Good morning.
We've got Rick here with us today and Elizabeth and Bimpe.
I'm so happy that we're all able to get together and have a conversation about something that
Rob was just talking about, which is coming up in a week's time.
So I guess a week and a day we're going to be entering into Trinity's annual week of
prayer.
We started it last year.
It was a great success, a great way to start the year and we're starting it again.
So I just wanted to first of all thank you all for joining me here for a conversation
about something that I think is near and dear to your hearts and is near and dear to the
hearts of a lot of people here at Trinity.
So I'm going to just start with you, Rick.
You're here joining us.
Can you let me know a little bit about why you are here?
Why are you here with me right now?
Why are you interested in prayer ministry at Trinity Streetsville?
Yeah, so probably a couple of years ago I felt called that in my own life I wanted to
improve my prayer discipline, if you like.
And I just felt called that maybe I could do this by also encouraging others and by
encouraging others and encouraging myself.
So we started on this journey and now we're at the second year of doing this week of prayer
and we've done through the year we do every month we do a prayer meeting and it's growing
and building and we're really excited and the team's growing and I got, there's nearly
10 people in the team now, two of my colleagues here from the team are here today to talk
to you.
This is so fun.
Wow.
So it's really just started as something that you were looking into improving for yourself,
the prayer ministry, and look where it's at right now.
So pretty incredible testimony right there to the power of prayer.
So Elizabeth, you're joining us here.
And what encouraged you to want to join in on the prayer ministry here at Trinity?
What encouraged me to join the prayer ministry is that prayer is my foundation because when
I was growing up, my parents, oh my God, they were very disciplined Christians.
So every morning, 5 a.m. we have to get up and pray and before we go to bed at night.
So when I heard about the prayer ministry, I said, oh no, this is my foundation so it's
better to join the program.
So that's great.
That's wonderful.
And I think they're happy to have you as part of the team.
And what would you have been paying for me?
In the Bible, Paul admonishes us Christians to pray without ceasing, pray for one another,
pray that the word of God will have its free course and be glorified.
And so joining the prayer ministry for me is an opportunity to build up myself spiritually
and also be able to do those other things, pray for others and pray that the word of
God be glorified because that is what the church needs in this time and age.
Thank you.
And it's a great way to start the year off too, isn't it?
And like you said, the prayer ministry is something that goes year round and there's
something at least once a month going on here at Trinity.
But this, we're here to talk right now.
This week and this month is all about the week of prayer.
So next week, there's going to be, I believe, five days where congregants or members of
the church are encouraged to come out Monday through Friday and enter into some group prayer.
And I know we're going to talk a little bit about what that's going to look like and maybe
some of the impacts and some of the significance of that.
So that's what we're here to talk about is this week of prayer beginning Monday, January
22nd.
So Rick, what is really, I'm going to ask you this first question.
What is sort of the rationale or the thought behind a week of prayer here at Trinity to
start the year off?
Yeah, it was actually inspired by some other people at Trinity that have done this and
other churches and they said, you know, it's a great way and it's going to take you a few
years to build it up.
They said, but, you know, it becomes part of the, you know, the cycle of the church,
if you like.
And it's, you know, we're laying it before God, we're saying, hey, God, please guide
us.
You know, if we don't pray, you know, what are we doing?
Right.
So, you know, if we don't have prayer in our lives in the church life as the foundation
of what will guide us, how do we know that we're doing God's will?
So really it started from that, you know, started the year as a great time to do it
when we're planning things for the new year, planning ministries.
And so really we said, let's have a week of prayer to guide us for the rest of the year.
I love that.
And I think that's the second time it's come up already in this conversation is the foundation,
the foundation of the church in our lives and beginning by listening and talking to
God.
So thank you.
And our week of prayer this week or this year here at Trinity is going to have a theme and
Elizabeth, maybe you could tell us a little bit about the theme that's sort of going to
guide us through that week.
The theme is I had a dream.
I have a dream.
Okay.
I have a dream.
Nice.
So it was, it was picked by the group and it says very inspirational team of the, the
prayer because like Martin looked at King, he had a dream and, and other individuals
in the congregation or in the community had a dream to focus on in their life, the goals
that they are, they are about to achieve or to attain in their lives.
So dreaming, everybody have a dream, a purpose for their life.
And that's part of the same of the, of the prayer retreats.
Nice.
So that's based on the Martin Luther King famous speech, I have a dream.
That's wonderful.
Do you, is there any biblical significance to that speech?
Does anyone know?
Yeah.
So in fact, personally, I learned a lot as part of the preparation for this week.
So I mean, I knew about the speech, I knew it was significant, but what I didn't realize
was how many biblical references there are.
And it's very, very clear when you start to read it, how many biblical references and
scripture passages he drew on, on, in that speech.
So that was great because that's given us, for each night, we're going to have a quote
from the speech and the biblical passage that goes with it to inspire the prayer each night.
So if you come out Trinity to the week of prayer, you're going to be able to not only
pray, but you're also going to be able to pray through unpacking some of that text,
I believe, and learning about how Reverend Martin Luther King was able to draw on God's
word and funnel that into the dream that he had for not just himself, but for all people.
And Bimbe, Rick alluded to it, that each night might look a little different.
Are there different sort of sub themes for each day, do you know, throughout the week?
Yes.
Because the theme like Elizabeth has said is I have a dream.
So we are looking at it's subset into the dreams God has for us individually, which
will take place on Monday.
Okay.
Then on Tuesday, we're talking about the dream God has for us as a church.
Then on Wednesday, the dream God has for us as a community.
This is our community.
Then on Thursday, it's the dream God has for us as for the world today, the world that
we are in today.
And the dream God has for us for the kingdom to come.
So it is divided into those five days.
The team is subdivided into those five days so that everyone could come in and have something
to be a part of each day.
Nice.
Okay.
So each day is going to look a little different.
So that's why I guess everyone's encouraged to come out all five days if possible.
Right?
Yes.
Absolutely.
And it sort of builds on itself.
I love that.
I can tell a lot of thoughts gone into it.
And prayer also, I mean, I know that prayer can take many forms.
And I'm sure most people here at Trinity might engage even in prayer in different ways in
their own lives.
I know that it can be sometimes just quiet moments with God and just listening, or it
can be worship and adoration.
It can be prayers for other people.
So when we go to the week of prayer, maybe you guys can all chime in here.
Are there different opportunities to pray in different ways?
Or is it just one sort of way that we're going to be praying?
How is it going to look?
Yeah.
So we really want to encourage, as you said, different forms of prayer and also people
that perhaps, obviously, there are many people in this church pray every day and have very
faithful prayers.
And of course, a lot of those will come.
But we want people to come maybe that want to be encouraged themselves.
Like I said, I want to encourage myself by doing this.
And so we start off each night, we'll have worship music, which is prayer, of course.
And we'll sing together.
And then we have the rooms set up with different themes as a room where you can paint your
prayers on the wall with paints.
There's a quiet room where you can just read with some reading material in there.
And then there's other themes that we're going to go through each night in the seminar room.
There'll be a different theme.
So I don't know, Elizabeth, do you want to add anything?
I encourage everybody to come out to participate in this week of prayer, because in all our
way, we have to acknowledge God.
And prayer is the key to any situation that we might be going through in life.
Be that sickness or any obstacle in life.
Prayer can close that obstacle and you come alive again.
I'm a living testimony of prayer.
Prayer make me whole again, because if I start on part of prayer, we won't live here today.
So amen.
Thank you.
No, that's great.
And I think I love that you mentioned that we want to encourage people to come out, even
if prayer might not be part of their daily routine or even weekly routine.
But you're interested in the church.
But I know some people aren't always even comfortable praying out loud or maybe singing
out loud or even painting in front of other people.
Maybe art is not their thing.
Personally, I love art and that's probably the room I would be in the most.
But if you're not comfortable with praying out loud in front of a group, is this night
still for you?
Can you still come and just be in the presence?
Oh, yeah, because there is a quiet room downstairs that the individuals can just come and meditate
on prayer.
You know, you don't have to say it out loud because your creator, the creator of the whole
universe knows what is in the depth of your heart and he answered all our actual prayers.
So if you don't want to say prayer out loud, just come and worship, you know, mingle with
your Christian fellow in vain.
I think that's great.
So really, just please, please come out.
And now what, Bimbe, if I'm only able to come out one or two nights, is that still OK?
Will I be missing anything or how does that work if I can only come out a couple of nights?
Is that still OK?
We would encourage you come, every one of you.
But if it's no life happens and you cannot come more than one or two nights, I wouldn't
say you would miss much because the prayer rooms, we have different stations.
So anywhere that resonates with you, whether it's the quiet room, whether it's the library
nook where you can just sit down, reflect and journal, and whether it's also the vision
where we draw, you would have the opportunity to go around these rooms.
So even if it's on just a day you come, you could still go through all these rooms and
take time to reflect and get a vision from God for the year.
Excellent, excellent.
And then I guess one of my last questions I'm going to direct to you, Rick, because
we've had a few conversations about this.
Now, if you are someone who's not able to come out at all to week of prayer, and like
we said, we are encouraging everyone to come out and be in person with everyone, what can
you say about online?
Do you know, I know I've told you I'm getting a little bit of a website going, but what's
your dream for the online ability to engage here?
Yeah, so we started last year at sort of a more limited, we tried to send out a weekly,
daily email, sorry, every day with the theme of the day, the scripture verses that we were
praying on, some words about what the theme was, and a Spotify playlist of the worship
song.
So that was the sort of step one, if you like.
And now Elizabeth, as she said, is up in the game this year with more online engagement.
So we're going to have a web page where you can go on and you can post your prayers on
there.
And we can figure out if we can maybe print those out.
And so we'll add them to the theme in the room so you can be connected that way.
And again, you'll have the chance to listen to the music.
And then on the Friday, we're going to have an online prayer session, we're at 20 minutes
or so on the Friday.
Yeah, so that way if you're not able to come out, then you can still pray with a group
on the Friday evening around probably sometime between seven and eight.
So stay tuned for that information as well.
So before we sort of wrap up our conversation, first of all, I want to just say thank you
again for joining me because I know I'm encouraged by this week already and very much looking
forward to it.
Do you yourselves have a hope or a dream for Trinity in 2024?
I have a dream for Trinity that there will be expansion.
People will be coming from all walks of life to worship here.
And you know what, God answer prayer.
I believe in prayer and prayer walks.
Prayer is the key.
So come on and worship with us.
Love it.
Wonderful.
Yeah.
And I just like to say, be inspired by these.
These women inspire me so much.
They're just fantastic part of the team.
And you can hear the passion in their voice and their history of prayer is just so humbling
and just thanks for all your effort on the team.
That's so good.
My final saying would be Aba Kuktu too.
It said we should write the vision and make it plain so that we will be able to run with
it.
And so I believe that if everyone would get that vision for their life during this prayer
week, we could run it with and have a fruitful and blessed year.
That is my prayer for everyone and Trinity.
That's beautiful.
Beautiful.
Beautiful words of truth.
So thank you for leaving us with that.
We'll actually get that scripture verse and we will post that for everyone as well because
what a great vision to leave us with here today.
So thank you.
I look forward to prayer week and I look forward to seeing all of those beautiful prayers that
are written and drawn and expressed as well.
So thank you for sharing that.
And I hope that everyone who is watching here at Trinity is inspired as well by first of
all, the work that's gone into preparing for this.
And the prayers that have gone into preparing for this, I do believe that they were guided
considerably through prayer and that it's really going to be a beautiful blessed week
for everyone.
And I'm excited to see where it takes Trinity and our community and as you said, the world.
So thank you very much again for joining me.