Story Behind the Movement
In his book Transformation: Change the Marketplace and You Change the World, Ed Silvoso relates his experience in 2000 of meeting with about 3,000 pastors in the Philippines shortly after the election of President Estrada, who defeated a born-again Christian candidate strongly supported by the pastors. Due to overt hostility expressed by some pastors toward the new president, Ed sensed the Holy Spirit leading to teach from 1 Tim 2:1-10, particularly verse 8, where we are instructed to pray with “holy hands, free from dissension and wrath.”
He asked the pastors to repent and then write a letter of apology to President Estrada, and also promise to pray for him. A representative of his government appeared before the pastors the next day with a message from the president. She expressed thanks from the president and then said, “The president would like for you to pray for protection against the forces of evil that are buffeting the nation, because he is powerless against them without your help.” Within a month, Pres. Estrada became a believer.
As Ron Hauenstein, a resident of Spokane, Washington, read this story, his mind was continually drawn to Zimbabwe, where missionary friends face the most extraordinary challenges in serving the Lord. He was convicted that he had prayed about President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe with unholy hands. He repented and then asked the Lord, “What would you have me do with this?” The answer was to “do likewise” for President Mugabe.
The Lord has guided Mr. Hauenstein to craft this “Holy Hands” plan for Zimbabwe:
1) Share God’s Love for President Mugabe by Writing to him
Why write? Although God can supernaturally transmit our prayers to their intended target, the experience in the Philippines was a tangible demonstration of love by God’s messengers here on earth. If President Mugabe’s mailbox is flooded with thousands or tens of thousands of postcards and letters, it is hard to imagine he will not be affected. He will have physical proof in his hands that people around the world cared enough to write to him in love, not to express hate or judgment.
Through email and the World Wide Web, we can encourage and organize the worldwide body of Christ to write to Pres. Mugabe. The message, quite simply, needs to be nothing more than “God loves you, and I am praying for you.” See writing guidelines here.
This task is assigned to you. This Web page and the Holy Hands for President Mugabe project is the work of one man. There is no national committee or organization, no worldwide network. It must be born now through the creative genius God has given you!
For ideas on how to spread this message, click here.
Public assembly is virtually outlawed in Zimbabwe, so it is impossible to organize the church there in a nationwide display of God’s love and “holy hands.” We need to come alongside those weary pastors and their flocks throughout Zimbabwe by being obedient to God’s call to pray for “kings and all those in authority” (1 Tim 2:2). Surrounded by poverty and misery, smothered by the cloaking, often brutal repressiveness of a tightly controlled society, they face tremendous challenges in keeping their hands holy and their hearts pure! Imagine how much they will be encouraged if they learn that tens of thousands of people want to help shoulder their burden by sending messages of God’s love to President Mugabe!
Back to 1 Tim 2:1-2 - “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.” (NKJV)
What does God promise when we pray for those in authority? “A quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.”
Organize your friends, your small group, your church to band together in prayer for Zimbabwe so that a quiet, godly peace may come upon that land!