The Hayes Zoo

Our Purpose


- to know God and use our entire lives in service to Him.

- to stand in the gap through prayer, giving and service to viable ministries in Latin America.

- to be transparent helpers of fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, using our resources and skills that through the Holy Spirit, we might encourage and equip those who have less.

- to share a living perspective from Latin America to our churches, friends and family in the states and beyond.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Seven Ways to Pray for Your Missionary

Lately I'm being reminded clearly that prayer is necessary.

Vital.


One of my personal goals this year is to develop a more interactive (active) prayer life. Frankly, this should be a forgone conclusion but, as in lots of things, the squeaky wheel is the one that gets oiled and sometimes I gasp when I realize it's been d.a.y.s. since my prayers were anything more than the "Thank you Jesus for this day and this food" or the "Help me survive." variety. No wonder everything was off.


I wonder if I'm alone in this?


THEN I remembered that I had this great little 'prayer guide' another missionary friend gave me eons ago stuffed into the blog somewhere.


"Now where is that thing....???"

*dig*, *dig*, *dig*; *shuffle*, *shuffle*, *shuffle*

"Found it!"


"How can we pray for you?" is a question we get asked frequently -and with good reason. Prayer is the sustaining layer for us and a way that any and all can participate in our ministry.


I am using this guide (have I mentioned that I'm the type of person who likes a list?) to pray for my family, my co-workers, and my friends (with the adjustments needed) and thought I would put this list into a post, out from under the back corner of the blog clutter, to share with you...just in case you're a list person and would like to know how you can be part of what we do too.



Prayers for you...

Faith


Day 1: Relationship w/ God

  • Loving and studying God’s word
  • Strong prayer life
  • Being filled with the Holy Spirit and yielded to Him
  • Maturing Spiritually
  • Progress over personal sin

Day 2: Physical and Emotional Needs

  • Good Health
  • Safety in danger
  • Protection against loneliness
  • Protection against depression
  • Protection against discouragement
  • Homesickness

Day 3: Family Relationships

  • Alan and Faith
  • Riley, Janelle, and Natalie
  • That our family would be a light and example of a godly marriage and family, not for our own purposes but for God’s glory

Day 4: Language/Cultural

  • Continued acquisition of Spanish
  • For fluency
  • For cultural adaptation and understanding
  • For a growing love for Mexicans

Day 5: Effective Ministry

  • Boldness and open doors
  • Prepared Hearts and openness
  • Energy, wisdom, and discernment
  • Financial support
  • Home-schooling
  • For future direction

Day 6: Team Relationships

  • Other missionaries
  • With pastors and teachers
Day 7: Mexico
  • Government – National and Local
  • Visas/paperwork; open doors
  • Outreaches
  • Our relationships with nationals

2 comments:

Kat @ Inspired To Action said...

I love how specific your list is. I have a prayer calendar for my kids, but I really need to sit down and write one that covers all areas of my life.

Thanks for the reminder!

Grateful for Grace said...

Oh, I love this! Truly! Thank you so much for sharing it, so we can pray for you effectively and so I can alter this list for our lives. I like lists too and this can help me organize and not forget. I get distracted easily. Squirrel!! What was I saying? Anyway...
Hey, who called 911 from your home?