Berita NECF Newletters

Youth Fill Gap

Youth Fill Gap

First, it was the adults, burdened by the anxious events sweeping the country, who took up the call to pray for the nation. So, we had all the various prayer initiatives, spurred by the Merdeka prayer events, taking place throughout the country. These initiatives helped break down barriers among churches which saw the need to come together to pray for the nation.

As the prayer wind gathered speed, it blew on the hearts of the people to set up a national prayer body that would act as the centre to coordinate, network, and mobilise even more prayer among the churches. Thus, the Malaysian National Prayer Network (MNPN) was established last year.

Then, the prayer leaders got the burden to mobilise the children to pray. Their strategy is simple - fire the passion while they are still young and they will be fervent intercessors for the rest of their lives. So, the NECF Malaysia Prayer Commission launched the annual children's prayer conference four years ago. From some 200 children the first year, the number quadrupled to nearly 900 this year as the vision caught on among the churches and the prayer flame gathered intensity.

In addition, there were the regional Children in Prayer consultations that were held throughout the peninsula for children's pastors and workers to meet and discuss issues relating to prayer and chart strategies to increase prayer among their children.

With the prayer wheels rolling on the sides of the adults and children, there's still a gap to be filled - that of the youths. On July 19, that gap was filled when some 500 youths and some adults from throughout Malaysia gathered in Kluang, Johor, for the country's first national youth prayer gathering.

Mobilised and organised by the youths themselves, the gathering was a call to our youths to seek God and pray for the nation, besides establishing and strengthening ties among the other prayer and youth networks in the country.

Through the networks, the organisers hoped to raise 100,000 passionate praying youths within the next five years to channel them to be directly involved in the 10 pillars of nation transformation - education, health care, business, media, performing arts, NGOs, legal, government, family and church.

In his message to the youths, Pr Kenneth Chin challenged them to commit to "full-time vocational ministry", aligning their professions with a missions focus wherever they work. Youth leaders and pastors also shared their vision of raising a generation of youths to go into areas of influence in society - such as business, education and law - and to move to live in towns where the gospel has yet to make inroads. They wholeheartedly agreed to collectivley work towards raising leaders to go where faith costs the most.

The gathering ended with a declaration of God's love and promises to us and our beloved country Malaysia.

Similar gatherings were held in Kulim at the Kulim Wesley Methodist Church on Aug 20 and Petaling Jaya (People's Park Baptist Church) on Aug 23.

Both gatherings rallied youths to have prayerful hearts for God and for the nation. The Kulim gathering aimed to, among others, initiate a continuous and intense youth prayer movement in each church in Kulim for revival and evangelisation. The PJ gathering aimed to rouse the PJ churches "from their dangerous oblivion and becoming a party to complancency, social and moral decay, and … embrace nation-building and transformation."

 



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