International Day of Prayer

E P Field

It was on this day, Sunday March 20th, 1892, that the organisation that would later be known as Open Air Campaigners, then known as The Coogee Open Air Mission, held its first meeting on Coogee Beach, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Little did founder EP Field, and other dedicated people know then, that in 2020, 128 years later, the ministry would be in more than 30 nations and still be going out into the open air, and everywhere, preaching the Good News of Jesus.

In 2020 OAC has spread round the world, taking and amplifying the original vision. Field would not recognise all our varied methods, but would understand the reason for what we are doing. We work under the motto 'Presenting Christ by all means, everywhere'. And, although many of us are best known for using the sketch board -introduced by Jim Duffecy-, we use a wide variety of visual aids to reach out and present Christ in ways which draw and hold attention and better enable us to communicate the message of the gospel.

AUS Coogee Beach with Jim Duffecy as a child

But although the early years of the mission went under a variety of names, and even though music has probably fallen by the wayside in our priorities, today we can recall that one of the early names was the New South Wales Evangelistic Prayer Band. Let us join together today in prayer for the nations and the work of OAC, in its various national and regional entities.

Below these lines you will find articles with prayer requests and themes to illustrate your meetings and isolated prayer activity.

Thanks for joining us in this important ministry.