Missionaries all over the world need our prayer now more than ever. There are so many stories of both triumphs and tragedies that get reported every day as families sacrifice their homes, time, ability, and safety to reach the world with the gospel and love of Christ! And, no matter how old or young you are, YOU can have a global-reaching impact through prayer.
I love incorporating prayer time into any classroom of mine as it builds the children’s personal prayer lives as well as creates an ownership and interest in missions which can feel like an otherwise out-of-reach or far away topic!
This is also a helpful guide as sometimes struggle with praying in the abstract for people, specifically missionaries who we may not know on a close personal level. So, here are 10 simple, specific, useful things to pray for for any missionary family that you know or have heard of.
And, I would encourage you either as an individual or a class to choose a few specific missionaries to pray for. Then, after you begin praying specifically for the things listed below, keep a look out for missionaries’ written reports and watch how God specifically, concretely answers your prayers! This will be an encouragement and a teaching moment and a building block all around!
Without further ado, let’s jump into 10 things that your Sunday school can pray for, for missionaries!
1. Protection
Above all, missionaries need protected from spiritual enemies (such as the devil or evil influences or discouragement and loneliness) as well as from physical enemies such as government, politicians, wars, gang violence, stalkers, thieves, and general dangers that tend to come up when people stand up for Christ and the Bible. Thirdly, missionaries tend to do a lot of traveling, so protection in the air, on tracks, on the road, or by the water are always needed! Pray that God puts a hedge about every single member of their family and church.
2. Provision
Just like anyone else, missionaries need homes, supplies, food, money, vehicles, etc. The list can be long! So, pray that God would supply all their needs according to His riches in glory!
3. Political Favor
Paperwork is a hard thing to obtain as a foreigner coming into any country. And, if the country they are going to or come from is in a state of unrest, then being able to stay safely and legally in a country becomes difficult or impossible. Some missionaries are even forced to wait years to get to their intended fields just because of political red tape. Pray that God opens doors.
4. Physical Health and Stamina
If you have ever traveled internationally and had the unfortunate experience of contracting a foreign illness or eating a less-than-ideally prepared meal, you know what missionaries face every single day. Specifically pray for the wives and children in this area. The devil seems to LOVE to attack a family’s health in order to discourage them, drain their resources, or get them off the field – so continue in prayer for safe, healthy bodies so that they can do what they’ve been called to do!
5. People
Pray for people! Pray that God sends people to the missionaries – pray for people to get saved, pray for people to attend their churches, pray for people to be kind, pray for people to be helpful! And, pray for friends for the missionaries. Sometimes, living by yourself without any family or childhood friends around in a foreign country can become lonely, so pray that they are able to make trustworthy friendships that will help get them through the tough days!
6. Persistent Encouragement and Perseverance
This goes right along with #5 as missionaries need encouragement. Pray that they would have little “wins” each week either physically or spiritually that would encourage and boost morale!
7. Permanent Church
Pray that the churches these missionaries build and plant remain permanent. Pray that God would keep out those who would want to hurt or destroy to the ministry. Along with that, pray that God would protect and sustain the supporting churches (including yours!) here in America so that monetary and prayerful support would be able to be permanent for these missionaries as well. As someone who’s been a missionary before, it is scary when churches in America close or suspend support – that’s your livelihood and your purpose, so pray for strong, healthy, permanent churches!
8. Polyglot Abilities
“Polyglot” is a big word meaning you can speak and understand different languages. A foreign language can be a real struggle to learn and practice, especially when you initially move to a country! Imagine going to the grocery store, seeing a can on the shelf, and not being able to read enough to know if you’re about to by tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, tomato chunks, or peaches! Haha This is a practical, daily struggle that every missionary could use prayer for!
9. Playmates for their Children
Along with praying for people, you can more specifically pray for playmates for a missionary’s children. This is not only helpful and fun for their kids, it makes the country feel more like home when you have friends and playmates. Also, this often helps build language-learning, establish connections, build rapport, and even cultural understanding! Playmates for a missionary’s children can be one of the most influential and useful assets on the field, so pray for this!
10. Perpetuation of the Gospel
Finally, and most importantly, pray for the harvest. God has sent laborers into the harvest to win souls for Heaven, so pray that God provides the needs and protection and encouragement and ability for these missionaries to do what they’ve been called to do – preach the gospel to every creature, so that no one is left not hearing the glorious Gospel message which will change their lives for eternity!
Thank you for reading this article and considering praying and helping others to pray for missionaries. This is the purest form of love for God and man – thank you!
To make these points easy to remember, here’s a lovely printable graphic for you to put up in your home, classroom, or to hand out to each of your students!
If you plan on using this guide to start praying for missionaries, please like this article and subscribe for emails with other helpful tips and resources for your Sunday school, homeschool, or church!
