"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God. (Rev. 1:8)
The two-year million-hour prayer that spanned across the millennium will be completed in October (Year 2000). Should God have not ordered and become our commander-in-chief, who would have thought about the launching of the prayer movement in the midst of His people? This prayer movement was neither born by human strength, nor could it be conceived by the rational mind, which left us with only God Himself who is at work. He willingly chooses and blesses Hong Kong because He loves China. We give thanks to the Lord. May our city bring praise and honor to the name of the Lord. Praise the Lord!
During a prayer meeting as we were preparing for the ceremony, many board and committee members learned that the meeting venue was the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The sister who designed the cover of the Prayer Handbook (1) particularly chose the landscape with the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in view because she thought it was representative of Hong Kong. The fifth floor of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre was the venue where the handover between the Chinese and British government took place. Due to the expensive rental fees of the centre, we kept ourselves from progressing with our plan until God moved some donors to support us. We contacted the centre and made a reservation. Initially we planned to reserve a Saturday or Sunday to hold the ceremony, but we found that the centre was fully booked until January 28. We were left with only October 2 and October 6. After prayer with the board and committee members, the decision was made for October 6. Afterwards God enabled me to remember that the prayer chain for the million-hour prayer ended on the night of 6 October 1998. That evening God enabled the Japanese Yen to appreciate substantially in order to destroy the adverse effects brought about by the hedge funds on the Asian economy (please refer to the testimony on page 114 of prayer handbook 1). God is sovereign over time, for He said that after the completion of the "100-day 24-hour prayer", the people of Hong Kong would use two years to complete one million hours of prayer before entering into a new millennium. At that time the 100-day 24-hour prayer ended on Tuesday, our prayer meetings are held on Saturday (10 October 1998). We therefore needed to wait until Saturday to begin declaring the start of the prayer campaign and to distribute prayers. However, God had a different plan. He set aside October 6 as opposed to October 10 to be the completion date for the ceremony. He wanted us to pray unceasingly and we wonder how the Lord Jesus would guide us into a new commission of prayer!
When it came to the choice for a speaker, the Holy Spirit said in my heart, "who has ever said that prayer handbooks could be mailed to the 8,000 Chinese churches around the world? This individual would be the speaker for the ceremony. You can send him an invitation, and if he accepts your invitation, it will be a sign from me." The Holy Spirit was referring to Rev. Thomas Wang. In 1999, he was at a summer camp hosted by the Campus Crusade for Christ when he first came across prayer handbook (1). He spent an hour reading through the prayer handbook, and the Holy Spirit spoke the above words through him. After initial contacts were made, Rev. Wang was unable to attend because his yearly schedule was almost completely booked. The amazing thing happened when he needed to make a transit stop at Hong Kong on October 6, after attending a mission conference in South Korea from October 2 to October 5. He was therefore able to speak at the ceremony. We give thanks to God for His sovereignty and guidance.
Fan Chan
General Secretary, Jireh Fund