Ben Thompson from Beachside Baptist and a member of his church were brainstorming what they could do and came up with the idea of the World’s Longest Prayer Chain.

The chain consists of wristbands with prayers written on them, joined together to form one long chain. New prayers are being added daily.

What began as a youth-led movement on the Gold Coast has spread across the land with people far and wide sending in their prayers for months.

“We have story after story of people who have been really touched and appreciated the opportunity to receive prayer for their difficult circumstances.” – Ben Thompson

“The prayer chain highlights one of things we all have in common and that’s prayer,” says Ben, “It’s been incredible to capture a glimpse of just some of the prayers God is hearing every day.

“We’ve been out on the streets during the Games inviting people to contribute their prayers. We met someone from Fiji who wanted to pray for people back home affected by floods recently. The mum and dad were quite emotional about it and the kids came up and joined in. We had a fun time putting their prayers on the World’s Longest Prayer Chain.”

“We have story after story of people who have been really touched and appreciated the opportunity to receive prayer for their difficult circumstances”.

This Saturday at 10am the prayer chain will be unravelled on the beach in front of Phillip Park, Main Beach and measured to see how long the chain is.

With the Commonwealth Games coming to an end, the prayer chain will be passed to a representative this Saturday, who will take it to Sri Lanka. Church leaders in Sri Lanka are mobilising local churches in their provinces around the country to contribute to the prayer chain as part of the unity focus of their Inter Church Olympic Games in August 2018.