How to pray for missionaries?
“Now I beseech you,
brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit,
that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.” Romans 15:30
In his letters, Paul asked for prayer and gave specific
prayer requests. Paul knew prayer was
important to his missionary journey.
As a prayer partner with those who are called to go, you too
will have an impact that can reach around the world.
Missionaries deal with many of the same stresses you face in
life such as overwhelming workloads, relational conflicts and financial
uncertainties. Often, however, missionaries struggle with these issues alone, without
the support of other Christians. Living and working cross-culturally adds an
additional element that can challenge their emotional, spiritual and physical
vitality.
There are so many different areas that are important. Spiritual, physical, emotional, financial
needs, open doors, boldness, more laborers, etc.
Let me focus today on just a couple.
Physical issues/Language issues.
Have you ever thought about the physical toll on a
missionary? We eat food on a daily basis
that we are not used to. Sure, we grow
to love the local dishes, but sometimes there are effects on our bodies. There are cultural differences when it comes
to the preparing of food and food itself.
It is not always easy finding the balance. We, as missionaries, must embrace the culture
and the favorite local dishes to learn and be a part of their culture. We also must protect our health and our
children’s health. Is it always easy to
find that balance? No, it isn’t.
What about the water?
Even though missionaries try to be careful, there are issues that we go
through because of the water. Speaking
with a local doctor recently and after he checked our results, he informed us
that we have a problem with parasites. Something
to take into account, we minister in a country where things are much better
than other countries. What about
missionaries that are ministering in areas where sicknesses are even more of an
issue? Do we need you to pray for
us? Yes, we do.
The city we are working in is known for outbreaks of Zika
and Dengue. Do we need you to pray for
our health? Of course, we do.
How many missionaries have struggled with serious health
issues? Many. We need good health to be more effective on
the mission field. Without the health
that we need, it is difficult to undertake the many responsibilities that we
have on the mission field.
Have you ever thought about the language struggles? Have you ever considered what it is like to preach
every message in your second language? A language
that you did not grow up speaking. Have
you ever thought about performing a wedding in a second language? What about a funeral?
Imagine this scenario.
A couple calls you and you know they are quite upset, but you don’t
really know exactly why. You set up a
time to meet with them. They come in and
they are quite frantic. The lady is
going 100 miles an hour explaining her side.
Then he starts explaining his side.
They begin to interrupt each other and continue talking over each
other. What is going through a missionary’s
mind? Well, we are hoping we understand
everything correctly. Why? Because we are working and counseling in our
second language? Please remember
everything we do is in our second language.
This is not our first language. What
if we don’t understand everything correctly?
Could we make a mistake with our counsel if we don’t understand
correctly? What if we misunderstand an
important issue and then give counsel based on something we misunderstand? Instead of helping, we could actually hurt
the situation. Missionaries must get the
language. To effectively reach the
people, we must be able to understand them in their language, and they must be
able to understand us.
We need your prayers; faithfully, earnestly,
wholeheartedly.
These are just a couple of examples.
Take care! Thank you
for your prayers.
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