April 8 - 100 Year Prayer Vigil

April 8 – 100 Year Prayer Vigil

Do you remember John Hus (God In History – March 4)? In the early 1400s, his death at the stake energized the Bohemians and they began to oppose hypocrisy and heresy. When forced to rejoin the church, many split off and began a group called the Union of the Brethren.

Three hundred years later, they were still being persecuted until they found a home on the estate of a wealthy man near Dresden, Germany. Count Nikolaus Zinzendorf was Lutheran, but opened his lands to this small group of Moravians. They called the community Herrnhut or ‘the Lord’s watch’ and by 1725 there were nearly 100 people living there.

Zinzendorf was a devout man and soon left his castle and joined the people, leading them as they grew closer to God. He helped the Moravians design rules to live by, established charity work and small groups that would help the people continue to grow.

On August 13, 1727, they planned a twenty-four-hour prayer vigil. The light on the altar was never extinguished and this continual prayer lasted for much longer the twenty-four hours, it lasted for a hundred years!

The Moravians made contact with other groups throughout Europe, trained leaders to visit them and share what was happening at Herrnhut. In 1732, Zinzendorf met an African slave and a group of Eskimos that had been led to Christ and knew that his group was being called into mission. Within the next hundred years, the Moravians sent more than 300 missionaries throughout the world and baptized more than 3000 people.

Zinzendorf tried to make the Moravian church legal in Germany, but ended up being banished. He traveled to America, settling in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for a time and setting up a base of missions to the Native Americans. He then moved to London and a center for Moravians was established.

John Wesley was on a ship filled with Moravians, heading to America when a storm struck. While others were terrified, the Moravians quietly sang Psalms. For him, it was ‘the most glorious day he had ever seen.’

It was a Moravian that asked him if he knew Jesus Christ. Wesley wasn’t able to give a firm answer, wondering who might convert him if he was converting others. But, that’s another story for another day.

Zinzendorf, the Moravians, Herrnhut. The world was changed through their mission, their passion for a personal relationship with Jesus and through prayer.