August 18 -- Macedonia
OPERATION WORLD is a fantastic tool for any missionary, minister, college student, or GOD-follower. It is a book that has compiled statistics, basic information and prayer points for every country in the world. It even assigns a country or section of the world for each calendar day to help make it easy for those really strong prayer warriors. And let me tell you... It is every missions student's best friend in missions classes. No matter the class or project, it is an invaluable resource and can make a huge difference in learning to navigate the world of missions. I bought the latest edition my senior year of college after borrowing one of the older editions for the first 3 years of school. I used it a ton! And even now am falling in love with it all over again.
As a part of my attempt to read the Bible straight through in a year (I talked about it in my post from earlier today), I have decided that I want to become more intentional in regards to praying for the world and for workers to rise up to the commission Jesus left His disciples with in Matthew 28. I want to become more intentional about lifting up missionaries, churches, nations, government leaders and people groups before GOD. I want to become more intentional about pleading for Him to move and become present to those who have yet to know Him. And OPERATION WORLD is going to be what helps me do that.
I don't think I am going to post here every day to talk about whatever the country is for the day. But I will every now and then. Mainly to help me process through any thoughts, questions, changes or responses that may come. But also to maybe help bring some awareness to the power of prayer and how it is the first and most important thing for any missionary, missions student, church leader, and GOD-follower who wants to see the world won to Him and the Great Commission fulfilled.
So with that said... here is a little bit of info about the country for August 18... MACEDONIA --
~ Macedonia is located in Europe and is a landlocked country. ~ It's neighbors are Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Greece and Bulgaria.
~ It has a population of 2,067,000 people and is made up 21 different people groups with at least 16 different languages spoken.
~ Christianity is the main religion with Islam being the second. But for both of those religions the majority are nominal (61.9% are nominal, leaving 38.9% classified as completely unreached), which means they are just Christian or Muslim in name, but not in practice or belief. But there is a great deal of potential for growth and discipleship to take place.
~ It is a country with a lot of history and even some ties to the Apostle Paul... he was called to minister there through a dream.
An answer to prayer in regards to MACEDONIA --
~ The evangelical church in Macedonia is one of the fastest growing in
Europe and displays growing unity across its theological breadth.
Churches are ambitious in their outreach and church planting goals, and
they minister across ethnic and national boundaries to share the gospel
with their neighbours, a remarkable feat given the Balkanization (not sure what this means... sorry) of the
region.
Things to prayer for in regards to MACEDONIA --
~ Opposition~ Unity
~ Church planting, evangelism, mission
~ Christian media
~ Training and discipleship
~ OPERATION WORLD
~ JOSHUA PROJECT
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