These prayer requests are further elaborated in the articles of our latest newsletter, OM France. Portions of this publication can be found in the “Newsletter” section of this site. We would love to put you on our mailing list! Please go to “Contact Us” and send us your postal or e-mail address.
“I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” John 4:35
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Praise God for what he has accomplished already in the lives of Nantes youth attending LU! www.fr.om.org/en/index7.html Pray that these teenagers, young adults and leaders would grow in their love for God and for others, and that they may have opportunities to put that love into practice.
Reaching the next generation
Please pray for OM Europe as workers in each field seek to touch the youth in their country with the gospel. We can pray for their initiatives and for the relationships they build with young people.
God’s call to service
Pray for God’s clear direction for those struggling with a particular decision in this area. May we all be open and readily obedient to His leading. Pray for potential missionaries and for all Christian workers who are, regardless of their job title, out in God’s harvest field. www.fr.om.org/engs/index4.html
Evangelism outreaches
Please pray that the people touched by His Word in the cities of Elancourt, Vigneux-sur-Seine, Draveil, Montgeron and Juivisy (during the spring outreaches) will look to the cross and be saved. Please pray for our endurance and effectiveness, and that God would provide divine appointments with those ready to hear the gospel this summer. www.fr.om.org/en/index8.html
Val d’Europe
Please ask God to supply faithful workers for this church-planting ministry. Pray that He will prepare the hearts of those who will hear the gospel from them. www.fr.om.org/enga/index2.html
prayer requests for June 2008
Jan Coetzer, director, OM France
by Jan Coetzer
“Ask of me and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.” Psalm 2:8
Are unreached peoples resistant to the Gospel, or are so few prayers going up for them that the enemy is effectively holding them in check?
James O. Fraser, of the China Inland Mission, was one of those choice servants of God who was content to labour in almost total obscurity. This gifted man was a preacher, linguist, musical genius and engineer. He came to the Yunnan Province of China in 1910 with a heart longing for the souls of the forgotten Lisu tribal people. As Fraser gave himself to the work of reaching the Lisu, he became somewhat forgotten. For years he lived alone without seeing much fruit. He came to point where he almost gave up. That was when he realised he was involved in warfare and started to pray.
Mr. Fraser was greatly used of God through prayer and loving labour to turn multitudes of Lisu from their slavery of demon-worship to Jesus Christ. By 1916 there was a real move of the Spirit among the Lisu, resulting in sixty thousand baptisms within only two years. The Lisu church continued to grow and eventually became one of the largest tribal Christian bodies in the world.
J. O. Fraser's success was not the result of his impressive talents or giant intellect. He succeeded where others had often failed because isolated and hidden away behind the mountains; he was compelled to seek God for his every need. "To know the real Fraser one needed to hear him in prayer. Prayer was the very breath of life to him, and in prayer he seemed to slip from time into eternity."
"The Kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." Matthew 11:12
James Fraser's life was a living example of this verse.
John Piper states that: “Most Christians do not really believe that life is war, and that our invisible enemy is awesome. How then are you ever going to get them to pray? They will say that they believe these truths, but watch their lives. There is a peace-time casualness in the church about spiritual things.”
We have to realise that God desires intercessory prayer for the accomplishment of his purposes for the peoples of the earth, and that prayer has always undergirded and extended the missionary outreach of the church. Prayer is mentioned over 30 times in the book of Acts alone, and is frequently mentioned just before major breakthroughs in the outward expansion of the early Church.
Friends, if we want to take the world for Christ, then like Fraser we must clothe ourselves in humility as we wage war in the fight of faith. Our prayers must go beyond mere sentimental and religious rhetoric. What we need is the violent groans and cries of travailing prayer! We must learn how to be violent in prayer with both Satan and our own sinful pride. King Jesus is searching for a people who will be subject to Him in all holiness and humility, and yet stand in bold faith against the powers of darkness (James 4:7).
Use the information here as fuel for your own prayer time and stand with us in the gap as we strive to reach France and the world with the Gospel. We cannot accomplish our mission without your continual support. God bless you as you pray with us.
References:
‘Behind The Ranges: Fraser of Lisuland’ by Mrs. Howard Taylor
‘Mountain Rain’ by Ellen Fraser Crossman
‘A Memoir of J. O. Fraser’ by Mrs. J. O. Fraser
‘God Reigns In China’ by Leslie Lyall, Perspectives 1997 Ed.