(5) The World Mission Prayer League grew out of a God-given burden to pray for the unreached interiors of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. How could these peoples be saved, unless they heard the Gospel? How could they hear, unless the Gospel were preached? And how could the message be preached, unless someone were sent to preach it?
(6) By the mid-1930s, a band of students, pastors and friends in the Minneapolis area joined together in prayer that the Lord of the harvest would send laborers into His harvest (Luke 10:2). Soon some of them felt called to join the harvest themselves.
(7) Volunteers approached the foreign mission boards of the existing Lutheran synods, but found no budget for new outreach. In 1937 they organized themselves along simple lines to accept missionary volunteers and send them into areas of special concern. They were committed to finding a way to send and go in mission, without the constraint of budgetary limitations. They were committed to providing a way for lay participa-tion in mission, without the requirement of ordination. They were committed as well to complement the regular work of the Lutheran synods, without diverting means or personnel from their programs.
(8) The Mission began as the South American Mission Prayer League, and was organized on May 25, l937. Its first two missionaries left the next year for Bolivia. Soon other volunteers were sent to Central Asia, and eventually to Africa, and Eastern Europe. In 1939 the Mission adopted its present name to reflect its growing involvements around the world: a prayer league of supporting friends with a world mission. In 1945, the World Mission Prayer League adopted its Constitution and incorporated in the State of Minnesota.
(9) In 1969, the World Mission Prayer League/Canada adopted its Constitution and incorporated in Edmonton, Alberta. The World Mission Prayer League/Canada functions in partnership with the World Mission Prayer League/USA as a sister organization.
(10) In 1972 the American Board of the Santal Mission merged with the World Mission Prayer League. The American Board was founded in Minneapolis in 1894, as the American partner of the Norwegian Board and the Danish Board of the same Mission. The World Mission Prayer League has inherited their particular concern for the Santal people of India and Bangladesh.
(11) Together with the Church and its partners in mission, the World Mission Prayer League seeks to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s fresh initiative in our world today. Prayer League members continue to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send forth workers, and that the Lord himself would sustain and uphold them.