August 01, 1986 by Dorothy Klinefelter

Missionaries who have been overseas say that mail comes regularly for the first six months or so but then begins to drop off dramatically.
This lapse is not only discouraging, it causes many to wonder about their prayer support.
Grace Chapel has an effective program to encourage its members to get to know and to write to their missionaries...

In the back of Grace Chapel, several brightly colored paper folders are spread out on a table. Each one has a missionary's or missionary family's name printed in bold type across the cover.

The folder I have is for Ernie and Mary Hickman in Spain. A pocket on the inside of the cover contains recent letters the l tickmans have sent. On the right, a plastic jacketed sheet of black paper sets off pictures of the Hickanans as well as an information sheet with their address, birthdays, and a brief summary of their ministry. Turn the page and the back side gives a more detailed account of the I lickman's ministry as well as some quotes, something of the history of their mission in that location, development of the ministry so far, background information, as well as plans for the future.

A second plastic jacketed sheet has a (hand drawn) map of Spain, basic statistics (area, population, peoples, religions, etc information found in Johnstone's Operation World), and a series of prayer requests for the county.

The back of the sheet has a day byday prayer guide. Prayer suggestions include spiritual, physical, and emotional needs as well as praise items.

In the back pocket there is a pre addressed aerogrmn letter all ready to go. Alt it needs is something in it. A let. Icr. Something from you or me ... or from whoever will take the few minutes it takes to let the l lickmans know we're thinking of them.

Want to write but don't know how? There are even some suggestions on how to write your letter. It doesn't have to be fancy. Missionaries even like to hear about such mundane things as the weather back home.  It's nice to know thcre is a home!

"Please return this package upon your, arrival at Grace Chapel next Sunday morning," the instructions conclude. And "remember to pick up a different package before you leave on the same morning,"A 3 by 5 card, much like a standard library card has space for the date, and the name and phone number of the person who has checked out the folder.
Total God for the packet? Less than $2. Putting them together does't have to be difficult. Sunday School classes could help draw the maps, look up statistics, and put the folders together. In. formation is readily available not only from the missionaries, but from MARC's Unreached Peoples books and Patrick Johnstone's Operation World (new edition available next month through Mission Frontiers 4 ook for it on the hack cover).

We think this is a wonderful idea for the missionaries who receive the letters and those who get to write diem ...  an inspiration to pray and to enjoy rich friendship.

God Calls You to Prayer

Chapter 1 of Touch the World Through Prayer

Can you believe it? Even before it went to press, 70,000 copies of this truly remarkable book were bought by a number of mission agencies (including the USCWM). That dramatically lowered the price. While they last, people will be buying extra copies for friends, especially at this very low price! (Seethe order page.) Like Andrew Murray, the famous devotional writer of almost a century ago, Wesley Duewel is a missionary statesman. His book is written out of years of first hand experience in intercessory prayer. Taste the first chapter here!God has a wonderful plan by which you can have worldwide influence. This plan is not just for a chosen few. It is for you. Let me tell you about it.

Through prayer you can stand beside Billy Graham as he preaches in crusades anywhere in the world. You can strengthen him, bless him, lift him up at the very moment he is bringing the Good News to thousands. Through prayer you can stand beside Luis Palau in his Latin American crusades, Through prayer you can stand beside George Beverly Shea as he sings the glorious gospel.
Through prayer you can sccomp.srsy my missionary to remote reaches of the earth. Through prayer you can walk through crowded bazaars, minister in steaming jungles, feed millions of starving men, women, and children, hungry for bread for their bodies and for the Bread of Life.

Through prayer you can contribute to the ministry of any pastor or evangelist in a church or gospel hall anywhere in the world. Many a time I have felt that through prayer! was at she side of some man or woman of God.

Through prayer you can sake a suffering infant its your arms. Through prayer you can touch a fevered brow in any hospital, mediating the healing love of Jesus.

God has given you a way to make your presence count, a way to be a true partner in His kingdoms work, if you really want to be.

True, there have been outstanding praying saints over the Centuries By no means do we forget them or the trernend ores history changing role they played through prayer Thank God for James, the half brother of Jesus, who spent the latter years of his life praying for the churches God was raising up. When he died and his body was prepared for burial, it was found that his knees wereso calloused frssm hours and hours of kneeling that they at rssost rescsssbled the knees if a camel. He became known as "Camel knees." Thank God for Savonarola in fifteenth century Italy, who prayed down revival in that corrupt age. Thank God for Brainerd, missionary to the American Indians, and his life of prayer sand tears. Thank God for ''Praying Hyde," the Missionary to India, who was perhaps the greatest prayer warrior of this century. But God does, it depend solely on a few staunch saints. It has planned for ordinary Christians like you arid me to become mighty in prayer for the blessing and salvation of people and the reaping of Christ's harvest among the nations today.

There is no reason in the world why you cannot become so steadfast in your personal prayer life that Christ will count on you to help build His church and advance His kingdom in many pasts of the world. Beginning with your family, your church, and your community, you cars play a significant part through normal daily prayer that will make a difference, even in distant lands.

Again and again God has used persons like you and me to help Him meet special emergency prayer needs on a particular day or occasion. When He calls on someone for this special and temporary role, He usually selects one of His children who has been praying faithfully and consistently.

You don't have to spend how's each day to qualify for Grid's prayer army. Thank God for those who n and do pray like that. But He knows the limitations of your own situation, your schedule, your home and employment responsibilities. His plots is intended to add a whole new dimension to Your prayer life. Whether you are a business executive or a housewife, a factory worker or a strident, a layman or a minister of the gospel God desires for you to begin a thrillingly new and more effective life of prayer.

I do first claim to have a magic formula to transform you I ito a spiritual giant overnight. but I do want to point out the possibilities of this simple plans as outlined in the Bible. You can have new power and effectiveness in prayer, You can play a significant part in Christ's plan. You can he the praying person God wants you to heyou can, if you will. Will you try?

God's Wonderful Plan for You

God has great expectations for you and me. He has every right. The average person has more ability to scstlueisce ushers today than ever before. This is especially true for Christians. Billy Graham has said he would rather be alive today than to have lived when Jesus was on earth, I folly agree. The average Christian can have a greater influence for God than the average Christian of any previous generation.

This is an exciting time in our history. More believers are living today than at any other time. Christ's church has spread into more areas of the world, praises God each week in more languages, aad is witnessing to or is in contact with more people than ever before. There are more gospel workers, more local churches, more Bible training institutions, more Christian organizations, and more missionary   societies.

Through the tremendous media of radio, television, and literature we have the facilities to speed up God's work beyond anything we have yet known We can reach the farthest nations more quickly, we can present the gospel in more languages, and we have the means to recruit and guide prayer Far the whole world more efficiently. We can reach our world, if we will. The greatest lack today is not people or funds. The greatest need is prayer. Without increasing the number of Christian workers or their financial support, we could see multiplied results if we would only multiply prayer.

Prayer is the greatest resource of the church. It is the "The greatest lack today is not people or funds. The greatest need is prayer. . we could see multiplied results if we would only multiply prayer.

most effective means of preparing the way of the Lord available to its as Christians today. You yourself can influence more people for God and have a greater role in advancing  Christ's cause by prayer than in any other way. It is not the only thing you most do, but it is the greatest thing you cats do. It has often been said,

The Devil trembles when he tees God's weakest child upon his knees.

If that is true, think what could happen every Christian really took his prayer role seriously and began to pray regularly ,ad specifically, uniting with thousands or millions if others, all praying for the same priority needs around the Co rid. Are you willing to he a part of such a prayer army.

The Urgency of Your Prayer Now

God's timetable of the ssges may lie rapidly nearing the countdown toward Christ's return. God's great plan, for which lie created the world and scan, has been delayed and frustrated by the long reign of sin and Satan since Adam's fall. But according to the Bible, the delay of Christ's return is not so much because God is patiently waiting for the world to repent as because He is patiently waiting for us to lead them to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). This is further emphasized by the fact that, of all the conditions and signs that most precede Christ's coming, perhaps only one remains to be fulfilled: "This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testiuissns to all nations, and then the end will come" (matt, 24.14)

We do not know what in God's view constitutes ,adequate witness to the comparatively unreached nations, but by means of radio we are today able to beam the gospel message to practically every corner of the earth. Milliorsa unreaclsed by resident missionaries have access to the gospel through missionary radio. Virtually every  province  and village in China has been covered in swat' Millions of others in Russia. Albania, and the Muslim     lands are known to be listening to Christian messages, broadcast in their own language or in one that may be understood in part.

It is always far more effective when people can hear the gospel in their mother tongue. Although it has been reliably estimated that 95 percent of the people of the world now have available to them same portion of the Scripture printed in a language known to them, may God speed the efforts of those giving their lives to completing the task of putting Scripture into all remaining dialects and languages. In addition, Gospel Recordings reports that Christian music has beets recorded in more than 4.362 of these dialects and languages.

Delivering the gospel message to every human being is not enough, however. The crucial factor is assuring that the message will be understood and accepted. The Holy Spirit is given as God's people ask Luke 11:13). Undoubtedly this is not only true when we ask for ourselves, but also when we ask for others. So the effectiveness of present mission efforts depends on our prayer, enabling the Holy Spirit to work in power.

In other words, the key to world evangelization, thus clearing the way for Christ's return, maybe your prayer and mine. If the main delaying factor is lack of prayer, do not be surprised if God makes special provision for prayer to he more effective today than ever before.