UCC Prayer Summit Makes a Vital Difference

By Isaac Meythaler

UCC Communications Coordinator

The Vital Prayer Summit, held October 3-5, 2025, marked UCC’s third prayer summit. In the beautiful outdoors at Camp MiVoden, attendees experienced a change in their spiritual lives with God by learning about and practicing prayer.

“I saw God move in powerful ways in my life and in others this weekend,” said Kathy Marson, a volunteer who organized the event. “Praying together, as a group led by the Holy Spirit — that makes a lasting impact on each individual and the world around us.”

From the moment attendees set foot at Camp MiVoden, they were met with an offer of prayer. Two or three people would pray over each person as they came in and then gave them directions to registration.

Guest speakers for the weekend included Randy Maxwell, vice-president for administration and director of prayer ministries, Washington Conference of Seventh-day Adventists; Kevin Wilfley, recently retired pastor for Upper Columbia Academy; and David Jamieson, president of Upper Columbia Conference.

More than 120 gathered for the retreat, not counting all the prayer groups across Upper Columbia Conference who prayed in advance for the Vital Prayer Summit for many months, as well as prayer leaders from all across the North American Division.

God’s presence was clearly felt by the event’s organizers and those in attendance. At meetings, there was time dedicated for prayer groups to pray for God’s Holy Spirit.

“When God’s Holy Spirit is present, it is noticeable,” said Marson. “We often found God leading our time; whenever something went off schedule, we could see that God was in the details turning our problems into blessings.”

The Vital Prayer Summit was made possible by many volunteers. Local prayer leaders helped lead the early morning prayer “Power Hour.” Members of the Prayer Action Committee and volunteers were also busy helping with registration, praying with people, offering blessings and prayers at meetings and hosting seminars. Many came early to help with setup and stayed late to help pack up.

Feedback forms from the weekend were received by event organizers and were very positive.

One attendee gave thanks saying, “This was an unmeasurable blessing. Everything was spot on perfect. All I have is incredible gratitude for all of the amazing effort put into this summit.”

“This was a life-changing weekend for me; I will never be the same. Praise God!” said another participant.

The next annual prayer summit will be held October 2-4, 2026. For the latest updates from UCC prayer ministries, see uccsda.org/prayer