Week of Prayer For North American Missions: Pray Specifically

Throughout Scripture we are commanded to pray. But oftentimes whenever we pray, we sound more like Ms. America than a genuine prayer warrior. We pray for world peace and for healing, but rarely do we ever pray with specificity. Now I know that God knows what we are talking about whenever we pray vaguely, but Scripture tells us to pray specifically. Perhaps the best example of this comes from the letters of Paul where he says that he is pray for certain persons and situations and he names them. Furthermore, Jesus prays for specific things (such as taking the cup away from Him in the garden).

With that in mind, I want us to pray for specific missionaries. The North American Mission Board have named a number of missionaries in whom they want us to pray specifically for. To see the pictures of these missionaries, follow the link:

:-- Troy and Jamae Smith of Portland, Ore., who work with people lost in a lifestyle of alcohol, drugs and other addictions through SAFE (Setting Addicts Free Eternally) Ministries, a Christ-centered recovery program.

-- Grace and John McGraw of Birmingham, Ala., who direct an after-school tutoring and GED program to inner-city children through M-Power Ministries.

-- Carlos and Cristina De La Barra of Louisville, Ky., who help start churches among the Hispanic population in Kentucky, many of whom are migrant workers.

-- Dwight and Judy Huffman of Cochrane, Canada, who assist in the church-planting work of 123 Southern Baptist churches located in an area of Canada equivalent in size to the lower 48 states.

-- Derek and Kimberly Spain of Lake Placid, N.Y. The site of the 1980 Winter Olympics is the backdrop for the Spains who do resort missions among tourists, workers and athletes residing in the area.

-- Mitch and Sandra Bryant of Fallon, Nev., associational missionaries in the non-church culture of west-central Nevada. The Lahontan Baptist Association covers 27,000 square miles through five counties and includes 16 churches and five missions.

-- Terrell and Vickie O’Brien of Lander, Wyo., Mission Service Corps missionaries serving Warm Valley Baptist Church in Pavillion. More churches are needed to reach people who live in isolated areas of Wyoming, the least populated state in the nation.

-- Jonathan Pettigrew of Beech Grove, Ind., who works with students attending Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis through a new Baptist Campus Ministry organization. He is the only campus minister at a college of more than 20,000 students.