Worldwide Cancer Prayer Day

Churches and ministries in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, the Philippines and South Korea will observe Worldwide Cancer Prayer Day on June 5, 2009 and their services can be viewed live on this website.

Participating ministers include Daniel Nunez, Sara Nossa Terra church, Brasilia, Brazil; Aurelio Arrache, Amistad Familiar church, Mexicali, Mexico; Tommy Mascarinas, Agape Christian Fellowship, Iligan City, Phillippines;  and Nelson  Kim, Yoido Full Gospel Church, Seoul, South Korea. Dr. Richard Shakarian, international president of Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International, will preside over a service at the organization’s headquarters in Irvine, Calif.

“The ministers will pray for healing for people who have cancer, prevention for people who do not have cancer, comfort for people who have lost someone to cancer and wisdom for cancer researchers, physicians and nurses,” said Daniel Kennedy, the organizer and co-founder of Worldwide Cancer Prayer Day.

He is also the CEO of Oasis of Hope Hospital, a leader in integrative medical treatment of cancer, which combines the best of orthodox and alternative therapies. After his father, David, survived a diagnosis in 1995 of renal cancer, Daniel decided he needed to do more to help cancer patients.

“At that time, the hospital could attend to only 600 patients per month, but through prayer we could touch millions of people,” he said.

Dr. Francisco Contreras, a noted oncologist and the president of Oasis of Hope, funded the first Day of Prayer in 1998, which was broadcast internationally. Dr. Robert A. Schuller, son of the legendary evangelist Robert H. Schuller, was also one of the co-founders.

Dr. Contreras specifically prays for a cure for cancer, especially every June 5. About 7 million people die from cancer each year, according to the World Cancer Research Fund.

 “I believe that God will answer this prayer, and though the glory for the cure for cancer may be given to a researcher in some university, I know that it will be God who will give the enlightenment to that researcher,” he said.

Over the years, participants in Worldwide Cancer Prayer Day have represented some 160 countries. Kennedy said he receives prayer requests all year from as far away as Kuwait, South Africa and China via the event’s Web site.

The petitions are compiled into a book, which has about 25,000 names in it. Kennedy has carried the book to the prayer spiral at the Crystal Cathedral, the prayer tower at Oral Roberts University, the prayer mountain in Seoul, Korea and the Western Wall in Jerusalem in observation of Worldwide Cancer Prayer Day. To add your name to this book, please submit a prayer request.  Thank you for visiting the Worldwide Cancer Prayer Day site.