18 years ago, Anna Hanninen responded faithfully to God's call for her to become an intercessor. Read on to be inspired!

Anna is a retired midwife living in Finland, whose life is committed to intercessory prayer for all the covenant family of God. On her prayer boards are many pictures of friends near and far, for whom she prays every day. Miryam is a nurse and is fully involved to support her mother in the ministry. Their home is dedicated to hospitality for visiting ministers from around the world.

Anna describes her call to prayer:

The Lord was calling me on the night between 17th and 18th July 1998. I woke up that night to the knowledge that the Lord was very close and that He would have something important to tell me. When I felt His closeness my tears began to roll down and I was able to say just, "Lord! You know everything what has been, but You also know that You are dear to me and I'm ready to do Your will whatever it then will be." I felt in that moment within me His voice that was saying, "Your place is to be in the prayer chamber. You will be much alone, but I will always be with you.

I have received prayer targets some Asian countries and Malawi from Africa and other prayer targets. Besides this my primary prayers are for Israel (that had been already tens of years previously in my prayers) sometimes through dreams. Especially there was a dream of Israel during the tribulation of Jacob. [My] second dream was of the suffering body of Yeshua in prisons and third one was of the fate of millions of suffering children on the streets and slave labour of children and in other terrible places.

I wanted [to have] a disciplined daily schedule for the prayers and intercessory prayers. For a few years I prayed for four hours a day regularly. I had been advised to keep Sabbath free of this and to use it to personal recreation and rest and I experienced that it was a piece of good advice.

Later I started to pray three hours a day and during the last year of my prayers have become more the lifestyle and not a kind of "performance" that I do in a set time. Nowadays several shorter times are included in my days when I specially go before the Lord in intercessory prayer, but also in between in the midst of daily chores the intercessory prayer targets are before my inner eyes and in prayer. I think that as much as I can identify with the person or wider intercessory prayer target, so much I can share the loads, battles and experience the attacks of the enemy and share the joys of victories. If we can touch in prayer God's heart, we don't fail.

I think also that if God has called [someone] to the intercessory prayer ministry, so it is [a] call for the time of whole life and one can't disengage oneself of it according to one's own feelings and will. For me it is new fresh commitment every morning when I wake up and praise the Lord for His love and tell Him that I love Him and want to be faithful to Him.

As I'm generally alone at home on the five [days] of the week, so the human sense of loneliness is sometimes even harrowing. So it was particularly in the beginning, as I had lived my whole life from under 20 years old in the midst of a congregation actively and our home was always full of guests from far and wide. When the Lord then led [me] to new kind of stage in this regard, so in the beginning the pain of loneliness was so great that I threw myself down on the sofa and cried out aloud this agony of mine to the Lord. Now I have every day before my eyes the big family of the Lord from different parts of the world. The pictures of everybody whose pictures I have had [the] possibility to get and for whom I pray are fixed on two quite big boards and if I don't have a picture, so I have names on the board or paper. This way those who are far away come close and I can besides 'be travelling' in the spirit from one continent to another to meet them daily."

Anna is now 90 years old. She has recently suffered some setbacks in her health, but is still committed to the ministry of prayer according to her devotion of many years.

Anna and Miryam send their greetings from Finland!