Today marks a significant transition in our journey. Over the past 5 1/2 weeks we have gotten a "fly-over" view of the world and a quick "boat-level" view of the continents. Hopefully the previous 39 days were helpful to you in establishing the habit of daily prayer for the nations, beneficial in familiarizing you with the approach of Operation World, and educational in helping you learn some missions "lingo".
Beginning today, we're taking an in-depth look at each country (defined as political entities) in the world. What should you expect? I can guarantee that as you participate fully in this prayer journey, you will be encouraged and challenged, excited and overwhelmed - often in the same day. You will rejoice and you will weep. You will ask "Why?" and you will say "Wow!". If you listen with your heart, you will definitely hear the wind of the Spirit blowing across the world. And maybe, just maybe, you will hear God's call in some specific way to pray regularly, give sacrificially, or go radically to one of these countries - and you will respond as Isaiah: "Here I am, send me."
Our prayer time together may look a little different from this point forward. We will have to cover a lot more ground on a given day by the very nature of the way Operation World is structured (covering all topics in a day or two instead of having several days for them). As a result, my prayers may reflect certain emphases God has put on my own heart. As I noted in the introductory blog post for this journey, the prayers I write here will be the prayers I've prayed. This is where our group approach can be truly beneficial. I strongly urge you to post your own prayers or at least a sentence or two stating what God impressed on your heart. We have much to learn from each other!
Along those lines -- sometimes our prayer journey will have a special "guest" - a prayer video from PrayerCast or, on occasion, someone with firsthand knowledge of the country we are praying for. [Side note: If you live in or have served in a specific country, please let me know in a private message or email. I would be very interested in considering you for a future guest post.] As with my prayers, these videos/guest posts are not to take the place of our own personal prayer times for the country of the day. Instead, they are to supplement the material in Operation World, to help it come "alive" to us.
Please read "Afghanistan" on pages 89-93, then return here to watch the PrayerCast video for Afghanistan. This will serve as our prayer together for this first day of prayer for Afghanistan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o584szozc74&feature=player_embedded
1 comment:
Powerful video! Thank you for showing.
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