Praying Forward
I often write about my ministry activities in the past tense. There are several reasons for this, such as the long-term nature of some projects and the fluid nature of ministry — some things are waylaid by other priorities, and others end up being dead ends. I find it a challenge to ask for prayer for specific things. While “general” prayer support is welcome and needed, I firmly believe that asking for specific things — according to God’s will — is vital to the mission. So from now on, I’m hoping to find ways to better communicate specific prayer requests.
Please pray for accelerated development of effective discipleship resources for new believers; specifically, pray for wisdom in developing experimental online learning course. As the number of indicated decisions for Christ through our online outreaches continues to increase, so also does our need to provide effective discipleship resources for new believers. I’ve been interested for a long time in the potential for online learning (aka “distance learning” or “e-learning”) as a discipleship tool. Last fall, a co-worker and I began developing a course on essential principles of spiritual growth. Though the project was delayed by other needs — we got the first draft lesson done last month — we’re hoping to soon complete the first four lessons and release them for a public trial.
Pray for the creation of a new 30-day guide for new believers and my role in producing videos that will cover topics for each day. Video production continues to be a major aspect of my work with GMO. I’m planning a major production trip to San Diego in early May. In addition to helping with the script writing, I’ll be shooting 30 one- or two-minute video segments for this guide. I may also be shooting for two other video projects during this same trip.
Pray for the people, means, and opportunities needed to translate and record the remaining language videos for our key web sites sites. My immediate focus is getting the videos created in Japanese. Recently, I was wondering how we could get the scripts translated… and two hours later, a Japanese-speaking volunteer walks into our office! I’m hoping that we can complete the other remaining languages this year — Portuguese, Russian, Italian, and German. This means GMO will be able to share online a gospel presentation and basic follow-up materials, in text and video, for the top 10 languages used on the Internet. These languages represent 90% of the world’s online population.
Pray for students interning with GMO during the Silicon Valley Summer Project. I’ve been asked to help recruit interns as a way of raising up the people GMO needs to carry out our mission. I’m planning to direct our ministry’s first-ever summer project this June and July. We’re hoping to have four to six students work as interns in GMO’s Silicon Valley office. We’re trusting God to bring the right students to us, and provide for all the logistics that go into this type of endeavor.
I’ve said many times that I’m often aware — in some way — that people are praying for me and my ministry. Thank you for your faithfulness in prayer! It is futile to expect supernatural results without supernatural power, which only comes when we ask for it in prayer. I’m going to be setting up a special, semi-private prayer request page on my website and emailing a web link to it. If you are not already receiving my email updates, you may subscribe using this form.
