prayer and community...

just returning home from the World Missions Workshop this weekend in Searcy, Arkansas. It is always wonderful to reconnect with so many mentors and friends who have a similar heart for God's mission. What impacted us the most? Two prayers on Saturday.

First, gathering with our teammates (including some new friends, Brett and Christie Harrison, who will be working in a village three hours from Mwanza) for prayer on the Harding lawn on Saturday p.m. After hour after hour of conversations, classes, and praise services, we were exhausted. This time was refreshing, and the time was used by God to form us in a way distinct from all other events of the weekend. It was community-building prayer.

Second, later that night, our team and several others who will be leaving for the mission team within the year were prayed over and commissioned for our respective missions. I'm sure we are not the only ones who spend much time defending our commitment to mission, whether before friends, family, or churches. To have several hundred people pray for us, affirm us, and applaud us (I don't normally like this!!) was powerfully affirming... and empowering. It was the prayer of a missional community, and it helped form us into servants of the King.

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Again, your prayers for this next weekend at Landmark are cherished. Please ask God to give us wisdom for how to present the plans God has laid on our hearts.