The dangerous section of downtown São Paulo, Brazil, is known globally by two infamous descriptives: “the trash-bin” and “crackland.” The amount of drugs, prostitution and human suffering in the hundreds of buildings and hotels in the area is difficult to quantify.
A few years ago partnership between the Brazilian Foursquare missions department and Foursquare Missions International (FMI) allowed urban missionaries Jair and Nildes to move there to lead a ministry and training center in the middle of extreme hopelessness. Now there is daily outreach, training and service bringing hope to the area, and young people arrive from throughout the nation for training and discipleship. As I visited them last week, I prayed for myself and us as a family. Please join with me in prayer that we would see a great increase of laborers in a harvest and mission that is increasingly characterized by kingdom responses to…
- Poverty and suffering – Over one billion people barely survive daily, living in extreme poverty around the world. Haiti has helped bring this great suffering to the forefront, and may each of us continue to be used to bring transformation and redemption to the one billion despised people around the world whom our Father loves so much.
- Cities – In his book, A Theology as Big as a City, Ray Bakke mentions there are 1,250 references in the Bible to cities, a fact that indicates our Lord’s passion to touch them. Our God loves the world’s urban centers! May we be Jesus in them.
- Cross-cultural opportunities – As we observe multiple modern-day “diasporas” with multiple ethnic groups moving into cities around the world, doors are opening in so many unexpected places. May His grace and our missional Foursquare DNA help us reach beyond natural human boundaries to touch, heal and expand His kingdom.
Prayer Focus: May God open my eyes all week long to see unexpected harvest opportunities and sensitize my heart to walk through doors that He is opening. We thank the Lord for the over 6,500 Foursquare churches planted around the world last year, as our family is touching the poor, the cities and the nations. Yet may we not rest, but answer “yes” to the Lord’s invitation to go unto a harvest of even greater opportunities, preaching and demonstrating together the good news of the kingdom!
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By: Jonathan Hall, director of Foursquare Missions International
