The Prayer wasn't just in the Air...
Our vision wasn't just for a few people in aeroplane to pray! We felt from the beginning that the flight should be a "focal point" of prayer for the nation.
Tim Harrold was originally going to be a member of the flight crew... until a morning trip in bumpy air from Essex to the Midlands persuaded him that fourteen hours in a small 'plane probably wasn't how he wanted to spend his Saturdays!
Tim instead took on creating and running the "ground control centre" - a space for continuous prayer which would follow the flight every step of the way, praying for the same towns and cities according to a meticulously timed programme.
Someone had obvious watched too many 1950s war movies as a kid, because the prayer room at Grays in Essex ended up looking like a Battle of Britain control centre - complete with a huge map of the UK showing the route and a little model 'plane which got pushed round it using a long stick! The walls were also covered in images and information to encourage creative prayer.
Looking back it is easy to recognise that this was the start of "24-7 Prayer" in our area of South Essex - a prayer movement which has since involved hundreds of people from many denominations in weeks of round-the-clock, continuous prayer. At the time, the idea of a fourteen hour prayer meeting sounded crazy, and we didn't even know if it was possible.
In fact, the event was strongly supported. It was particularly exciting to see people from numbers of different churches coming together in unity to pray. The map provided a brilliant focus, and we were able to stick to within a few minutes of the timetable all day. People came and went in shifts as the day progressed, with their styles of prayer varying from contemplative to noisy declaration.
Checking in by mobile phone at every stop ensured that the "flight crew" and "ground crew" stayed in close contact throughout the day. There certainly seemed to be a lot of cheering every time the 'phone rang! Just a shame that camera 'phones hadn't been invented yet in 2001. Oh well, maybe next time...
