Regina church blessed through prayer weekend

Parliament Community Church in Regina had a 24-7 prayer weekend November 21–23, 2003. It involved a 24-7 prayer room, the Prayer Path (a Christ-centred labyrinth), a concert of prayer, and other special services of praise and prayer.

The room and weekend were planned by the youth of the church, particularly under the leadership of Jayne Grebinski. She had experienced a prayer room at the Youth Advance at Bethany in February 2003 and felt God telling her Parliament Community Church needed something like this and that she was the person to make it happen.

Other people began to catch this vision and passion during the 24-7 weekend. They felt the emphasis on prayer should not end. The church is now setting up a permanent prayer room and will be having another weekend of round-the-clock prayer in February.

Youth pastor Jason Unruh says that observing young people in the prayer room was encouraging and challenging. They weren’t there to hang out with friends, he says; they were there to serve and spend time with God.

Unruh also relates a story connected to the weekend that was a powerful encouragement to the Parliament Community Church youth. Last July he and 11 youth attended a Students Equipped to Minister to Peers (SEMP) retreat in Calgary. Unruh sensed God wanted to challenge the youth group to trust Him in ways they had not done before. He asked them to write the names of non-Christian friends and family on a large sheet of paper. It was soon covered.

He further challenged them to circle one name as a commitment to pray regularly for that person and to witness. Eight names were circled on the senior youth paper. They called this The List and frequently pulled it out to remind each other to pray for those names.

Almost immediately exciting things began to happen to Neil, the person put on the list by his friend Glenn. He began to express interest in the faith he saw Glenn living out. He asked for a Bible and began to read it. The two friends had many discussions.

On the Saturday night of the 24-7 weekend, while a group of youth and their leader were in the prayer room, Glenn came in to request prayer for Neil. He felt that something major was about to happen in Neil’s life.

The next Sunday Glenn reported he had a name to cross off The List. Neil had begun a relationship with Christ!

In these ways and others, the church and individuals were touched by God through the 24-7 prayer weekend.

—from report by Jason Unruh, youth pastor