“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).
As we begin PreEaster Week of Prayer our focus will be on FWB International Missions. During April we will also continue our stretching exercises. The 2012 PreEaster Prayer theme is “Stretching Into Our World: Reaching the Unreached,” which correlates with this month’s study, “Stretching Ourselves…Into Our World.”
It wasn’t much of a stretch for me to find Scripture verses for this week. They will be familiar ones for most of us. In spite of this familiarity, we must ask ourselves, “How far are we stretching to reach the lost of the world?
Today’s verse coupled with the Great Commission gives us a great stretching plan. If you are new at exercising and/or implementing stretching into your routine, I suggest you start out slow. We can also apply this spiritually. Our Scripture gives us a starting point and we can choose to expand our reach. Begin with your community, then state, then country, and finally the world. The first two will help you loosen up. Just think how good you will feel as you reach beyond those boundaries into the “uttermost part of the earth.”
Each day will feature different areas to think and pray about. Today’s areas make up Central and South America. What do you know about Brazil, Panama, Uruguay, and Cuba?
Do you know anything about these fields and its workers? Depending on the answer to these questions, you may need to do the “missions stretch.” This involves some “knee exercises” and pushing ourselves to do more than our usual “Lord, bless our missionaries” prayer time.. Try doing some research about these fields and check out www.fwbgo.com for information about the workers.
Sue Winchester
Missouri
PRAY TOGETHER: DAY ONE focuses on these praise and prayer items from Central and South America.
BRAZIL: Praise the Lord for the 25 ordained national ministers
within our works. Pray for these pastors as they take on more
responsibility for the whole work; for efforts to form a national
association; for retired missionary Don Robirds’ health and
facility in Portuguese as he teaches in the Bible institute in
Campinas through June.
PANAMA: Praise the Lord for 50 years Free Will Baptists of work in
Panama, and for 11 churches and 11 ordained pastors. Praise Him
and pray for the two church-planting projects underway through
the joint efforts of a missionary family and a national pastor.
Praise Him for the goal of each church to plant another church
and pray for the success of these efforts. Pray for the ministry of
the Bible institute as they seek to meet the need for more trained
leaders. Praise Him for the six students who just graduated.
URUGUAY: We praise the Lord for the 50 years of ministry in this
country and five ordained pastors. Pray for them and their vision
for church expansion. Pray the pastor who wants to plant five
house churches in Montevideo will experience God’s blessing,
encouragement, and success. Pray for Neil and Mandi Morgan as
continue to adapt to the culture and language.
CUBA: Praise the Lord for 75 years of ministry in Cuba; for 49
churches and 74 meeting places; for 54 ordained pastors; and for
almost 9,000 in church attendance every Sunday. Pray for the
strong national church planting movement; and for the church in
the face of continuing oppression.
