
By Elaine Gaston*
For 12 years Brian and Becky Harrell have shared the gospel with the Makhuwa Nahara Muslims on the coast of Mozambique. Their efforts in telling gospel stories and training national believers has been effective. But this year they’ve upped their game.
“We have made . . . conscious efforts to be more deliberate in our prayers for our people group, and also in encouraging churches back home to be praying,” Becky Harrell says. “Because we know that we cannot bring anyone to know the Lord. It is only the work of the power of the Holy Spirit.” With their reinvigorated emphasis on prayer, they have seen dramatic evidence of God’s work in people’s lives there.
The Week of Prayer for International Missions helps focus on and further the efforts of the Harrells—and all missionaries—through intentional prayer.
Workers on the front lines know their endeavors depend on the fervent prayers of Southern Baptists who have sent them. Likewise, they are thankful for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering® for International Missions that makes their work possible. During the next eight days, glimpse into the lives of families, couples, and individuals, who share gospel truths through their obedience and willingness to go wherever God needs them.
Here’s a preview:
Day 1: Becky and Brian Harrell and their four children live on the edge of the continent of Africa, taking the gospel to hard-to-reach Makhuwa Nahara Muslims.
Day 2: Nick and Shannan Copland strive to reach postmodernists in Italy—those who think they’ve moved beyond the need for absolutes and especially Christ in their lives.
Day 3: David Harris’s* grandfather grew up as a Messianic Jew. Now David and his wife, Hanna*, IMB Journeymen, have planted their lives in South America to share Yeshua, Jesus Christ, in the largest Jewish community in the continent.
Day 4: In Ghana, surgeon Heidi Haun and her media specialist husband, William, use media and medical ministries to deliver something even more precious than physical healing—truth that leads to eternal life.
Day 5: Zack and Jennifer Dove serve on the southeast coast of Norway, listening to and learning others’ stories, and sharing their own, to guide individuals toward gospel truth.
Day 6: Red-light districts in a South Asian megacity are wretched, dark places. Christ’s love shines all the more brightly there as Rodney and Helen Cregg* offer hope to the hopeless in this and other segments of the city.
Day 7: Missionary kid Bethany Amber’s parents serve in South Africa, but she’s not along just for the ride. In addition to her high school endeavors, she has her sights on what she can do today to share Christ as she prepares for tomorrow.
Day 8: What could Layla Murphy* do when opportunities to share the gospel in the country God called her to were snuffed out? The single woman looked around her where she ended up, and was amazed.
As the power of the gospel changes lives, your fervent prayers and financial support are the lifelines that allow these and other international missionaries exalt Christ throughout the world.
*Names changed.