(OVER) 100 WAYS YOU, YOUR FAMILY, AND YOUR CHURCH CAN HELP REACH THE 3 BILLION LIVING IN SPIRITUAL DARKNESS

• Sign up to be on our wonderful, spiritually strategic EPC World Outreach Prayer Network. This is a secure website where our EPC World Outreach global workers can post prayer requests regarding their ministries. Those who sign up to be on our prayer network are then notified immediately of these requests via email, and they can then log on to the website and pray for these requests as soon as they are posted.  
• Almost every presbytery has a group that prays on a regular basis for the unreached people of their Engage 2025 effort. Through your pastor, you can contact your Presbytery Mission Chair or Engage 2025 leader to join that regular prayer group. (For example the Presbytery of the East meets every other Tuesday morning at 8:15am to pray for 5 unreached people groups of the North Caucasus.)
• During your worship services, pray for the missionaries your church supports (by name, if you have permission) and for the over 7,400 people groups in the world with little or no access to the gospel – over 3 billion people! 
• Commit yourselves to corporate prayer and fasting for a clear missions vision and strategy for your particular church. As the church at Antioch fasted and prayed, God set apart Saul and Barnabas to take the gospel to the unreached (Acts 13:1-3). 
• Utilize the inspirational and well produced videos at PrayerCast to pray for nations and people groups with little or no access to the gospel. These videos are often done in restricted countries and the voices leading you in prayer are often of former Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc. who are now followers of Jesus!   
• The Joshua Project website has a very thorough database of unreached, least access people groups on the internet for prayer.  
• The IMB (International Mission Board) also has extremely valuable information on unreached people groups. 
• During the Muslim month of Ramadan, pray for Muslims as they seek God in those 30 days more fervently than during any other time of the year. Prayer guides are available here from Run Ministries.   
• Buy the book, Pray for the World, and pray faithfully each day for the unreached people groups of the world. 
• Wycliffe Bible Translators invites people to join The Bibleless Peoples Prayer Project to pray for those without the Bible in their language.  
• Order free prayer maps from Every Home For Christ.  
• Purchase a hard copy – or download for free – the booklet, Let All The Peoples Praise You, from David Platt’s group, Radical – 30 days of praying for urgent needs among the nations. Check out Radical’s website to learn more about these urgent needs.       
• Set an alarm on your phone for 10:40 to pray for the “10/40 Window” – the location where most of the 3 billion people live today in spiritual and physical poverty – or 10:02 to pray according to Jesus’ instruction in Luke 10:2 to pray for workers to be sent into the harvest fields.  
• Do “prayer walks” by college dorms of international students, by your local mosque, or by Hindu or Buddhist temples, and pray that God would reach those right here in the US who have never heard the gospel. 
• Do as one EPC pastor’s wife does in Ohio: load up the family van, go to the nearest mosque, sit in the parking lot, and pray for the Muslim leaders and people of that mosque to know Jesus! 
• Host a 24-hour prayer event for the unreached. Set up a physical prayer site at your church. Sign people up for one-hour shifts to pray in the prayer room or zoom in from home. You can have background worship music, maps on the walls to pray over countries, post-it-notes for participants to write prayers on to display on the wall, etc.  
• Check your clothing tags each morning to see where your clothes were made and pray that the people living there would be able to hear the gospel and become believers. 
• Pray through world headlines by watching or reading the news and then praying for the global events God might be using to advance His Kingdom. 
• Pray through selected world news from a Christian source such as Mission Network News.   
• Pray for the persecuted believers around the world from Open Doors.  
• Pray for the persecuted believers around the world from Voice of the Martyrs.  
• Laminate a prayer list of selected unreached people groups and keep it in your Bible, journal, car, or put it on your refrigerator or bathroom mirror. 
• Always, always, always, pray for more laborers for the harvest fields! Jesus taught us to pray this way (Matthew 9:37-38; Luke 10:2). 
• Pray prayers about your involvement in reaching the 3 billion like this: 
  • “Father, how do You want me to get involved with missions? Am I to be a goer, a sender, an intercessor? What is my next step that would bring the most glory to You in missions?”  
  • “What have You given me in talents, time, and resources that I can give back to serve You and those who have little or no access to the gospel?” 
  • “What places or people groups are You highlighting to me?” 
  • “What have You put on my heart about the 3 billion that I can actually do something about?” 

• Buy the book, Window on the World for kids and pray faithfully each day for the unreached people groups of the world.   
• Order free prayer maps for kids from Every Home for Christ.  
• In praying with your family, consider adding praying for unreached people groups to any already established family prayer times: before a meal, before bedtime, on the way to or from school, etc. 

• Help refugees and immigrants learn English using ESL and conversational English classes where you can be an “English language partner.” 
• Download Google Translate on your cell phone to help you communicate in your friend’s language.  It isn’t perfect, but it can help immensely. 
• Learn key words and phrases from them in their language (“Hello,” “What is your name?” “How are you?”  “How is your family?”).  Learn more from Rosetta Stone.   
• Teach your refugee or immigrant friend how to use American currency. 
• Help them with medical needs – finding doctors, pharmacies – and take them there when needed. 
• Help them find markets with foods as similar as possible to their home countries – and take them as needed to those stores and markets. 
• Shop yourself where refugees and immigrants shop to meet store owners/employees and patrons from other nations. 
• Eat at ethnic restaurants – Middle Eastern, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian – to experience new foods and meet new international friends. 
• Teach your refugee or immigrant friend how to use the bus lines. 
• Teach them how to drive in the US. 
• Buy a child or teen a new, quality soccer ball. 
• Show them where thrift stores are for the purchase of used (and sometimes new) clothing at discount prices. 
• It is very possible that your immigrant or refugee friend has experienced trauma. Find help from the American Bible Society at the Trauma Healing Institute.  
• Give a Bible to your immigrant or refugee friend in their language and ask if you can share some stories from it.  You can find Bibles in many languages from Multi-Language Media.  
• Visit your friend’s place of worship – a mosque, temple, etc. – but go with prayer, discernment, and always with another Christian friend. 
• Invite your international friends to attend a worship service at your church but prepare them in advance for what they will experience.  Ask the pastor, staff, and friends at church to be ready to welcome them warmly. 
• If your immigrant or refugee friend has a faith background, ask them how a person can go to heaven at the end of this life.  Then ask if you can share what you believe.  Do this early in the relationship.  Be gentle, humble, and respectful but. . .be bold! 
• Be ready to share your 3-minute testimony with your immigrant or refugee friend of how Jesus found you: life before Jesus (without sordid details), how you came to know him, and how he changed you and is changing you. This resource can help.    
• Learn how to share the gospel with your immigrant or refugee friend using the excellent tool, the “3 Circles.”  You can learn how here by watching a video by an EPC pastor and order helpful tools here. You can also contact Thomas D. for excellent evangelism training in your church thomas.d@epcwo.org.      
• Host a Bridging the Gap Muslim Outreach weekend seminar at your church to learn how to build genuine friendships and share the gospel with Muslim international students, refugees, and immigrants. Get more information here. 
• Take part in a virtual zoom course on reaching out to Muslims where you live in a Connecting With Your Muslim Neighbor 6-week workshop. Get more information here.   
• Read the book, Loving Your Muslim Neighbor, by EPC World Outreach workers, Timothy and Miriam Harris, to learn how to reach out to Muslim immigrants and refugees with the love of Jesus.    

• Look for those at your workplace who might be immigrants or refugees. Give them attention. Help them to feel seen, important.    
• Invite them to coffee or to have a meal together. Learn about their lives, build a relationship, and. . .share Jesus!

• Read missions related books to your children and grandchildren to help them gain God’s heart for the nations!  Here is a suggested list:   
  • As a guide for parents who long for missions hearted kids, here is a resource for you from Via.     
  • The Center for Missions Mobilization/Weave has books for kids to gain a heart for the nations at a young age and open their hearts to peoples around the world who have never heard of Jesus.  
  • Wycliffe Bible Translators has a wealth of resources for families to learn about missions and the nations.
  • YWAM has quality biographies about missionaries. For younger kids they have the Heroes for Young Readers series. For older kids, they have chapter books in the series, Christian Heroes Then and Now.  
• There are over 20 well done animated videos for children on YouTube called “The Torchlighters.” Each of these videos are stories of great missionaries or Christian leaders such as George Mueller, Gladys Aylward, Jim Elliott, Mary Slessor, Adoniram & Ann Judson, and Amy Carmichael. (A few of these animated videos speak of martyrdom and perhaps should be watched by parents ahead of time to gauge appropriateness for each child.) 
• As a family, memorize Scriptures together about God’s heart for the nations such as Genesis 12:1-3, Psalm 67:1-2, Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8, and Revelation 5:9 and 7:9.   
• Adopt a missionary family as a single, family, or small group. 
• Correspond by letter or e-mail with missionaries.  
• Read missionary prayer letters as a family.
• Encourage younger members to correspond with a missionary child. 
• When telling your children the story of Jesus, share that there are still 3 billion people today who have little or no access to the gospel, and that is why God asks us to go and tell these people about Him. 
• You can share stories of missionaries in the New Testament, like Philip (Acts 8), Paul (Acts 13), and Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18). 
• Make lostness personal for your children and grandchildren by asking questions such as, “What would it be like if you never heard about Jesus?” 
• Discuss with your kids: “How can you share Jesus with people at your school?”  
• Discuss with your kids: “Who is someone we can pray will come to know Jesus?” 
• Ask your children and grandchildren about refugee or immigrant kids at their school: “Have you ever talked to them?”  “What are their names?”  “What country are they from?”  “Would you like to have them visit our home?”   
• Share about how Jesus cared for people in physical need by healing them, providing food, and commanding us to take care of the poor. Ask kids, “How can we love the poor like Jesus did?” 
• As a family, sponsor a child who is trapped in poverty by helping monthly with food, schooling, etc.  You can do this through Compassion International or another missions organization you are familiar with. 
• Encourage your older children or grandchildren to go on short-term trips or even to consider becoming a missionary.  If God is calling them, don’t be the person that holds them back! 
• When your kids or grandkids have an idea to help missionaries or the people missionaries serve, say “Yes!” as often as possible! 
  •  “Can I sell lemonade and give the money for Bibles in the Middle East?” 
  • “Can I give one of my toys, dolls, etc. to my new friend who moved here from another country?” 
  • “Can I write a letter to a missionary kid to let them know I prayed for them? 

• Send your college students and young adults to the Cross missions conference (Jan. 3-5, 2024 Louisville, KY) to stir their hearts with a passion for those who haven’t heard.   
• Send your college students and young adults to the “Urbana” conference to stir their hearts for missions.  
• Attend a Crescent Project Conference to learn how to build genuine friendships and share the gospel with Muslim people.

• Commit to regular communication with your missionaries.  Answer their email newsletters and write letters and emails or WhatsApp and Signal app messages of encouragement to them (but find out what specific words might be unsafe for them in those messages). 
• Be intentional about sending birthday and holiday cards to missionaries and their kids. 
• Create care packages for your missionaries and include their favorite things that they don’t have access to overseas. 
• Have missions projects at your church such as packing food or seeds to send overseas for missionaries to use and share. 
• Have a sewers group that make quilts, blankets, dresses, sweaters, etc. to send to missionaries to use and share. 
• Host a garage or yard sale and give the proceeds to your missionaries. 
• Sacrifice some Starbucks coffees each week and give that $ to your missionaries! 

• Invite your missionaries to come and talk about their ministry in your worship services – and possibly preach on God’s heart for lost people if they are so gifted.   
• Honor your missionaries publicly without exalting them too much.  (Being a missionary is a role, not a rank.)   
• Make sure children and youth meet your missionaries and hear them! 
• Find out if your missionaries want to stay with a host in a home or in a hotel while they are with you (sometimes they need a quiet place away from people due to fatigue from many meetings and travel during their furlough). 
• Pay for all costs during their time at your church. 
• Babysit their children for a date or a weekend. 
• Give them the keys to your lake or mountain cabin for a weekend or a week. 
• Loan them a car to get around. 

See https://christianstandard.com/2013/11/coming-home-when-missionaries-come-off-the-field/ to learn more.   

Missionaries come home after decades of service or brief times on the field.  They come home after successful ministries or outwardly fruitless ventures.  They return because of expulsion, burnout, family health issues, moral failure, loss of vision or passion, inability to work with their team, retirement, and other reasons.  Whatever the time or the reason, they need you to listen and love as they express difficult emotions: 

• Loss – in leaving the field, they lose coworkers, language tutors, guides, translators, house helpers, shopkeepers, and all the people they wanted to reach with the gospel.  They lose their entire community. 
• Confusion – feeling lost back in the States regarding our culture which we take for granted.  It’s not “home” to them, or their children. 
• Purposelessness and uncertainty – “What do we do now?”   
• Guilt – feelings of failure and shame if their hopes, dreams, and prayers (outwardly, at least) went unrealized. 
• Grief – in the case of deportation/expulsion, the grief can be intense.   

Other global workers come home with a sense of loss, but also very positive feelings of joy, fulfillment, accomplishment, and excitement about the future. Rejoice with them! 

How You Can Help

• Pray for and with returning missionaries for their adjustment to a very different life with all its many changes and challenges. 
• Provide the physical things they need in settling in the US: standard household furniture and supplies they need to create a normal life. You can help with finding a house, moving expenses, and physical labor. 
• Listen with compassion. Give them time to talk about their lives on the field and their feelings about returning. 
• Withhold judgment if their return was outwardly premature. You don’t know all the factors that went into their difficult decision. 
• Help them move forward, but don’t push.   
• Help them see their worth in Christ, not in their work. 
• Help them find meaningful work and ministry here as valuable members of the Body of Christ! 

• First of all, if you feel a calling to the field, are you reaching out to people from other lands. . .right now. . .where you live?  You have a whole list of ideas and ways to be involved on this website page!  You will not do overseas what you do not do at home. 
• Pray about your motives for going long-term to the mission field?  Why do you want to go?  Write them down and pray over them.  
• Talk with your parents, pastor, elders, missions leader, and other trusted spiritual leaders about your desire to serve overseas.  Get their honest input and humbly listen (Proverbs 11:14, 12:15).  
• Speak with missionaries about your interest and ask, ask, ask as many questions as you can of them. 
• Go on one of the short-term “vision trips” that your church or another group offers to test out your potential calling to missions. 
• Take a look at just a few opportunities to “Go with WO!” in India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Macedonia, Pakistan, and the Caucasus.   
• EPC World Outreach partners with other great mission agencies in “co-ops” such as Frontiers, Pioneers, WEC, OM, Teach Beyond, Serge, and others. You can enjoy the benefits of being with EPC World Outreach and one of these groups at the same time. Learn more about co-ops here.  
• There are great opportunities for those retiring from pastoral ministry.  ITEN (International Theological Education) is a place for those interested in helping indigenous leaders by providing theological education. Another possible ministry for retired pastors is providing pastoral care for EPC World Outreach missionaries to help them not just survive but thrive.       
• If you have a God-given desire to “go,” please look at our “Steps to the Field.”   
• Fill out our “Get Started” form and we will pray and work with you to discern more of God’s calling on your life to the nations.   
• Contact our Mobilization Team if you have interest in joining us at EPC World Outreach across the seas.  
• To reach our EPC World Outreach office, contact wo@epcwo.org for more helpful information!