This is a blog I (John) wrote for the Global Orphan website

The term “prayer warrior” is one that we hear frequently, if not cavalierly. Prayer is a nice thing, right? We lift up simple prayers before bed and before meals. Anyone and everyone prays, right? Why then do we so often pair such a seemingly common act with the word “warrior”? What about prayer makes one a warrior?

John Piper writes in Let the Nations Be Glad, “So the truth is reaffirmed: God has given us prayer because Jesus has given us a mission. We are on this earth to press back the forces of darkness, and we are given access to headquarters by prayer to advance this cause. When we try to turn it into a civilian intercom to increase our conveniences, it stops working, and our faith begins to falter. We have so domesticated prayer that for many of us it is no longer what it was designed to be-a wartime walkie-talkie for the accomplishment of Christ’s mission.
“We simply must seek for ourselves and for our people a wartime mentality. Otherwise the biblical teaching about the urgency of prayer and the vigilance of prayer and the watching in prayer and the perseverance of prayer and the danger of abandoning prayer will make no sense and find no resonance in our hearts. Until we feel the desperation of a bombing raid or the thrill of a new strategic offensive for the gospel, we will not pray in the spirit of Jesus.
“The crying need of the hour is to put the churches on a wartime footing. Mission leaders are crying out, “Where is the church’s concept of militancy, of a mighty army willing to suffer, moving ahead with exultant determination to take the world by storm? Where is the risk-taking, the launching out on God alone?” The answer is that it has been swallowed up in a peacetime mentality.”

Jake and I were blessed to spend the day along side three men who definitely fit into the term of “prayer warrior”. These three men have traveled from Kansas City to spend a week in Haiti. The purpose of the trip? Prayer. They will be going to all of our orphan villages, and showering them with prayer.

Today we attended church in Dargout, Hait. Some of you may know it as Kesnel’s. After the service the five of us walked through the boy’s homes, the classrooms, the church, and Kesnel’s office. The prayers that were poured out in each of these places was filled with an urgency, a vigilance, a watching, and a perseverance. Lastly before we left the village we showered Kesnel and his wife, Yanik, in prayer, with the three men who came to pray each making a vow to daily prayer for the Pastor and his wife.

Later on in the day we walked to another village, Pastor Calixte’s. The pastor was away at a church meeting, but his son Jacob joined us to pray for the children, to pray for the pastor and his marriage, to pray for the Lord to send His mighty spirit down. In this way, the gates of hell were pushed back.

On our walk back to the Jumecourt Inn we stopped by our other pastor partner named Claude. While he knelt we all laid hands upon him and praised the Lord for him. We gave thanks for his hard work, and we asked the Lord to give him strength and shower his love upon Claude. After praying for Claude we ran into pastor Calixte, who then allowed us to pray for him. Then we each walked around Claude’s village and prayed over the entire place.

This day, being able to pray, and only having prayer on the agenda, has been an incredible blessing. More days need to be set aside for prayer, more days need to be filled with prayer. I, for one, have been humbled today, and I know I will work harder to fit the term “prayer warrior”.

I know there are others in the States who are daily praying for the battle here, and on behalf of the Global Orphan Project, I want to give thanks. Thanks for praying, thanks for fighting for us and our ministry partners, thanks for being warriors. We love and are grateful for you all.



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