Sometimes the shine wears off the new car before you can even get it off the lot. That’s kind of the way Michelle and I are feeling right now as we see our daughter deal more with the impending reality that we are weeks away from leaving the only life she’s ever known in her nearly seven years of existence.

Until now she’s been torn between a desire to go and be a part of a really cool culture overseas and staying in Tennessee and returning to a school she loves, with friends she loves (and who love her) and living in a house she loves with a tree she loves to climb. Last Saturday was pretty rough for her, making it rough on all of us. I think reality kind of hit – hard. There’s been a lot more talk about missing “my school” and other things. Hey, I can’t blame her. I’m not excited about the unknown too much myself. So with the biggest change in our family’s life five weeks away, As a followup to part one of praying for overseas Christian workers, I offer the following ways to pray for our daughter (and I think some of these are excellent suggestions for how you can pray for your kids as well as other people’s children.

If you REALLY, REALLY want to minister to families in prayer, establish some pray-ers who will pray for children exclusively BY NAME (also called Third Culture Kids – TCK). Pray:

1. For good national friends
2. For cultural adjustment and language learning
3. For adjustment in dramatically different type of school situations
4. For a love for the people among whom they live
5. For encouragement in grieving over leaving family
6. For adjustments reentering US culture when families return for periodic furloughs (this is an especially important prayer as many leave the States too young to know their grandparents).
7. That they will know Christ as Savior early in life (Psalm 63:1; 2 Timothy 3:15)
8. That they will be caught when guilty (Psalm 119:67; 71; 75)
9. That they will have a hatred for sin (Psalm 97:10-11; Romans 12:9)
10. That they will be protected from the evil one in each area of their lives: spirit, soul and body (Matthew 6.13; John 17:15; 2 Corinthians 10:5b; 1 Corinthians 6:19; Revelation 12:11)
11. That they will have a responsible attitude in all their personal relationships (Esther 10:3; Daniel 6:3)
12. That they will desire the right kind of friends and be protected from the wrong friends (Proverbs 1:10,11,15; 1 Corinthians 15:33; Proverbs 22-24-25)
13. That they will respect those in authority over them: Parents – Ephesians 6:1-3, Spiritual leaders – Hebrews 13:17, Government Officials – Romans 13:1, Employers – Ephesians 6:5-8
14. That they will be kept from the wrong mate and saved for the right one (2 Corinthians 6:14-17)
15. That they, as well as those they marry, will be kept pure until marriage (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)
16. That they will learn to totally submit to God and actively resist Satan in all circumstances (James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:6-9)
17. That they will be single-hearted, willing to be sold out to Jesus Christ (Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 6:33)
18. That they will be hedged in so they cannot find their way to wrong people or places and that the wrong people cannot find their way to them (Hosea 2:6; Ezekiel 22:30)

The van stopped next to a small, overgrown lot full of debris that was once a building. More specifically it was a church building lay to waste.

“A few years ago the local witch doctor and Catholic priest mobilized their people to run the Christians off and burn out the church,” the worker told a group of teenagers on a prayerwalking trip to Guatemala. “They haven’t been back.”

The group quickly asked if they could get out and pray on the lot. Boldly – while curious then increasingly agitated neighbors began to congregate – the teenagers asked God to embolden the displaced Believers and asked God to restore the church to that very location. Prayer as a mission strategy takes the pray-er into the realms of spiritual warfare and prayer is the strategy that breaks the power of Satan in the world. Three years after standing among the rubble, that congregation was standing in a new building worshiping God once again.

Through my travels in more than 26 countries I’ve seen Christian workers who were average people yet were passionate about prayer for the people to whom God sent them. I was once in the high mountains of Bolivia and we got caught in a torrential rain. We were 4-wheeling it in an area where there were barely roads and had several river crossings. Literally, the water was up to the windows of the Land Cruiser. My worker friend prayed before every crossing asking for God’s protection and thanking Him for His mercy in allowing us to reach villages with the gospel. I saw another friend in Spain praising God for the single response card he’d received out of the thousands he sent asking if anyone would be interested in studying the Bible. Another friend in Honduras sobbed in prayer as tears soaked the name cards of young men in prison who were all hardcore gang members. Most would die before they reached 25. Many others had already died violent deaths. She begged God to allow them the opportunity to hear about Christ before it was too late.

So, God hasn’t called you to go over sees as a worker but you can be effectively involved in reaching the nations for Christ through prayer. So, how do you pray for missions and the workers who go out? I can tell you praying “God bless all the missionaries” IS NOT and effective prayer.

I’ll offer two posts on prayer focused toward reaching the nations for Christ. The first will be how to pray for “workers” and the second how to pray for the work.

AND BY THE WAY, THESE DAYS WE TRY TO AVOID THE “M” WORD SIMPLY BECAUSE THERE ARE SO MANY AREAS OF THE WORLD WHERE THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED AND THEIR PRESENCE AS “Ms” SIGNIFICANTLY JEPARDIZES THEIR SAFETY AND/OR THE SAFETY OF THE NATIONALS WITH WHOM THEY WORK.

How to pray for workers – Pray specifically:
1. by name that each worker will grow in the fruit of the spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), but especially for love (for God, for spouses, team members, people group)
2. by name that each worker will grow in each of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-11) but especially for purity in heart (5:8).
3. For language learning and the ability to speak clearly
4. For the reinforcement of God’s cross-cultural calling on the days when they are discouraged
5. That God would encourage their spirits when there is no response to the Gospel
6. For physical protection as many are located in extremely dangerous places or live in extremely unsafe locations where driving itself is a life-threatening endeavor.
7. For unity within their families
8. That God will grant them close personal relationships with nationals where they live
9. For grandparents as goodbyes are said and families separate (and for children as grandparents go overseas).
10. For spiritual protection as many of the cultures where workers and their families live are permeated with spiritual evil.

Yep, how to kill and dress a chicken is one of the “recreation” classes being offered in about a week or so. Not everybody here is going to a place where there is a KFC. Funny thing is the list of names signed up is quite extensive. Lots of folks going to the bush in Africa or other places. Confession….I doubt I’ll be killing many chickens in the UK but I do have a morbid curiosity so will probably check that out. You never know. The dollar keeps getting weaker against the pound we may be raising chickens and the class may come in handy.

…..I’d have been in real trouble. For some reason – probably bordom – I started terrorizing pigs in other countries while traveling. The picture was taken was way up in the Andes Mountains in Peru. I was on assignment with a photographer covering a well-drilling project. The guys drilling the well had a mechanical problem that shut things down for an hour or so. I wandered a short ways over and started bullying the pig. He turned and walked away and must have forgotten about me (I don’t think pigs have much longterm memory). I snuck up, grabbed its tail and the thing jumped about two feet straight in the air. It hit the ground, turned and charged me. I just escaped beyond the length of its rope tether before it would have done whatever irate pigs do to people like me. His memory improved. He didn’t take his eyes off me again!

It was hot. I was tired and thirsty. My back hurt and legs ached. I really wasn’t interested in easing into a conversation about Jesus being the Way, the Truth and Life so I walked up to the two guys sliding rails on skateboards and blurted out, “Hey, we’re out talking to people about God and were interested in what you guys thought about the topic.”

Wow. I got a load coming back. One guy totally rejected any idea of God as Being and the other said he’d been so burned by religion that he didn’t have an interest. It turned into a 20 minute conversation about spiritual things. Major eye opener.

Have you ever gone out street witnessing? To me it is the equivalent of cold calling or telemarketing. I do not enjoy it, or at least didn’t before yesterday. Too often many “evangelists” lay it on the unsuspecting subject pretty heavy then rush to the “If you were to die today do you know where you’d spend eternity?” It communicates “I see you as a person to be converted.” It is a conversation killer. I once did frequent door to door evangelism with a guy who would not leave the doorstep until he got a decision from the people to whom we were talking. Totally turned me off to “tract” witnessing.

But yesterday I learned a few things.

First, just jump in and say you’re asking about God. Heck, people talk about sports, politics, the economy, why not talk about God. Just be ready for that conversation to go anywhere.

Second, truly be interested in a conversation. I learned a lot from the skateboarders about their worldview and where they are spiritually. They didn’t “pray to receive Christ” but we had a good conversation and they got to hear the Gospel as we both respectfully communicated our views on things.

Third, and this is a biggie, it isn’t my job to convert people. In other words, their salvation isn’t contingent upon me. It is contingent upon the Gospel. It is my responsibility to clearly communicate that God created, man sinned and separated himself from God, God is holy and has to punish sin, man can’t do anything to find his way back to God and lives under a death sentence, God loves His creation and wants to save humans so He sent Jesus to take the punishment due each person so that whoever believes in their heart and confesses with their mouths that Jesus is Lord they will be forgiven of their sin and their relationship – the relationship God intended man to have with Him – will be restored. Too often, I think preachers put a guilt trip on people that when witnessing we’ve got to “close the deal.” Wrong! The Holy Spirit is the deal closer. He is the One who saves, who grants faith and brings people into God’s Kingdom. Nobody gets saved without the preaching of the Gospel (my job), but salvation is of the Lord!

Fourth, there is nothing magical about some “sinners prayer.” You can’t find one in the Bible. Salvation is not getting somebody to pray a prayer. Salvation comes through belief (faith) that Jesus is who He said He is (God) and that it is His death and resurrection that makes salvation possible. Believe it and confess it!

Finally, I learned not to see people as targets to convert but people whom we should engage in genuine conversation. I found releasing my felt need to “close the deal” totally released all the pressure to be perfect in my presentation. It is easier to love people when you want to talk with them rather than talk at them.