When we first thought of the idea of encouraging prayer for all of those in nursing and midwifery, we hardly expected the response we got. Our initial idea was simply to encourage as wide an audience of believers as we could to pray for those in the caring professions and to give thanks to God for all that they do.

It turns out that a lot people out there really do value what you do.

Nearly 6,000 people were reached through the social media campaign, and we had nearly 500 engagements or responses to the prayer posts that went out daily between 12-18 May 2018.

We had messages of support from all over the world, requests for hard copies of the flyers and bookmarks from all over the country, and groups of nurses, doctors and home groups in churches up and down the land, all praying for nurses and midwives across the UK and beyond.

We have so many ways as Christian nurses and midwives to have a positive influence in our workplaces and professions and in wider society. So many opportunities to live out and share the good news of Jesus with everyone we meet. Praise God that we have the Holy Spirit to equip us and an army of saints praying for us!

So, thank you to all of you who prayed and encouraged others to pray - because God hears the prayers of his people (Psalm 17:6), and he answers those prayers (1 John 5:14). Whether you can see it or not, those prayers have made a difference.

So, because we want to see God at work in nurses and midwives, in our professions and our health service, we will be holding another week of prayer from Sunday 12 May to Saturday 18 May 2019. Put it in your diary now.More details will follow in the New Year, but in the meantime, CMF has a new prayer news feed on the PrayerMate app for iPhone and Android. So, if you want to pray more for others in nursing and medicine, do look it up under the 'Wider Society' heading in PrayerMate.

And if electronic means are not your thing, watch this space for a more traditional prayer diary coming out later this autumn for all the work of CMF, our members, the professions, the health service and the wider world.