Prayer Effort Targets Major Intersections

‘Light the Highway’ is networking intercessors in churches and online
A worldwide prayer initiative officially launching this month is looking to establish a holiness movement across cities, regions and entire nations by networking houses of prayer along major interstates and national corridors.

Kicking off on Oct. 26, “I-35 Highway of Holiness” is a 35-day prayer initiative of Light the Highway, a new prayer project led by Mike and Cindy Jacobs, founders of the intercessory ministry Generals International. “2007 makes 40 years since Bible reading was taken out of the schools of America and since the Haight-Ashbury Summer of Love in San Francisco, which loosed every kind of evil sin,” Cindy Jacobs said. “We just feel that in this generation, we are going to reverse that.”

Since the Light the Highway Web site (lightthe highway.org) launched in May, thousands of Christians have signed on to participate in the 35-day prayer effort. The initiative is based on Isaiah 35, which talks about the establishment of a highway of holiness. “We believe that [Interstate] 35 symbolizes Isaiah 35,” Jacobs said.

As scores of believers focus their prayer efforts on I-35, a north-south interstate stretching from Laredo, Texas, to Duluth, Minn., others are concentrating on major highways such as I-10, I-95 and I-90.

“I-35 is being used as the model for what other people around the world will be doing with their highways,” said Ryan Hennesy, project coordinator for Light the Highway.

Prayer leaders in Canada, South America and Europe also will be praying for major national corridors, he said.

A handful of events, as well as the networking of 24/7 houses of prayer along I-35, will lead up to Oct. 26. Evangelist Steve Hill and his Heartland School of Ministry will lead an effort called “Radical Evangelism” by driving the length of I-35 while interceding for the U.S. In another effort, Christian youth will participate in “purity sieges”—on-location prayer protests against issues such as pornography and abortion.

“We’re praying for our nation to be holy,” Jacobs said. “We want holiness in Hollywood. We want holiness in our schools and holiness in our churches. At the end of the 35 days of prayer, we’re going to ask God to establish a new holiness movement in the earth, not based on legalism, but on a right heart before God.”

Rick Heeren, the central regional vice president for Harvest Evangelism, is Minnesota’s prayer coordinator for the event. He said the bridge collapse along I-35 in August has made the team even more committed. “Our primary focus is the families who have lost loved ones and the people who are recovering from this tragedy,” he said. “We are not going to back down from any aspect of the I-35 strategy. We are going for it.”

Hill and charismatic ministers Bill Johnson, Ché Ahn and Sergio Scataglini will join Jacobs in Dallas at the end of the 35-day initiative for Five Nights of Miracles Nov. 27-Dec. 1.

After the 35 days of prayer, Light the Highway will continue to inform and network intercessors through its Web site, which features a Wikipedia-style encyclopedia that allows users to create and edit page content. It also provides community forums and information about local and global prayer efforts.

“This is a virtual tool to network intercessors all over the world,” Jacobs said. “There’s not a virtual [prayer] tool like it anywhere.”

Light the Highway, according to its Web site, is meant to create “something real, something tangible, something permanent.” By praying along the highways in their cities, Jacobs said, intercessors can help change the course of nations.
Suzy A. Richardson