Youth Prayer Effort Targets Abortion

Through the Justice House of Prayer, young intercessors are staging silent protests on behalf of the unborn
Teens and young adults are praying for an end to abortion in what prayer leader Lou Engle says is a continuation of the movement that began in 2000 when The Call D.C. drew 400,000 youth to Washington, D.C., for a day of prayer and fasting.

“The call to fast, pray and change the history of a nation is as strong as it was five
years ago,” said Engle, founder of The Call prayer events and The Cause USA. The latter effort began in July 2004, after Engle convened thousands of youth for a prayer gathering in Colorado Springs, Colo.

“After 50 days and 50 nights of prayer, it was clear our assignment wasn’t finished,” Engle told Charisma. “Through a series of dreams and visions, God showed us [that we needed] to travel across country and plant the burning torch of intercession in Washington, D.C.”

That torch has been named the Justice House of Prayer (JHOP), where intercessors pray 24/7 in a building on Capital Hill overlooking the Supreme Court. “As soon as we walked in, we knew it was the place,” Engle said. “The room was literally shaped like an arrowhead. One could stretch a measuring line down Pennsylvania Avenue, through the Capitol building and straight toward the White House.”

Currently 66 interns, or “prayer activists” as they prefer to be called, are affiliated
with JHOP. Determined to “reverse the decree of Roe vs. Wade” through prayer,
JHOP interns arrived in Washington in October with a plan they said they received
through a dream.

Each member covered his mouth with a piece of duct tape that had the word
“life” written on it and began a “silent siege” in front of the Supreme Court
building. For five hours each day they stood silently, identifying with the silent
screams of the unborn and repenting for the silence of the church.

“We’re actually out there fighting for the very life of a generation,” said intern
Heather Harris, 32. “The Lord wants to bring forth the Deborahs … Joshuas … [and] Davids of the next generation. And right now they’re being killed in the womb.”

Just days into the siege, which is an ongoing effort, one intern suggested to
Engle that they take the “life tape” and turn it into wrist bands and start a justice
movement like that of Martin Luther King Jr. Today more than 30,000 of the
free bands have been distributed through the Web site www.bound4life.com.

“Our vision is that 10 million people will wear these bands, and every time they look at it they will pray, ‘God end abortion in America,'” Engle said.

In conjunction with its efforts to end abortion, JHOP is raising funds to help women and children in need. “There’s got to be more than just praying for the end to
abortion,” Harris said. “There’s got to be action-works added to our faith.”

In addition to praying at strategic sites in the capital, the interns plan to travel
across the country to call others to take up the Cause and launch day and night
intercession for revival and justice.

“We need to subpoena the conscience of the nation,” Engle told Charisma. “I believe a great confession season is coming in America-a season of coming clean.
There’s going to be great joy and great pain mixed together, but I believe God
wants to visit us in this nation.”
SANDRA CHAMBERS IN WASHINGTON, D.C.