Since attending Urbana Students Missions Conference in 1993, God’s Spirit has placed upon my head, heart, and hands a passion to pray for and engage with “the nations” in the context of higher education. As such I have appreciated in depth resources such as Operation World, a copy of which I picked up — with a number of other books — at the huge Urbana bookstore 🙂 I wonder how many editions I have collected through the years . . .
So when InterVarsity Press shared with InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministry staff their release of Pray for the World in an Urbana year, I couldn’t help but invite you to join me in prayer for the nations as we journey toward the upcoming missions conference (December 27 – 31).
- Reminder: With the Urbana15 early registration deadline just over a month away (June 30), please review the focused opportunities offered by InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries. If scholarship money would be of benefit, please connect with your InterVarsity campus staff member and/or your local congregation. If your campus does not have an InterVarsity campus staff member, then please contact me to explore additional possibilities.
- Bonus: Stay tuned for details regarding a special opportunity for Emerging Scholars which I just confirmed today 🙂 Announcement with link coming next week.
What’s unique about Pray for the World? It’s an abridged version of Operation World (7th edition) with prayer points focused upon the response of Christian leaders to the question:
How should the body of Christ throughout the world be praying for your country?
As recommended, IÂ keep it beside me not only for daily prayer, various prayer gatherings, and those whom I meet on campus (for across the globe), but also for responding to situations which come to my attention through news and various online platforms (including emails/email lists).
Today, please take a few minutes to join me in prayer for God’s work in Syria. The below material is drawn from a PowerPoint resource available on the Urbana website. Periodic invitations to Pray for the World will be posted on ESN’s blog, Facebook Wall, and Twitter account in the coming days, weeks, months. . . .
- Protests of 2011 led to a bloody civil war. Pray for an end to the violence and for solutions.
- Pray for Syrian Christian minorities. Some radical Muslim groups want to erase Christianity from Syria.
- God used the faith and devotion of the early Church in Antioch (in Syria). Pray for a return of Syrian evangelicals to their homeland.
- Unreached peoples to pray for: The Sunni Arab majority (most have never heard the gospel), the Alawite minority (who have influence in the army and politics), and the millions of Syrian refugees abroad.
— Taken from Pray for the World edited by Molly Wall. Copyright © 2015 by Molly Wall and Operation World. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515, USA. www.ivpress.com.
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About the author:
Tom enjoys daily conversations regarding living out the Biblical Story with his wife Theresa and their four girls, around the block, at Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ Church (where he teaches adult electives and co-leads a small group), among healthcare professionals as the Northeast Regional Director for the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA), and in higher ed as a volunteer with the Emerging Scholars Network (ESN). For a number of years, the Christian Medical Society / CMDA at Penn State College of Medicine was the hub of his ministry with CMDA. Note: Tom served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA for 20+ years, including 6+ years as the Associate Director of ESN. He has written for the ESN blog from its launch in August 2008. He has studied Biology (B.S.), Higher Education (M.A.), Spiritual Direction (Certificate), Spiritual Formation (M.A.R.), Ministry to Emerging Generations (D.Min.). To God be the glory!