When the Global Village Prays
When pioneer missionary Harmon Schmelzenbach made his transoceanic voyage to take the gospel to Africa, he did not have multiple avenues of instant communication to send back prayer requests and family news. Some needs couldn’t wait for the time it would take for a letter to cross the miles. Instead, he had to depend on prayer because only God could provide the timely nudging.
Today, while missionaries are grateful for Skype, email, and other instant forms of communication, they will tell you that no technological advancement improves upon what God can do through the prayers of His people. When God delivers His prayer list to people who are open to His prompts, the results include encouragement, growth, and resources in many forms. Following are a few stories:
Just Ask
In 2002, Randy and Judy Owens were serving as missionaries in the African nation of Senegal. One morning, Judy sat with her open Bible and a heavy heart. She was thinking about the three-week vacation in the U.S. they had recently completed. They were grateful for being able to see a son and a daughter at two different Nazarene colleges as well as connecting with other family members. However, time with oldest son, Nate, was almost non-existent. Their travel schedule plus Nate’s work schedule had complicated what they hoped would be quality time. With Christmas coming, Judy knew that Nate was an impossible 4,000-plus miles away. In the heaviness of that moment, she felt God’s gentle nudge, “Why don’t you ask me for this?”
Could she really ask for a way to bring Nate home for Christmas? She offered her prayer not by demand but out of obedience. A week later the Owens received $800 from their LINKS district. A few days later, another missionary couple from another organization presented them with a $500 check. They explained that they had prayed about giving this gift and suggested the Owens use the money to bring Nate home for Christmas. There it was. Enough to bring Nate home.
While time with Nate is a Christmas memory to cherish, it is also how their trust in God grew that stays with them to this day. Judy learned a lesson she would continue to apply: before she articulated her prayer, God was already providing the resources.
From Fiji
Daniel Latu stood in the barely-standing house-church located in one of the squatter settlements of Fiji. As district Nazarene Missions International (NMI) president, he had been sharing global missionary needs throughout the district. However, seeing the challenges of these people, he admits he hesitated. He came to share that God gives each a part in His vision to reach the world with the good news of the gospel.
Then Daniel presented a prayer request card from Nazarene brothers and sisters from the Africa Region that he had picked up at the 2013 General Assembly. Immediately, the faces surrounding him brightened with excitement that humbled him. This was something they could do. The head of the house burst into a passionate prayer for their African “family,” and Daniel knew that the global circle of prayer grew one house-church larger.
From South Africa
Lola Brickey knows how vital the global prayer circle is. As Global NMI director, she enjoys collecting evidence that demonstrates how the global circle works. This recent story about meeting needs of the Nazarene Theological College in Muldersdrift, South Africa, demonstrates how God’s answers come from obedience. When missionary Cheri Kommel made her usual deputation presentation at the Wellsburg, West Virginia, Church of the Nazarene, all one man heard was that there were pastors in training who needed Bibles.
He thought about the Bible he had in his hand and the others scattered around the house. How could a man called of God in South Africa prepare without a Bible? He knew what God wanted him to do and wrote a check that night for $1,000. A pastor heard the same presentation and a completely different need. He heard that there was a shortage of people to train pastors who could plant churches. He offered several weeks of his upcoming sabbatical to participate in training pastors.
The circle kept going when a sister church heard about the pastor using sabbatical time to train future pastors in Africa. They collected money to pay airfare for the pastor and his wife. The circle of prayer always widens when people obey God’s nudge.
In Times of Crisis
Mark and Linda Louw were in their first missionary assignment to Africa’s Côte d'Ivoire. It was more tumultuous than they had anticipated. During their five-year time in the once-stable West African country, they had to evacuate three times as an erratic civil war dragged on. Those monitoring the safety level for the school where missionary children attended would close school as needed using the code word “snow day.”
On one of those “snow days” gun violence was especially close to where the Louws lived. Rebels burned tires on a street by their house. Angry mobs swarmed the dirt road and banged on their gates, yelling. The Louw family huddled inside trying to keep calm by singing songs. It was later in the day that Linda saw the message from one of her long-distance friends who kept in touch. “Are you okay?” the message read.
Her friend had been unable to sleep during the night and felt impressed to use the time to pray for them.
All night, Linda thought. Her friend’s prayers had covered that especially tense time. Linda realized in a fresh way that no matter how fast technology is, God’s call will be always be more efficient. During one of the evacuations, Linda emailed a prayer partner who had become an amazing fountain of encouragement and strength. She wrote about how she longed to return to familiar surroundings, how she missed her ministry associates who had been sent in various directions, and how difficult it was to keep up with work during displacement.
She expected an empathetic response. Instead, she received a reality check. Was she hungry? Had she been cast out on the streets? Were there people trying to support her where she was? Were her children mistreated? The words became God’s reprimand to help her change her focus. After all, Linda had asked God to help her meet the demands of this complicated time. That’s the prayer God had been answering.
Her prayer partner had delivered the wake-up call God knew she needed. LINKS offers personal connections between missionaries and Nazarenes around the world. Missionaries are assigned to districts and, then connected to local churches. This gives each church an opportunity to become personally acquainted with the missionary family and their field of service. These connections offer missionaries encouragement as they serve far from home and the local church feels a deeper sense of involvement in God’s global mission.
Monthly Prayer
Nothing ramps up mission interest in a church more than when one of their own joins a missionary endeavor. When Jonathan Phillips answered God’s call to serve in Eastern Europe through Mission Corps, his home church did more than promise support. They formed a group to meet monthly to pray for Jonathan and the Church of the Nazarene in Romania.
They keep Jonathan’s needs before the church. When necessary, they do more than pray. They become the answer God sends as they raise money to provide resources that Mission Corps cannot address. It’s a partnership forged by prayer.
An Icy Answer
When a gift box comes to the field from any church or individual, it is a welcome event among missionaries. Scott and Gail Dooley serve in Papua New Guinea, where Scott is a physician. Scott remembers when one box came with a specific kind of sutures for the hospital on the very day they had run out of them. Who knew?
The memory that really warms their hearts involves a box that didn’t come to them. One of the Dooley daughters had been wishing for an icy drink endearingly called a “slushie,” something completely non-existent in Papua New Guinea. Gail told her daughter to pray about it. She went on to explain that sometimes God provides something we want and other times He gives the strength to do without. Gail forgot about this exchange until another missionary family brought the Dooleys an item that had come in one of their boxes. “I thought your girls would like it better.” It was the makings for the fruity, crushed ice drink Gail’s daughter had asked God for. It was like a hug from God.
Gail knew that even the idea to send the make-your-own icy drink came from God. It answered a deeper prayer from her mother’s heart because it increased the faith of her daughter.
Prayer crosses miles and time zones like nothing else. Though every method of communication is a helpful tool to share information about needs as well as God’s answers, nothing will ever improve on the work of prayer. Paul depended on the prayers of the early church. So has every church planter, missionary, and teacher since. This is good news for every Christian who wants to support God’s mission to the world.
It is even better news for every missionary who has answered God’s call to serve in some remote village or in some modern city.
We can always do more to support our missionaries, but we must never do less than pray.
When everyone joins the global circle to wrap every missionary, preaching point, new believer, and indigenous leader in prayer, answers will come because nothing trumps prayer.
All funds are in USD.
Debbie Salter Goodwin is a freelance writer from Beaverton, Oregon. She participates in the global prayer circle as she serves with her pastor husband at Portland First Church of the Nazarene.
Please note: All facts, figures, and titles were accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of original publication but may have since changed.
