Beauty from Pandemic Ashes: On the Eighth Day
How could we be missional? How could we move into the world with the love and the reality of Jesus when everything was shutting down around us? That’s the question a small group of friends was asking as Covid-19 pulled most of the world into isolation.
On the Eighth Day came into being out of that very question. A friend asked her friend: “How can we get people all over the world praying together every night?” That question grabbed the heart of the woman she asked, so she asked a small group of other people. And out of that desire for prayer to penetrate a world in lockdown, the online ministry of 8@8pm.org was born.
Since the spring of 2020, we have watched our God turn our small prayers and efforts into far better things then we could have imagined. Within a few months, thousands of people around the world signed up to receive the “8@8pm” daily email. That email contained a scripture passage, a short mediation on the passage, and then an invitation to pray from the scripture. God seemed to have given us something new: not a devotional, not a scripture reading program, not a call to prayer—but an entering into to scripture that opened a door to prayer.
And in God’s way of doing things, a desire began to grow among some of the contributing writers to collect the daily emails into a book. And then a title for the book emerged. We would call it On the Eighth Day. Our calling from God became more focused. We may live in post-pandemic time now, but our need for God’s word, presence, and help have only increased.
Written by a variety of authors who find joy in the power of biblically-centered prayer, each daily reflection is an invitation to walk more fully in the new resurrection life of Christ, in this “eighth day” of new creation. You can order the book here.
We invite you to join with us in daily prayer and scripture reading. On the Eighth Day offers you the opportunity to deepen your intimacy with the Lord by guiding you into scripture-focused prayer and inviting you to orient your life around the rich rhythms of the church calendar. May you find new rest in the life and love of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit as this book leads you into a deeper, daily practice of prayer.
Sally Breedlove is an author, spiritual director and the co-founder of JourneyMates. She serves alongside her husband, Steve, a Bishop in the Anglican Church of North America. They are the glad parents of five married children and have sixteen grandchildren.
Willa Kane is a trustee for the American Anglican Council, trustee emeritus for the Anglican Relief and Development Fund and a founding member of Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Raleigh. She and her husband, John, have four married children and eleven grandchildren. They live in Raleigh, NC and Sea Island, GA.
Madison Perry is the Executive Director of the North Carolina Study Center. He also is an ordained priest in the Diocese of the Carolinas (ACNA). Madison and his wife, Pamela, live in Durham, NC, and have six children.
Kari West has worked in the nonprofit world for the past nine years in a variety of roles. She enjoys literature, creative writing, and exploring the intersection of faith and art. Kari lives in Apex, NC, with her husband, Jason, and two daughters, Eliana and Riley.