Editorial

By Donna Messenger, Editor

When should you begin praying for missionaries? When they leave for their field of service? When they announce their decision to apply to a mission agency and attend Candidate Seminar? When a teen returns from camp and shares his campfire decision to serve the Lord as a missionary? The answer is, all of the above. We know that missionaries on their fields need prayer, but prayer is also needed in the many decision-making steps that move a person toward missions.

This is the annual candidate issue of the Message, where we publish the testimonies of the newly appointed missionaries. As you read, you'll see how God uses people and circumstances to lead His followers into missionary service. We chose “prayer” as our theme for this year's candidate issue, because we want you to know how important your prayers are in the lives of missionaries and because we want you to see that prayer is the key that reveals God's plan in their lives.

There's another side to this picture I'd like for you to see as you read the testimonies. Most of the missionaries in this year's class made decisions for Christ or decisions for missions before they were 18 years old. Many of you serve faithfully in your churches in various aspects of children's or youth ministries. You have to read between the lines to see that these faithful Sunday School teachers and Awana leaders pray for the children to whom they minister, but you know they do. If you are one of those diligent workers who may even think that your work is in vain, be encouraged that God uses your prayers in their lives.

I've been working with the children on Wednesday nights at my church, and this summer we read the story of missionary pioneer John Paton. One week, during prayer time, a seven-year-old boy announced that he was going to be a missionary doctor. A few weeks later, one girl said, “Pray that we all will be missionaries.”

When a missionary speaks in your church, pray for him and his ministry, but also ask the Lord to use his words to call others into the harvest fields of the world. God's plan for reaching the world involves not only the missionaries who go, but the ones who send, faithfully, strategically, and passionately praying to the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into His fields. God bless you for your faithful prayers.

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