UBC Mission & Mercy Ministry Update - 2023, Issue 5
Prayer Focus: Asia
This month we will focus our Everywhere prayer on the lost peoples of Asia. Asia is a very large geographical area with diverse cultures and beliefs. According to Pew Research, the latest religious affiliation breakdown is:
Islam: 28.3%
Hindu: 25.8%
Buddhism: 11%
Christianity: ~6.5%
Unaffiliated: 19%
Some of the countries in South Asia, (including India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan) are approximately 94% unreached. The spread of communism in the 20th century had a large impact on this continent as it prohibited religion and promoted atheistic ideology. Today it is still difficult for the Gospel to be shared and persecution abounds. UBC supports 3 couples both financially and prayerfully who are making HIM known in 3 different countries/areas within Asia.
Prayers:
The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few, therefore pray earnestly to the LORD of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest in Asia (Matthew 9:37-38).
A sower went out to seed (Matthew 13:1-9). Let us pray for the LORD of the harvest to prepare the soil of men’s hearts to receive the seed of the Gospel so it takes root and grows in Asia.
We are sent out as sheep among wolves (Matthew 10:16). Let us pray for boldness and physical protection for our brothers and sisters serving in Asia.
Put on the full armor of GOD (Ephesians 6:10-20). It is not IF we will face spiritual warfare, but when. Let us pray for those serving the LORD in Asia to dress daily in GOD’s armor for protection against the evil one.
The following links provide more information:
Missionary Spotlight:
“H” and “L” in South Asia
UBC recently began supporting missionaries H and L, an indigenous couple serving in South Asia with their two children. H and L have a true heart for the Lord and for sharing the Gospel with their people. They serve in many areas of ministry including church planting, evangelism outreach, discipling new believers, equipping new church leaders in a residential discipleship program, leading house churches in the villages, and creating new fellowship groups.
Along with these evangelistic ministries, H and L also seek to serve others through mercy ministries which includes running 32 preschools for disadvantaged village children, providing adult literacy classes for women and computer training for young adults. They also provide crisis and disaster response in the case of floods and fires, and life skills training for disadvantaged men and women.
Jim Corbin, Director of Missions and Mercy Ministries, and Lindsay Tucholski of the Core Mission Team were able to connect with H and L last month via Zoom. They were blessed to hear the couple’s testimony and passion for serving those around them, both those native to the land and to refugees residing in their area. H and L, as well as the Mission Team are excited about this new partnership!
Prayer Requests:
H and L have a team going on a mission trip to a part of their country where two million people have no access to the Bible or gospel books. Pray for God’s protection and for wisdom for the team during this time.
H and L’s younger daughter will soon begin her schooling. Pray that God will provide for her needs.
For the local believers to continue to grow in their knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Recent Mission Highlight:
Paraguay Medical Mission Trip
In March, Jeff Robinson led an ABWE medical mission trip to Paraguay where his team partnered with a local church to run clinics for six days. Each clinic was conducted in partnership with a growing church in that area. Every patient seen received a one-on-one presentation of the gospel from a Paraguayan believer. 311 people accepted Christ as their Savior during the 6 days! The team provided the local pastors with the contact information for each new believer and all those who expressed interest in hearing more.
This was Jeff’s ninth trip to Paraguay but for Megan Crum, it was a brand new adventure. Megan shared: “After praying for months on how God wanted to use me as a new nurse, the Lord put on my heart to reach out to UBC asking for a mission opportunity. This trip with ABWE had a need for one nurse and it was just open doors for the entire application process and I couldn’t have been more thankful.
This trip brought new motivation and love for what I do and why I do it. Working in healthcare can be full of difficult experiences, but being able to answer prayers and care for those in need gives me confidence that this is where God called me to be. I was welcomed with open and loving arms by everyone I came in contact with, and I was able to have some incredible gospel conversations with the local people in Paraguay.
Being a part of this experience showed me the true meaning of caring for people physically, mentally, and spiritually. I’m beyond thankful for being able to serve with this team while finding a new appreciation for the culture and serving with medical missions. I look forward to future opportunities to learn and serve as God leads me.”
Opportunity:
Pray for Your Neighbors Using BlessEveryHome
BlessEveryHome is a free resource that can help you be more strategic about praying for your neighbors. You can create an account using the web-based version https://blesseveryhome.com/ubc or by downloading the app.
You will receive a customizable prayer list and a prayer map of your actual neighborhood so that you can begin to know and pray for your neighbors by name. You will also receive daily reminder emails featuring a prayer prompt and the next five neighbors to pray for that day. There are additional features that allow you to track interactions with your neighbors, keep a prayer journal and connect with UBC’s account to share your progress.
The vision of BlessEveryHome is that “every home in America would be adopted by neighboring Christians who are committed to ministering to them through long-term, pray-care-share lifestyles.”
They suggest using the B.L.E.S.S. acronym as a guide:
PRAY
B - Body: Pray for good health, protection, and strength.
L - Labor: Pray for their work experience and their financial security.
E - Emotional: Pray for emotional health and a good quality of life; for joy, peace, hope.
S - Social: Pray for their relationships with their family and friends.
S - Spiritual: Pray for their salvation, that they will come to faith in Jesus Christ.
CARE - SHARE
B - Begin with prayer. We want you to ask, ‘God how do you want me to bless the people in the places you’ve sent me to?’
L - Listen. Don’t talk, but listen to people, their struggles, their pains, in the places God sent you.
E - Eat. You can’t just check this off. It’s not quick. You have to have a meal with people or a cup of coffee. It builds relationships.
S - Serve. If you listen with people and you eat with people they will tell you how to love them and you’ll know how to serve them.
S - Story. When the time is right, now we talk and we share the story of how Jesus changed our life.
Interested in going on a mission trip this year? The following UBC-sponsored trips are open to UBC members and regular attenders.
Contact Jim Corbin jim.corbin@ubcbeavercreek.com or Aldin Falfulovic aldin.fafulovic@ubcbeavercreek.com for more information.
To read past Mission Updates or to get more information about UBC on Mission, visit www.ubcbeavercreek.com/mission.