Can’t go? Then prayBy Shawn Hendricks
BELLVIEW, Fla. (BP)--When Harvey and Jennifer Sparks accepted God’s call to missions among a people group in Mozambique in 2004, they didn’t know they were a church’s answer to prayer.
First Baptist Church in Belleview, Fla., had been praying for several years that God would send missionaries to the Koti, a people group of about 65,000. Before the Sparkses came along, the Koti had no known access to the Gospel. Churches like Belleview, with an average attendance of around 500, show that congregations of all sizes can impact the world through prayer.
“Prayer works, and as a result of that, we have recognized that prayer is the priority,” says Ron Walker, Belleview’s pastor for nearly 20 years.
“We [don’t] have to be a big church to pray.”
During the past 10 years, the church has partnered with the International Mission Board through an effort called PRAYERplus, which links churches with people groups who have been strategically identified by overseas field leadership.
Through their partnership with the Koti and other people groups, Belleview members have prayed for the salvation of the lost and for God to send missionaries into areas where workers are needed. Right now, there are 1.6 billion people with no known access to the Gospel.
PRAYING LEADS TO GOING
Last year, the Sparkses, of Norman, Okla., finished their two-year assignment, but Belleview continues to pray and send mission teams to the Koti. Since the partnership with the Koti began, the church has taken its partnership to the next level by sending three mission teams to Mozambique. The congregation hopes to send another team there this year.
“Once we started praying for [the Koti] and … getting information about what God was doing among them, we obviously fell in love with the people,” Walker says.
“That put a passion in our heart to go there and be among them … all of that through our prayer for them.”
Belleview members’ first prayer partnership was among a people group in East Asia in 1997, and they began their third partnership in 2001 among the Ladakhi in South Asia. Since then, missionary work has started among both groups. The church recently decided to take on a fourth partnership among the Flemish people in Belgium, where a couple from Belleview plans to serve as career missionaries.
“This is our very first career [missionary couple] from our church, and we are so excited about that,” says Sarah Fitzgerald, Belleview’s director of mission ministries.
“To see God at work and to have that one-on-one contact with folks on the field just brings us so much closer to the edge [of missions]. He has blessed our church for it.”
Within the last three years, several youth at the church also have made commitments to missions. Walker hopes other churches will get involved in praying for missions, noting, “My personal challenge would be to say to them it doesn’t matter how big or small you think you are, you can pray … and watch to see what God does and how He expands and enlarges that.”
MORE ABOUT PRAYERplus
Once churches decide to begin a partnership with PRAYERplus, they can call the IMB’s prayer office at 1-888-462-7729 or e-mail prayerplus@imb.org.
The prayer office works with the IMB’s 11 regions to select three people groups for a church to choose from. Once churches select a group, they work with a regional prayer advocate to learn more about specific prayer needs. The purpose is for churches to pray specifically that God will send missionaries to work among their adopted people group.
“Our overall objective is to engage all people groups with populations greater than 10,000 by 2010,” says Ed Cox, director of the IMB’s international prayer strategy office.
“We hope to do this by getting churches to pray to the Lord of the harvest that He will send missionaries to work among [unengaged people groups].” Prayer is essential if the Gospel is to reach every people group, Cox says.
“People approach me all the time and say, ‘Well, I can’t go, but at least I can pray,’” he said. “That is not the least you can do. That is one of the best things you can do.”
For more ways to pray, order a free Prayerwalking Resource packet, Global PrayerGram and Today’s Prayer at imb.org/compassionnet or by calling 1-800-999-3113.
Thanks voiced for ‘20 days of prayer’By Shawn Hendricks
CONAKRY, Guinea (BP)--After calling for “20 days of prayer for Guinea,” Southern Baptist missionaries there are expressing thanks for the intercession of fellow Christians.
Violent protests and a strike shut down most of the African country’s businesses and schools and left more than 100 people dead in February.
Two missionary families were evacuated and others were confined to their homes after the country’s president declared martial law in response to protests against his leadership.
Since then the country has stabilized, the strike has been suspended and businesses and schools have reopened. One of the couples evacuated has returned to the field and the other family will return after stateside assignment. More importantly, missionaries report that church attendance in and around the capital city of Conakry appears to be growing.
Missionaries credit the progress to prayer in the country where 85 percent of its 9.6 million people are Muslim.
“Gone is the gloom in people’s faces, they are happy and hopeful again,” one missionary reported in a prayer letter. “Thank you so much for praying with us.... We continue to be amazed with the response for our call of ‘20 days of prayer for Guinea.’
“We received so many e-mails that it would be very difficult to answer all individually. There are many praying for Guinea, literally around the world and around the clock, and God is answering your prayers. We have felt God’s presence giving us peace and protection, not just for us but also for local believers.”
One of the missionaries who recently returned to the country was thankful for safety and a smooth trip back to her home.
“Our drive back up country was uneventful -– praise the Lord,” she wrote. “[God] was, and still is, with us. We arrived at our house … and found it was not looted. Everything seemed to be in order.”
The mission worker also reported people in the country were showing signs of a renewed response to the Gospel and “flocking to churches in the forest region and Conakry by the droves.
“Apparently, they are searching for a closer relationship with God,” she said. “Pray that hearts will be touched with the Gospel at these churches and [the Gospel] will spread to all peoples in Guinea. Pray for the church leaders and laypeople to have the Lord’s wisdom in how to reach out to their Muslim neighbors.
“There’s much change that still needs to take place and many more souls to be reached.”
For more information about ministry opportunities in West Africa or other regions of the world, call the International Mission Board at (800) 999-3113 or go online at imb.org or going.imb.org.
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