VANCOUVER, BC—For a small band of Salvation Army prayer warriors in the poverty-ridden Downtown Eastside, a round-the-clock prayer vigil that was supposed to last a week is still going strong 20 months later.
“It’s the hub of everything that’s going on in our authentic little Christian community that we’re trying to cultivate down here,” says captain Stephen Court, who heads Corps 614 Vancouver, an urban mission built around cell groups and one-on-one relationships. (“614” refers to God’s promise in Isaiah 61:4 that His people “will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations,” NIV.)
The War Room, as it is called, first opened in February 2004 in response to a challenge to be part of a Salvation Army prayer wave across Canada from east to west, in which each participating church dedicated an entire week to non-stop prayer.
“People signed up for three-hour-long shifts for that whole week,” recalls soldier Carla Evans, who helped set up the War Room. “But it didn’t stop. People just wanted to continue [praying], and it’s still going.”
Headquartered in a hotel in the area that caters to long-term occupants, about 60 or 70 people are currently involved in the War Room.
Most are connected with the Salvation Army’s War College, a residential urban mission training school that Court also heads. Students are required to take two War Room shifts a week.
But some are from other churches and ministries in the area. And at least one person comes in once a week from Abbotsford.
“It’s pretty much a miracle that it is still going strong. There’s been a lot of faithfulness,” says Jeni Parsons, a War College student who oversees the War Room.
“It is very easy [to fill all 56 shifts] when there’s school going on, but during the summer, it gets pretty tough, because we’re still connecting with people, trying to get people to find out about the War Room and come in and actually take shifts.”
The prayers offered up are diverse. One wall is dedicated to praying for the world and the poor. The different names of God are also invoked on a daily basis.
But the primary emphasis is on intercession for the people of the Downtown Eastside.
The area, as The United Church Observer described it in 2003, is “Canada’s poorest neighbourhood—24 blocks that are home to roughly 16,000 people, many of them aboriginal, many transient, many mentally ill…
“Alcoholism is widespread, addiction to cocaine and heroin rampant. Needle-sharing has led to the highest HIV—and hepatitis—infection rates in the Western world. Drug-resistant tuberculosis is spreading. Prostitution and property crime are epidemic.”
As a result, says Court, “[the way we pray] is a fairly detailed thing. When you pray for quite a while, you’ve got to get beyond ‘God bless the Downtown Eastside.’
“There are prayer requests, different intercession guidelines and a “What Are We Hearing?,” book, which everyone updates when they do a shift, so there is some corporate direction from God.”
Court adds they have received “tons of answers” to their prayers—although, in his opinion, “not nearly enough.”
Still, Parsons believes it has given their mission a clearer sense of purpose and direction.
“A lot of the vision of 614 and the ministry God is doing has been birthed out of the War Room,” she says. “So there’s been a lot of action taken based on the vision God’s given to us.”
Having lasted this long, there is no intention of shutting down the War Room. The only way that could happen is if God commands it. In fact, Evans says, the War Room has become so integral to the ministry of Corps 614, it is hard to imagine how they could continue without it.
“I don’t see why it would end. I hope that it wouldn’t,” she says.
