The power of prayer during a pandemic

As the world continues to reel from the coronavirus, you might feel powerless.

But you can fight against fear and hopelessness by lifting up your concerns to the Lord. And, when you pray, you’ll be uniting with other believers all around the globe who know that God is still in control.

Here are just a few of the prayer warriors you’ll be in company with when you pray over this pandemic:

Children in Haiti

Now is the time to have faith like a child — and the children in one of our sponsorship programs are the perfect example. While these 87 kids have been under lockdown at the children’s home where they live, they have been using the time to continuously pray and praise God.

They recently took part in a week-long worship and prayer rally. The staff answered all the questions they had about the pandemic, and then the children prayed for comfort from the Lord. “During that time, you could just see how they were drawing closer to Him,” one of the staff members said.

​Underground believers in Iran

Iran is home to the fastest-growing underground church, and believers are determined not to let the coronavirus slow that down. So, they’ve been praying for continued growth. They coordinated a 40-day prayer campaign, and thousands of people joined in — from new believers to veteran Christ-followers.

They’ve already seen their prayers begin to be answered! “More people are coming to Christ because of the possibilities of everything online and social networks. Every day people are coming to Jesus. People who have never heard are now hearing and engaging with the Gospel.”

Christians young and old in South Asia

“We want to see the power of the cross crush the curse of the coronavirus,” one long-time South Asian believer recently shared. And he believes the best way to do that is through prayer and meeting people’s needs. As he and his fellow Christians are working hard to help people, they are also encouraging and praying with families.

Not too far away, boys and girls set aside time every evening at 6 p.m. to pray for people affected by the pandemic and to thank God for donors like you who have been providing aid and helping meet their own needs. No matter what, they are continuously giving thanks.

Pastors in Nicaragua

Pastors in Nicaragua are not taking a break during the coronavirus. Instead, they’re working to safely minister in their neighborhoods however they can. Since they haven’t been able to meet together to pray with their entire congregations, they have instead been taking prayer walks with individual church members.

Since the crisis began, they’ve seen God answer their prayers to draw more people to Himself. While they distribute food bags to hungry families, they have been able to give out Gospel tracts, and more 16 people have come to accept Christ! “The Lord will make an important testimony of what is happening in the midst of all this,” one believer said. “We believe that this pandemic is serving His will.”

Women in Iraq

Living in quarantine can be an extremely isolating and lonely time. So women in Iraq are doing what they can to stay connected and encourage one another in God’s Word. These women are actually refugees, but instead of focusing on their own problems, they are reaching out and praying for other people in need.

They are using creative and innovative ways to minister to others during this time of separation such as sending Bible verses and Christian media. They have also been meeting in small groups to pray that their Muslim neighbors would come to Christ during this difficult time.

Good Samaritans in Uganda

Christians in Uganda noticed that it was the people who didn’t know the Lord who were most afraid and discouraged during this time. So while helping to provide them with aid like food and hygiene kits, they’ve also been counseling and praying with these people. And those prayers have been powerful!

Recently, they prayed with an elderly, unsaved man and told him about Jesus. He said it was the first time in his 80 years that he had ever heard about forgiveness. That day, he decided to give his life to Christ, and inspired by Jesus’ compassion, said he even forgave the person who had murdered his family years ago!

In a world that seems to have stopped on a dime because of the coronavirus, God is still moving. Christians are still advancing his kingdom, and the lost are still discovering Christ.

And it’s happening all because of prayer!

Take a moment to pray today with someone in your own circle of friends or family who may be feeling fearful. And please remember to keep people living in poverty in your prayers, too. Many of them were already struggling to survive before this pandemic, and now they need your prayers more than ever.

If you’d also like to meet their physical needs, you can click here to help provide emergency coronavirus relief like food, hygiene kits, medical care, and more. Plus, your gift will help erase World Help’s budget shortfall caused by canceled fundraising events, ensuring that we can continue providing physical help and spiritual hope for the world’s most impoverished people.

And thanks to a generous matching gift from World Help Board members, every dollar you donate will DOUBLE up to $235,000. Every $8 you give will now help TWO people in urgent need.

It may be that God even uses you to help answer someone else’s prayer.

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