Thursday, September 21, 2017

September Week 4 Operation Christmas Child Prayer Requests

NORTHEAST ARKANSAS OCC PRAYER REQUESTS:
1. Pray for our NEA Goal of 11,500 shoeboxes this collection season, that God will bless us with these Gospel Opportunities to reach children around the world for Him! Our mid-south goal is 850,000. 
2. Pray for our area team as we grow! Pray God will send us Ministry Coordinators to fill our vacant areas.  We need God to provide us with a Church Relations Coordinator, Prayer Mobilization Coordinator, Media Relations Coordinator & team members, and a Community Relations Coordinator.  We also hope to have a Student Relations Coordinator and team members next year. Pray for me, as I am no longer  your Prayer Mobilization Coordinator, instead I am now the NEA Area Coordinator. 
3. Pray for our Area Team and our upcoming October team meeting and training (date, time, & location to be announced later – probably toward the end of October). We will be distributing cartons and tape as well as doing some training.  
4. Pray Jonesboro Chick-fil-A will partner with us this year and in years to come…the new owners seemed excited about working with NEA OCC.
5. Pray we secure a drop-off location for Clay county, as it is the only county in our area without a drop-off this year. Alsompray God will send us multiple drop-offs in each county! 

** As a part of the Prayer Mobilization Team: Try to add prayer network partners at: prayer-network. WE ARE AT 87% of our goal for prayer partners for the year. They will get monthly prayer updates but are NOT year-round Volunteers. 

**also RECRUIT new team members- if you believe someone has a passion for OCC and would be a great year-round volunteer, explain the ministry to them (OCC has an app), then have them apply online: Volunteer-year-round. Click "I'm ready to apply" is at the bottom.  I will get their application and take it from there. Applying does NOT mean they will be selected for our area team, they will then be interviewed by me with the help of our regional manager and have references checked, but all year-round volunteers should try to recruit new team members! We need a new prayer coordinator to send out our updates also! 

International Prayer Requests
General Prayer Requests each country faces:
• Wisdom to recruit, select, and lead new and/or transitioning volunteer leadership team members.
• Provision of resources and the person who leads this area so they are able to reach their God-sized goals for the current year.

WEEK 4: September 22-30
Brazil-Rio
• Praise God we were able to reach ten villages for the first time. We were able to share the Gospel and see many children accept Christ as their savior and be a friend and follower of Jesus. Praise God for safety and good health for coordinators throughout the process.
• Praise God for donors/sponsors helping to transport boxes to hinterland locations, using their boats, vehicles, and finances.
• Pray for favorable weather to complete the outreach in region # 8 where there has been massive flooding and roads became impassable.
Dominican Republic
• We praise God for the 150,000 children discipled in TGJ this season.
• We praise God for the new Strategic Regional Leadership Teams (sRLTs) and Regional Leadership Teams (RLTs) formed in our country.
• We pray to build even more Regional Leadership Teams this year.
• We pray for even greater growth in the number of children we reach in The Greatest Journey.
• We pray for great commitment on the part of all Operation Christmas Child volunteers to the project.

Country Highlight
Uruguay
Abigail, is 6, and attends a lunch program at a church in La Florida, Santiago, where an Operation Christmas Child Event was held. In the middle of the presentation, the children were asked if they understood what the Greatest Gift was, to which the girl responded, the Greatest Gift is Jesus! “Even though she asked for a stuffed kitten for Christmas, it did not matter that she didn’t receive it, because she already has the Best Gift”. Later, when she opened her shoebox, full of emotion, she shouted, “My stuffed kitten!”

Jesus is not only the Best Gift, He also uses people to put a pink plush kitten in a box, and pray for its destiny. He orchestrated that this box would arrive in Santiago de Chile and into the hands of Abigail. Glory to God. Thank you Lord for the details.