Watch the Global Day of Prayer international anchor stadium event live on GodTV

Tonight we shall be at the International Anchor stadium event for the Global Day of Prayer here in Jacksonville Florida.

If you would like to watch the event live please visit the following link at GodTV who will be carrying the live broadcast plus some interviews before and after the event.  It will be live from 6-9pm Eastern Time (US EST).

If you would like to join in with hundreds of millions of Christians in every country on earth who will join together in repentance and prayer on Pentecost Sunday then please download the 'Prayer for World' from this link and pray it at home, in your Church or in a public event.

With rich blessing from Jacksonville!

Dion

The start of the Global Day of Prayer International Conference in Jacksonville, FL

This morning we started the Global Day of Prayer international conference in Jacksonvillve, FL. Pete Sanchez, the author of the song 'I exalt thee' opened the conference in devotion and prayer.  Right after that Graham Power, the founder of the Global Day of Prayer, and Isebel Spangenberg, our International Coordinator, spoke about the GDOP movement - how is spread from one stadium of believers in prayer in Cape Town on the 21st of March 2001, to over 400 million believers praying in large and small gatherings in every nation on earth in 2010 on Pentecost Sunday.

Graham has such a powerful testimony because of his courage in obedience to God.  When he felt that God had called him to call Christians to pray for their city, nation and the world, and to turn from their wickedness, he simply hired a stadium and starteg gathering people!  The rest is history!

Isebel spoke wonderfully about how Christians in every nation and continent have embraced this call.  In 'closed countries' three or four believers gathering in homes and places of work.  In other countries hundreds of thousands of Christians gather in stadiums and open air places.

Of course the intention of the Global Day of Prayer is to awaken Christians to understand that they have a role to play in the transformation of their nations.  The establishment of God's grace in healing, economic wellbeing, social harmony, and God's loving power in all of creation.

The scripture that best sums up this movement is 2 Chronicles 7.14 which says:

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land.

Tomorrow we will listen to Steve Johnstone, the international coordinator for the Unashamedly Ethical movement - Steve is an incredible speaker!  I'm looking forward to hearing what he has to say about ethics, values and clean living.

If you're interested in reading more about Graham's testimony please see the book that I wrote on his life and ministry called 'Transform your work life: Turn your ordinary day into an extraordinary calling'.  

And if you would like to read more about the wonderful movement of the Global Day of Prayer, then please see the great book written by Diane Vermooten called 'Not by Might nor by Power'.

Jacksonville at night - beautiful!

I leave for the USA tomorrow - already missing my family!

First Coast Global Day of Prayer

Tomorrow I'll fly from Cape Town to JHB, from there to Dakar, to Washington and then to Jacksonville - it is a marathon 33 hour flight / transit.  I did it in March.  I'm seriously praying for good seats all the way through!

We'll be in Jacksonville form the International Conference form the Global Day of Prayer, and then the international broadcast from the anchor stadium event at the Veterans Memorial Stadium on the 11th of June.

Please see http://www.fcgdop.org for details of the conference and the Stadium event on Saturday.  If you're in Florida I would love to see you!  Please come along to the conference and say hi!  We'll be speaking at two plenary sessions and a total of 6 breakout sessions.

From there I'll be heading to New York to spend some time with the folks from the Gotham Fellowship, an initiative of Tim Keller's Church (Redeemer Church, New York City).  Gotham focusses on ministering to people in the world of work, helping them to discover and fulfil their Kingdom potential through using the skill, influence and ability to work for the establishment of God's Kingdom of grace in every aspect of society.  I met Katherine Leary and David Kim here in Cape Town earlier in the year and was so impressed by the work that they're doing!  I can't wait to spend some time with them!

Fortunately I fly directly to JHB from New York and then back to Cape Town.  I'll be leaving the US on the 15th and be back in South Africa on the 16th of June. Take a look at this cool picture of my kiddies, Courtney and Liam - I took the picture at Steers when we stopped for some ice cream.  This photo was made with a great little app called 'wordphoto'.

Please pray for my family while I'm away - it is always tough to be away from Megie, Courtney and Liam. I will Skype (FaceTime) them daily, but it is not the same as being at home!

Please also pray for me and our team as we speak at various conferences, events and meetings. Etienne Piek from 24/7 Prayer, Steve Johnstone from Unashamedly Ethical and Isebel and Dawie Spangenberg from Global Day of Prayer will join Graham Power and I on Tuesday.

Also, on Thursday we'll be launching the American edition of Transform your work life at the GDOP conference! I am very excited about that! Thanks so much Mark Russell and Russell Media for their incredible work on the book!

I'll post updates here and on my twitter, Facebook and tumblr feeds as often as I can.

Jacksonville - 22 March 2011 - Prayer breakfast and off to San Francisco

This morning we awoke early to get to the 'Potters House' for Graham to speak at the Jacksonville Prayer breakfast.  It was a lovely event with 700 persons in attendance.  The theme of the breakfast was to work together for community transformation.  Jacksonville is a very good example of how Christians can work together to engage the 'systems' and 'structures' of society.  They have engaged local politicians, the Sherif, the schools and various businesses.

It is great to see Christians (and Churches) taking responsibility for the tangible transformation and renewal of their society.

Graham spoke wonderfully about the power of simple choices to live with values and ethics, to stand against corruption, greed and abuse, and to life sacrificially to see God's Kingdom established in tangible ways in society.

We wrap up this evening at a city event - the City of Jacksonville is a sister city to Port Elizabeth in South Africa.  So, Graham, Etienne, Dawie and I have been invited to a banquet to celebrate that partnership and share greetings with some city officials in Jacksonville - today happens to be election day!  So, it is going to be an exciting evening.

We also had 2 hours off yesterday - Graham had to get some clothes sorted out, and so the rest of us headed along to the St John's Apple store!  I saw the iPad 2 in person... It is not enough of an update for me to upgrade (not to mention that my cash flow is WAY too tight), but there is simply not enough of a change for me to part with my 32gig 3G first generation iPad.  But, it was fun to be at the Apple shop - it was SO busy there!

Graham and I head off to San Francisco tomorrow at 4am tomorrow.  We will fly out of Jacksonville at 6am and then to Houston in Texas and arrive in San Francisco by 11.30 am.  Tomorrow evening (Wednesday) we will be speaking at a Christian Business gathering in San Francisco with Brett Johnson.

Please continue to pray for us.

Can I also please ask, very especially, that you pray for my wife Megan and my kids Courtney and Liam in South Africa?  Liam is sick at the moment - he has tonsillitis.  Please pray that he recovers quickly and completely!  It makes it quite difficult for Megie to manage her work, looking after the kids, and taking care of little Liam when he is sick and con not go to school.  Thank you!

Jacksonville - 21 March 2011 - Human rights day

This morning I woke up realy early - I guess that my 'clock' has not yet adjusted to the timezone, and now that the fatigue of our journey has worn off I don't need as much sleep.  So, I came down to the lobby of the hotel (where there is free wifi) and did a facetime call with Megie, Courtney and Liam!)  FaceTime is so cool!  It is much less bandwidt intensive, so the call and video quality are much better than skype.  I use my iPhone 4 and Megie has her Macbook Pro at home.  Being able to do a video call home is just such a blessing when one has small children!

From there I went back to the gym and did a great cardio cycle - I can't loose too much fitness!  I'll be riding the 60km Vigne-a-Vigne mountainbike race when I get back home (it is part of the last stage of the ABSA Cape Epic and is quite a tough ride).  So, I need to keep my weight down (a tough thing in a town that has such great food and big portions!) and my fitness up!

Today is a public holiday in South Africa - human rights day.  It is the 11th anniversary of the very first Global Day of Prayer gathering in Cape Town in 2001.  11 years ago today we met at the Newlands Rugby stadium together with 45 000 other Christians to pray for our city and nation.  Of course, from there it spread throughout the world until in 2009 every nation on earth participated in this prayer gathering (it is now held on Pentecost Sunday) - it is estminated that around 450 million people gathered in homes, Churches, public places (parks, schools and stadiums) across the world.

Human rights day this year has a special focus for me.  I have been thinking a great deal about the 'allied attacks' on Libiya.  I have been thinking and praying about the 'line' that gets crossed when one nation invades another.  I do believe that there must be a time when action is required to end the tyrany of a state or individual.  However, I am not sure when that line should be crossed.  Moreover, I find it extremely difficult that certain nations are left unchallenged (like Zimbabwe and Rober Mugabe), while others (like Libiya and Iraq) are invaded.  The only thing that I can assume is that there are other motives - such as oil, or regional political concerns, that make such action necessary.

Regardless, I shall be praying for the citizens of Libiya, and for those whose task it is to enforce the 'no fly zone' in that region.  May Christ rule in peace, and may that peace come swiftly and effectly without the loss of human life.

Today, here in Jacksonville, we shall be doing a speaking engagement for Unashamedly Ethical with 50 of the top business people in the city.  I am convinced that one cannot end systemic poverty without dealing with systemic corrpuption - that corruption takes on many forms.  In some instances it is structured (collusion, bribery etc.) in other instances it is much more subtle (little dishonest choices, greed, lust and disregard for the rights of others and the will of God).

We shall also have various meetings with the organisers of the First Coast Global Day of Prayer event which will take place in June 2011 - they've been doing wonderful work to date!

Yesterday I attended 3 different Churches - each one unique, special and a blessing.  I went to CrossRoad United Methodist Church, then to Bishop Vaughan's 'Potters House' (a special experince) and finaly to a very contemporary, young 'hipster Christian Church' called Celebration.  Each Church engaged with Kingdom issues and the Gospel in different ways.  The first Church is an affluent, largely white congregation.  The second Church is an African American, Southern Baptist, congregation - one of the candidates for the local Mayoral election was in attendance.  It was refreshing to see how this Church engaged their members, community officials and 'other powers' (such as gang leaders and drug dealers) in their service.  They are truly working for social transformation economic refermotion.  The final Church clearly catered to young, hip, Christians - they were energetic and MANY.  It was very encouraging.

Well, please continue to pray for us!