Pastor Letter: Southeast Asia Team Prayer Guide

Dear Buck Run Family:

As you saw in this week’s service, we are sending a team this week to Southeast Asia. This team is made up of 22 high school students and chaperones. Each of them has worked very hard to prepare to go. Collectively, over $50,000 was raised to make this trip possible. Thanks to many of you for generously supporting this group. While the financial cost was great, we believe the Gospel need is even greater. Unfortunately, the country we are going to is made up of millions of people that worship their god, but not the true God. Over the course of the next two weeks, each student will teach and share the Gospel dozens of times.

I am very excited for the opportunity that these students have to share the Gospel. It is encouraging to see students that have been discipled weekly by their parents and ministry leaders have the opportunity to go and share the Gospel. At Buck Run our goal in discipling our teenagers is to help them live life on mission. The Gospel did not make its way to us to stay with us. Rather, we must be conduits of a continued Gospel witness. While this will be an incredible experience for each of us, our goal is not a cool picture or time away from home. It is to teach the glories of Christ many people who have not heard His name.

The students are being pushed way outside of their comfort zone. The team will spend 13 days in a Muslim country teaching English and sharing the Gospel with immigrants and college students. All of this happens after 22 hours of flight time. Several of our students have never flown before. This will be quite an adventure for them! Many more have never been out of the country. These couple weeks will broaden all of their horizons as they experience a completely different culture.

I am proud of how the team has prepared. They have worked very hard to be as effective as possible in proclaiming the Gospel. However, I firmly believe that much of our effectiveness will come through the power of prayer by those who are supporting us. In 1793 Baptist missionary William Carey left England has a missionary to India. As he left he told his closest friends to “hold the rope” for him as he left on his journey. At Buck Run we have opportunities to hold the rope for many incredible church planters and missionaries. From the likes of the Butlers in San Francisco or the Thurmans in Fort Collins, we hold the rope for our teams that are planting churches in the most unreached part of our countries. Buck Run also holds the rope for men and women who have given their lives to the nations. These are people like the Morrises in Panama and the Silivestrus in Romania. My ask today is that you would hold the rope through prayer for our Southeast Asia team until they return. I am very proud of the willingness of these young men and women to go to a far away place in the name of Jesus, but I don’t think that everyone feels the same way. I am confident that the Evil One despises 22 young people giving up 2 weeks of their summer and the amenities that our part of the world has to offer for the sake of telling others about Jesus. I expect attempts at spiritual warfare, but I believe in the power of the prayers of the righteous. Below is a guide you can use to pray for our team while we are gone. Will you commit to praying for our team?

-Scott Riessen

 

Prayer Guide

July 11-12: Pray for the team as they travel. We will leave Frankfort at 4:00 am on the 11th and will not arrive in Southeast Asia until almost midnight on the 12th. Pray that there will be no anxieties about traveling (especially for our first-time flyers!). Pray for rest on the plane. Pray that there won’t be any troubles going through security or immigration as we enter a country that is closed to the Gospel.

July 13: Pray for rest from travel and that the BBQ event we are hosting that night will be a time of fellowship and of building relationships. The goal of this event is to connect 200 college students with the church we are partnering with.

July 14: Pray that the Lord will lay a burden for the nations on our students as they spend the day visiting different cultural sites. Pray that God would turn a 2-week trip into a life of missions. What a delight to be had if this trip is used by God to raise up a vocational missionary.

July 15: Pray for our students as they lead worship for a church service and for Matt Morvay as he preaches.

July 16-20: Monday through Friday we will repeat the same ministry objectives. Pray for the group leading a Vacation Bible School for Burmese immigrant children.  This group will spend 4 hours each day teaching the fruits of the Spirit to 5-year-olds- 16-year-olds. The other group during the day will be on a college campus sharing the Gospel with students. Pray for boldness and opportunities for this team. At night our entire team will be teaching ESL to Chinese students. Pray that questions will be asked about our faith creating opportunities for us to share.

July 21: Pray for the 4 ESL clinics we will lead today. We will minister to a couple hundred kids and students. Pray for energy at the end of a long week and that we will effectively interact with the kids and students.

July 22: Pray for our students as they lead worship for a church service and for Justin Ray as he preaches.

July 23: Pray for the team during a very long day of travel. We fly out at 7:00 am (7:00 pm Frankfort time) and arrive in Cincinnati at almost midnight of the 23rd.

July 24: Pray that this trip was not just an experience, but rather a life-changing moment in the team’s lives. Pray for a new zeal in sharing the Gospel at home and that God would continue to stir our hearts for the nations.