- Thankful to God for the productive and inspirational Speaker Tour Events which have already taken place throughout the states of Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
- Praise the Lord for the establishment of a strong collection network for the 2017 collection season.
- Thank God for the selection of new Area Coordinator Jennifer Barnett to lead the Northeast Arkansas Area Team.
- For the upcoming Regional Speaker Tours in Kentucky and Tennessee between the 5th and 16th of October.
- The Mid-South goal of 850,000 Gospel Opportunities.
- For peace and a time of spiritual refreshing for our volunteers amidst the busyness of the season.
- For leader volunteers to answer God's Call in developing areas.
South America
International Prayer Requests
General
Prayer Requests each country faces:
·
Wisdom to recruit, select,
lead, and develop 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.
Argentina
·
Pray for God to open a
door with customs and government officials so that we can once again import
containers into Argentina.
·
Pray for the children and
families who will be reached this season through the ministry of Operation
Christmas Child.
·
Praise God that even
through difficult situations and setbacks, the ministry of Operation Christmas
Child has continued, for His glory.
·
We praise God for the opportunity to
meet with government officials regarding opening up customs.
Peru
·
Pray for the regional
teams that are serving in the Native Communities, that they can complete The
Greatest Journey with these children.
·
Pray for wisdom, grace,
and strategy for the National Leadership Team as they look ahead at the work
the Lord has placed in their hands.
·
Pray for the new
volunteer coordinators in each different region that are joining the Operation
Christmas Child family. Pray for strength, teamwork, and a lot of love.
·
Praise God because he has allowed us to
recruit two new Regional Leadership Teams in Peru, one in Ica, and another in
Arequipa.
Uruguay
·
Pray for the Lord to
strengthen, guard, and train each volunteer who serves in this ministry.
·
Pray for the spiritual
growth of the new children and families that are fruit of this season of
ministry.
·
Pray that we can take
this ministry to the areas of difficult access.
·
Praise God for each
volunteer who serves in this ministry, for their love and gift of service to
the Lord.
·
Praise God for his
faithfulness and provision, and for the entrusted task.
·
Praise God for each child and family
that received the gospel through the ministry of Operation Christmas Child this
season.
Paraguay
·
Pray for the commitment
of the churches and for unity among them each time we gather.
·
Praise God for the season
that we had with outreach events, because God provided the resources needed to
take the shoebox gifts to secondary delivery sites (hard-to-reach locations). Also,
praise him for forming strong prayer teams.
·
Praise God for the
schools that were reached in the department of ParaguarÃ. These schools also
completed The Greatest Journey.
·
Praise God for the Vision
Casting presentation to the ministry of Association of Evangelical Pastors of
Paraguay. It was received well and the pastors and leaders committed to share
the vision and missions of Operation Christmas Child to their churches.
Getting Real with David in Prayer
The
Holy Spirit has included over two-hundred separate prayers in the Bible. These prayers are from many different people
in many different situations of life and death.
It’s not surprising that the prolific psalmist David has the most
prayers recorded in the Scriptures at more than seventy-five. As we read
through David’s many prayers, one pattern we notice is that he had no problem
getting real with God! David believed
that God knew him thoroughly and that God discerned all of his thoughts and
that greatly affected the way he prayed.
David’s
prayers are very real and raw as he spills out his heart before the Lord. Listen to how David describes pouring out his
soul to God, “With my voice I cry out to the Lord; with my voice I plead for mercy
to the Lord. I pour out my complaint before Him; I tell my trouble before Him.”
Psalm 142:1-2. We can feel
everything inside of David come rushing out in wave upon wave of emotion,
grief, questions, and pleading before the throne of God. There doesn’t seem to be much filtering or
hesitation here but instead the freedom to be transparent with the Lord. Let’s also notice that even though David is
real and raw in his prayers, he never crosses over into flippancy or
blasphemy. Though he asks lots of
questions of God he never questions God’s character, and we shouldn’t either.
As
we are growing as disciples of Jesus and we are learning more and more about
prayer from the Word and Spirit, at times there can be the tendency to slip
into “paralysis by analysis” in our daily prayer lives. We want to make sure we say everything right
and in the right order and prayer becomes much more a stiff, religious duty
than the delight and freedom of a relationship.
Really good friends can spill their hearts out to one another without
worrying about a filter. This is exactly
how our Heavenly Father is inviting and exhorting us to communicate with Him,
real and raw. Remember, He knows us
thoroughly and He has called us His friends!
Country Highlight
Paraguay
There
was a 12 year old girl who had little resources and didn’t have a father. She
lived with her grandparents and her working mother. She told us that she was
studying to become a manicurist but that she couldn’t buy the accessories and
the nail polish she needed. When she opened her box, she was so excited that
she even shed tears because the box had everything she needed. We saw the power
of God!
By taking part of the blessings we have been so abundantly given and sharing with others by packing Operation Christmas Child gift-filled shoeboxes over the next few weeks we can give children around the world a gift, for some it is their 1st time to ever receive a gift! These boxes will go to children in over 100 countries around the world. I challenge you to pack a shoebox this year and to help make a difference this holiday season and EVERY DAY wherever God has placed you!! 
