Urgente Prayer Requests

We've seen many emails for "Urgent Prayer Needed!" this last year, haven't we? My urgent prayer request is of a different sort. It appears that Baptist Mid-Missions has needed missionaries in Brazil for decades. We missionaries are "promoters," if you will, of this need. We realize that God lays His burden on hearts and lives, and we take no credit for someone who follows His call to Brazil. 

The urgent need for workers was pointed out by our Lord when he stated that the "harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few" in Luke 10:2. Urgency doesn't lose its fire with time. Baptist Mid-Missions' Brazil field is an example of that point. What started back in the 1930s and 1950s in different regions of Brazil has seen thousands of eternities impacted by the Gospel. Hundreds of missionaries who have dedicated their lives to the call of God. 

However, as society waxes stronger in the craziness of the day, missions suffer. The call gets muffled by, and not expanded, by technology. We have more resources than Paul could have ever imagined, yet our spiritual ignorance and dullness to God's call are blatant. 

Once the largest Baptist Mid-Mission field, Brazil's missionary population is dying off. Several years ago we went to a BMM missionary conference in north Brazil and as Dawn and I walked into the room, we felt like we were entering a rest home; white hair abounded. Those who had hair. And as I mentioned, that was 10 years ago! So, imagine what it is like now!

I have a Google map of all missionary families here in Brazil and the total number of units, for lack of a better word, comes to twenty three. So the entire BMM presence in Brazil today is roughly fifty people. 

Baptist Mid-Missions has had missionaries in Brazil for 82 years, but it seems that we are entering our golden years. “Golden years” is a kind term for nearing death. This fact has been mentioned in recent meetings; If God doesn't move, we will not exist as an entity in twenty years. 

Here is where you enter this seemingly bleak picture. We all know that it is “God who is at work in you both to will and to do according to His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). In my personal experience, this working His will out looked like this.

I was raised in a church where we supported missionaries. Missionaries were always very interesting but had nothing to do with me. We helped them, and that was our part. They always preached the Great Commission that Jesus spoke to his disciples in Matthew 28:19,20. That was their job. It wasn’t mine. 

Then one missionary caught me by surprise when he gave his invitation to missionary service. He said, “If you believe that God can use you in any capacity, full-time, you need to come and dedicate yourself to his will.” 

Missions suddenly became personal. God could use me no matter what I was, even though I didn't see myself capable of doing much. That simple invitation cleared up what Jesus was saying. I have since heard this phrase, “God doesn't need capable workers. God makes capable the willing worker.” Another author said it this way, “God’s hands have human fingers!” meaning, God uses simple people like me and you. When we begin to make excuses for why we can't go to mission service, we fall into the false idea that we can't do what God wants. Like Moses did in Exodus 3 and 4. 

So, take this urgent prayer request to the Lord with a new idea in mind. Say what I struggled to say years ago, Father, I am willing to go wherever you want me to go. And leave it at that. Don't say, If God opens the door, I will go. Most who say this never try the doorknob. If you want me to pray with you about your new journey, I would consider it an urgent prayer request!