March 2002

Combined impact

The story is told of a ship sinking in the mouth of a harbour somewhere in the Far East during World War II. As it was a menace to other shipping, the Navy attempted to raise the wreck using the heaviest lifting gear available but without any success. At that point, an elderly Chinese man offered to organise the raising of the wreck and his offer was accepted with a certain amount of cynical amusement. His solution involved assembling a team of divers and issuing them with string-tied bundles of bamboo which they were to attach to the wreck bundle by bundle. This they did tying the bundles first to the wreck and then to the preceeding bundles until eventually it lifted and was moved.

I like this story from a prayer perspective because all of us can relate to praying for things that just don’t seem to want to budge, and it helps to see each prayer as adding to the growing pressure needed in each individual case.

In the corporate context, I like the story because each person at a prayer meeting is like another diver and, together, our combined impact is increased by each additional person so the story acts as an encouragement to a) keep praying both personally and corporately and b) keep coming to the church’s regular prayer meetings at 7am on Tuesday mornings and 7pm on Thursday evenings both for one hour!

All of the above is another way of saying that the impact of prayer is both cumulative and progressive and I am happy to report that a large number of prayer 'bamboo bundles' were delivered at the recent Prayer Weekend by Chicester with about 270 people in attendance.

Whilst it was the sixth Prayer Weekend we have held, I do think it was the best to date and there was an extraordinary degree of unity and commitment present on the occasion. I am so grateful to all the people who came and supported the various sessions we organised, including a four-hour time of prayer and worship on Saturday night, followed by prayer watches through the night attended by rota. By the time we reached Sunday morning, there was the most amazing atmosphere of excitement and achievement and I am sure it will stand the church, and hopefully the Kingdom, in good stead in the coming year. The range of activity and matters prayed for was very wide and there is no doubt in my mind that we 'made a difference'.

That said, the process continues and, therefore, so do the regular weekly prayer meetings. We are now planning a Prayer Boat (which will be our third floating prayer meeting on the Thames!) to pray for London in particular in the Summer term. We are so grateful to everyone who supports the prayer meetings as well as to everyone who prays for HTB from further afield.

Jeremy Jennings

This article is an edited version of one first published in Focus, March 2002. Reproduced here with permission.