PrayerPoints, February 2012

FEBRUARY 2012 _ .... PRAYER- ■ •- -S . ■ . . ' - i _ POINTS SOUTHERN BAPTISTS : A PRAYING PEOPLE IMPACTING A LOST WORLD — Equipping for the Harvest Southeast Asia field hoping to find physical help. He must have been a little disappointed to learn that patients are only seen by referral. However, he was told that he could go to one of the partner Baptist churches in the city where they handled referrals. So, he found his way there. He was given a referral and offered a place at the church to stay. While receiv¬ ing care at the clinic, he heard the Gospel for the first time. Visal re¬ ceived the medical care he sought and the gift of eternal life. No one realized that the Gospel seed had landed on such good soil. He was sent home to his remote and un¬ reached village with medicine. He was also sent him home with heart medicine of another kind — Bibles, DVDs and tracts. Learn more about how to pray for Southeast Asian peoples — seasianpeoples.org. Consider the sower who went out to sow (Matthew 1 3:3, HCSB). We know enough about farming to imagine an empty field. The farmer gathers the seed, sows it in the pre¬ pared soil and watches for the coming harvest. Around the Southeast Asia affinity group the fields are ready for har¬ vest. Who better to gather the harvest from among the vast number of unreached peoples than those closest to them, local believers called out by God? One aspect of the mis¬ sionary task is to come along¬ side those believers to present the call from our Lord and then to encourage and equip them in the process. Consider Visal: He was the first person in his village to understand the Gospel mes¬ sage and embrace Jesus. Visal visited the medical clinic in one The story unfolds .... But the one sown on the good ground — this is one who hears and understands the word, who does bear fruit and yields: some 100, some 60, some 30 times [what was sown] (Matthew 13:23, HCSB). A few months later when he returned for a follow-up visit at the clinic, Visal reported that 30 families had believed in Jesus! The local believers were astounded and immediately organized a group to go to the province some six hours away to investigate. They found that the report was true. People were hearing the Gospel for the first time and responding. They were being gathered into churches. It seems that these new believers had even learned something about church planting because now there are five new house churches in five smaller surrounding villages — a second generation! Recently, a baptismal service for all the new believers took place. Now there is an opportunity for the Gospel to spread throughout this remote and mostly unreached province. We can rejoice in the impact of the clinic, the faithfulness of our national Baptist partners and the grace of the Lord. Consider Visal Upon understanding the Gospel message, he not only embraced it for himself, but recognized the value for his own people. This is the one who hears the Word and understands it and bears fruit, sometimes 30-fold, sometimes 60-fold, sometimes 100-fold. Burdened for his own people, seeing their need for Jesus, God used him as both a seed sower and a harvester. The seed fell on good soil indeed. Ask the Lord of the Harvest for more good soil people like Visal. PRAYER POINTS 3,> P R A Y E R POINTS PRAYER POINTS % PRAYER POINTS О PRAYER *£. > POINTS