Prayer Focus

7 - 12 year olds
Saturday's 1:00 - 3:00 pm once a month

Can you tell when God is speaking to you? What is His voice like?

In this track you will be learning to discern the voice of God and expressing it through sharing, journalling, praying, drawing, painting, drama and dance.

John 10:27 says, "My sheep hear My voice"

It is not hard to know the voice of God, but we often need to be taught, just like Eli had to tell Samuel, that the voice that was calling him was the voice of God.

October 2006 - Prayer for Youth and Children

The Lord has been giving us direction to pray for the youth and children. At the 180Youth Conference He poured out of His presence in a very special way. Many young people wept as the Spirit of God touched them and ministered to them. Some lingered in the presence of the Lord wanting to walk out their life in Christ and asking the Lord for that grace.

The Lord gave a prophetic word from Isaiah 61:4, which says: "Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins, they will raise up the former devastations, and they will repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations."

A few days later, when I checked my emails, I found this from another person who had been praying for the 180 Youth Conference on Friday night here at the PGHOP:

I was awakened in the night with an instruction from the Lord to read Isaiah 58:12, in the NIV it says, "Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins, and will raise up the age-old foundations, you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings."

The Living Bible says it this way,'Your sons will rebuild the long-deserted ruins of your cities, and you will be known as the People Who Rebuild Their Walls and Cities."

I was very excited because God confirmed this word as His word from two sources. So we are seriously praying this word over the youth and children...as the scriptures say, if we receive a word, we are to war with that word. We are to pray it through. God wants to use this generation to rebuild ancient ruins, repair ruined cities and desolations of many generations, repair broken walls, and restore streets.

There was a young boy mentioned at 180, who has felt a call to go to Africa to help the children. He is 9 years old and his church has gotten behind him. I have included an attachment of this as the newspaper in Thunder Bay got a hold of this. This is an example of Isaiah 61:4 and 58:12! May this be an encouragement. Hear God's voice and obey!! I believe God is going to do very unusual things through youth and children. He is going to pour out His Spirit on them mightily.

This is the article about the 9 year old going to Africa. He is actually the grandson of my Youth Pastor and his wife back from my time in Thunder Bay.

From the Chronicle journal.com

Local News
9-year-old plans to bring little bags and big bucks to Africa
By SARAH ELIZABETH BROWN
Sep 24, 2006, 00:09

Jaako Polkki, 9, will be traveling to Africa in January. (Brent Linton) A meeting with a Guatemala-based missionary is leading a nine-year-old boy to Africa. Back in May, a visitor to Jaako Polkkiís church whoíd been working with youngsters in Guatemala asked those present to think about where God wanted them to help in the world.

ìThe Lord told me to go to Africa, just to help all the children, to give them supplies and money,î said Jaako, whose goal is to travel to Lilongwe, Malawi, in January with his mother so he can deliver gifts and financial aid to the poverty-stricken nation in southeast Africa.

In some ways, Jaakoís plans are small and simple. Displaying a sandwich-sized Ziploc bag full of crayons and small toys, he says he wants to fill more of them, and tuck each one in a cloth draw-string bag. Heís hoping to get his classmates at St. Bernard School involved, sewing the cloth bags and collecting pencil crayons, notepads, stickers, erasers and toys. ìLittle things like that,î he said.

If he reaches his goal, those little ìbags of hopeî will stack up ó all 1,000 of them. But his biggest goal is the money he wants to raise ó $800,000. Through church and personal connections, he and his mom Sue have already forwarded letters to banks, businesses and church organizations in Canada and the U.S. That money, filtered through a Malawi mission theyíve connected with through the national apostolic church association, will be put where itís needed most, said mom Sue. Locally, theyíve had bake sales at church and are selling chocolate bars. A yard sale at the church is scheduled for the end of the month. Fundraising meals, including a Finnish pancake breakfast and a Malawi-food feast in late October are also in the works. The entire project will be fundraised, she said.

The bags of hope idea spawned from a story Jaako heard from the Malawi-based missionaries they plan to visit, about a pair of children being happy to be given a single pencil crayon. ìI want to take a little chunk (of poverty) out,î he said of the country, one of the least developed in the world. Initially, Sue thought her nine-year-old simply wanted to visit Africa someday when he was older. But every day, heíd ask when they were going to Malawi and when theyíd start fundraising. When he started talking about getting permission from his school principal to be gone for several weeks in January, she knew he meant to go now. ìHe kept on me,î she said. ìHe wouldnít let it go. ìI started listing off the countries (in Africa) and when I got to Malawi, he said thatís where weíre going to go.î At first, she found the task ahead overwhelming. ìNow I think itís amazing.î

All donations will be issued a tax receipt at the end of the year. Donations of items can be dropped off at the church at 515 North Syndicate Ave. Inquiries can be directed to spolkki@shaw.ca or to Pastor Irvin Dyck at 622-1030.

© Copyright by Chronicle journal.com