As I have shared before, public speaking is one of the jobs as a missionary on home assignment that I have to do...and I do it because I have to! The only thing that makes me stand up in front of an audience is that I know God wants me to and that He has given me something to share. It is a lot of hard work for me, a lot of time preparing and then just pure God's grace and enabling that gets me up to speak His heart for the World. But that is just how it should be. Because then, the glory only can only go to Him.
I was so encouraged by my Beth Moore study this morning that reminded me that I have "a ministry that rests on God's power" and "When I don't have confidence, God gives me His".
Proverbs 3:26, "For the Lord will be your confidence."
I made a little stamped wooden heart ornament for each woman at the ladies meeting I spoke at the other night. I bought the cut out hearts online and then stamped an Old World Stamp in brown ink on both sides. Then I hot glued a short strand of red berry garland on the top. Hopefully when the ladies look at their Christmas tree they will be reminded of God's Heart for the world.
Maybe you have wondered how you can be involved in sharing Jesus with the world that so desperately needs to hear of His love and forgiveness. I compiled a list of creative ways to Go, Pray, Send, Welcome and Learn. Many of these ideas have been lived out by our dear friends choosing to live a life of love for the world. Please take a few minutes to prayerfully look over these ideas listed below and chose several to start your heart beating for the world!
O Lord,
Empty our hearts of Worldly things
so that our hearts can be filled with Love for the World
Having a Heart for the World
Go
Pray
Send
Welcome
Learn
ü
Request and
read a missionary’s prayer letter or e-mail update and then pray (We get prayer
letters from Samaritan’s Purse and missionary friends in China, Taiwan, Kenya,
Indonesia, Paraguay and France)
ü
Find several
interesting and informative missionary blogs to read regularly like
ü
Stop and
mute the commercials during the evening news to pray for the world
ü
Find out
about how you can be involved to internationals in your
ü
Pack a Shoe
box gift for Operation Christmas Child
and pray daily throughout November and December for your “Shoebox Child”; go
overseas to deliver them
ü
Find the
name of a persecuted Christian in prison that you can pray for and get regular
updates and specific pray needs
ü
Give gift
cards to missionaries to use while traveling or living in the U.S.
ü
Find out how
you can give to or be a volunteer at a Thrive
Ministry
Retreat which puts on retreats in the U.S. and overseas for
missionary woman; http://thriveministry.org
ü
Commit to
pray daily or weekly by name for a someone in another country who doesn’t yet
know Jesus
ü
Visit websites
that share about orphans with special or medical needs – look at their pictures,
pray for their spiritual and physical care as well as adoptive families, you
can also sponsor children or collect clothes (or other needed items) to bring
in your suitcase when you visit an overseas orphanage; http://www.newdaycreations.com/foster/
ü
Offer your
professional services to a missionary or missionary organization for free or
reduced cost
ü
Call or
e-mail a missionary organization (like http://www.omf.org/us) and
ask if and how they might be able to use your specific skills, education or
talents for building God’s kingdom here or overseas
ü
Offer a car,
vacation get-away, or house to rent to missionaries on home assignment
ü
Be a
“finisher” and spend the last part of your career on the mission field or go
for 1-2 years during early retirement
ü
Visit http://www.joshuaproject.net to get a Facebook App to learn about and
pray for unreached peoples
ü
Pray aloud
for the world in the car after a radio news update
ü
Donate
frequent miles to a missionary for travel
ü
Go on a
“Vision Trip” to pray and see if you come back with a heart for that country
ü
Offer to
host a missionary guest home or be dorm parent at a missionary school, both of
these can be done at any age and with almost no foreign language ability
ü
Attend or
bring a Perspectives on the World
Christian Movement Class to your church
ü
Purchase Operation World By Patrick Johnstone and
pray for a different country each day
ü
Commit to
give 25% of your income to overseas missions
ü
Offer rides
to international students to the grocery store or offer to help them shop
ü
Go visit a
missionary, spending time seeing “their world” and ministry; offer to bring a
suitcase or 2 of missed food and needed clothes and items
ü
Encourage
your church to show video clips related to missions and global outreach during
worship services
ü
Send a
missionary kid who is going to school away from his family a care package or
gift card
ü
Read
Missionary Biographies like Hudson
Taylor’s Spiritual Secret or the series Christian
Heroes: Then and Now By Janet and Geoff Benge (these are easy to read aloud
as a family or while traveling in the car; our favorites are Gladys Aylward,
Amy Carmical and George Mueller)
ü
Financial
support a missionary or national pastors and evangelists through http://www.seedforthesowers.com
ü
Host a
“Skype Baby Shower” for a missionary living overseas, then send the presents by
mail
ü
Offer to
pick up (or drop off) a missionary from the airport
ü
Have a money
jar in your kitchen where the whole family contributes to a mission project
like blankets or a clean water filter for Africa or Bibles for China
ü
Talk with
your family about how you can give sacrificially by skipping a meal out or a
trip to Disneyland
ü
Pray daily or
weekly for the people and projects you are giving to
ü
Send your
pastor and church leaders to visit overseas missionaries and mission projects
your church supports
ü
Get a list
of needed items for a missionary family returning to the States (everything
from food to furniture) and help collet needed items
ü
Instead of
going on a family vacation this year spend the money to go on a family
mission’s trip
ü
Organize a
mission’s weekend or conference at your church
ü
If you're a
teacher, take a year to teach at a MK (missionary kid) school overseas like Faith Academy in the Philippians, Rift Valley Academy in Kenya or Christian Academy in Japan
ü
Include your
missionary friends on your Christmas card list
ü
Host an
international student for a meal or to live with you
ü
Collect
small Christmas gifts for a missionary family and mail them (ask what they want
or need and specifics about shipping overseas to their destination)
ü
Pray and ask
God how He wants you to have a heart for the world
ü
Offer
English classes for internationals through your church, city or neighborhood
community center
ü
Go on a
short term missions trip with a friend/family member who lives far away and
that you usually don’t get to see; you’ll enjoy lots of time to get to catch up
as well as have a life-changing experience together
ü
Have a
missionary bulletin board or photo album prayer book by your table with
pictures of missionaries and Christians in other countries that your family can
pray for regularly
ü
Put up in
your car or on your bathroom mirror verses that share God’s heart for the
nations like: Psalms 46:10, Psalm 67:1-7, Psalm 57:9-11; then memorize them!
ü
Start a
prayer group that meets regularly and prays for a mission project or a missionary
ü
Organize a
short term team to go overseas and do the kid’s program at a conference for
missionary families
ü
Skip a
Starbucks Coffee and a meal out each week and give that money to your church
designated “for missions”
ü
Spend less
on Christmas gifts and buy needed things like goats, chickens and bicycles for
impoverished families in Asia, visit http://www.gfa.org/gift/
ü
Have a
picture in your Bible of someone from another country who doesn't know Jesus
ü
Sponsor a Compassion International Child and go
visit them
ü
Go on a
short term relief trip after a natural disaster like a flood or earthquake
ü
Find someone
who has a heart and calling to go but can’t; find out why and what they still
need and help to send them on their way
ü
Keep
missionary prayer letters in a binder so that you can go back and ask specific
questions about their ministry as well as praise God for answered prayer
ü
Go on a
Student’s International short term trip to see how you could use what you are
interested in or your college major to bless those in another country
