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MAY 2017 WOMEN ON MISSION

A Missionary’s Story
from Mission Mosaic Magazine

David Petro
Zambia

         David  Petro was in a new area of Zambia the day he met a man named Zulu.

“He asked us to pray for him, that the evil spirits that prevented him from going to church would leave him.  We prayed with him, and a few days later he prayed to receive Christ,” David said.

“When the small church there started meeting in the school a couple of weeks later, he was there with his whole family wanting to learn more about the Bible.”

Zulu’s struggle to get God isn’t uncommon there, he said.  “Ancestor worship and witchcraft are prevalent here, and the people are enslaved to it.  They live in constant fear of someone ‘witching’ them or being cursed by a dead ancestor who is not happy with them.  There is a lot of pressure on believers here by their families to participate in witchcraft to please their ancestors.”

Because of that, it is hard for believers to break away from their culture and trust Christ fully, David said.

But even though they are slow to choose Christ, they are open to hearing the gospel– and some like Zulu are choosing to walk away.

David asked for prayer to know whom God wants him to pour into.  “Please pray for wisdom of where to invest my time and efforts.  Many people are open to the gospel, but few are ready to truly give their life to Christ,” he said.  “It can be difficult to know who is serious about pursuing the Lord and those who are just saying they want to.”

Women on Mission will meet Monday, May 8th at 6:00 p.m. at the church.  All our ladies are invited to be with us.

April 2017 Women On Mission

Time-Travel Prayer Testimony from a Missionary

“ When we were on the missions field, it did cross my mind that the time difference meant that probably a lot of prayers from folks back home were being prayed ‘after the fact.’  But at the same time, I had a peace that God is not limited by time, so I should not worry about it.  Having said that… there are times when both John* and I were in situations where we could sense people praying (what seemed like ‘real time’ ) for us.  For John, the times he was out in the villages on food distributions (typically the most dangerous time for him) he sensed prayers for his safety being given on his behalf [and] also during surgeries at the hospital.

“Both of us recall times when we were sure that folks were praying for us when we were able to communicate a spiritual thought despite our language skills.  We will probably never know for sure when those prayers were
being prayed ( ’real time’ or ’after the fact’ ), so my thought is...we will take all the prayers we can get whenever we can get them.

“There were many, many nights that we would, individually and as a couple, find ourselves awakened or unable to sleep at night.  We fell into a pattern of believing that meant God was wanting us to pray.  Many of those prayers were for our families and friends in the United States.  Perhaps some of those prayers corresponded with something going on in the US.  I do know that it brought us peace to be able to trust God to take care of our families and friends when we were too far away to help in any other way.”

*Name Changed

If you have not yet given to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions, please do so right away.  Our goal is $10,000.

Women on Mission will meet Monday, April 10th at 6:00 p.m. at the church.  All our ladies are invited to join us.