How to Pray for Missionaries 1st post

To enable you to pray more intelligently for all missionaries is the goal in this series of "How to Pray for Missionaries" posts that I plan to post over the next few weeks. The idea for this series came from another missionary who had a pamphlet on his table entitled, "How to Pray for Missionaries." And wouldn't you know it: I've forgotten my fellow missionary's name.

My attention was immediately drawn to his first prayer request: Love for God. You may be surprised to hear that it is possible for missionaries to quit even attempting to love God and yet stay on the field indefinitely. It is likely that missionaries for whom you will pray today are struggling to love God as they serve in isolation and danger, and yet missionaries find it hard to say, "Pray for me; I don't love God anymore."

There are several reasons that missionaries struggle to love God. The first I call "The Martha Complex;" that is, being very busy working for God and forgetting that we ought to be sitting at His feet learning from Him, adoring Him, and praising Him. Missionaries can so busy preaching, teaching, giving, cleaning, confronting, and translating that they quit making time each day to study his word for their personal benefit and pray to align their will with God's will.

Sometimes missionaries fail to love God because their struggles are so intense. Illness; discouragement at apparent fruitlessness; bitterness over a friend's or spouse's offense; the pain of loss; isolation; the daily, fierce, spiritual warfare—only those who have lived outside their culture to serve God can fully identify with these factors. Sometimes we blame God for our circumstances. Other times, we begin to isolate ourselves from others and doggedly continue working for God while wondering at the reason He has "mistreated us." We murmur and complain to those closest to us, discouraging them.

Sometimes missionaries pretend to love God but their heart is not in it. Once established in a ministry, financially supported, and rarely observed, a missionary can write about his ministries as if he still loves God and really be playing a part.

I think my fellow missionary sums the prayer request up best when he writes: "Pray that your missionaries' love for the Lord will deepen, and that love for Him will always be their prime motivation for service."

Weekly update

Summer has finally arrived. Today, June 21 is after all, the first official day of summer. It's getting hot in Ulan Bator, hotter than it was last June. They are expecting temperatures in the 90's this week. I'm glad I'm still in Oregon.

The situation with Ganaa and her visit to the shaman has been resolved Scripturally. It was not easy, but God gave favor to Bill as he confronted her and she expressed her repentance. These are difficult issues for Mongolians to give up the past ways and trust God whole-heartedly.

My children are enjoying Neighborhood Bible Time at Westgate Baptist Church this week. I have a meeting locally this Sunday and next week will be in Oregon. After that my schedule accelerates until we leave for Mongolia. The first full week of July we will spend a week with Kristie's family. The second week I will be traveling to a conference in California. The week following I preach at Westgate Baptist Church's Family Camp. The week after that we travel back to Mongolia where we will be immediately thrown back into the work. The Pattersons will be taking a brief break from Mongolia for some work in the United States and a family reunion. They plan to leave three days after our arrival.

Continue to pray for the members of Faith Baptist Church to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Pray for Kristie's health, as well. She still is not where she wants to be. And pray that God would grant us wisdom as we continue our travels and prepare to transition across continents once again.

Quote of the week

"Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not work. To pray for revival while ignoring the plain precept laid down in Scripture is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble. Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience." - A.W. Tozer (1897-1963)

Deans' weekly update

I am having trouble sending this so I have posted it before I send it out.

This week is part of a long-planned family reunion for us with my parents and brothers. Because such times only come around once every four years or so we cherish the opportunities to get together.

Last week I asked you to pray for Pastor Jim Oesterwind. He has been diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma. His first round of chemotherapy went poorly and the medical staff reduced his doseage. It is apparent that there are still many questions about his prognosis and treatment. Continue to pray for him. Remember he has five small children and was preparing to take the reins as senior pastor of the church at which he has served for many years.

In Mongolia, Ganaa is suffering from severe, debilitating allergies. There are so severe and she has been unable to find relief. She recently went to a shaman (practitioner of animism) seeking relief. By God's grace, she has not found relief from the shaman either. There are several unknowns about this situation. Ganpurev is to talk to her or perhaps already talked to her. Here are the prayer requests that I believe align themselves with God's will.

First, please pray for Ganpurev to have wisdom in approaching this situation. Any involvement by a church member with animism is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. But as with any child, the manner of addressing the issue is very important.

Second, God obviously has a purpose in allowing Ganaa to experience this circumstance. Pray that Ganaa will have the spiritual discernment and wisdom to understand at least some of God's purpose and find encouragement in knowing God's purpose for her life.

Third, we are told that through patience and comfort of the Scriptures we can find hope. I believe that one purpose God has is to mature Ganaa spiritually. My desire is for Ganpurev to have the wisdom to see this and the spiritual leadership to lead Ganaa into a better understanding of the hope that she has.

Fourth, we know that God can glorify Himself through healing people. Particularly in an animistic or superstitious society, the power of God to heal can be a potent attraction leading people to the true God. Please join me in praying for direction to know how we should pray. Should we pray for God to heal Ganaa or should we pray for her to persevere and hope in God?

Now to share an answer to our prayers: doctors recently told Tonga, who was battling stomach cancer, that her cancer is in remission. This is an answer to our prayers. Continue to pray for her salvation and that her healing would not lead her farther from her Creator but closer to her Savior.

Knowing that you are joining with me in prayer is a tremendous encouragement to me.

Quote of the week

"The greatest foes of missions are prejudice and indifference, and ignorance is the mother of them both." - Henry Martyn

Update on Pastor Oesterwind

I heard today about Pastor Oesterwind's diagnosis. He has stage 4 lymphoma that the doctors believe is treatable. He started chemotherapy yesterday but did not respond well to the chemotherapy drug so they had to reduce his dosage. Please continue to pray for grace for him and his family.

Professional pictures of Mongolia

David Janke sent me another link to a story about Mongolia. This one is an interview with the journalist and a collection of her pictures. Don't look too closely at the pictures or you might be heart-broken. I cannot look at them without tears.

$10,000,000

Someone recently gave me $10,000,000 ... Zimbabwean dollars that is.

Weekly update

I am using this weekly update for a slightly different purpose. I want to ask you to pray this week for one of my supporting churches' pastors. Jim Oesterwind has been the assistant pastor at Heritage Baptist Church in Antioch, California for a long time. The church is currently making a transition where Pastor Oesterwind is becoming the senior pastor to replace (I am making it sound like a window pane) Dr. John Mincy who is retiring.

The Sunday that I was with Heritage Baptist Church Pastor Oesterwind had been quite sick for a week and was unable to be at the service with us. Later that week he was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer. Doctors have been doing tests and biopsies in order to diagnose what kind of lymphoma and what stage cancer he has.

So please pray this week for Pastor Oesterwind. He has a wife and five young children. The oldest is about Caleb's age or about eight years old.