Cape Town for Jesus

Cape Town for Jesus Prayer Event.

It is so amazing that the Body of Christ in Cape Town was asked to host a prayer event in the new Green Point Stadium in Cape Town, which was built for the 2010 Soccer World Cup to be hosted here in South Africa.

FIFA (the international football/soccer association) required three trial runs of the stadium before the world cup and one of them had to be a non-sporting event. For the non-sporting event the City of Cape Town had to consider who in this area has the influence to gather a crowd of 55,000 people who would be willing to participate in a trial event plus be respectful and patient at the stadium. As a result of the Global Day of Prayer events that began here in 2001, they asked Transformation Africa and the GDOP team to host a prayer event in the stadium. Awesome. How fantastic that a Christian group is viewed as having influence and viewed in such a positive light!!!!

I had the great honor of being a part of a team of intercessors who were in the stadium the day before covering the event in 24 hours of prayer before it began. It was amazing to be in this stadium while it was empty of people and be able to walk throughout and prayer. It was even more amazing to know that we were paving the way spiritually for the success of the prayer event itself. God impressed me with Malachi 3:3 during this time of prayer. My constant prayer was that the one true God would receive all the honor, glory, power, and praise of the prayer event. And that Jesus would be enthroned on our praises as King of Kings over Cape Town.

Then, on March 22 the largest gathering of Christians ever in South Africa joined together in Green Point Stadium in Cape Town to bless the stadium, bless the city, bless the nation, and pray over all the nations who will come here this year for the Soccer World Cup.

It was a great day.

Representatives of all the major political parties in Cape Town were present and prayed for. Youth prayed over them and one guy had the boldness to pray that when the wrong decisions might be made in government that God would make the leaders quick to respond to Him and correct the matter. The youth also prayed over child trafficking and abuse. I love that in South Africa so many peoples, tribes, and tongues are always represented! There are videos of prayers by some of the people groups at the bottom of this blog.

Another wonderful thing about the day is that as each main topic was prayed for, the massive 55,000 person crowd was asked to gather in groups of 2-3 people and pray over the issue themselves. What a challenge to not just have one person leading the prayers, but to involve such a huge crowd in prayer.

One of my favorite parts of the day was when everyone joined in a responsive prayer of blessing over the stadium, the nation, and all the nations coming for the World Cup. For one thing I love responsive prayers….reminds me of growing up in a Baptist church. This responsive prayer with 55,000 people praying in unison was awesome! Here are some excerpts:

“Ke Nako! Now is the time Christians of South Africa, to obey Christ the King!”

“Jesus, we will seek to obey you. We submit to your authority over our lives, our churches, our city and this nation.”

As the nations of the world were welcomed to South Africa, a blessing was prayed over each region of the world. Here’s the blessing prayed over the nations of the Americas:

“Blessed is the nation who trusts in God. Blessed is the nation who serves the nations of the world. Blessed is the nation who is generous and shares their food with the poor. Blessed is the nation who is the peacemaker.”

Wow! When was the last time you heard something like that prayed over America!

The closing of the responsive prayer:

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on South Africa. Bless this nation and make us a blessing to the nations. Let your Kingdom come, let your will be done in South Africa, as in heaven. Amen!”

Here's a picture of the Eagles Rising students standing with a huge group of people representing all the soccer players from around the world during the prayer time.



The day closed out with Angus Buckan speaking. He was just as dynamic and down-to-earth as I had imagined him being. My favorite things about his talk were this:

He often spoke of the privilege of freedom of speech in South Africa and that he can speak honestly as God has shown him to, in love. Each time he would say we can speak freely and honestly he would end the statement with “in love” saying that as we speak as Christians it must be out of God’s love that we are speaking. Also, he really talked to people in the stadium. It was like he was really able to see people and not just a crowd. It felt like he was talking to us personally even with 55,000 people there.

Anyway, that was Cape Town for Jesus Prayer event. What an honor to be here and be a part of it.