At a time of ever-increasing global immigration, YWAM leaders invite YWAM workers and friends of YWAM to pray for their local communities, and especially for immigrants. On November 12, the YWAM global prayer day, called The Invitation, will invite the YWAM family around the world to pray for their local neighborhoods, their local ministries, and for the people of many cultures who live nearby.
In this post, you will find suggestions about how to pray for immigrants close to you, and how to get involved in reaching out to refugees in Europe and the Middle East. We also have included some news and photos from last month’s YWAM prayer day, which focused on ending Bible poverty.
Suggestions for Prayer
In November, YWAM’s leaders and prayer coordinators invite you to join with YWAM in prayer for your own community. As you pray, take time to hear from God regarding how He would want you to pray for local concerns. Consider this verse from Leviticus: “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself….” (19:34 NRSV).
YWAM’s urban mission experts note that the refugee crisis in Europe and the Middle East highlights the significant movement of immigrants all over the world. Tim Svoboda, the leader of YWAM San Francisco said, “The flow of migrants worldwide is changing the demographics for missions….We are finding the unreached more and more in our own backyard.”
General:
- Spend time with the Lord listening to what He has to say to you about your location.
- Make a list of things for your location to celebrate! Praise God for each.
- Pray for DTS students at your location, that they would be able to focus on learning and ministry. Pray also for strength and blessings for their family members.
Immigrants in Your Area:
Watch this video to see how YWAM San Francisco is meeting needs in their city:
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- Pray for the Lord to give wisdom to your location regarding opportunities to reach local immigrants, refugees, or international students. Consider prayer walking or mapping your city (see below) to assist you in your prayer.
- Pray for churches in your area to befriend the immigrants or ethnic groups around them.
- Pray for mobilization of workers from your location to serve immigrants, refugees, or international students locally or maybe even in an area where YWAM does not have a presence.
Take Action:
- Prayer walk:
Go to significant spots in your city and pray while you are walking in groups of 2 or more. Think of places where there is tension, where there are immigrants, where there may be several international students, etc. Report back to your location how God spoke to you. - Map your City:
Hang up a map at your location. Identify people groups in your city and the languages they speak. Circle areas on the map where these people live and work. Listen as God speaks to you about these people groups and what you can do. - Dig deeper:
Read Tim Svoboda’s emails entitled The Strategic Nature of Cities and his series of articles entitled The Urban Challenge. Conduct relevant research regarding your city. Make plans for your city based on what you are hearing from God. See also www.ywamcity.org. - Reach out to refugees in Europe and the Middle East. To find out how to get involved with refugees in the Middle East, go to www.ywammiddleeast.org/index.php/ministries/refugee-ministry. To connect with others who are working with refugees in Europe, go to ywameuroperefugeecircle.com. To learn more about how to reach refugees in Europe, register for Refugee Highway Partnership Roundtable: “Meeting the Tide.” This conference will address how to help local churches get involved in and respond to the current refugee crisis in Europe. The meetings will include: Biblical perspectives, workshops, testimonies and reports, resource sharing and visiting refugees.
Tell YWAMers what you sensed in prayer:
Go to facebook.com/youthwithamission, find the post for November 12, and add a comment about how you prayed. Go to twitter.com/ywam; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time or post a picture.
Tell us about your location:
During a future month, we would like to include in The Invitation a description of the variety of cultural ways that YWAMers pray. Please help us by sending us an email with one of more of the following:
- Cultural traditions of your location that you incorporate into prayer. Please describe what that looks like.
- Prayer methods from other cultures that you have tried in prayer. How did that go? Please describe that for us.
- Unique aspects of your prayer time.
- Pictures/videos/other multi-media components that depict the uniqueness of the prayer times at your location. Send us something in your local language. A video, flyer, prayer list, etc.
Prayer Reports From Last Month
YWAM workers in Borgen, Norway work on Bible distribution
On October 8, YWAM launched The Invitation with the global prayer topic of Ending Bible Poverty Now. Thanks for praying! We had a great response from many of you.
YWAM Bangkok requested prayer via email for funds to distribute another 20,000 Bibles.
YWAM Borgen, Norway posted “Pray AND work, it gives good results” on Facebook. (They prayed and gave out over 9,000 Bibles in the area around their location.)
YWAM Seychelles requested prayer via email for completion of a seven year project to make an audio copy of the Four Gospels in Creole.
YWAM Guatemala City reported on Facebook that staff members that speak indigenous languages were challenged during the prayer time to help more in this area.
YWAM Wales made a commitment to end Bible poverty
YWAM Wales tweeted and posted a picture showing their commitment to end Bible poverty.
University of Nations Bali prayed specifically to end Bible poverty amongst the nine people groups they have adopted and also signed a commitment statement on canvas that hangs on the wall as a daily reminder.
YWAM African Bible Safari requested prayer for resources and equipment needed to train the trainers for Bible translation for the eight hundred Bibleless languages in Africa.
Upcoming topics for The Invitation
December 10, 2015 – Pioneering Prayer: The Horn of Africa
January 14, 2016 – Global Topic: A Picture of a Breakthrough in the Muslim World
February 11, 2016 – Praying for Local Concerns (Location and Community).
March 10, 2016 – Praying for Areas, and Where YWAM Is Not
The second Thursday is just a suggestion. Feel free to pray close to that date at a time that works well for your location’s schedule.
Don’t Miss The Invitation
Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, or request other languages.)
Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook post on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hash tag #praywithywam.
If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us.
