“Give…”
-From Matthew 6:11
What a beautiful word.
“Give” is what God does for us. He gives us breath, salvation, hope, strength, purpose, and pretty much every other good thing you can think of with the mind He also gave us. In the context of this verse, He even gives us the daily bread needed to sustain the very life He has already given us.
So what is our response to these abundant gifts handed to us by God? That’s pretty easy – we give, too. And one of the easiest and most profound things we can offer to God is gratitude. As this month of Thanksgiving intersects with the celebration of our 25 year anniversary, we are going to do just that. We are taking a slight pause from our normal prayer guide and will be focusing on saying “Thank You!” to God and celebrating what He has done over these last 25 years.
Just take a look at the above photo. That is a Mongolian being baptized by my (Zach) dad and Rocky Van Hoose in Nicaragua many years ago. Yes, a Mongolian being baptized in Nicaragua. And who is that Mongolian? A translator who came to Christ through our founder, Marc Ivanchak. This man was also incredibly instrumental in birthing our ministry to children in his home country. Interwoven stories of grace like this one are innumerable and we will never know the full impact of their rippling effect this side of eternity.
We will be asking God to give us that daily bread in the months ahead but first, we have some pretty major thanks to give for the bread He has already placed on our table.
For Our Past Leaders
About:
This one is easy. What would WEGO be without our founder Marc Ivanchak and previous key leaders like Renee Garcia, Tina Schantzen, Robin Wagner, and Judy Guzman? Or our missionaries and staff members like Carol Krug, Aaron Walker, Stan/Tamera Johnson, Susan Hartman, and Melissa Munson? Or many other previous leaders and volunteers? This organization lives today because of the blood, sweat, tears, and sacrifice of these faithful saints. They plowed fields, threw down seeds, and prayed for rain to fall from above. We are who we are today because each of them gave their “Yes” and obediently followed Jesus wherever He led.
How You Can Pray:
1) Will you celebrate and thank God for each of these souls? Say their names. Praise God for their investment.
2) Will you ask God to richly bless each of them now in their lives, families, careers, and in the good works that God has for them now?
For Every Trip Participant
About:
This is a very long list of people we will never be able to fully name. From our first trip made up of Cocoa Beach High School band members serving in Belize to the hundreds (if not thousands) of people who have served on the ground with WEGO in Nicaragua, our current ministries today are still reaping rewards from the investments these trips made in our communities around the world. Countless trip participants sacrificed finances, vacation weeks, and occasional stomach health to serve Jesus with us in over ten countries over our 25 year history. These teams served the lost and hurting through evangelism, pastoral training, sports, VBS, medical/dental care, food distribution, and a variety of other ministries.
How You Can Pray:
1) Thank God for these teams and praise Him for their obedient sacrifice
2) Will you specifically pray that God brings their time on the field with WEGO back to their minds? May they not remember WEGO but the work that God did in and through them overseas.
3) As always, we pray that week-long trips last forever. Will you pray that God continually uses the seeds planted, even 25 years ago, to grow eternal fruit in the lives of the souls our teams ministered to?
For God’s Perfect Provision
About:
Goodness, do we have some stories to tell. Our founder, Marc, recently told us about a time when Glory Mansions was $100 short for their mortgage. He opened the back door of the office and a crisp Benjamin was laying on top of the welcome mat…in the wind…not moving…just asking to be picked up and spent. Or let’s go back to the very first WEGO mission trip. Our leaders were praying together in the office, asking God to provide the needed money to rent a plane that would get them to an unreached area in Belize. As they were praying, a complete and unlikely stranger walked in and handed over an envelope filled with $8,000 cash. This is just the iceberg’s tip. WEGO hasn’t operated for 25 years because of slick marketing campaigns or successful budget forecasting. Every penny we’ve spent has been a miracle given straight from God’s pocket.
How You Can Pray:
1) How can we not praise God for this daily bread?! Thank Him, be in awe of His Hand, and celebrate His provision for 25 YEARS!
2) Will you say a prayer of blessing for our many donors, even the ones that accidentally dropped a $100 bill on the ground?! May they know that their generosity was not in vain nor wasted. May God give them back a thousand times what they have given through us.
For the Work of the Ministry
About:
Paul tells us in Ephesians that God prepared all of our good works in advance. For the people of WEGO, some of those works have names: Glory Mansions, New Hope Children Ministries, Hands of Mercy Counseling, Hogar de Gloria, International Christian Seminary, and a variety of other ministries throughout the years. Addicted women were reborn as daughters of the King, Ukrainian pastors were equipped with the Word, shattered lives became beautifully whole vessels of grace, and homeless kids were literally pulled out of frozen sewers and given a cozy place to feast at God’s table. We will never know the true impact of God’s work over these last 25 years but what we do know is enough fuel to praise Him for a few lifetimes.
How You Can Pray:
1) How can we not praise God for what HE has done?! Join with us in celebrating His work among us.
2) Though we were able to minister to different people during specific seasons of their lives, the work of God is a life-long thing. Will you pray that souls touched by WEGO will reach maturity in and through Jesus Christ?
For Salvation!
About:
WEGO was birthed with a singular vision: to reach the unreached with the love of Jesus. Everything we do and have ever done over these last two and half decades has been to accomplish this task. We were founded with the holy discontent that people dying without ever knowing the love of their Creator is our world’s greatest tragedy. To that end, we have shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world with an immeasurable amount of people through a variety of different means. We will never know the true fruit of this labor until heaven, as it should be anyway. WEGO has never been about stats or figures. It’s about faithfulness and letting God work through our obedience. We just can’t wait to meet the multitude of saints in heaven who found Jesus, in part, because someone from WEGO put Him on display. That’ll be a fun day.
How You Can Pray:
1) The call of the great commission is not simply conversion, but discipleship. Will you pray for the souls who have responded in faith and put their trust in Jesus? Pray they continue to grow in Christ and stay connected to a local body of believers.
2) Will you stop and pray right now for the many people who have heard the good news of Jesus through our ministries but chose not to follow Him? Will you pray that the seeds planted will bloom into a forest, that even conversations from 25 years ago will be brought back to people’s hearts and minds and lead them to respond to Christ’s invitation?