In the morning you hear our voice!

In the morning you hear our voice!

Every day for the past four years Elim Church Croydon has risen with the sun to pray at 6am. New prayer meeting leaders and much-needed moves of God are among the results. Pastor Cornelius Osei-Fosu explains

Monday 23 March 2020 was a significant date for the UK: this was the day Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that a national lockdown would begin the following week.

But for Elim Church Croydon, Tuesday 24 March 2020 was important too: this was the day its pastor, Cornelius Osei-Fosu, announced a daily 6am prayer gathering would begin. The move strengthened the church throughout lockdown, but more significantly resulted in a sustained and blossoming prayer ministry, he says.

“Like everyone, we were looking for ways to keep the church going during the pandemic,” he begins.

“We’ve always put a lot of emphasis on prayer and fasting so that first day after the announcement we gathered 22 people to pray on the phone. But our meetings became really popular – we eventually grew to 100 people – so we kept going and continued to meet at 6am every day. We haven’t missed a day since that first meeting, including Christmas, New Year and bank holidays!

“As faithful prayer warriors from as far afield as Ghana, the US and Canada joined the group, the meeting moved online via Microsoft Teams. It’s great – people can pray with us from anywhere. I’ve joined in myself from Israel, Ghana and the US. Church members can keep praying while on holiday and we’ve been able to train 53 people as prayer meeting leaders through this group too! People submit prayer requests from the UK and for their families in Nigeria, Barbados, Jamaica... anywhere.”

A daily routine is maintained to manage time for prayer, says Cornelius. This includes greetings at 5.58, the first prayer topic is released by 6am and the second part is from 6.15-6.30am. Two prayer meeting leaders lead the 30-minute prayer session for the sake of variety.

“We’ve also been spending five to ten minutes reading the Bible after 30 minutes of prayer,” adds Cornelius. “We’ve journeyed through the New Testament twice. Having started from Genesis some months ago, we’re currently heading towards the middle of Psalms, reading a chapter or half a chapter a day.”

So popular has regular prayer been that the church now offers other opportunities to meet too. These include its Hour of Power prayer meetings on Tuesday evenings, while 25 seniors meet each Wednesday at 10.30am for a couple of hours to pray in person.

Stories of answered prayer are told regularly as a result, such as healings, accommodation found, jobs landed and job promotions obtained. One was from a family forced to relocate to Sheffield when their son became trapped in a gang. “Gang members wanted to kill him and the pressure on him meant he was suffering mental health issues. He was sectioned and sent to hospital for many months. His mother was suffering spiritual attacks in the night too, so I invited her to join us on our prayer line.

“We kept praying for healing and deliverance. Now, not only has her son been healed but he’s been discharged too.” Another answered prayer occurred in Jamaica.

“A young man was being pursued by the police. He’d exposed police corruption and was put in the cells. He wasn’t meant to come out alive but by a miracle of God he was released and is alive today.

“It’s incredible. It’s like what is said in 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven…” (NKJV) That has been our testimony again and again.”

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.