"Do They Know It's Christmas?"

In 1984 a group of popular singers and musicians were assembled to record the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" The entire proceeds from the song were donated to help with the massive Ethiopian famine that was taking place at the time.

This Christmas, in the midst of our family's celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I too was hit with the reality that there are millions of people in our world today that do not know it's Christmas because they have never heard the story of the Savior of the world.

This Christmas passed with 1.65 billion people having no access to the Gospel at all. As our family sat by our Christmas tree and read the story of the birth of Jesus people representing over 4,000 different languages sat in spiritual darkness having no portion of the Bible available to them in their language. It seems that most people in our world do not know that it's Christmas.

I had a great time with my family on Christmas day. But behind all the fun and smiles and laughs and special times was the thought that we were celebrating a truth that others had never heard. And that fact broke my heart. What can we do together so that soon more will know?

"How" to Pray for Us

There are a lot of times when I will ask someone, "How can I pray for you?" What I really mean is, "What can I pray about for you?" This is seldom an issue as most always people know exactly what I mean: I want to pray for them and I need to know what their requests are.

But recently I studied a passage in the book of Isaiah

that shows "how" I want people to pray for our family as we begin this journey into missions. The passage reads:

"I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;

They will never be silent day or night.

You who call on the LORD,

give yourselves no rest,

And give Him no rest

till He establishes Jerusalem,

And makes her the praise of the earth." (Isaiah 62:6-7)

Though intercessory prayer is not the main context of the passage, when I read that I thought, "That is how I want people praying for our family and ministry!" These people are alert (they are watchmen) and they constantly lift up their petitions to the Lord day and night. As a matter of fact, rather than rest they choose to intercede and call on the Lord until He acts on behalf of His people. They are committed and persistent in their cries to God.

So if you want to know "how" you can pray for us ponder the words of
Isaiah 62:6-7 and pray without rest until the people of southern Senegal come to know the truth of the Gospel!