Ministry announces online prayer initiative for troops in, around Baghdad
A Christian website has launched an Internet prayer campaign that enlists Americans to pray for troops in and throughout the capital of Iraq. Wayne Dillard, founder of PrayerCentral.net, says the new "Baghdad Prayer Patrol" initiative was timed to coincide with the recent U.S. troop surge in that city.
Concerned Christians are being encouraged to sign up at "
www.prayercentral.net/baghdad" for the Internet prayer campaign for U.S. troops stationed in and throughout the Iraqi capital. The concept behind the Baghdad Prayer Patrol is simple; those who sign up receive a daily e-mail assignment to pray for a specific geographic area and spiritual need.
Dillard says the initiative has been well received. "We did sort of a soft launch in March," he notes. "I wanted to get some feedback from different people and see how they would respond," he says, and "the response was very positive. People were ... encouraged by being able to have a tool that helps them to pray, because sometimes you don't know how [to] pray for situations like this."
The Baghdad Prayer Patrol project is spiritual, not political -- a point the website founder emphasizes. "We're surging troops in there over the last few months, and in the next few months there will be more and more troops going to Baghdad," he says; "and at a time when we're surging troops in, I believe we need to be surging more prayer in to undergird the effort there."
This is a "critical time" in the war on terrorism and a time that prayer is needed for our troops, Dillard asserts. And it is also an opportunity, he adds, "for believers to actually take part in something that can have an effect on history."
