What World Prayr Means to Me
The end of a calendar year causes many to consider the preceding year’s events and reflect on changes to make in the coming year. There is something more important to consider as the new year rapidly approaches. It is more than thinking about what I did or did not do in the preceding months. During the Christmas season most Christians struggle with a single word more than any other. This one word is the backbone for everything Christians will do in the coming year.
This word will set the tone for success or failure in many people’s lives around the world. For most people this word revolves around the life of one person. It is because of this that I want to take this simple and ordinary word and apply it in a different context than it is typically used. I want to take this term and apply it to a specific ministry. It is my prayer God will supply me the words to use for those who need to read them.
Some of you know what the word is, some of you think you know, but most of you are clueless. The word is meaning. However, I want to use the root of meaning or rather its plural; means. I would like to share my thoughts on what World Prayr Ministries means to me, especially at this season in my life.
When I began serving with World Prayr in May of 2009, I was approaching my 58th birthday, had recently celebrated my 24th wedding anniversary and believed myself to be a born-again Christian. As the events of the remainder of 2009 played out, two of the previously mentioned things would cease to be; I would never celebrate another wedding anniversary and I would become a true believer in Jesus in whom I have eternal life. Near the very end of 2009, my wife passed away unexpectedly and because of that I found Jesus.
While her passing was a sad event, I experienced great joy in finding Jesus and my life was changed forever. It was during this time that I began to realize what World Prayr would mean to me in my remaining time on the planet. It is not so much the ministry itself which means so much to me as it is the people of the ministry. Without its servant’s World Prayr wouldn’t and couldn’t exist.
It is how these people, both individually and collectively form the basis of what World Prayr means to me. It is how these people have impacted my life over nearly a decade that I wish to pass on to the world. Without these people in my life then and today, I would be wandering aimlessly without direction.
One of the things the ministry means to me is relationships. Because of the organization, I have formed lasting relationships with pastors’ in several countries including the United States, Africa, Indonesia and India. Some of my bonds are with ordinary men and women in those same countries. By expending the energy to form deep relationships with people around the globe, I am beginning the first part of Jesus’ command to go and make disciples unto the ends of the earth. When Christ-centered people get together and share their thoughts about God’s Word, both sides learn more about the Bible.
It is this deeper dive into the Word of God which leads me to another thing World Prayr means to me. The ministry actively sought and found a local body of believers’ I could connect with in my community. This church became my point of contact with other believers and I soon became a member of the church. The pastor of the church has become one of my closest friends and confidants’. Had you asked me in 2008 or any other time in my past if I would have a pastor as a friend, much less a very close friend, I would have told you that you were crazy. World Prayr actively embraces their tag line of “reconnecting a broken world.” I am one of the ministry’s first reconnections.
The most important thing World Prayr means to me is their commitment to following the greatest commandment Jesus spoke of in Matthew 22, deep diving into the gospel and grace. The servants of the ministry are bound together in this principle of love so deeply it is best expressed by the Hawaiian concept of Ohana. Ohana is so much more than love for one another. It is laying your life down for another, helping others through difficult times and giving to others until it hurts. All of that still doesn’t explain the concept fully but it is a start.
Because of the love given me and the rest, I have purpose and direction now where before my involvement with the ministry I was lost and bewildered. I have learned many things because of my service to the ministry and God. Perhaps the most important is I know God loved me before I was born. Remembering that each day is challenging because I remain a sinner saved through the gift of God's grace and love. Are you ready to join with me in love to "reconnect a broken world?"
