Though liberals in Canada are stunned by the resurgence in conservative values, Faytene Grasseschi isn’t alone in her ability to trace the cultural shift back to a precise moment in time.
On Aug. 23, 2008, after hours of prayer during TheCRY gathering on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, the crowd of more than 1,000 had grown tired from the heat. Grasseschi picked up the microphone and spoke a question the Holy Spirit had whispered in her ear moments earlier: “Could 10 minutes change a nation?”
She repeated this question again and again, sensing a powerful faith rising from the crowd. The movement continued to build, and a few hours later, during a time of praying blessings over national leaders, Grasseschi says somethinghappened.
“We felt something shift. We didn’t know what had happened, but we knew we were in a historic moment of prayer that was changing our nation,” she says.
A few weeks later, the prayer leader was on a plane and opened a national Canadian newspaper. She was amazed, she says, as her eyes fell upon a national political graph that showed a significant political shift had taken place on the exact same day as TheCRY event.
As Grasseschi and thousands of young Christians had cried out to God for mercy, favor, wisdom and the spirit of life to hit Canada, as well as blessing upon Israel, the national polls shifted sharply in favor of the party that more strongly supported biblical values—even though none of the people gathered at TheCRY that day had prayed for a particular party.
After many years of socially liberal trends in the Parliament of Canada, an astounding turnaround began to happen. Following the elections in October that year, more than 40 percent of the members of Parliament were estimated to be professing believers in Jesus Christ, according to analytics done by the National House of Prayer.
Since this shift, Canada continues to make strides toward a return to biblical values. Parliament passed legislation to combat human trafficking. The government has offered national repentance for historical atrocities. The most pro-life caucus in decades continues to emerge. Current prime minister Stephen Harper is an evangelical and known for his conservative values and positions. In addition, Canada is currently considered among the top supporters of Israel in the world.
