Prayer: The strongest weapon of them all

|PIC1|Christians in London are putting their faith in the power of prayer to bring an end to the wave of shootings and stabbings among young people in the capital.

"You don't just go around the walls of Jericho once and expect them to come down. You have to go round several times," says Pastor Jonathan Oloyede, associate pastor of north London Pentecostal church, Glory House, and one of the instigators of a major prayer relay that is uniting Christians of all traditions against the gun and knife crime gripping the capital.

Sprinters in a sprint relay use a metal baton. For Christians in this prayer relay, however, the baton is the Bible, and not any Bible but one that was used by fellow organiser Nims Obunge just hours before the relay's launch on 1 August to comfort the mother of a young man who had died in a brutal stabbing this year.

Since then, that Bible has been passed on to each of London's 33 boroughs where Christians are praying unceasingly for God to protect the city's young people and end the shootings and stabbings that have left 24 young people dead so far this year.

"Gun and knife crime is affecting everyone," says Jonathan, "and the related socio-economic factors are present in Christians and non-Christians. Some of the young people who are doing the attacking are connected to the church."

Absent fathers and peer pressure are just two of the major influencing factors, says Jonathan. Nims, a Haringey pastor who heads up the London Peace Alliance, adds a couple of other factors into the mix: a breakdown in education and the celebration of young people.

"These problems are very real on the streets. There is an atmosphere of fear among young people where they feel they have to defend themselves," says Jonathan.

Even since the prayer initiative began, there have been more deaths. On 6 August, 18-year-old Ryan Bravo was shot dead in a south-east London convenience store. Shaquille Smith, 14, died on 30 August after being stabbed in the stomach in Hackney. Friends of both victims insist they were innocent bystanders tragically caught in the crossfire.

"We began to pray but the statistics did not go down," notes Jonathan. "In fact the stats in August were worse. The spiritual reality is that when the force of evil is confronted things get worse before they get better."

Yet Christians in the capital refuse to give in.

"We are looking to crank up our efforts," says Nims. "We are not going to rest or stop until we see the injuries and stabbings and deaths go down and we hear from the police that there has been a change.

"Where sin abounds grace abounds. I believe the grace of God is greater than the attack of the enemy," he adds.

Prayer, believes Jonathan, will prove to be the decisive factor in the battle against gun and knife crime.

"Jesus didn't pray once in the garden and accept God's will fully; he prayed three times. Elijah prayed many times for the rain to come," continues Jonathan. "We are beginning to understand prayer as something you stick with, something you stay with and press into until you see the results you need to get."

The statistics may have, on the face of it, changed little but Jonathan and others are still convinced that prayer is making a difference.

"Many of us feel that things would be worse if the church had not been praying," he says. "The police predicted that the death toll in August would be high because of the rate of killings in June and July, because the kids have nowhere to go, because there are no festivals or clubs, and so they have more time to just hang around in gangs.

"If you look at it spiritually, August is a month in which traditionally the church goes on holiday. Many churches leave the city to go to camps and festivals and so they close. That sounded alarm bells in our mind that something had to be done, before things got really bad, to fill in that gap. And I think that happened."

But Jonathan is not under any illusions as to the scale of the challenge.

"It's a spiritual warfare," he says. "And it's a warfare that we are starting to understand a bit better. We are fired up to pray against the forces of evil that are trying to work among our young people."

This week is the London Week of Peace and faith groups, charities and local authorities have put together more than 300 events to push back violence and re-establish peace in the city.

"In Jeremiah 29.7, God gives us the mandate to seek and pray for the peace of the city. In its peace we shall have peace. It's not just pray; it's seek. We've got to actively engage in what it takes to bring peace to the local community," says Nims.

"The church out of its walls is like the genie out of its bottle. There are Street Pastors and all sorts of things happening. The church is not just sitting complacent. There is a proactive response coming from the churches more and more and in some cases the sleeping giant is rising."

He concludes, "Jesus told his disciples, the harvest is ripe but the workers are few so pray for workers, and then he sent them out. God is telling us to see the need, pray about it and step out and be one of the agents of change."

To find out how you can get involved with London Week of Peace, go to www.weekofpeace.org.uk. If your church would like to sign up for the prayer relay, contact the Global Day of Prayer office on 08456 528600.