Pentecost and the Global Day of Prayer

Enjoy this day of prayer as you celebrate with believers worldwide. We hope these 10 Days of 24/7 prayer have been an encouragement. May we all see the Lord's power.

Day 10: going forward

After they watched Jesus ascend into heaven, the disciples gathered in the upper room of the place they were staying in Jerusalem. The Bible says, "They all joined together constantly in prayer." Their time together ended on Pentecost, and our time of constant prayer will also end on Pentecost. The disciples left their upper room and "turned the world upside down". Will we?

Dr. George Verwer's Biola commencement speech (with introduction)

Our own George Verwer, founder of OM and the father of short-term missions, gave the commencement address at Biola University last weekend. The school honored George with an honorary doctorate of divinity last weekend. George was the speaker at both Biola commencement services. Here's his Saturday morning address.

DAY 9: Looking toward the Global Day of Prayer

This Sunday, May 31 is Pentecost and the Global Day of Prayer (GDOP). As we wind down our own 10 Days of prayer and preparation, here's a brief overview of the GDOP. You may want to pass this on to your church and register your own GDOP gathering, where you can join in prayer with the 220 countries participating this year.

Day 8: five missionaries

Focus today on your five missionaries. Lift up any needs they might have and ask the Lord for ways you may help meet those needs.

And remember to keep praying for your 5 missionaries, 5 cities, and 5 countries. Thanks for joining us in prayer.

Day 7: five cities

Which 5 cities did you choose to pray over this week? Remember them now with any Scripture the Lord lays on your heart.

Day 6: five countries

Have you been praying for your five countries this week? Today we remember those and ask for God's spirit to move in each one.

Day 5: remembering

It's Memorial Day here in the States, a day to honor those who have gone before us to give us our freedom. Let us also remember the heroes of the faith who brought the word of God to us and shared with us His sacrificial love.

Day 4: rest

Enjoy this day of worship wherever you are. We offer you this song of praise from South Africa called "I Sikulu", or "God Is Great".



See more international praise music on OM's Heartsounds YouTube channel.

Day 3: confession

We are praying through the Sermon on the Mount during our 10 days of 24/7 prayer. So today, let's read these words of Jesus in Matthew 5:21-48. Then we can ask the Lord to search our hearts and show us where we may have put our own "holiness" over His love for the people around us. Let's confess what He reveals and continue to pray through Matthew 5-7.

That's DOCTOR George Verwer

OM founder George Verwer will be receiving an Honorary Doctor of Divinity tonight and tomorrow from Biola University. You can watch the commencement services live at Biola's site. Tonight's ceremony is for those earning graduate degrees (6pm PDT), tomorrow morning's is for undergrads (9am PDT). George will be the commencement speaker at both ceremonies.

Biola announced they are honoring George Verwer "for his work as a leader in global missions". Honorary degrees at Biola "are awarded by formal action of the Board of Trustees on recommendation by the university president to recognize individuals who have a clear evangelical Christian testimony and have demonstrated significant service and achievement over an extended period of time, which is national or international in nature and is relevant to the mission of Biola University".

That certainly defines our founder's legacy, and we are thrilled to see him honored in this way. However, we're positive that the newly titled Dr. Verwer will still insist you call him George.

Day 2: start with praise

As you enter the 10 days of 24/7 prayer with us, begin by focusing on the Lord and your relationship with Him. Toward that purpose we'd like to share this devotional video which we saw in our Thursday chapel. It's a song called "Awaken Me" from Misty Edwards of the International House of Prayer (IHOP). In the video, she is creating the song spontaneously while leading worship in the IHOP prayer room. It is a beautiful prayer of preparation.

Dr. Ralph Winter

Missiologist Ralph Winter passed away on Wednesday. Dr. Winter was known as an enterprising visionary who began the US Center for World Mission, a campus of sending agencies in Pasadena, California. The Center produces many valuable resources including Mission Frontiers magazine and the International Journal of Frontier Missions. Dr. Winter frequently contributed his insights to both publications, posing great questions for the mission community to answer with their actions. He also started the Perspectives course, an intensive training program that has mobilized many for missions worldwide.

Like OM founder George Verwer, Dr. Winter has always had a heart for mobilization. He often compared the cause of world evangelization to a burning building. Dr. Winter would ask, "which would you rather do -- pour a bucket of water on the fire, or wake up 100 sleeping firemen?" He knew how to wake up firemen. He knew how to mentor and challenge and motivate believers to become global disciple-makers. The kingdom is richer for his life, both here and in eternity.



above: Dr. Ralph Winter talks about the kingdom in a video for the Lausanne Movement.

below:OM founder George Verwer met with Ralph Winter in 2007 and posted this brief interview on his blog.

Day 1: opening prayer walk

This morning we launched our ten days of 24/7 prayer, a time of focusing on the Lord leading up to Pentecost and the Global Day of Prayer on May 31. In today's chapel, musicians, dancers, and worshipers gathered and spent some time praising the Lord together before leaving on a corporate prayer walk.



Ten prayer stations have been set up along the OM USA walking trail for anyone who wants to visit and pray along with us.

Graham Wells, head of OM USA's Global Prayer Ministries, offered a few challenges for this 10-day season of prayer:

• Read Matthew 5-7 daily and pray through it. This is Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and it will be our focus. Look for the kingdom principles Jesus gives.
  
• Tithe your time. There are 210 hours in these 10 days. Graham asks if we can "extravagantly give...a portion of our time to seek Him?"
• Pray daily for 5 nations, 5 cities, and 5 missionaries. Choose any the Lord lays on your heart and commit to those during this prayer time. You may pray through these at the stations on the prayer walk or from your home if you are not here locally.
  

And please tell us how you are praying in the comments section below. What are your 5? Or what insights has the Lord given you in His Word (wherever you are reading). How did it go when you tithed your time? Let us know.

Thanks for praying with us. We are lifting you up as well.

Praying toward Pentecost

Will you pray with us? Tomorrow OM USA is starting 10 days of 24/7 prayer. Our prayer room will be open around the clock through Pentecost, May 31. Come pray for OM, pray for your church or the nations, or just draw nearer to the Lord. We welcome you to join us for chapel Thursday morning from 8:30 - 10:30 for the opening of our 10 day focus, ending in a prayer walk around the campus.

Help us to spread the word!

By adding a simple link to OM USA from your personal blog, your church or organization’s website, you can provide your students, your church members, your friends and family with a direct opportunity to get involved in what God is doing around the globe through OM. Also, by linking to our web page, you are helping us to reach even more Christians and challenging them to participate in the Greatest Commission.

Choose the area that fits best with your organization: short-term missions, long-term opportunities, prayer and more. We've given you the code, below. Thank you for helping us by linking to our site!


<a href="http://omusa.org/go/short-term/">Short term mission trips: OM USA</a>
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Short term mission trips: OM USA

<a href="http://omusa.org/go/long-term/">Long term missions: OM USA</a>
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Long term missions: OM USA

<a href="http://omusa.org/volunteer/">Christian volunteer opportunities: OM USA</a>
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Christian volunteer opportunities: OM USA

<a href="http://omusa.org/pray/">Pray for the world: OM USA</a>
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Pray for the world: OM USA

<a href="http://omusa.org/give/">Give to world missions: OM USA</a>
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Give to world missions: OM USA

<a href="http://omusa.org/go/custom-trips/">Christian internships: OM USA</a>
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Christian internships: OM USA

<a href="http://omusa.org/">Operation Mobilization: OM USA</a>
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Operation Mobilization: OM USA

Approximate 2002 AD Global Mission Statistics

(IN PROCESS 07-17-'02)

(1) World Population: 6.204 BILLION PEOPLE

33% of earth's people include Christians of all kinds.
40% of earth's people are reached (or evangelized) non-Christians.
27% of earth's people are unreached (i.e.unevangelized) non-Christians.

(2) Population of Major Religions Plus Subgroups of Special Interest to Christians

2.05 BILLION - Christians of all kinds
1.24 BILLION - Muslims
932 million - Nonreligious and Atheists
837 million - Hindus
368 million - Buddhists
234 million - Tribals
340 million - Chinese Folk Religionists
259 million - 0ther Religions
104 million - New Religionists

(3) World Population Growth, 1.22%, Compared with Muslims & Christian Subgroups

Muslims 2.11%, All "Christians" 1.27%, Roman Catholics 1.24%, Evangelicals 1.72%, Protestants 1.36%, "Gt.Com. Christians" 1.44%, Pentecostals and Charismatics 1.87%.

(4) Missionaries

429,000 Missionaries from all branches of Christendom
(Only between 2 and 3% of those missionaries work among unreached peoples.)
140,000 Protestant Missionaries
64,000 Protestant Missionaries From USA

(5) Distribution of Protestant Missionary Funds for Support of Both Foreign Missionaries and the Home Staff who Support the Field Missionaries in the Major Religious Blocks

74% Among Nominal Christians
8% Among Tribal Peoples
6% Among Muslims
4% Among Non-Religious/Atheists
3% Among Buddihists
2% Among Hindus
2% Among Chinese Folk Religions
1% Among Jewish Peoples

(6) Annual Global Church Finance in US Dollars

15,500 Billion - Total Annual Income
300 Billion - Giving to Christian Causes (1.8% of total income)
17 Billion - To Foreign Missions (5.7% of Giving to all Christian causes)
18 Billion - Eccliastical Crime

Target Groups Where Foreign Mission Funds are Spent
~87% goes for work among those already Christian, World C.
~12% for work among already Evangelized but Non-Christian, World B.
~1% for work among still Unevangelized and Unreached people groups, World C.
(or less than 1 penny of every $1,000 earned.)

(7) Of the World's 24,000 Unimax (#)People Groups 10,000 are Still Unreached

3700 Muslim 2700 Hindu 2000 Tribal 1000 Buddhist
400 Other 150 Chinese Folk Religions 50 Non-Religious/Atheist
(1600 have each more than 10,000 persons; 8,400 fewer than 10,000 persons each.)
(A large number of these Unreached Groups live in so called closed countries.)

(8) Average Ministry Cost in U.S. Dollars for Each Convert's Baptism

Mozambique - $1400 (least)
Ethiopia - $2700 (2nd)
Nepal - $3700 (5th)
Cambodia - $4300 (8th)
Average cost for World A - $32,000
for World B ............. $48,000
for World C ............. $490,000
Africa ................... $14,000
Asia ..................... $61,000
Lat. Amer ............... $145,000
Oceania .................. $634,000
Europe ................... $993,000
USA ...................... $1.5 Million!

# A Unimax People is a largest group within which the Gospel can spread as a church planting movement without encountering barriers to understanding or acceptance.

Main Sources:

World Christian Encyclopedia, 2001 and World Evangelization Resource Center, 2002.

—Prepared by Mobilization Division, U.S. Center for World Mission, Pasadena, CA.—

Bryan College short term missions trip

At OM USA we coordinate short term college groups that want to go on a missions trip. One of the groups was a team from Bryan College (Dayton, TN). Over Spring Break they went to Birmingham (UK). OM has a ministry there called LifeHope.
The team served with different churches in the city and worked with children and the elderly. They also visited 1000 homes door-to-door, inviting people for local Easter events.

It is encouraging to read the report from the team and see some of the pictures.

Luther Rice University

This week is the missions conference at Luther Rice Seminary, just outside Atlanta. I have been here before and it is a very special university/seminary. The speakers at their conference are quite often graduates. They are pastors of mission minded churches or are serving on the mission field.

I had the opportunity to speak at a class this morning. It was the Greek class (6 students + 1 prof). I shared stories of what God is doing around the world. The students and the professor asked questions about the work of OM and missions in general.

For the lunch we were invited for a Taste of the Nations. Students and faculty brought home made dishes in to share with everyone. There was food from The South (of the USA), Romania, Nigeria, Japan, Haiti, Scotland and India. Here a look at my plate before I got a Taste of the Nations.

Colorado Christian University

The campus of CCU is not huge, but they've got great energy. I attended CCU's missions week. I also hung out in the Student Union and talked with students. 2 conversations of note: I met a girl who came up to me and asked, "How do you know you are called?" We then talked for 20 minutes on calling, fears, and missions in general. I talked with another guy about miracles. He asked, "Why don't we as Americans see or perform miracles on a more regular basis." Very interesting conversations. I told some of my stories of my time overseas, and it is true that in general, miracles are not common in our American Christianity.




I attended a midnight bowling turnament to raise money for the CCU summer mission trips, then I was invited to tag along with a group going skiing at Copper Mountain. Yippee!