40 Days of Prayer - Days 1-10

I'm catching the blog up on our 40 days of prayer. After today, the daily prayers will be posted, well, daily! These are being distributed by team member Richard Baker.

Day 1:
Today, please pray in general for this entire trip to come into focus. Help us to remember why we as a group are going – why we are Christians in the first place – why missions are important as part of our personal and corporate walk with Christ – and why we personally decided to go or not to go. These are all serious questions, and as we answer them, pray for God to reveal himself to us anew.

Day 2:
Today, lets pray for our Church - First United Methodist Brookhaven, MS. Our church has gone through ups and downs, and we need to pray for it to stay true to our mission in our community and around the world. Pray for our staff, our members, and for our Pastor. In my life, it seems the more I work to follow Christ, the harder it gets. It seems the more the devil fights. Pray for the devil to be removed from our lives and from our church. Pray that his power be bound. Pray for Christ to shine through. Let’s look at each of our own lives and pray that God is using us to further his Kingdom and that we are truly honoring him with our lives and with our service through our church. Pray for our church to be the light that God calls it to be to the Lost and the Broken. Pray that we choose to serve rather than always wanting to be served. Pray that God will open our eyes to needs and then give us the desire and the resources to meet them. Pray for healing of any broken relationships that are hindering God’s blessing on this church. I really believe that God has something special for this church and also believe that Missions is the key to where we go as a church.

Day 3:
Today lets pray for SIFAT. This organization that started 30 years ago is definitely changing the world for Christ. For those of you lucky enough to meet the Corson’s and to hear Mrs. Sarah speak on Sunday – WOW! She definitely makes you want to be involved with them. Let’s lift them up. Not just this mission we are going on, but all of their work. Their staff, their board members, their graduates, anyone associated with that organization. It is amazing to work with people who have given everything to serve God. Let’s just lift them up today.

Day 4:
Today Let’s pray for the exact mission we are working on. Let’s lift up the staff at this church. Let’s lift up the members. Let’s lift up the children.

The name of this project is Dulce Refugio..Sweet Refuge. We will be building the first floor of a three story building which will house classrooms for the children in that community. These children are in a program, partially funded by Compassion International with whom SIFAT is partnering. In this program the children can come to the church when not in their public school classes, have a meal, receive tutoring, and be nourished in a safe environment while their parents are away from home trying to earn enough to support their families. This is in an urban setting but is one of the poorest areas in all Quito.

This year, all teams will be working in new areas for SIFAT and with different churches....again, based on selected proposals from our 2008 Ecuadorian graduates. The construction project is at Villaflores in an Assembly of God church. Anita Flores, the pastor's wife, is the SIFAT graduate.

Day 5:
Today lets pray for the team from Tennessee and Oklahoma that will be joining us. As of today, they have about 15 people going as well. Together, God can work wonders. The leaders name is Nelson Wilson. They are from multiple churches around Tennessee, with the largest group being
from Nashville. They have traveled together as a group on mission teams for years. Lets lift up them for their logistics, and all of the things they will do to get there. They will primarily lead the Medical team and we will stay at the same hotel.
Let's pray for our team to be open to them and for them to be open to us.
Let's be able to show the world that our bond in Christ is able to overcome
small things, like where we are from and what we look like. Whether it is
Tennessee, Oklahoma, or Ecuador.

Day 6:
Today lets pray for The Leaders in Ecuador. Their president is Rafael Correa. Ask God to work in his life. For him to become a Christian, if he is not. For him to have wisdom and discernment. Pray for the National Assembly (similar to congress), and the National Court (similar to our Supreme Court). Again, ask God to convict them and lead to their salvation and for their actions to glorify him.
Pray for the people of the country. The country has approximately 13 million people, has a literacy rate of 93 percent and is roughly the size of the state of Nevada. Quito is the capital and the second largest city with approximately 1.5 million residents.

Day 7:
Today lets pray for our Pastor, Wayne Webster. We are thrilled to have Wayne reappointed to our church for another year and we need to lift him up. We know that Wayne has had numerous personal issues dealing with the health of his family, and has continued to serve and to seek God’s will for our church. Even though he is not traveling with us on this trip – he is definitely still the leader of our church and we need to lift him up.

Day 8:
Today lets pray for Mike, Jennifer, and Alex Calhoun.
-Jennifer is our mission coordinator for the church and our trip leader. It is an incredible undertaking to lead a group on a trip such as this and lets pray for her to have wisdom and discernment and patience (even though we don't have to try to test it! Ha). She has to handle hundreds of details that most of us will never see. Jennifer will also be the team photographer. All of us were moved last year by her talent and were amazed to see how photos can tell a story sometimes better than words can. Lets pray for her.
-Mike has to live with Jennifer through this and lets pray for him. Mike has committed his life to service in our church. He has also been our mission coordinator and along with Alton and Greg, has served on multiple mission teams over the years. He has also served in numerous capacities and on teams that have worked with SIFAT. He has served for probably the last 10-12
years with our youth, with 4 of them being on staff at our church. He has a large task of handling a cross cultural teenage only group for the first time and lets pray for God to use him to reach these teenagers in a way that no one else has.
-And Alex has to live with both of them. Lets lift Alex up as one of only three remaining youth going with our team. This will be Alex's second year in a row to travel internationally and she will be surrounded by students wanting a glimpse of her life in the US. Pray for God to give her the spirit to represent Christ and the courage to share her faith.

Day 9:
Today lets pray for Greg and Katie Howell.
-Greg was our trip leader last year and has been an instrumental force in the revival of missions in our church. His passion and leadership have touched us all. He is also traveling on multiple other trips this year, including back to Nicaragua.
-Also lift up Katie. She has just returned from a trip and will be going back with us. It is such an encouragement to see a young lady who gets such joy from sharing God’s love.
-Let’s don’t forget to also lift up Luke and Amye who aren’t able to go this year, but who we hope can make it with us next year.
Obviously this whole family just loves God and wants to share his message of salvation to the world. Lets pray for them and ask God to continue to keep that passion alive and to bless them in their efforts.

Day 10:
Today lets pray for Bethany Piper and her family.

Bethany is a great addition to our traveling team. Her enthusiasm is contagious. Maybe next year, her husband Michael will be able to travel with us as well. But there is no doubt that he has been a big part of our preparation and planning for this trip and is a vital part of our overall church effort. We are so glad to have them back in our church family (They never really left) after living away for a few years. This trip is just one of many mission minded activities that they are active in. Lift up their two children, Colt and Gracie as well. They won’t like mom being gone for that long. So they are giving as well for this mission to be successful. It is amazing and humbling when you really think about how many people really are involved or touched by this trip. It is a reminder of how fast and how far we can spread God’s love when we choose to. He can and WILL use each of us in ways that we can’t even imagine if we will just let him.