Family reunions. What do you like best about them?
I remember a few from when I was a kid. Naturally, I loved the food. I recall about 15 varieties of macaroni salad! But there was so much more: I enjoyed trying to throw horseshoes with distant cousins I barely knew, and watching the great uncles sit around playing cards. The best part of a family reunion, however, may have been the simple but fascinating pleasure of listening to stories being told.
Stories really do matter. Perhaps more than any other means, it is through cherished stories that a family finds and passes on its shared identity from generation to generation. Deep truths and values are revealed in the telling of simple tales born of experiences long remembered and relationships lovingly celebrated.
On Sunday, February 17, a fun group of WMPL members braved the chilly temps and came together in the basement fellowship hall of Trinity Lutheran Church of Minnehaha Falls, in Minneapolis. It was a family reunion of sorts, faithful brothers and sisters in prayer gathering to hear about – and talk about – God’s work in and through the Prayer League and around the world.
We formed small groups of 3 or 4 around our tables so that each person had opportunity to share a story about a time, an event, or a relationship in which he or she came to know that “there was something special about the Prayer League.” Soon the room was filled with heart-felt recollections, infectious laughter, and thankful prayer. Brought together, these stories were our story! They revealed who God called and made the Prayer League to be.
“What marks of WMPL did these stories reveal?” we asked. Answers sprang up from around the room: A welcoming and caring community that acts like family! Deep and constant passion for sharing Jesus with those who are lost. Shared willingness to risk and sacrifice for the cause of the gospel, and to depend fully on God’s provision. Living simply and purposefully. Humility, courage and joy! Listening to God’s call and persisting in prayer. Prayer as the first recourse, as a way of work and of life together. Willingness to go where others have not, to the “ends of the earth.” Unwavering commitment to Jesus, to making him known, and to one another in that task. Holding high the gospel, of which we are not ashamed for it is “God’s power to save everyone who believes!” (Romans 1:16)
This, my friends, is our story! And we’re sticking to it!
Over the last number of months I have shared with you that we believe God is preparing to write not a new chapter in the WMPL story, but a whole new sequel. What will that sequel be like? “Will it abandon ‘the WMPL way?’” some might ask.
By God’s grace, provision and design, we can be assured that the essential values and principles of the Prayer League that are revealed in our cherished stories will indeed remain. A departure from these would not establish a sequel but an entirely different and unrelated story.
Members of our Board of Directors and staff will be prayerfully and carefully discerning the Spirit’s work in preparing our beloved community and our global work for something new, something tailored specifically for a new generation and for the dramatically changed world in which we live for the cause of Christ’s Kingdom. Please pray for them as they do this, but please also consider sharing with us your stories. I invite you to write to us. Tell us a story wherein you learned that something was special about the World Mission Prayer League. That, after all, is our story!
We trust that God is raising up a new generation through which he will continue the vital work that he has been accomplishing through the World Mission Prayer League “family” for eight fruitful decades. They will use new tools, they likely will go to new places, and they very possibly will do so under a new name! But, guided by the same Holy Spirit, they will embrace and live out the core convictions that have been, by God’s design, those of the Prayer League. They will be used by the Lord of the harvest to write the sequel. And we will look at it with discerning eyes and open hearts to say, “Hey, that’s our story! And they’re sticking to it!”
I am not sure exactly how my story fits in, but I do find a strong and inspiring link between my personal call to discipleship and the work of WMPL. In September, Hurricane Florence blew through North Carolina. She shook a huge motor vessel free of its moorings in the marina where our sailboat was tied up. We had evacuated as ordered and had taken shelter in Tennessee before landfall. We watched the Weather Channel and grieved at knee-deep water in downtown New Bern, wondering what it meant for our boat, which was also our home.. We soon learned that the motor vessel set adrift by the hurricane had shoved our boat-home into a piling which powerfully punched a hole in our boat. She did not sink, but the insurance declared her a total loss.
We had been praying and talking about how we would know when it was time to get off the boat, and we quickly realized that the message was clear. Further, when we asked each other where to go next, we both felt led to the same destination. We moved to the St. Louis area which is more or less in the center of the locations of our children. When we searched for a new home, we both were attracted to the same property right away, and no matter what we viewed and toured, we kept returning to this property. The message was clear: we were called to live in a condo and be light and love to the residents in the 24 condos in our building.
What does this have to do with WMPL? The answer is that as soon as I began to contemplate how we would meet the people and bless them and build relationships in which we could share Jesus, we found ourselves praying prayers like many of those prompted in TIP. We are especially aligned with needs expressed for the coffee shop, for cultural connections, and for specific issues related to the work at LAMB. When I am praying for the missionaries, I often follow up, asking for similar guidance and support for our outreach here.
I might even go so far as to say that I am encouraged strongly by the stories of the work around the world. It both inspires and encourages me, and above all, it reminds me Who is at the heart of it all. I am Christ’s servant to be light and love to people who hide behind security doors and good jobs, feeling smug and secure in a fairly prestigious location, but who nonetheless are as lonely and broken as people everywhere else. There is no place on earth where God’s people need not bother to share the love of Christ.
We gladly support and pray for WMPL and its future, but we shamelessly borrow from all that we learn about sharing Jesus as we read about the work around the world. Maybe we are part of the sequel.