Prayer matters. It is powerful. When we visit churches, families, and individual people to tell them about our ministry, people seem to offer prayer as the easy way out- like the real commitment to this ministry is the financial one, and if they can’t manage that then then can “at least” be in prayer. There are days when this feeling sinks into my own heart as well.
Then God reminds us of all He has done to provide for us- in ways that had nothing to do with the money in our account.
Since being in Wisconsin, we have seen God provide for every need, and often in ways that had nothing to do with the efforts we were expending to attempt to meet that need ourselves. From support from people we’ve never met to places to stay and vehicles freely offered, God has made it clear that we are where He wants us and we are moving forward at the speed He has designated. This is really encouraging, since this particular phase of life has lasted longer than we anticipated!
While financial support is something we will need to get to the field and an important opportunity for many people (including us!) to demonstrate faith in a God who can and does provide for all our needs, prayer is infinitely greater because it is connecting with the source! We have a Father who delights in showing his love to us, who shows us over and over again that He is the one guiding this process- the timing and the formation of this team is in His hands and not our own. Prayer is not a poor-man’s option for supporting missionaries. Most of the times that God has provided for our “big” needs have not come from our finances, but by outside provision that has been the result of much prayer!
We have a God who values communication and that is, after all, the reason we are going to Papua New Guinea in the first place. The message of hope He offers, the plan of rescue that He has provided, is one that He wants everyone to know about- including the people group we will be ministering in. So when you offer to pray for that ministry, know that it is with sincerely grateful hearts that we accept that offer; not as a compromise given in lieu of cash, but as a gift given by one who has tasted the sweetness of salvation and longs to see it passed on to those who have never had the chance to learn of it.
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