Despite a two-day headache and recovery from a COVID-19 infection, Madhur Lakra logged on at 7:30 p.m. local time to pray.

Not only did he participate, he led a Hindi prayer room for Mennonite World Conference’s bimonthly online prayer hour in July.

After a welcome in English with simultaneous interpretation, the 100 participants on the Zoom call broke into “rooms” for small-group prayer in English, Spanish, French, Hindi and Indonesian.

“Prayer is the act which God instituted that we should enjoy and must practice also with our global family members,” said Madhur Lakra, English pastor at Hastings Chapel in Kolkata, India, a part of the MWC member India United Missionary Church (Bharatiya Jukta Christo Prachar Mandli, BJCPM). “MWC prayer hour gives us a better understanding about other Christian brothers and sisters and gives us a sense of belonging to the greater family.”

In the Hindi room, diversity was evident in the six participants: from Brethren in Christ Odisha, Bihar Mennonite Mandli, BJCPM, Dhamtari Mennonite Church and BIC Nepal.

By the end of the hour, Lakra’s headache was gone.

Breakout room leaders prayed for:

— Christians in India experiencing government hostility;
— church leaders in Austria struggling financially;
— good governance in Indian Mennonite conferences;
— people suffering from police violence in Colombia;
— perseverance and hope amid rising COVID cases in Indonesia;
— vaccine availability in Nepal amid instability;
— political leadership in Haiti;
— the civil situation in Argentina;
— crisis flooding in Germany and Belgium;
— those suffering violence in Ethiopia’s Tigray region; and
— those who receive misinformation about vaccinations, that they would know the truth.

The next online prayer hour events will be Sept. 17 and Nov. 19. Register at mwc-ccm.org/node/4055.