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John Kerr

When2Pray was the vision of John Kerr, a man with a passion for prayer and a commitment to come alongside married couples to encourage and help them. Very sadly for us all John died in June 2006, but the When2Pray working group he set up has been determined to follow through his original vision and bring it to fruition. John and his wife Hazel were part of Marriage Review (now known as Time for Marriage) from its very early days and he took early retirement to become its Director in 1995.

From then on he presided over considerable growth of the ministry seeing many new couples join the team, and a widening of scope of Time for Marriage’s work. John was due to retire as Director of Time for Marriage but was diagnosed with a brain tumour in January 2006 and passed away six months later.

He is greatly missed. John’s vision for When2Pray came from time he himself spent encountering God in prayer and remembering the power of praying in agreement according to God’s will. Jesus said

“When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action.”

Matthew 18:19 The Message

John wrote “I believe this is very much a ‘bottom up’ strategy – the work is at the grassroots, looking to God to ignite His power in each marriage, one by one”. John strongly believed that prayer was more than just asking; it is part of how we confront evil in our world by seeking God’s strength, wisdom and love to bring in His kingdom. He quoted Deuteronomy 32:30 “One will put to flight a thousand, and two ten thousand” – home by home, by town and city and ultimately at the national level he believed that as couples engaged in prayer the whole nation would be blessed.

How When2Pray developed

John recognised that this initiative would be best served by having a practical tool as a springboard and so, in 2003, he asked Barrie and Eileen Jones to write a book called ‘When2Pray’ to encourage married couples to pray regularly together, for themselves and others. The first edition of this practical and inspiring publication (go to the Resources section of this website to order your own copy) quickly sold out its 5,000 copies, and has not only been reprinted but also translated into Portuguese with a Dutch version also planned.

The next stage in the project was to bring together a team to use the internet and organise the sending of weekly ‘eprayers’ to couples signing up to receive regular biblical, down-to-earth inspiration and help.

The When2Pray team then worked together to create this website which is a comprehensive collection of ideas, resources and practical support for couples who want to join the When2Pray network.