Peace and prayer go hand in hand. Scripture reminds us in Philippians 4:6–7 to bring our requests to God through “prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,” and as a result, “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
Not only do we experience the Spirit’s fruit of peace when we pray, but we are able to discern His direction and be united as His children. Our Daily Bread Ministries highly values prayer and developed the Prayer Shield, groups who gather to pray at set times throughout the work week in the United States office. These regular prayer times began in November 2015 after Julie Richardson, a producer for Our Daily Bread Media, sensed that God was calling her to pray regularly for the ministry’s leadership. It initially began with one group and has grown to four groups that meet for 15-30 minutes during the week to pray for specific areas of the ministry as well as the people around the world who use our resources.
Four years after that initial start, a few others in the ministry asked Julie what it might look like to expand the Prayer Shield into a global effort where people from all 32 offices around the world could join in corporate prayer. After a few years of organizing, praying, and waiting on
God’s timing, the first Global Prayer Shield event launched on January 13, 2022 and now meets quarterly.
“It’s a little overwhelming to see it all come together when it’s been a vision for so long,” Julie said. “To actually see people coming together to pray in their own languages from all different time zones . . . it’s very moving.”
More than 200 people join together on a Zoom call for an hour to praise God and petition Him on behalf of the people in the ministry and those that we serve. There is a brief welcome and devotional time followed by “popcorn prayers” from people in their native languages.
Then the larger group breaks into subgroups to pray in their own heart languages, which includes groups praying in Indonesian, Portuguese, English, Russian, Spanish, Chinese/Cantonese, and Chinese/Mandarin. The time of prayer and fellowship ends with everybody joining together again as one large group and thanking God for this special time.
After the first Global Prayer Shield, there were so many positive responses from participants. Marlia Kusuma Dewi, from Indonesia, said, “I thank God that He gave us the opportunity to pray together with staff from various countries. Even though we are far apart, and our time is different, we are united to pray together.”
“Although you know you’re part of a bigger ministry than the one you physically work in, to actually be able to see faces from all over the world just made that fact so much more real,” Caroline Evans, from the United Kingdom, commented. “For me, hearing people praying in their own language is a piece of heaven.”
More employees continue to join Global Prayer Shield as we reinforce the power of praying together.
“It’s such a great reminder of what it is to be in the body of Christ,” Tim Gustafson, from the United States, said. “We are united in our desire to follow Jesus.”
“It’s very unifying,” Julie agreed. “When we come together to pray, we are reminded that it is the Lord’s ministry and that He is the head of us and that we are dependent on Him. We are here to seek His will together.”
