Topeka National Day of Prayer May 3, 2018
The program will be mulitcultural and multilingual-- a true celebration of our unity and diversity. And of course, we will pray! How we need prayer in our city and nation!
I encourage you to link to this site, post the video trailer on social media, and print the above graphic as a poster, etc., to get the word out.
There is a video trailer here.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. There is power in prayer! There is even more power in unified prayer!
David Epps
785-221-2788
Solemn Assembly and Call to Fast Begins New Year
This is a Joel 2 call to fast and pray for America during this time of division, turmoil, and runaway sinfulness. To escape judgment and gain the favor of the Lord, we need humility, purity, and unity-- in that order. We need a change of heart in the Heartland. Therefore, we will fast (as the Lord leads you) for 40 days to end on Valentine's Day, February 14. Befitting the Valentine's Day theme, we need an explosion of 1 Corinthians 13 love in America to counter the spirit of hatred and violence.
We cannot continue to pray, preach, worship, serve, study, and disciple as we have done. To do so will get us the same results we have now. We need extraordinary prayer and a season of seeking-- even crying out-- to the Lord. Business as usual is not sufficient.
We are in desperate times, and these times call for desperate measures. The results of elections, while important, will not save America. Only a God-revived Church can save America. Only you, revived, can save America! Only you, loving the unlovable will change America!
We will use Joel 2:12-17 as our inspiration and guide for a solemn assembly on January 5 to initiate the fast.
We have strayed and we need to return to the Lord.
Joel 2:12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
We need to repent, not just feel guilty or sorrow for our sin. We need a heart change in the Heartland.
Joel 2:13 and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
and he relents over disaster.
God, in his mercy, may lessen the judgment that is due our nation.
Joel 2:14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering
for the Lord your God?
One expression of our repentance is to gather and engage corporately.
Joel 2:15-16 Blow the trumpet in Zion;
consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
gather the people.
Consecrate the congregation;
assemble the elders;
gather the children,
even nursing infants.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
and the bride her chamber.
We need to give God permission to break our hearts for our personal and corporate sin.
Joel 2:17 Between the vestibule and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep
and say, “Spare your people, O Lord,
and make not your heritage a reproach,
a byword among the nations.[a]
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”
The evening will include a showing of the brief Billy Graham Evangelistic Association film Flying Blind. This powerful video is a call to the American church to repent and get right before God.
For more information, contact David Epps at 785-221-2788 or worship.warrior@hotmail.com.
Christians in Kansas will observe the 66th annual National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 4, by gathering in churches, courthouses, and in the statehouse to pray. The national theme this year blends 2 Chronicles 7:14 with Daniel’s prayer in Chapter 9:19, “…For Your Great Name’s Sake! … hear us… forgive us… heal us.”
The observance at the state level will be held at noon in the capitol rotunda. Governor Brownback and other officials will be speaking, and we will be gathering to pray for our communities, our state and our country. Contact Dr. Dave DePue for more information about the capitol event at 785-249-7604, or dave.depue@capitolcom.org.
Churches in the city of Topeka will gather at Avondale East NET Center, 455 SE Golf Park Blvd., at 6:30 p.m. This location was chosen because it houses a significant outreach of the Topeka Rescue Mission and partnering churches. The ministry is NETReach, and Topeka National Day of Prayer participants will have the opportunity to learn more about NETReach and pray for its success. According to their website, the initiative was launched “in an attempt to reduce homelessness and poverty, by helping to initiate and sustain transformation in one of Topeka’s more challenged and impoverished neighborhoods.”
All of us can agree that our nation needs healing. And God promises to do so, but on the condition that we pray humbly, seek His face, and turn from our own sin. Will America be healed? We won’t know until we join together and pray. So, let’s join in prayer on behalf of Topeka, as well as Kansas and America. Invite others to join you.
Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of Billy Graham, serves as the Chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. Through the efforts of her team, more than 40,000 prayer gatherings are conducted by tens of thousands of volunteers across the country. Several million people participate every year in this call to prayer for our nation, its leaders and citizens.
Anne Graham Lotz’s offers this prayer: “Lord, as we draw nearer to the National Observance of the National Day of Prayer on May 4th, we are asking that You direct every step, give wisdom for every decision, equip and empower everyone involved in the planning, so that this year’s observance will truly move Heaven and change our nation. Stir the hearts of those You have chosen to attend nationally and locally so that tens of thousands of Your people will gather with one heart and mind as we cry out for You to hear us…forgive us…heal us. For the glory of Your great name, amen.”
Since the first call to prayer in 1775, when the Continental Congress asked the colonies to pray for wisdom in forming a nation, the call to prayer has continued through our history, including President Lincoln’s proclamation of a day of “humiliation, fasting, and prayer” in 1863. In 1952, a joint resolution by Congress, signed by President Truman, declared an annual national day of prayer. In 1988, the law was amended and signed by President Reagan, permanently setting the day as the first Thursday of every May.
George Otis, Jr. and New Transformations Video Came to Topeka July 15, 2016
George Otis Jr. is the founder and president of the Sentinel Group, a Christian research, media, and training agency focused on transforming revival.
Best known as the producer of the award-winning Transformations documentaries, a series viewed by an estimated 200 million people in 175 nations, George has also authored six books. He frequently speaks at international conferences.
It’s Only Cookie Dough. You can view the trailer at www.SentinelGroup.org
Lynch, Kentucky… A community bathed in mist and shadow on the woody margins of Harlan County. A town where 10,000 people once gathered from around the world to extract high quality coal from seams underneath Black Mountain. A mining operation that set world records, and fueled wartime steel production.
But it was not to last.
Another war set in… the war on coal. Decisions made from afar devastated Appalachia, putting thousands of men out of work. As the drills, conveyors, and whistles went silent, community porches and meal tables were emptied of life. Christmas lights blinked out, and summer parades were no more.
In time, the community’s complexion was marred by rusting mine equipment, broken windows, and collapsed roofs. Drugs and rain seeped in, while hope for the future seemed to trickle out on the silt-laden waters of Looney Creek.
Only it didn’t.
Just when Lynch’s story looked like it was ending, things started to get interesting. Behind the scenes, a handful of desperate prayer warriors would not let go.
- “People want to live again instead of die!”— Darlene Hall
- “In the most unlikely person, and in the most unlikely place... that’s where God is going to show Himself… God is in the mix now. And when God shows up, you’ll know it!”— Lonnie Riley
In the last 14 years, the Rileys have begun 22 separate ministries in Harlan County. Without being recruited, over 30,000 volunteers from 35 states and four countries have come to Lynch to repair homes, clean up parks, build playground equipment in the parks, evangelize and cover the city in prayer, and hold dental and medical clinics.
As they give aid, they also share the Gospel, so people will know God loves them and is answering their cries for help. As a result, over 2,000 in the area have given their lives to Jesus.
Men Are Enlisting in God's Prayer Army!
On
Saturday, June 27, 2015, national prayer catalyst Dick Simmons came to Topeka to
conduct an all-day men’s prayer boot camp. At least, that was his intention. The Lord had other plans.Minutes before the event was to begin, Dick began to show symptoms of a moderate-to-severe stroke. Men started to pray immediately and continued in prayer until paramedics arrived and wheeled him away.
What to do now? There were 40 men in attendance, each anticipating hearing from the boot camp leader. Organizers decided to carry on, and two men had to step up to fill the shoes of one.
Providentially, Wayne Garland has spent countless hours in prayer with Dick Simmons in Washington, DC, and in their travels. He was able to share the heart of the boot camp message and testify to the personal transformation that comes when men give themselves to unified, fervent prayer.David Epps is a local leader who (providentially) spent most of the last 24 hours going through the boot camp slides with Dick in preparation for the next day.
Leading as a team, these men went through the boot camp material with some significant success-- worshiping, praying, hearing testimonies, reviewing great awakenings of the past and encouraging present-day repentance and prayer.
The event culminated that afternoon with a time of commitment and commissioning.
As for Dick, he went through a battery of tests, but was released in a couple of days with only the slightest residual effects from his stroke. This process of passing the baton was not what he had envisioned, however men are being raised up to carry Dick's message.
Dick takes the passage in 1 Timothy 2 very seriously as men are called to pray first of all for rulers and all those in authority. It is his belief that a million men praying early every morning will bring the nation back from the precipice of God’s judgment which we now face.
He calls
this the National Prayer Offensive.
The morning after the prayer boot camp, men began gathering in Topeka at 5 am to intercede for the community, state, and nation. The early-morning gathering continued for 21 days at which time the men were encouraged to continue on in personal and team prayer.
Dick Simmons has served as a Presbyterian minister in the inner city of New York, and helped David Wilkerson (author of The Cross and the Switchblade) start the Teen Challenge ministry. He is a personal friend of Gov. Sam Brownback and been an intercessor in Washington, DC, for many years.
The morning after the prayer boot camp, men began gathering in Topeka at 5 am to intercede for the community, state, and nation. The early-morning gathering continued for 21 days at which time the men were encouraged to continue on in personal and team prayer.Dick Simmons has served as a Presbyterian minister in the inner city of New York, and helped David Wilkerson (author of The Cross and the Switchblade) start the Teen Challenge ministry. He is a personal friend of Gov. Sam Brownback and been an intercessor in Washington, DC, for many years.
The boot
camp was held at First Assembly of God.
Go to men4kansas.com for more information on follow-up to the boot camp. Visit them on Facebook at facebook.com/men4kansas.
2015 National Day of Prayer Event Brought a Little Heaven to Earth on May 7
In an unusual display of Christian diversity and
unity, 24 elders of the city gathered in Topeka, Kansas, on the evening of May
7, 2015, to observe the National Day of Prayer (NDOP). The meeting took place at Wanamaker Woods
Church of the Nazarene where nearly two dozen pastors, two chaplains, and one
city council member prayed for one hour without comment or interruption. Various denominations, independent churches,
and streams of Christian faith were represented. There was racial and cultural diversity. Both men and women prayed. However, each was in harmony with the other,
praying heartfelt prayers and referencing the Scriptures.
Though the congregation was not large, they were very
much engaged as prayer leaders prayed in repentance for revival in the Church,
mercy for the afflicted, salvation for the lost, a national return to morality,
and wisdom for our government leaders.
As 24 “elders” praying around the throne of God, this
earthly gathering was representative of a heavenly reality. Revelation 4:10-11 says,
. . .the
twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him
who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:
“You are worthy, O
Lord,
To receive glory
and honor and power;
For You created
all things,
And by Your will
they exist and were created.”
After a time of
worship, prayer leaders were called to the platform and seated in a large
arc. In humility, each prayer leader
took only a couple of minutes before the throne and then passed the microphone
to the person seated beside them. The
prayers were powerful and in sync with one another. One pastor led the congregation in song.
At the conclusion of the hour, one of the event
organizers, David Epps, encouraged the prayer leaders to continue in prayer and
fellowship, perhaps meeting on a regular basis to do so. This seemed to be met with a resounding
consensus.
The NDOP national theme this year was “Lord, Hear Our
Cry.” The NDOP Task Force, headed by
Shirley Dobson, issued a statement prior to the observance saying, “The 64th
annual National Day of Prayer, May 7, 2015, will have profound significance for
our country. It is an unprecedented
opportunity to see the Lord’s healing and renewing power made manifest as we
call on citizens to humbly come before His throne.”
The report that followed indicated that record numbers
of believers participated nationwide. In
Topeka, churches and entities that were represented included:
Raymond Berry Gethsemane
Worship Center
Adelina Mojica Centro Familiar
Cristiano El Encuentro
Tim Scott Community Church
Brenda Marney Good Shepherd Family Church
Delfino Barajas Good Shepherd Family Church
Dave Buller Cornerstone Community Church
Greg Varney Light
of the World Christian Center
Richard Rounds Love Abiding Church of God
in Christ
John Potter Kansas National Guard - Chaplain
Dave DePue Capitol Commission
Rey Rodriguez Harvest
Family Fellowship
Bernard Hurd Calvary
Baptist Church
Hal Smith Farmhouse Family Church
Terry Neidens Southwest
Christian Church
Mike Shinkle Open
Way Church
Randy Hall Christians for Life - Chaplain
Gary Roten Emmanuel Baptist Church
Jeff Coen Topeka City Councilman
Cecil Washington The New Beginning Baptist
Church
Hank Nelson Topeka Bible Church
Rob Brooks Wanamaker Woods Church of the Nazarene
Richard Sundermeyer Family Life Church of the
Nazarene
Tony Stanley Harvest
Church
David Epps Topeka
National Day of Prayer
The statewide
observance of the NDOP was held at noon in the rotunda of the Kansas
capitol. Gov. Sam Brownback was
introduced by Rep. Peggy Mast, and he welcomed the crowd of about 300. After commenting on the history of prayer in
the state, the governor prayed.
During the hour, several more prayed, each one a state
senator or legislator. Two
representatives led the congregation in song with the sound resounding high
into the dome above.
The NDOP was officially established in 1952 and has
been observed every first Thursday in May since 1988. As a sign of the times, in 2010 government
proclamations for the NDOP were ruled unconstitutional. However, in 2011, this lower court ruling was
overturned by the Seventh Court of Appeals. 
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared a national
day of prayer saying, “All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then
rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry
of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than
the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and
suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.”
Our nation is once again in crisis, though this time
we are engaged in a civil war of culture and morality. Prayer is our only hope, and God is our only
deliverer.
Welcome
This site offers you and your faith community resources and encouragement to bring true transformation to Topeka, Kansas. The Kingdom of God is meant to touch and redeem every area of our culture.
- Family
- Church
- Government
- Business
- Education
- Arts & Media
- Healthcare
Why not Topeka? Why not now?
Awakening Freedom Tour Challenged, Inspired
The
Awakening Freedom Tour came to Topeka Bible Church on May 3. 2014. This tour across Kansas seeks to inform Kansas Christians about our true heritage and to inspire us to begin to walk into our true destiny.
The faith of our Founding Fathers is
what launched this exceptional nation. Revisionist history has neglected to
inform us of this, so one goal of this conference was to set the record
straight.
 |
| Neil Mammen |
Governor
Brownback is passionate about the spiritual history of Kansas. He shared stories about our Kansas heroes and encouraged the gathering to stand fast for the faith. Kansas has a
rich history of fighting for freedom. We can once again rise and be a light to
the nation. We cannot move forward in our legacy if we don’t know our heritage.
Donna
Lippoldt spoke on the Key to Equipping & Mobilizing Believers. Donna is the
National Day of Prayer Coordinator for the state of Kansas, National Governor’s
Prayer Team Leader for Kansas, and serves as Director of Culture Shield
Network.
Information about future Awakening Freedom Tour events may be found at the Culture Shield Network website CultureShield.com. Other tour sites have been Lenexa and Wichita in Kansas, and Jefferson City in Missouri.
24 Hours of Worship & Prayer on Jan 12-13, 2014
 |
| Click for video of Earl Pickard praying for Kansas and Israel. |
While worship sessions in the capitol kicked off at 8 am Monday, January 13, worship and prayer actually started on Sunday evening, January 12, at 5 pm at Higher Ground Ministries. The church is conveniently located only a block away at 813 S. Kansas Ave. Pastors Calley and J.D. Russell graciously consented to the use of their building since they share the vision of a transformed city and state.
When the prayer room moved to the statehouse on Monday morning, many legislators came to the Old Supreme Court Room for prayer. At 10 am, there was a prayerwalk around the capitol and the capitol grounds.
 |
| Intercessors pray for a legislator in the Old Supreme Court Room. |
At noon, Gov. Sam Brownback addressed the gathering and called for prayer to see the state move toward prosperity. Earl Pickard prayed for the state of Kansas and for Israel. Donna Lippoldt, the state National Day of Prayer coordinator and leader of the Culture Shield Network, encouraged the group to watch over the education of their children and grandchildren to ensure they come through their formative years with a Christian worldview.
Worship was led by individuals and teams from around the state. The public was invited to take part in all sessions in a spirit of unity. Worship and prayer wrapped up at 5 pm completing 24 hours.
1 Timothy 2:1-4 says, "I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth."
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