I’ve been re-reading John Piper’s book, Let the Nations Be Glad, and came accross this passage in his excellent chapter on prayer:
Until you believe that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for. Prayer is for the accomplishment of a wartime mission. It is as though the field commander (Jesus) called in the troops, gave them a crucial mission (“Go and bear fruit”), handed each of them a personal transmitter coded to the frequency of the general’s headquarters, and said, “Comrades, the general has a mission for you. He aims to see it accomplished. And to that end he has authorized me to give each of you personal access to him through these transmitters. If you stay true to his mission and seek his victory first, he will always be as close as your transmitter, to give tactical advice and to send in air cover when you or your comrades need it.”
But what have millions of Christians done? They have stopped believing that we are in a war. No urgency, no watching, no vigilance, no strategic planning. Just easy peacetime and prosperity. And what did they do with the walkie-talkie? They tried to rig it up as an intercom in their cushy houses and cabins and boats and cars – not to call in fire power for conflict with a mortal enemy, but to ask the maid to bring another pillow to the den.
It is with this in mind that I thank you, our fellow prayer “warriors,” for interceding on our behalf, and again ask you to continue in prayer for us, and for Japan, that God would provide all of our needs as we finish up support raising over the next five months, and that He would send His gospel throughout the prefecture of Iwate, softening hearts and bringing salvation to the lost. Nothing about this mission is easy, in fact on our own we are hopelessly out matched and unqualified for the task ahead. But this is as God desires it to be, for when we are at our weakest, His strength is most perfectly seen. Where we could only hope to fail, He can only succeed, and through our weakness He can supply all that is needed to accomplish His purposes in Japan. It only through Him that we can hope to raise the support to depart, and only through Him that we can hope to touch lives with the Gospel.
With that in mind, please join us on November 29th, 7:00pm at the Robison home for a prayer meeting. We would love to be able to pray with you in person before we leave.
Prayer Requests for this Week
- The past two weeks we’ve sent out letters to basically everyone we know (and had a mailing address for), to explain about our change of missions organizations and our unchanged departure plans. Please pray that God will enable all of our supporters to transition with us, and that He might move in the hearts of those who have not yet decided whether or not to support us to commit to giving monthly, or a special gift.
- Pray that we will continue to be able to build good relationships with our sending churches, and that they will joyously take an active role in partnering and praying for us.
- That we will be able to find opportunities to share with people during the holiday season. We’re really praising God for the time to be able to do full time support raising, however we’re a little concerned that launching out into it right during the holidays will make it difficult for people and churches to find time to meet with us. Pray that we’ll be able to make appointments, and to use the time that we have effectively.
- We are anticipating that we will need about $2,500 a month in additional support. Please be praying for God to provide that by March.
- Pray for wisdom in how to handle Tomo’s US Visa status as we move to Japan. It’s a very complicated situation, with no ideal solution. Pray that we will be able to choose the path that will allow us to be most effective in ministry.