By Nikole Hahn
“I often forget the impact prayer has.” Bruce Tissell said in a recent video.
At WorldVenture, we often ask you to pray for people groups, our organization, or the ministries we work with. Sometimes, God gives us a glimpse of His answers, reminding us that prayers truly matter.
James 5:16b says, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
This verse and others within this same chapter talk about fervent prayer. Fervent prayer that doesn’t let go; the kind that kneels at God’s feet and waits. Prayer is the first step. We’re admitting our need for Jesus and trusting Him to know what’s best in a situation or for a person. Often, in prayer gatherings, we focus on our own needs and those of people we know. This is important, but it is also crucial to pray for people we don’t know with the same fervency of heart. There’s fruit in that kind of prayer, even if we don’t see the results.
In Teresina, Brazil, Pastor Enoch shared in this video how the prayers of the missionaries and their supporting churches were answered. His children are believers and married to believers. They are involved in the local church. And it’s not the first time I have heard stories like this!
When our nationals know U.S. churches are praying for them and know their names, it’s a powerful testimony that deeply moves the locals.
That’s the beauty of Gospel partnership.
Safii and The Benefit of Heeding The Holy Spirit
Long before our Global Worker in SE Asia served with us, he found himself on a short-term mission trip with a local university. After hours of meeting people, he and his friend decided to stay a little longer and prayed for one more spiritual conversation. That’s when they met Safii.
Safii began to pour out his life and struggles to our Global Worker and his friend, allowing them to pray for him. They parted ways.
“A week later, we heard from Safii about how God had answered this prayer, and it created a door of interest in him to learn more about Jesus – the God who answers prayers!” Writes the Global Worker. This moment of obedience reminds us that prayer doesn’t end when we walk away. Between conversations, between days, we keep praying.
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Rejoice, but especially when God shows us how He is working in the world. It changes our focus from ‘me’ to ‘them’, a shift that brings peace to the heart and renewal to the mind. What if we shifted that to least-reached people groups?
The Circle of Light
Alice Statler is a retired Global Worker from Senegal. We recently filmed a story she shared about Adama Diouf. No spoiler alerts here. You’ll have to watch the video to see how years of prayer allowed other non-believers to see the “light” and how God protected Adama. This soul had a significant impact in Senegal right up to his death. It’s a reminder that prayer is more than words.
Prayer is God’s power released. It’s doing something, especially in situations when you can do nothing. It’s in the waiting.
Rodger and Lynne Schmidt prayed for the Makuwa people long before they moved to Mozambique Island:
“Rodger, a pastor friend from Maputo, and our sons visited for the first time in 2006. While we knew that the Makuwa Nahara were our target group of unreached people, we didn’t know where. When they drove onto the island for the first time, Rodger knew this was the place. The more he learned, the more convinced he was. Our pastor friends in Maputo thought we were a little bit crazy and a lot of living dangerously! We visited one to two times each year, praying each time for open doors.”
Because of prayer, believers live in three locations in the region: Lumbo, Jembessee, and Mozambique Island.
Prayer is not passive. It’s participation in God’s mission.
The Digo People in Kenya
In the late 1970s, people who lived near the Digo people in Kenya, then an unreached people group, gathered monthly to focus solely on the Digo.
“All of them were engaged in other ministries, but they began to beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers. Within three years, five missionary couples (three from WorldVenture) had arrived to pioneer work among this unreached people group. That monthly prayer meeting continued for years, and a regular request was that God would give the Kenyan church a vision for ministry to the unreached people groups within their own borders. Today, the Digo work is carried out entirely by Kenyan believers and continues to bear fruit,” wrote Garry Morgan, retired Global Worker.
For churches to participate in God’s global mission, make prayer a first step.
We hope that our words remind you that billions still don’t know Jesus, but you can be the first step in the sending process, the rope holders for the missionaries in the field, and encouragement to those our missionaries serve because you prayed!
Discussion:
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How can you adopt prayer as a calling?
- Join our monthly prayer time with Joshua Project here.
- Go to any number of resources online to find and adopt a least-reached people group to commit to pray monthly.
- Follow a Global Worker online and/or sign up to receive their newsletters.
- Pray for yourselves and for your church and community.
- Support us as an organization to send more workers to the field. Give here.
Other Stories:
- WorldVenture::In Review – Kenya
- After Senegal: The Joy Weaver
- The Church Sending Ordinary People
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