Stories of answered prayer spread hope during Covid-19

Stories of answered prayer are bringing hope to millions of people during the current lockdown. 

The Answered Prayer Campaign was launched on 25 January and went viral in the first 24 hours, with posts containing the hashtags #answeredprayerchallenge and #makehopevisible reaching 1.3 million people. 

Christian leaders who have shared their stories of answered prayer include Share Jesus International's Andy Frost, CAP founder Dr John Kirkby, and Evangelical Alliance CEO Gavin Calver.

Calver, who took part on Twitter, recalled one answered prayer as a child that would shape his faith for years to come.

"The prayer that was answered most powerfully that I can remember, was as a nine-year-old boy at Spring Harvest in Ishmael's Glorie Company," he said.

"We were sat around and there was some teaching on prayer. They said if there is anyone in your circle who wants to pray for healing, then do that. Immediately, my friend James ripped off his sock and said: 'I want healing for my verruca to go.' I remember thinking that I didn't want to put my hand on his foot!

"Nonetheless, we prayed and as a nine-year-old, believing that the Lord can do anything, I prayed that Jesus would take his verruca away. When I opened my eyes, I could not believe what I saw, as the verruca had disappeared.

"James' foot no longer had the verruca on it....and the faith that has grown from that encounter has led to me, as a young man and now as an adult, praying for all kinds of things, because I believe that God can change stuff."

The campaign is the join initiative of Premier Christian Media and the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer, which is behind a large-scale monument to prayer being built in Coleshill, near Birmingham.

Stories shared as part of the campaign have now reached some three million people on social media.

Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer founder Richard Gamble said engagement with the campaign had been "simply incredible".

"We just want to keep this momentum going, being able to encourage people during this difficult time – shining a ray of hope into people's lives wherever they are, he said. 

"We want to gather even more answered prayers from Christians across the world, to demonstrate that Jesus is alive and relevant today as he ever was and is still moving amongst us. We can't wait to hear your story and make hope visible." 

People with stories of answered prayer are being encouraged to upload their own videos to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in landscape format, including @eternalwalluk and #answeredprayerchallenge in the post and nominating three friends to do the same.

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