Our first Prayer & Praise Night of the school year rocked as we had 150 kids packed into the chapel at the Des Plaines Corps on Friday night. Many Corps attended including: Oakbrook Terrace, De Kalb, Elgin, East Chicago, Rockford, Hammond, Norridge, Des Plaines, Laramie, LaVillita, St. Charles, Englewood, Waukegan and Blue Island. (Did I miss any other Corps?)
We introduced a few new ideas that we are going to incorporate into this year’s program including a justice element so that we can participate in different initiatives and help bring justice to the world. The first activity is participating in The Salvation Army’s Worldwide Call to Prayer for Victims of Sex Trade Trafficking which will occur from September 29 – October 1. We explained this call to prayer and distributed information that gives details on how we can pray. Lindsey Bailey will head up this segment for the rest of the year.
There was an enthusiastic time of worship that was followed by a time of testimony in which many youth shared what the Lord was doing in their lives. We then asked the youth to share their personal prayer requests and many shared areas that require intercession. We wrote these requests on a dry erase board and then had them break into small prayer groups to pray for the requests. This was a very moving time of prayer.
The message was on Luke 7:36-50 where Jesus was anointed by the woman who “loves most” and focused on the relationship between forgiveness and love. After the message we transitioned into the altar call; many people came forth to earnestly respond to the Lord.
The Des Plaines Corps youth and staff were amazing and totally owned the night. Captains Jay and Sally Davis did an incredible job of taking care of the details and even bought pizza for all 150 of us. I also should mention that the kids continue to bring are many of their unsaved friends to the meetings. This is very inspiring.
To see more photos from the Des Plaines P&PN click here.
Hope you are well.
Grace,
Eric
Youth Department