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Case studies

Prayer Changes Things — Extraordinary Prayer and Strategic Field Outreach

PRAYER CHANGES THINGS

EXTRAORDINARY PRAYER + STRATEGIC FIELD OUTREACH = ABUNDANT FRUIT

In August 2005, without the group intentionally realizing they were paralleling their efforts with the new Ethnê movement’s prayer initiative, a small missions team from Virginia stumbled into this incredible fruitfulness in one of the aimags [provinces] of Mongolia. This small mission team made their usual trip to Mongolia primarily to do medical outreach, happening to visit during the month of prayer for unreached peoples of Mongolia that year. I got an email from the leader of the group exclaiming, “It’s like fish jumping in the boat! We’ve never had such response ever before! We’ve had handfuls, but God is giving us hundreds of people responding! It’s incredible!”

What precipitated such a harvest? During the planning meetings leading up to the Ethnê06 meetings in Bali, a working group began coalescing to focus on prayer as it related to the One Fourth World, (the 6,700+ least-reached people groups around the world). Participants recognized the tremendous quantity of prayer that had already been raised prior to 2004 through the efforts of AD2000 & Beyond Movement and many other movements, organizations, churches and individuals. We considered the question, “What needed to be done to build on the momentum that already existed?” Some of the earlier efforts had done a great job of raising awareness of the need for prayer, the existence of unreached people groups, and also the incredible effect that onsite prayer could have in breaking strongholds standing in the way of these groups being reached. However, we felt that some public information leaned toward statistics and generalities—it was rather dry. There was a need to try to “put a face” on the unreached people groups in order to inspire fresh energy in prayer for these groups.

Recognizing the great power in the stories of how we meet Jesus, we began to collect and produce a set of 12 testimony videos, one from each of the 12 Ethnê regions—testimonies of people from some of the unreached people groups who had come to Christ and now were leading others to faith in Him. One of the first tangible outcomes was the incredible Ethnê two-DVD set completed in December 2006. Thousands of these have now circulated around the world. Each video includes five specific points for prayer for the least-reached groups of that region and is tied to the Ethnê Harvest-Linked Prayer Strategy (HeLPS) initiatives’ monthly prayer focus. The Ethnê HeLPS initiative worked in partnership with individuals, churches, agencies and networks around the world to mobilize an estimated 3.5 million praying with this effort beginning each year following the Global Day of Prayer on Pentecost. Then, a systematic cycle of massive global prayer has been unleashed over the One Fourth World in each region. This begins in June every year with prayer for the least-reached peoples of the South Pacific and Southeast Asia and moves east to west, to Northeast Asia’s people groups in July, and so on.

Global Prayer Digest [GPD] has been partnering with the Ethnê movement’s prayer initiative since 2005, paralleling their issues with the cyclical focus. It was estimated that among those praying along with the overall initiative, more than 100,000 join along through the Global Prayer Digest tool, published in English, Spanish, Chinese and Korean in hard copy, text email and web. As the prayer working group spread the word globally, and as more and more field teams caught wind of the opportunity and began to synchronize their efforts with these massive global outpourings of prayer, more and more breakthroughs emerged, many of them closely-timed to the month of the prayer focus.

The idea, though, is more than simply mobilizing massive amounts of prayer for these groups. Prayer is meant to be linked with strategic field efforts. Why is prayer coordinated with field efforts so important? By systematically focusing on the peoples of a region month by month, security concerns can be avoided yet field workers can be especially bold, press forward with new initiatives, or see new fruit from established efforts among these groups during this outpouring of intercession before God’s Throne for the peoples of their region. We believe God is hearing and answering; field workers are actively conserving the harvest resulting from their efforts and the prayer outpouring. The testimonies so far have been amazing! For example, following an issue in June 2009 new believers emerged among several Mekong people groups where no believers previously were present. As more and more joined hands, excitement grew and faith in what God might do as we asked Him expectantly grew as well.

What if we intentionally cooperated to focus on the “gaps”?

The Ethnê movement is building relationships of trust and cooperation, empowering field workers with cutting edge strategies that actually increase fruitfulness, and mobilizing focused fervent prayer. Ethnê has linked these in a powerful way for the glory of God and the catalytic growth of His family among all peoples. In 2009, several of the working groups began to wonder what might happen if we purposely worked to catalyze movements in the “gaps”, families of people groups where little or nothing was happening as yet. Out of this has grown the Ephesus vision featured as a highlight of Ethnê 2012 in Seoul, Korea—an effort to catalyze movements to Christ among families of 50 or more people groups with little access to the gospel. The goal was that the resultant movements would ripple throughout the entire family of peoples.

One of the earliest Ephesus teams to form focused on what is often called the most unreached island in the world. This particular location is the home of 49 unreached people groups of over 25 million people. It was estimated there were only 5,000 followers of Christ! When the people groups there begin to turn to Christ, they could be instrumental in carrying Jesus throughout the rest of their nation and throughout their region.

Workers have labored among these groups for some time with little fruit. However, as the Ethnê movement has grown, several working group facilitators began to consider what could be done to intentionally apply what we were learning together towards catalyzing movements to Christ among these 49 people groups. January 2010 a small group of about 20 people were continuing this discussion in the Dallas area, just as the deadline was approaching for Global Prayer Digest’s (GPD) June 2010 issue. In that room January 2010, GPD agreed to shift their theme to the 49 unreached peoples of this island for June 2010, partnering with the field personnel who agreed to partner and see what God might do in answer to these millions of prayers with their feet on the ground.

Within a month of the release of the issue June 2010, the evidence was clear: several people groups that previously had had no believers had seen new believers come to faith and begin sharing their faith with others. Indications of small movements to Christ were beginning and growing. The practical synergy of this paralleling of extraordinary global prayer with diligent field efforts joining hands brought clear breakthroughs!

Peoples of Cambodia were highlighted during July 2011 in partnership with field teams. Within a month, clear new breakthroughs came (according to our field partner) which could be directly attributed to the additional prayer boost. He noted, however, that as the year wore on, they were seeing a closing of that window of opportunity once again. They were encouraging workers in other places to make the most of the opening, knowing that it might well be a brief period. By being ready and working to conserve the harvest gained, further progress can be made even past the closing of that window by those who came to faith during the open times. Linking massive global prayer efforts to concerted and strategic field outreaches bears incredible fruit!

Collateral benefits have been new tools

Some of the other concrete outcomes for the prayer workgroup have been new tools. In addition to the Ethnê prayer brochure and DVD set, Joshua Project has produced brand new prayer cards in five languages so far: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German. These are available for free download from www.joshuaproject.net/prayer-cards.php and can be pulled in various groupings such as by region, by religion, by country, etc. Over 25 copies are being downloaded daily at recent count…meaning more than 9,000 per year so far. A special site is dedicated to the initiative: http://legacy.joshuaproject.net/ethne.php

Pray40 was launched February 2008 as a way to lead believers into a greater understanding of the status of the One Fourth World and how to pray more effectively for these groups. Ethnê’s prayer workgroup launched this in cooperation with Sudan Support Network, Interdev Partnership Associates, and South African Action for World Evangelization. During 40 hours, from 7pm on Friday evening through to the Sunday morning services, a retreat format including two 12-hour prayer watches allowed participants to experience interactive prayer times which were stimulating and fun. Intimate times of worship and communion were interspersed with vibrant prayer for specific groups and situations impacting this segment of the world and its peoples. People came away with testimonies of God’s specific speaking to their hearts and with determination to continue praying and mobilizing others to pray for the least-reached peoples. Some heard God calling them to go and they have gone in obedience, adding workers to the harvest force on account of prayer. More than 20 follow-on events have been held in this model, thanks to the efforts of the Ethnê prayer team.

One of the efforts spearheaded by the Ethnê prayer team has been part of stimulating of a unreached people group (UPG) network for Europe—Ethnê Europe [ http://www.ethneeurope.net ]. Caleb Project’s booklet The New Faces of Europe and the video Why Europe? Why Now? are some of the tools that help raise greater awareness of the presence of and opportunities among the UPGs living in Europe.

Taking it to the Next Level

In addition and alongside the Ethnê Ephesus vision, this new strategic approach to igniting movements, leaders connected to the Ethnê prayer workgroup realize that prayer is strategy and that part of the strategy for seeing these wholesale movements to Christ must be prayer. Taking this kind of view, January 31-February 2, 2014, in the Dallas area, a group of 45 leaders from 6 nations gathered in the first Fellowship of Prayer Strategists to consider the role of the prayer strategist in igniting these movements. A dozen seasoned leaders shared case studies including individual intimacy with God, prayer journeys, spiritual warfare, houses of prayer and 24/7 prayer, partnership in prayer, onsite prayer teams and prayer as ministry, prayer in crisis response, prayer strategists as strategy team members, and more. Momentum is growing as we learn from one another and connect together to harness the synergy of effective, fervent prayer in agreement with God and one another.

Consider this final story: GPD’s November 2012 featured unreached peoples of Central Asia without scriptures; our prayers focused on the need for the Word of God among all peoples in their heart languages. One of the Central Asian unreached people groups with work ongoing for more than two decades is suddenly demonstrating an unprecedented interest in God’s Word! In the 13 weeks following the initiative, more people have accessed and received scripture portions and interacted with the message of the Good News than has been possible in the last 10 years of combined scripture distribution! This amazing “miracle” has opened doors to “first ever” conversations and inquiries and people hearing about our Savior. You could say that this is the single greatest opportunity in recent history to reach these people with the Good News!

Over the years a significant barrier has been getting God’s Word into the hands of this populous but widely spread out and remote people. Scripture portions have been hand distributed, leaving the vast majority out of reach of the Good News. For years many have prayed for God to break through the barriers so that these millions of people could hear the gospel and read it in their own heart language. Then, earlier this year, in an unexpected way that caught everyone by surprise, these Central Asians started showing up on the internet on a scripture site – but one in a different language.

What could be done to help them find His Word in their own tongue? A link was created and a fresh website was designed in their own language, that drew viewers in with biblical answers to questions about everything from marriage and family life, to getting along with neighbors, money and wealth, and God’s character. On each page is an opportunity to read related scripture passages, and at every step of the website is the option to print portions or even download the whole Bible (what is currently translated) or listen to audio files. Visitors to this website may post a question or comment which is passed on to our growing ‘response team’. And many are writing in – some with earnest questions and requests, while others with hostile comments. In a way only God could arrange, this single internet site has made it possible for thousands of people to read and/or download the Good News in the last three months!

Is this coincidence or miracle in response to believing prayer? We believe it’s Our Prayer-Hearing, Prayer-Answering God moving as we join in unity to pray for harvest among peoples with the least access to the good news. Fruit has encouraged us to press forward together even further, looking at ways to grow deeper and even more laser-focused in our efforts toward finishing the task Jesus’ set before us so many years ago. Join this growing prayer force to open doors for the harvest among the remaining 6,000 unreached peoples around the world in partnership with Ethnê’s Harvest-Linked Prayer Strategy Initiative! Contact us at prayer@ethnê.net to get connected, find specific resources and visit the www.ethnê.net site for more resources and information on the entire Ethnê movement.

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