Curried Missionary Part 14

I'm nearing the end of my posts for this series, just two or three more after this and I would have shared the whole booklet with you.

This time I'm focussing on the age old prayer meeting. Do these even exist anymore? For the last two years I ran a youth prayer meeting specifically about missions in our home called YPFM (Youth Praying For Mission).

As much as it was SIM based we always prayed for any missionaries that we knew regardless of which missionary society they were with. Looking back I can honestly say that it was such a difficult job to get young people to come along and pray. One time we had 10 people there but on many occassions there were none. Why is this? Is it to do with the new generation, post-modern thinking or because of the busyness of life or is it to do with a lack of understanding or belief that prayer really does work? If you know, I'd love to hear from you!

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13

Pic: My Dad, Trevor Burns working in the Tribal Resource Centre with some local tribal Christians.

"Spiritual Encouragement

Prayer Meetings

A once a month prayer meeting specifically for missionaries can be very encouraging to them. As a person living overseas or in an isolated or difficult situation it's comforting to know that there are people at home keeping you in prayer regularly. Perhaps your church has several missionaries and so this would be one practical way of making sure that you are praying for them all regularly. Meeting together helps us to keep account with each other and is really helpful when you find it difficult to pray regulary on your own. Even meeting with one other person is a good way of keeping a promise to pray for a missionary.

These meetings need not be just for older people but for young adults too. Remember, missionaries have children and teenagers with requests as well.

It is important that at these prayer meetings there is some sort of system to ensure that you cover all the needs and praise points sent to you by your missionary. Prayer is both necessary and effective for a missionary to stay on the field.

James 5:16b “…The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”

A wonderful book that gives many good ideas and hints on effective prayer meetings and personal prayer practice is ‘What Happens When Women Pray’ by Evelyn Christensen. Even though the title suggests this books is mainly for women, prayer is for everyone and this book is applicable to men, women and children alike."