Missionary of the Month - October
Our missionaries of the month for October are a couple serving on a Native American reservation. For their safety, we cannot disclose their names or the tribe they are ministering to. Here is the message we received about their missionary work:
We have been on the mission field for three years now. We started ministering on the reservation six months before lockdowns started in April 2020. This gave our ministry the opportunity to become a ministry of prayer for nearly a year. We went from serving to prayer, and we were no longer directed by our good intentions, but by the Lord.
From the beginning the Lord showed us the necessity of prayer, walking by faith, the Holy Spirit, and the teaching of the word of God to combat the strongholds we encounter: alcohol, drugs, marijuana use (among adults and teens), Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (lifelong disabilities resulting from alcohol exposure in the womb), lying, stealing, hopelessness, rape, molestation (all ages, male and female), high school dropouts, suicide, and joblessness.
The ministry is mostly a one-on-one ministry. Church attendance is very low. A large church turnout would be about 30 people, and Bible Studies are frequently zero to three people at a time. Part of our ministry is teaching an evening Bible Study and doing handyman work. I teach a daytime Bible Basics class and Sunday School. We serve under a pastor whose ministry is to the alcoholics, drug addicts, and the homeless. We haven't seen a lot of fruit (we’re at the seed planting stage), but we know the Holy Spirit is at work.
Prayer requests:
Hearts would be pierced by the Lord
The people would fall in love with Jesus and surrender all to follow Him
That people would be delivered from addictions
We need another two Sunday School teachers. Right now, there’s only two of us. One class is 3-8 year old’s, and the other class is 9-17 year old’s.
Praise reports:
The Lord brought us a Sunday School teacher.
We have a few locals serving the Lord alongside us. During the lockdowns people were too afraid to come to church.