:00. Sunday 11th is the Global Day of Prayer.

Last Friday, (25th January), 27 people attending SHOP throughout the day. Of these 18 wrote comments in the prayer diary (my weekly record). The following are some of their comments: