On 15 May 2005, Global Day of Prayer will be held on Pentecost Sunday. Leaders from all six continents and more than 240 countries worldwide will join in united prayer under the auspices of International Prayer Council (IPC) with the focus on spiritual and social transformation of churches, communities and all the nations.

From May 6 through May 15, following the examples set by the first followers who “joined together constantly” in prayers (Acts 1:14), 10 days of Day-and-Night Prayer will be held before May 15, Global Day of Prayer. To mobilize congregations, interdenominational prayer groups and Christian organizations in every country, its strategy is to take the 10 days from 6-15 May 2005 to pray 24 hours a day, which leads up to the Global Day of Prayer.

The prayer topics include growing in intimacy with God, confession of sins, promises of God, violence, corruption, poverty, drug abuse, immorality, injustice, marriage, and AIDS pandemic, revival of young people, salvation of un-reached, personal needs, needs of world, needs of continent, etc,.

The Global Day of Prayer started in July 2000, and in February 2002, when Graham Power, who is a successful businessman and relatively new convert that African will become “Light of the world”, received two complimentary visions separated into 5 stages.

(Stage 1) On March 21, 2001, Christians in Cape Town (Southern point of SA) from all denominations, united in a Day of Repentance and Prayer (45,000 Christians gathered at the Newsland Rugby stadium)

(Stage 2) On September 22-25, 2002, a summit was held to decide on the vision and mission for plan of transformation of Africa. The vision is "Africa for Christ" with the mission being "Transforming Africa through Unity and Prayer as we mobilize the Body of Christ and all spheres of society, Community by Community, Nation by Nation with the full Gospel of Jesus Christ"

(Stage 3) On May 1, 2003, Day of Repentance and Prayer for Africa was held, where 77 South African regions and 27 African countries (66 cities) committed themselves in the process of Transforming Africa.

(Stage 4) On May 2, 2004, The Day of Repentance and Prayer for Africa was held. The aim was to have all 56 countries in Africa participate. More than 273 cities/towns in South Africa and all 56 countries in Africa (more than 1200 towns/cities) committed themselves to the process of transforming Africa and participated. More than 22 million people are known to have participated.

“This was a day that has undoubtedly changed the face of Africa forever,” stated Global Day of Prayer.

Each of these stages became the major stepping stones leading up to the 5th stage that is the Global Day of Prayer taking place on May 15, 2005. (Stage 5)

According to Global Day of Prayer, the most important element in transformation is leadership, without which not even the prayer ministry will grow.

“Transformation requires Godly leaders – visionary people, kingdom minded people who are willing to express the unity that Jesus prayed for (Ephesians 4),” said Global Day of Prayer. “It requires servant leaders who are not in it for themselves but for God’s glory and a tangible transformation of people’s context.”

Not only do the leaders need to have visions and to set God as the center of their work and development, but he must able to do a reality-check and “indicate that there is a long road to travel and the best is yet to be,” according to Global Day of Prayer.

At the October 2004 IPC meeting in Thailand, seventy prayer leaders from each of the major regions of the world, met to consult and plan for the Global Day of Prayer. These leaders represent networks that affect tens of millions of Christians. The commitment to proceed was re-confirmed by these leaders as was the conviction that the Global Day of Prayer process should continue each year until 2010, in order to build momentum and fill the earth.

This plan was announced and promoted to the nearly 1700 international leaders gathered for the Lausanne Conference on World Evangelization meeting nearby.

For more information, please refer to the website at Global Day of Prayer.