Prayer Room at Josiah Venture
By Ruth Schenk
As Russia invaded Ukraine last February, visitors to the Josiah Venture Prayer Room app doubled with more than a thousand sessions. Hundreds posted requests for prayer. Many are heart-wrenching.
A couple fleeing fighting in Ukraine asks people to pray for those left behind. A family in Europe posts a request asking people to pray for their premature baby with big health concerns. A group of Christians in Irpin, Ukraine ask people to pray for peace and safety during heavy shelling. People sheltering in a church basement ask people to pray they will find food.
Requests pour in from 26 countries and every state in the U.S.
Josiah Venture founders Dave and Connie Patty opened the Josiah Venture Prayer Room in 2017 to create a worldwide network of prayer. It happened the first week as more than a thousand people downloaded the app and signed up to pray 30 minutes, 5 minutes, an hour so that every day 24/7 was covered in prayer.
It’s easy to see that God does big things when people pray. People posted more than 3,500 answers to prayer, along with 23,000 notes.
People can enter the virtual prayer room any time, any day, follow prayer prompts that are continually updated, post prayer requests, and enter the Reflections tab to see answers to prayer.
The app is one outreach of Josiah Venture, a ministry that partners with local churches in Europe to establish healthy communities of believers. Staff members work with local churches and communities to reach youth with the Gospel and disciple those who respond. The goal is to give life and hope to a generation that knows little about Jesus.
Discipling continues as war in Ukraine shifted ministry to transporting and sheltering more than a thousand refugees. Josiah Venture purchased 200 tons of food and medical supplies for the hardest-hit parts of Ukraine They also are handing out Ukrainian Bibles and studies. Many of the 752 churches in the JV network across Central and Eastern Europe are receiving refugees and helping them settle in safe, long-term housing within the community.
In the past month, staff and volunteers have brought 1,480 Ukrainian refugees on 39 buses to JV conference centers that have been turned into shelters where teams provide food, medical supplies, spiritual encouragement, Bibles, and the hope-filled message of the Gospel.
To learn more about Josiah Venture and their prayer room, click here.