Prayer First, the national prayer ministry team of the Converge Worldwide movement, makes it a practice to offer prayer appointments for missionaries on home assignment—most often during the denomination’s biennial gathering in the summer. New missionary recruits who are awaiting approval by the conference are also offered the prayer opportunity. “It’s the highlight of our time as a prayer team while at the conference,” says Bryan Moak, chairperson of Prayer First. “And our missionaries say over and over again that it is also a highlight for them.” The appointments are generally an hour and a half long to allow plenty of time for dialog and prayer. Those who sign up for the appointments know they will have significant time to simply talk about whatever is on their hearts or any struggles they may experience related to ministry or family. They are assured of confidentiality, and the Prayer First team is trained to spend the majority of the time listening, taking notes, and encouraging the missionaries. For the last half hour, team members pray according to what they heard, as well as how the Spirit leads.

Missionaries in Your Church or on the Field

Although this is done on a national level and coordinated through the mission’s leadership of Converge, it can also be adapted to bless missionaries who visit the local church. When missionaries are scheduled to come to your church, contact them ahead of time and offer an opportunity for a prayer appointment with your prayer team—perhaps in the afternoon after lunch. It might be best to have people on the prayer team who are not responsible for any decisions related to the financial support of the missionary so that there is a freedom to share without concern about their relationship to the church. The Prayer First team has also taken prayer journeys to visit mission fields for the sole purpose of offering the same prayer sessions for missionaries on the field. They take care to be as little of a burden as possible to the missionaries they are visiting. In addition, the team takes a couple of days during the fall semester to offer prayer appointments to faculty members of Bethel University in St. Paul, MN.