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Prayer in Missions

The modern missions movement has been built on the prayer lives of men and women who pursued God and asked great things of Him. Dr. S.M. Zwemer missionary to Muslims in Africa said, “The history of missions is the history of answered prayer…” Some of these missionaries are well known while the majority have toiled unnoticed in obscurity. You can read biographical sketches on many of these men and women at http://www.watchword.org.

David Brainerd was a missionary to the American Indians from 1743-1747. The Life and Diary of David Brainerd has impacted countless missionaries including William Carey (the “father of modern missions”), Henry Martin of Persia, and Jim Elliot (martyred by the Acua Indians in Ecuador). It is said, "Prayer became Brainerd's priority and it was his joy to spend two hours at a time in secret communion with Christ. He would rise early in the morning and get alone with God to enjoy His presence. He thirsted for God, the living God and he was not disappointed!"

Missions in Mexico	Prayer in Missions The modern missions movement has been built on the prayer lives of men and women who pursued God and asked great things of Him. Dr. S.M. Zwemer missionary to Muslims in Africa said, “The history of missions is the history of answered prayer…” Some of these missionaries are well known while the majority have toiled unnoticed in obscurity. You can read biographical sketches on many of these men and women at http://www.watchword.org. David Brainerd was a missionary to the American Indians from 1743-1747. The Life and Diary of David Brainerd has impacted countless missionaries including William Carey (the “father of modern missions”), Henry Martin of Persia, and Jim Elliot (martyred by the Acua Indians in Ecuador). It is said, "Prayer became Brainerd's priority and it was his joy to spend two hours at a time in secret communion with Christ. He would rise early in the morning and get alone with God to enjoy His presence. He thirsted for God, the living God and he was not disappointed!"
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Prayer in Missions

	“Learn to move men, through God, by prayer alone”, was the challenge given by J. Hudson Taylor the father of “faith missions” and the founder of the China Inland Mission. It is of Taylor that, “in all his busy life, with multitudinous demands upon him, he has done one thing, day by day; he has made place and way for prayer, believing that if he did this, the other things would be taken care of, that the will of God would be done, and that He would be glorified, so far as the effort of Hudson Taylor himself was concerned.”
	Dohnavur Fellowship in India was started by Amy Carmichael who explained, “…prayer is the core of our day. Take prayer out, and the day would collapse…a straw blown in the wind.” It was said of Scottish revivalist and Chinese missionary William Burns, who mentored a young Hudson Taylor that, “His life was literally a life of prayer, and his whole ministry a series of battles fought at the Mercy seat. C.T. Studd who founded the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade began his day around 3:00 a.m. “alone with God.”
	When He was appointed as the second director of China Inland Mission it was said of D.E. Hoste, “We needed a man who could give time to prayer, and thus to get to know the mind of the Lord. I am most thankful that you have been led to select, it may be, the most prayerful man among us.” The Sudan Interior Mission, whose motto is “By Prayer”, was founded by Rowland Bingham. He credits the survival of the mission to the prayers of a little Scotch lady. “With her prayer and faith she carried us from the first seven, barren years into the years of harvest.”
	A lady missionary from India represents well those who serve unnoticed and unknown. She was discouraged because of lack of conversations but goes on to say “I set apart much of my time for prayer…After a few weeks I began to see men and women accepting Christ as their Savior…God did more in six months than I had succeeded in doing in six years.” J.O. Fraser planted churches among the Lisu people of southwest China. His biographer said, “Frequently, the mountainside would witness the piercing, importunate pleadings of this man who counted not his prayer-time by minutes but by hours.”
	Prayer has long been a foundational stone of modern missions. But let us also remember that prayer goes hand in hand with proclaiming the gospel. In Romans 15:14 Paul asks, “And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” Prayer and the Word of God were inseparable for the apostles. They gave their “attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” The Word of God is powerful, prayer allows that power to find its way to and be released in hearts.