We just sang, Jesus led me all the way, he leads me step by step each day. It's interesting, I find as a preacher, whenever, well, all through the time I was pastoring, but especially now, if I'm asked to speak for Pastor Ken when he's gone, you have a number of messages that come to mind, number of passages you're thinking about, number of things that you're studying, and so you wrestle with what should I preach? And so I always question and seek God for direction. The message I'm gonna preach tonight is a message I've preached in many places across the country, but I've never actually preached it in this pulpit. At least as long as I went back and looked, as far as I can find. If I did, it was a really long time ago, and you need to hear it again. Some of you may have heard me preach it somewhere else, and if that's the case, you probably weren't listening, so you need to hear it again, too. Seriously, though, I kept going back and forth. Should I preach this? Should I not preach this? And I'd start to decide on something else, and I would get in a conversation with someone, and this topic would come up. So then I think, well, maybe I should preach it. Then I'd say, no, I don't think I'm gonna preach it. Then I overhear someone talking about this topic. And so I thought, okay, I guess, Lord, I get it. I think I will do what you've led me to do. Usually when that has happened to me as a preacher, I have found that God usually has some purpose and intent for it. Not that I always know, but sometimes it, is brought to my attention. Early on when I was a young pastor, now this is not, okay, for those of you studying to be in ministry, this is not advice. Okay, this is not, don't follow my example. But one Mother's Day, I just, and I'd only been pastor for a couple years. I was very young, I was in my early 20s. And I just did not have any peace about preaching a Mother's Day message. And the only message I could get my mind around and really felt burdened to preach was a message on spiritual warfare. Basically, I preached on the devil on Mother's Day. Probably not the smartest thing to do. But I didn't understand why, but I preached that message. And I probably tried to walk out with my head down, not to do eye contact with too many people after the message. Happy Mother's Day, we just preached on the devil. Sunday night, one of my deacons came running in the church. I mean, he was just he was out of breath. He was just his eyes were big as quarters. He says your message saved my life. So what are you talking about? He said he was a retired police officer. And they had gone out for dinner at somewhere for Mother's Day. And he said, I usually sit with my back to the wall somewhere so I can see what's going on. And a man came into the restaurant waving a gun and threatening to shoot people. And he said, my natural instincts, all my training was to try to figure out how am I going to take this guy out. And he says, your message just kept coming to my mind. You know, we're in a spiritual battle. We don't wrestle with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers and spirit. So he said, I just sat there and we just prayed. And I asked God to get this guy out of there. And I opened my eyes and he left. So he said, God answered my prayer. You saved my life. I don't know whether that's really true or not. And I don't know that that's going to have that dramatic effect tonight. So I don't want to, you know, false advertising kind of gets you led up to something that's not going to happen. But there usually is a purpose when I know God's directed me to preach on something. Early on in my ministry, when we began this ministry with International Baptist Missions, I remember a conversation I had with Dr. Sproul. And he made the comment, he said, early on, he said, when I was preaching, and representing the mission board, he said, I had a message I preached on prayer. He said, I would go into the biggest and most mission-minded churches in the country, and I would ask a question. And I'd say, how many of you pray for at least one of your missionaries every day? Raise your hand. And he said, it's amazing. He said, in the most mission-minded churches in America, only one or two hands would be raised. I said sometimes those were people who had children who were on the mission field. So I wrestled with that for a while. Why is it that we don't pray for our missionaries as we should? Now we are a little bit different here at Tri-City. Because most of the missionaries we support have been through our church, been through the college and seminary. Many of them we have had meals with, we've watched them mature, watched them grow and learn. In many cases, we've been to the mission field and seen them. So we have a very close connection to many of our missionaries. But that's not true with every church. And even though it may be true here, oftentimes it's easy to be out of sight and out of mind. And so I wrestled with this question, why is it that we do not pray for our missionaries as we should? And part of it is that, out of sight, out of mind. But part of it, I think, is sometimes we don't really know what to pray for. We know that God bless the missionaries is probably not the way we should be praying. We should be a little more specific than that. Now we do have the advantage today of emails and Facebook and all the other social media things today that sometimes we get a lot of information from our missionaries that is pretty much up to date. But even then, sometimes we don't have that information handy with us, available when we are praying. And I think part of the problem is sometimes we know I shouldn't pray, Lord, God bless the missionaries, but I just, I don't know what to pray for, and because of that, I just do not consistently uphold them before the throne of God. So I wondered as I thought about it, I wondered, are there any things in scripture Any requests made by missionaries in the New Testament about asking for prayer? I had a couple come to my mind and as I did I realized they were from the Apostle Paul, the first, we consider the first missionary of the early church. He's a good example. And I began to, I noticed one of the things that he said in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, if you take your Bibles and turn there, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 And verse 25, as he closes this epistle and this exhortation to the church, there's a number of exhortations here in the last part of chapter 5, but one of the very last things he says is, brethren, pray for us. Brethren, pray for us. And so that challenged me to go on a search. What did the Apostle Paul ask the church to pray for? How did they ask him to pray for him? And I want to take some time tonight and I want to just walk through some scriptures and think about some things that we need to be praying for our missionaries on a regular basis. We do have, actually, we have a bookmark that we printed a number of years ago that have these items on the back of them. And I don't know if there's any out in the lobby or not, but if not, we'll get them reprinted and have them out. Because it's good to have handy some things to pray for. When I think of a missionary, and maybe we have a missionary of the week, we look at it, we see that, okay, Lord, here's Brother Sos, and he mentions one or two things, but what if we don't have that with us? And even if we do have it with us, what are some things that are real issues and concerns that our missionaries are struggling with on the mission field that we need to be remembering and we need to be upholding them in prayer for before the throne of God? Some of these seem obvious, but even though they may seem obvious, I think sometimes we don't always pray faithfully as we should. So I'm going to give you some things tonight that the Apostle Paul asked the church to pray for him about. First of all, in Colossians chapter 4 and verses 2 and 3, Colossians chapter 4 and verses 2 and 3 He says here, continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in the thanksgiving, meanwhile praying also for us that God would open to us a door for the word to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains. Paul asks the church to pray for an open door for the word to be preached. So we should be praying for missionaries for open doors or rather for opportunities to preach the gospel. They say, well, don't they have the opportunity of a week? I mean, they get up in the church and preach, they can go out in the street corner if nothing else and preach. An open door is more than just the opportunity to stand up and preach, but it's the opportunity to preach at a point in time where people's hearts are open, where God gives a divine opportunity, a divine appointment to preach or to speak the word of God in due season. You know, we all know there are times when you can witness, you can share the gospel with anyone, you can talk to, but we also know there are times when you speak to someone and it is as though God has just opened this door right here. I mean, they are just ready, they're eager, they're listening. And that's what he is asking the church to pray for him about, for open doors. We do this on a number of different occasions with our missionaries and here in our church. When, for example, a mission team is going into the schools in Kenya. We are praying and we're asking you to pray. Lord give us open doors. They're trying to set up appointments for us to go in. Pray that the administration or teachers or someone won't object and won't prohibit us from going in. Many times in the SMCI movement in the Philippines, Lisa would write on Facebook or she would send out massive emails to everyone, pray there's an opportunity to get into this college or this administrator in this college is trying to keep us out and there's a struggle going on to keep us, you know, to try to prevent us from going into classrooms and presenting the gospel. We pray for God to open doors. We pray for God to give our missionaries unique opportunities to open their hearts to open doors so that our missionaries will have the opportunity to present the gospel in a way that they would not otherwise be able to present the gospel. I love it when I get letters from our missionaries talking about the ways God has opened doors, the way God has allowed them to go into schools or colleges, or God has given them opportunities into different homes, or God has given unique opportunities to present the gospel to people who might otherwise not listen or hear them preach the gospel. An ongoing regular request is that God would give our missionaries open doors to preach the gospel. Secondly, Paul prays in Ephesians 6.20, or at least he asks the church in Ephesians 6.20, that he would be bold. He says here in the book of Ephesians, he speaks of how he is in the Spirit, he is praying, always praying with prayer and supplication in the Spirit. He says, and pray for me that utterance may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. There's a tendency to think that our missionaries, because of the very nature of being a missionary, that they are naturally bold. That's not always the case. In many cases, a missionary is a little bit independent. They're willing to go out on their own. They're willing to raise their support, travel on the road, do the things that are necessary, then go to a foreign country. But that does not mean that they always are bold to open their mouth when they need to open their mouth and speak. Sometimes they're in situations where it could be very dangerous. I remember one of our missionaries talking about the fact that they were in a country, it's a restricted access country, and it's illegal, technically illegal, to try to convert someone. And so it takes wisdom. So they were at a lunch table. in a kind of an open restaurant market area, and they saw someone there eating their lunch, about their age, and that individual happened to look up to them, they looked back at them, they kind of immediately kind of were drawn to each other, so they sat down at this table and began to start a conversation. And they talked about the wrestling they had. Do I bring up the gospel? do I initiate a witness because I, this person could be, you know, could be trouble. I mean, it could be trouble. I remember when my son was in a restricted access nation and talking about going into McDonald's in this country and being approached by an individual and not knowing whether or not, you know, how far he should take the conversation. Because is this someone who has spotted me and is a spy for the government? Or is this someone I should share the gospel with? Obviously in situations like that you need wisdom, you need discernment, but you also need boldness. I mean, we need boldness, don't we, to witness when we have the opportunity? Certainly our missionaries likewise need boldness. Sometimes they are in situations where they stand before government officials or people who have great influence who can either do them great help, give them great help, give them great aid, or they could do them great harm. Paul says I pray that I may open my mouth boldly, pray for me that I may open my mouth boldly to speak as I ought to speak. Thirdly, pray and you hear Pastor Ken talk about this all the time, pray for the success of the Word. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 1 he talks about praying that the Word of the Lord would have free course. that the Word of the Lord would have free course. That means that the Word of God would go forth and would run swiftly, that would be glorified. Brethren, pray for us that the Word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified, that God would just bless His Word, that God would remove the hindrances to the Word. You know, many places around the world, there is great satanic spiritual opposition to the Word of God. You go to some places where there's a lot of idol worship, you will see this. Sometimes the missionaries in these places will talk about the feeling of oppression in these countries. It's something that they can almost feel and sense when they're in that country for a while. Because Satan is hindering the preaching of the word of God. The parable of the sower and the seed. that was referenced this morning, the seed is sown but the birds of the air come around and snatch the seed away before it can take root. Satan is always eager to hinder the preaching of the Word of God and the obedience to the Word of God. He may do that through distractions. He may do that through just outright satanic opposition. He may do that in just a number of ways. In many parts of the world, Christians are being persecuted. Christians are being killed. We are all praying for the situation going on in Afghanistan right now. we need to pray that the word of God would have free course, that it would run swiftly, that it would go, that as they preach, God would use that word preached and shared to accomplish his purposes and accomplish his will. Something we sometimes forget to pray for, and that is political stability. 1 Timothy, chapter two, Paul says, I therefore exhort that all supplications, prayers, intercessions, giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Pray for kings and all who are in authority. Why? So that we may live a life that is quiet and peaceable in all godliness and reverence. God says this is good because he desires all men to be saved. Do you realize that when there is political instability in a country, it is oftentimes a great hindrance to the preaching of the gospel? people are running for their life, they're usually not thinking about listening to a message or listening to something from the Word of God. They might be at the death's door, they might be praying in desperation. But typically, you know, in a country where there's political instability, it is very difficult to do ministry. What's happened in Myanmar is a great example of that. The college and seminary that is over there has pretty much had to shut down. Many of the churches are limited in how they can meet. Many of them can't even meet now because public gatherings aren't being allowed. Some of the pastors are dying and have been killed in the unrest. It's just, it's a horrible situation. It's a horrible situation. I remember back a number of years ago, shortly after I had come here to International Baptist Missions, the situation in Kenya was such that because of the elections and arguing about was it fair or not, and we would never do that here in this country, would we? Because of the arguing over the fairness of the election, there were riots, and actually it was a tribal issue where some of these people were running in the streets with machetes and chasing people and killing people. And I remember at the time, our churches pretty much were closed for a week or two. And then they began to meet quietly, go to church, and then they would go back home because it was too dangerous to be out. When there is political instability in a country, oftentimes one of the results of that is a failure to be able to do ministry. So be praying for our missionaries. pray for political stability in their country. Some of you have seen notices from Brother Babalola, Brother Shea, and very concerned with the political situation there in Nigeria and the unrest that is there and the terrorists who are being allowed to roam the streets and kidnap and murder and doing all the things that they're doing. With all that's happening in Afghanistan, he said recently, some of their officials, public officials, are very happy with what they see happening, with the Taliban taking over. That's what they'd like to see happen in Nigeria. Obviously, if that happens, that is going to have a great impact on the ability to preach the gospel and for missionaries to stay there and to preach the gospel. So pray for the political situation political stability in countries. Here's in us something that we oftentimes do think of, and that is protection from persecution. Paul talks about in Romans chapter 15 and verse 30, he says, Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me. that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints. And then in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 2 he talks about, he asks prayer that he may be delivered from unreasonable men. He says that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for all have not faith. We have a responsibility to pray for our missionaries, that God would protect them, that God would preserve them in the midst of sometimes serious persecution. We don't understand persecution in this country. Now, we may here someday, sooner than we'd like to think, but many places in the world, to be a witness for Christ is to put your life on the line. It may be persecution from the government. It may be persecution from a religious group that doesn't like their territory being infringed upon. It may be persecution that just comes from society in general because they don't like your message, what you're preaching. But oftentimes our missionaries are in situations where they really are in danger from either a government or some other group of either being kicked out of the country, being arrested, or some other issue. It could be just simple harassment. I've been in many countries, traveling with our missionary, and they see me in the car, and the police, that's almost an automatic signal to pull you over. because here's a foreigner, he's probably got money, we can shake him down a little bit. We can tell him there's an international fee for traveling through here, there's a visitor fee for traveling through here. I mean I've heard these stories. One police officer Someone was telling me about a police officer stopping them and said there's a visitor tax here in the country. You need to pay that visitor tax. Visitor tax was money the officer wanted to get. I was with Solomon one time in India and we got pulled over. I mean how in all that traffic can you identify me in the car to pull me over. But somehow we were close enough to the officer. He pulled us over. Of course he and Solomon are talking quite animated in Telugu. I didn't know what they were saying, I was getting the gist of it because he kept stretching his hand out. I know what that meant in any language, it was put money here. And finally Solomon pulled out what I believe was about on 50 rupees, which is not even a dollar in our currency, and gave it to him and the officer turned around in disgust and walked off. So I said to Solomon, what was that about? He said, oh, he just wanted a bribe. And first of all, he wanted what basically amounted to $100. And Solomon said, no, I'm not going to give you that much money. And then he just kept negotiating back and forth. And the guy was saying, I'm out here in the dust and smoke. And you've got this foreigner there. He's got money. You should get it from him. And Solomon said, no, I'm not going to give you that money. So finally, just to get out of there, Solomon gave him basically the dollar just so we could get out of there and go. This is something our missionaries face and are in danger of facing sometimes on an ongoing basis. Pray that God would protect them from persecution. Something we don't often think about are personal trials that missionaries go through. Interesting story, an interesting example in the book of Philippians chapter one. The apostle here talks about the fact that, of course, he is writing this from prison. And in Philippians chapter 1 beginning at verse 15, he says here, let me go back to verse 12, he says, I want you to know brethren that the things which have happened to me actually have turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. So that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ and most of the brethren in the Lord having become confident by my chains are much more bold to speak the word without fear. So because of my imprisonment, the gospel is going forth. Praise the Lord. Some indeed preach Christ, even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill, the former preaching Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my chains, but the latter out of love, knowing I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and this I rejoice, yes, I will rejoice. Paul is saying, as he is in prison, rather than getting encouragement from many of the believers, which he did, he also knew that there was a large segment of these so-called preachers who were preaching Christ to add affliction to my chains. In other words, they were doing it to kind of get even with him or to exalt themselves, to use his situation as as an advantage to promote themselves. Many times our missionaries are in situations where they can't put it in their prayer letter. Let's be honest about it. They can't write it in their prayer letter, but they may be accused of something unjustly. There may be a situation where maybe it could be just a cultural issue within the church, could be just something between a spiritual issue with an individual there in the church or a family in the church that is just very, very difficult. I've many times counseled our missionaries in situations where they are facing something that frankly is very discouraging. They have labored, they have served there for years, they've seen this church grow, in some cases, you know, maybe an area that's very difficult to build a church, and somebody makes some accusation against them that, you know, turns three or four people of the church angry at them and leave. Well, you know, Tri-City, you know, we've got 500 people here on a regular basis, around 500 people, and, you know, 10 people leave, that's sad, but, It doesn't probably change the direction of the church or impact the church that much. But if you have a church of 30 people, that's taking you 10, 15 years to build, and 10 people leave, that's discouraging. And sometimes it's for no reason at all. I mean, it's simply because somebody made up a story about them to make themselves feel better or to get them out of a bad situation or an awkward situation. it's a personal trial that they're struggling with and they really they just can't tell everybody about it and you may never know about it. I will pretty much guarantee most of our missionaries have struggled with some issues like that where it's a conflict on the field maybe a conflict with another missionary. Maybe a conflict with, maybe with our mission board. Maybe that's a conflict with another national pastor in the area. And it's discouraging. It can damage their ministry if not handled right, correctly. So pray for them, that God will give them grace and wisdom in times of personal trial. Pray for their health. Paul talks about in Philippians chapter two, about Epaphroditus. He says, in verse 25, chapter two, he says, my brother, my fellow worker, my fellow soldier, but your messenger and one who ministered to my need, since he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. For indeed he was sick almost to the death, but God had mercy on him and not only on him, but on me also, as I should have sorrow upon sorrow. Paul knew that for a helper or co-laborer to be sick would be a great loss to him. Physical health on the mission field is a serious issue. Many times our missionaries are laboring in areas that are not the most sanitary, not the cleanest, not the healthiest of foods. Pollution could be an issue. Smog could be an issue. Malaria could be an issue, yellow fever could be an issue, and on and on we could go of different, sometimes diseases born by mosquitoes, sometimes diseases that are in the water, sometimes things that are just in the food. I've been to many of these countries and sometimes seen food hanging in the middle of the day, sometimes all day, out in the sunshine, no refrigeration, nothing sanitary, flies going all over it, and then I'll take a piece of that meat, take it home and eat it. I won't, but many people will, and most of our missionaries won't. not always knowing what the source of your food is, and leading to problems with health. It's never, there never is a good time to get sick. None of us enjoy getting sick, having to go to the doctor, having to go to the hospital. But to do it in a foreign country, to do it somewhere where you do not know the language, I remember some missionaries I knew who she was actually a doctor. She was a doctor in a hospital, major hospital in this in this major city overseas. And when she was expecting and time came to have her baby, she made sure they got to the United States. Because she says, I, I work there. I know what goes on. I do not want to be there. Okay. Because The health issues can be so severe. It could be the issue that your health issue is not addressed correctly. It could be that they just maybe don't have the resources or don't have the expertise, so you may have to travel somewhere else. It could be the sanitary conditions. In the hospital, I've heard stories of different places that you just shake your head like, wow, that really is incredible. But this goes on on a regular basis and sometimes your missionaries are in places like that where you need to pray for their health. comes to mind obviously George and Lexi who've had to come back from Kenya because of Lexi's health issue. Pray for her. Pray that the Lord will use the doctors here to be able to sort out the issue, figure out what's going on with her so they can get back to the field. That's discouragement. I mean, God's blessing the ministry. God's doing some tremendous things there through their ministry and then to be set aside because of a health issue. Pray for your missionaries. Pray pray for their health. And then in Philippians 4, again, verses 14 through 19, the issue of physical needs. comes up. He says in chapter 4 verse 14 of Philippians, nevertheless you have done well that you shared of my distress. Now you know Philippians, now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel when I departed from Macedonia no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only. For even on Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities. Not that I seek the gift but that I seek fruit that abounds to your account. Indeed, I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. And my God shall supply all your need, according to his riches, in glory by Christ Jesus. Paul understood the need. And Paul said, I'm content in whatever state I'm in. He knew how to abound. He knew how to suffer need. But the fact is that Ministry and your missionaries need to have their physical needs. They need a place to live. They need to have food to eat. They need to have money to travel. They need to have funds to do ministry. Sometimes that's a struggle. We've had struggles in some countries getting funds in because of government opposition. We've dealt with that a few times just very recently. They need those physical funds. They need to have those physical needs met. Shortly after being involved with the ministry here at IBM, I took a trip, I believe it was to India. And it was in November, late November, it was near Christmas, it was starting to get into the Christmas season. And I flew back and flying back, we went through Heathrow Airport in London. And I had some money in my pocket. I think I had about $70 of actual U.S. dollars in my pocket. Now, what I did is a dumb thing to do, but I was a newbie. I didn't know any better way to do it at the time. I thought to myself, it would be really neat to get just a few souvenirs, maybe some Christmas gifts here, small little things I can get for my kids or something. And so, I knew everything there was in British Pounds, so rather than using a credit card or using something like that that would do free money exchange, I went and I exchanged my $70 for British Pounds. $70, at that time the exchange rate was about two to one or something like that. My $70, when I got back was about, I think it was about 32 British Pounds. I mean, I literally felt like I had been robbed. I almost stood there and cried. Like, I've been robbed. Okay, after I got myself together, I went back into the store and I looked. I looked at a couple things there. I remember there was this little teapot sitting there, a British thing, a little teapot. And it had a little seven on it, and I'm thinking to myself, $7. Okay, well, that's a pretty reasonable price. It's about what I would pay in the States, $7 for something like that. Then I realized, no, that's not $7. That's seven pounds. So not only had my money been cut in half, but the price of everything was double. That's what many of your missionaries face every day. Sometimes people look at the amount of money a missionary gets, and they're like, man, they're living like kings over there. No, they're not. Because the exchange rate takes that and completely turns it upside down. So what may sound like a lot of money, oftentimes isn't very much money at all. We have missionaries, the Yuans for example, live in the most expensive city in the world, Hong Kong. It goes back and forth. They fight over this between them and Singapore to see who can be the most expensive. The last time I checked it was Hong Kong that was the most expensive. That may change tomorrow. They're both up there in the top one or two every year. It costs money. They don't have a car. You know why? Because it's too expensive to have a car. Because you have to pay for a place to park it. You have to pay, just if you could even afford it, it's astronomical. And then you have to pay for a place to park it, and you have to pay usually a tax to drive it. I joke with our friends in Singapore that they have to pay for the very air that they breathe. I mean, if you go to certain parts of the city, you're taxed. They have these little things on the car, automatically, you know, deducts money from your account. One of them was telling me one time, one of the missionaries was telling me that there's a radio tax. You turn your radio on, and there is a tax to, you know, over the airwaves for the radio signals that come to your car. It's like, how do you live here? I mean, it's incredibly expensive. Many of our missionaries face that. Pray for them that God would meet their physical needs. And then pray for their personal safety. Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 1. He just gives a little bit of his own testimony in verse 8, beginning of verse 8. He says, We do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, that we despaired even of life. Yes, we have the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death and does deliver us in whom we trust that he will deliver us, still deliver us, you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf. Paul said, I got situations where, I mean, it was, I was suffering to death. I almost lost my life. there are serious situations our missionaries get themselves into. And, you know, I remember one of our missionaries talking about being on a bus. I think it was in India, telling the story, and how the bus, as they're going through these mountain roads, the bus was going too fast and swerved and almost went off the road, and the driver squeals on the brakes, and as they get closer and closer to the cliff, right as they get to the edge, the bus stops. And they said, I expect it to open my eyes and be in eternity. And said, I'm looking down over a cliff and seeing enough to really scare the daylights out of you. I came that close. Driving in some of these countries. Our missionaries, I love it. Our missionaries in Kenya, Brother Messler and Josiah, and I don't know if George does this when he's over there or not, probably does. Every time they get into a car, they pray. That really struck me almost comical first time it happened. I thought, is it really that bad? Then I drove with them. I was praying too. I was praying while they were driving. Yes, it's that bad. I mean, just to be on the road is dangerous. I was in India with a group of pastors. We were crammed into this van. and we were barreling down the road. Now, you have to understand in India, the way you pass is you don't, you know, there's not a passing lane, you wait and you go around. You basically just honk the horn, and that's kind of a signal for the person that you're, and they're always honking the horn. And you go through. Now, as we're doing this on the road, we're going about 60 miles an hour, it's a two-lane road, And as we're passing this car, I see this other car coming at me, at us. And he just kind of moves over to this side, this car moves over this side, and we go in the middle. No one slows down a bit. I am like terrified. I'm like, I'm gonna die. This is incredible. And so we do this, you know, after a while, just kind of don't even look. And As we're driving down, we make one of these passes, and as we pass, we hear this loud bang! Everybody in the car, they were kind of asleep, everybody jumps up. What was that? What was that? I don't know. What was that? Looking around. Well, we seem to be okay. Keep on going. We get down the road for a few miles, and we stop to go get something to drink, and they get out and inspect the car. And they come back into the car, and they say, oh, it was nothing. He says, that guy that passed us, he just hit our rear view mirror when he passed. No big deal. I'm thinking about, so we were going about 60, 65 miles an hour, both of us. And we passed so closely that his rear view mirror hit our rear view mirror, and they said, that's no big deal. I'm like, these people are crazy. But this is life in many of these countries. Pray for their personal safety. Now you have issues with, of course, physical danger, robberies, physical attacks, could be a terrorist attack, could be other things that you have to be very, very conscious of. Pray for their personal safety. And then last of all, pray for souls to be saved. Romans 10.1, Paul said, my prayer, for Israel is that they might be saved. That's why they're there. That God would use their ministry to bring men and women to Jesus Christ. You know, oftentimes when a missionary comes to our church, when we take a missionary on for support, we do all the normal, necessary, we say all the right spiritual things to them. Well, brothers, we'll be praying for you when we go. We'll be praying for you. But do we really? Do we really pray for them? As a church, we had missionaries that we supported, and our missionary support was rather haphazard. One month we sent out support, next month we, oh, we forgot about it, we'll send it out next month. And then this month, okay, we'll support them. Maybe two or three months go by before we get around to thinking about it. Okay, we'll do that. We'll send their support. We as a church, and you if you found out about that, would be rightly indignant. That's horrible. We shouldn't do that to our missionaries. We should, we promised to support them. We should send them their regular support. They should get that support. They should get it in a timely fashion. We shouldn't be skipping months here and there just for getting it to the Senate. That's horrible. And it is. But we do that all the time. With their prayer support. Because we're busy. because it's out of mind, because we don't know what to pray for, because we just feel inadequate, we just, we fail to pray. The Apostle Paul asked the church, brethren, pray for us. You know, I think without exception, all of our missionaries, if you ask them, what can we do for you, they would say, brethren, Pray for us. It's a spiritual battle they're in. Sometimes in areas that are very dark spiritually. Sometimes in areas where there is great opposition. Sometimes in areas that may not be safe. Sometimes in areas that may be dangerous to their health. Brethren, pray for us. Pray for these things. Pray for opportunities to preach the gospel. Pray for open doors. Pray that the word of God would go forth swiftly. Pray that God would bring souls to Christ. Let me challenge you tonight to pray. Pray for our missionaries. Let's bow our heads in prayer.