Different Prayer Lists

The flash sure caught the upper right hand corner of this little photo album I use to hold “prayer cards.'’ Our church doesn’t have a central administration as denominations do. Each church is independent, though there are affiliations among pastors – a network, if you will – and that works for missionaries, too.

We don’t send money to a central denomination office, we send to missionaries. In order for them to get funding, they go to a number of congregations on “deputation.” Each congregations vote on whether or not they feel called to support the mission field.

The prospective missionaries prepare “prayer cards” and leave them with people who ask for them. Our understanding is that the 4x6” cards will serve as reminders as we specifically pray. Our church supports sixty missionaries, give or take a few as changes are made in their fields. No – we do not give sixty their total support. They get similar support from a number of other congregations.

The way we figure our support has changed over the years. Before we arrived, fifteen percent of the congregation’s total tithes each month was divided between the missionaries and their checks were mailed that month. Today, twenty-five percent of tithes, plus any specific donations to missions or specific missionaries, is mailed out each month. That has worked well for us.

And, over the years, I’ve gathered about fifty cards. Most of them I remember specific things when I think of them. One is a mission family who came home for some of my Beloved Husband’s jambalya and rice on a snowy winter day when we wondered if they would have to spend the night! Another was a missionary who was named for Corrie ten Boom, just spelled a bit different. Another spent weeks in our church’s mission department and we got to know very well. Another we supply with food stuff quarterly, and clothing, as he works locally with homeless. Another we can’t describe or mention by name because where he serves is dangerous.

Yet all of them are in danger daily – just as we are. Accidents happen everywhere in the world, and so do natural disasters. When I read of earthquakes in Papua New Guinea, I add prayers for safety for our mission on that island. I also add prayers for the small planes that ferry them in and out. I see on Facebook the medical needs of the people they serve, too.

See? Missions is personal for me. Prayer is active. I’ve seen the examples in Paul’s letters to the churches he established on his missionary journeys. Read a few of them. Luke’s Acts of the Apostles is a good one, but the individual letters, such as Philippians is outstanding. Read, too, the words Christ spoke in Revelation about the seven churches. There were more, but these messages are specific and applicable today, too.

I won’t give as many specific verses as I usually do – but there are a couple that give Jesus’ words following His resurrection:

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:19-20 KJV)

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (Acts 1:8 KJV)

That’s the instructions we’ve received, but we are all called to different jobs. Not everyone can be a missionary, a preacher, a teacher, but everyone (whosoever) can be a believer in Jesus and serve the same purposes in many different ways.

Oh, as I’m sitting here typing, my other reminder popped up. I have an Echo app on my iPhone for my short term prayer list. The first three on my Echo list are for missionaries in the field who shared specific prayers.  Two are in my card album, one is a family called from their home in Nigeria to a country foreign to them. We are not in the same “denomination”, but they are my brother and sister in Christ, standing in need of prayer. The third item on my Echo list is my “Salvation List.” These loved ones have mentioned to me specifically that they do not believe – in God, in souls, in what the Bible says – and I pray that their closed hearts would be opened to God’s message.

In closing – would you say a prayer for me? That my blogs really do encourage Bible reading and prayer? That people who drop by here will continue to seek time with our Lord?

Thank you.