Back in the mid-1970s (1967-1978) I was a Marine Lieutenant serving on active duty. I ran across a ministry that allowed an individual to adopt an Eastern European Communist leader and pray for him or her. I was assigned a General in the Soviet Army.
I am not going to speculate on the results (on the micro or macro level) of my prayers and the prayers of others. I cannot remember the general's name, much less what happened in his life. I do know that the Soviet Union no longer exists as a threat to the world. I also know that new threats have arisen.
I have been looking for a ministry that would allow me to be involved in a prayer ministry such as the one in which I was involved three decades ago.
There is a new web-based ministry urging Christians to adopt a terrorist and pray for them as Jesus Christ had instructed his disciples to love and pray for their enemies. Adopt a Terrorist for Prayer (ATFP) agrees that the military needs to fight terrorism, but advocates prayer as a counter-offensive strategy not utilized by generals and politicians. ATFP founder Dr. Thomas Bruce believes the war on terrorism is a spiritual struggle against fear.
The idea was sparked by a retired Army general who spoke at a Fellowship of Christian Military Ministries conference about the need for spiritual resources in the battle against terrorism’s spiritual attack. Bruce began thinking about how to fight terrorism on a spiritual level starting in spring 2007. His idea became reality more recently when the site, www.atfp.org , became available online.
Bruce cited what God said through the prophet Ezekiel – “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.”
People can go the site to learn about nearly a hundred prominent at-large and captured individuals identified by the FBI and State Department as either terrorists or terrorism sponsors. Visitors can then locate a person for prayer, as well as see how many others are praying for them.
