On May 31, Sunday, hundreds of thousands of Christians in Hong Kong gathered at the Hong Kong Football Stadium, uniting in one heart with Christians from 220 countries around the world to participate in the 5th annual Global Day of Prayers (GDOP), which is by far the largest prayer movement in the world.
Despite the high humidity and the poor air quality, hundreds of thousands of Christians still gathered, which revealed their determination to participate in this historic event.
The prayer gathering offered up prayers on the results of the financial tsunami, wave of H1N1, and various challenges for Hong Kong. Besides the participation of church leaders and political officials, those representing various sectors of the society also participated. The participating Hong Kong government officials included Secretary for Justice Wong Yan Lung, Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Sui-lung Lam, Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong, and various others.
Surprisingly, GDOP founder Graham Power personally participated in the prayer gathering at the stadium to pray for Hong Kong.
Just about an hour before the prayer meeting began, crowds of people also gushed into the arena. Since the event was held on Sunday, large numbers of foreign maids came in groups, and many people of foreign nationalities and ethnic backgrounds also participated in the event.
While mixing the passionate theme color of reddish-orange, the backdrop of the stage shows a picture of the Lion Rock Hill and influential architectures of Hong Kong, symbolizing the spirit of this city; on the ground below in front of the stage showed a blue world map, symbolizing the prayer of global unity.
The event revealed the spirit of unity among the Christians around the world; people wore different cultural and traditional attires, and a ceremony of waving the national flags of many countries was held. In addition, there was a part in the event where prayers were offered in multiple languages, which included Cantonese, Mandarin, English, Korean, Spanish, and Hebrew, etc.
Moreover, GDOP Hong Kong prayed for the ‘seven mountains’, which included church, government, arts, business, media, education, and family. Representing figures from each sector were invited to pray.
While praying for unity of the church, Rev. David Ng invited all of the pastoral coworkers to come before the stage, and thousands stood before the stage to receive the prayers of the believers. It was a touching scene.
GDOP Hong Kong was selected by The God Channel to be broadcasted live globally, allowing millions of people to watch the ceremony through television and internet.
