A prayer meeting for children and teenagers in Zambia has had a far-reaching impact on their friends, families and the local community.
When Lorrin Kasale (Zambia) started up a prayer meeting for children and teenagers in her home country, she hoped it would help bring them closer to God.
But the faith of those involved has had a much wider-reaching impact on their friends, families and the local community than she could ever have imagined.
The prayer meetings often focus on the wider world, such as the current situation in Ukraine, Israel and Sudan, but the children are also encouraged to ask for prayer for people they know. One boy frequently requested prayer for his parents who frequently drank alcohol and fought.
One Sunday before the prayer meeting, Alice* walked in and asked to join. Lorrin explained that the meeting was usually for children. The woman replied, “I know, but I felt I should just come here,” so she joined.
"It was time for us to pray together, and when we are praying, I look at her. She's started to manifest, like she wasn't herself, and I knew she had demons,” Lorrin remembered. “She fell from the seat where she was, and she started to roll.”
Worried about how the younger children would react, Lorrin asked a teen to lead them out of the room. "Then it was me and the older kids,” she described. “They wanted to pray for her to be delivered now in the name of Jesus.”
The children’s faith and prayers were answered as God healed the woman as they prayed. Afterwards, Alice told the group that God had told her that morning to visit the church.
Then Lorrin discovered that the lady was the mother they had been praying for at the request of her son.
Later, “her son praised God because before his mom didn't want to go to any church, and now she was open to the idea. He said his mom used to drink a lot, so that she had nothing to do with him, but now what God has done will really help her a lot,” Lorrin said.
Age is no barrier
Not only did the prayers of deliverance made by the older children make an impression on Lorrin, but also the faith of the younger ones who were taken out of the room.
“The kids were so happy to see that Alice was free, but when she left, the younger kids came in and they were so upset with me,” recalled Lorrin. “They said, ‘why did you chase us away? You wanted to pray for her and we wanted to pray too.’
“These kids were so excited, because they had done something like the disciples did in the Bible. They were like, ‘It's like we never knew that we could speak to the demons and they would leave. We prayed for that lady and she's free. So God can use us to pray.’
“I thought they were little, that they were going to be scared, but they said they wanted to pray for her, and that moved me to not underestimate the power that God has put in the kids.”
The experience has encouraged the young people to seize every opportunity to pray, particularly for those around the world who do not know Christ as their Saviour.
“We have holidays in Zambia like Independence Day and the National Prayer Day,” said Lorrin. “They come to me and they're like, what are we going to do? This is prayer time, what are we going to pray for then?
“These are eight-, nine-, 10-year-old kids that are really excited about prayer and want to see their community transformed.”
Pray for the children and teenagers at the prayer meetings to keep their excitement for God as they grow. Pray for the local community to see the difference in the young people and for them to want to know more about what they believe. Pray for Lorrin in her role as Children's ministry coordinator for Africa, that her ministry will continue to flourish.
* name changed