Dear brethren, sisters, and friends around the world,
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The Lord has blessed each one of us, granting sound health and providing traveling mercies and His sustaining grace, which has brought us here at the brink of another year. One hundred and seventy years have now passed since our Savior entered into the Most Holy Place—and 100 of these years have witnessed our journey thus far as Reformers. During the past year we have experienced the Lord’s leading hand in many wonderful ways. Our church is moving forward in faith and as we have thus been progressing, we have been seeing the promises of the Lord fulfilled.
Just as ancient Israel had certain periods every year when the entire nation was to engage in earnestly seeking the Lord, so modern Israel, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, has adopted the plan of an annual Week of Prayer, when the church as a whole can unitedly seek the Lord. If the children of God in ages past needed such occasions for their spiritual refreshing, we upon whom the ends of the world have come surely need them also.
In early Advent history, our forefathers first introduced this idea of a Week of Prayer in all the churches, to be a source of great spiritual inspiration and help to God’s people toward the end of the year. The plan brought so much spiritual help and blessing to the believers and to the cause of God that it was repeated year after year. Soon the practice became an established fact among us. In every land and clime where our work is now established around the world, we observe the annual Week of Prayer. It is the one special time of the year when our churches throughout the world unite in a common quest for spiritual refreshment. It is at this time that we experience a mountaintop spiritual experience, when we worship together, study together, and pray together, feeling God’s presence and enjoying the encouragement of God’s family of fellow believers.
December 5 to 14 has been set aside for this year’s Week of Prayer. Special messages of great importance have been prepared for contemplation on The Pilgrimage of the Remnant. We trust that our church family will gather together during this week to study these appeals coming from God and spend time in seeking Him. In today’s atmosphere of fear, perplexity, and frustration, the Lord stands ready to help. “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14.
As we pray for a personal blessing during this solemn occasion, let us also remember the work and workers throughout the world. Let us pray for the Week of Prayer offering. We may call this the annual Week of Sacrifice offering—that will be received on December 14.
During this week we call upon all of our church members and workers everywhere to bring to the Lord an offering that represents a special sacrifice. For years, many have followed the practice of giving an entire week’s income toward this offering. Others have done more. Some have not been able to do quite that much, but have endeavored to make it an offering that represents true sacrifice.
The government of Heaven has bestowed upon our church a mandate to prepare people for the soon coming of Jesus. “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:37-38). Our church is given the task of providing and coordinating laborers for various mission fields around the world. This can be in the form of ministers, workers, teachers, support personnel and training of new workers in new missions. These are some of our church’s many needs. And as we stand at the threshold of another new year, it would be good to make this momentous task a subject of our prayers. The responsibility to prepare people for the soon coming of Jesus rests upon all of us—and it takes money to pay for these missions.
The church is united by its call to support missions. But few of us know exactly what the mission offering does, where it comes from, or where it goes. The answer is this: Our offerings support frontline evangelism in unentered countries. They help build and sustain ministers and workers, establish churches, and help produce literature for distribution in hundreds of languages. In short, our mission offerings do everything our tithes can’t do.
The Week of Prayer Offering invests 100% toward mission projects around the world. Not one dollar is used for administration or overhead.
On a consistent basis, we receive requests for new visits—and doors open for the birth of new missions. Currently we have 28 missions in Africa, 6 in Asia, 6 in Central America, 2 in Europe, 8 in the Pacific Islands, and 5 in South America. All this mission work is sustained by your generous offerings and gifts that you give during the Week of Prayer. There are huge demands on infrastructures, institutions, workers, ministers, and leadership. So the time has come for us as a world body to ask: Have we provided our best to care for the future of our church family in these countries?
Together, we will reach the unreached, build churches, and train workers and ministers around the world. Your support makes these things possible, and we are deeply grateful for your investment in the Lord’s business. As Christians, there’s nothing more fulfilling than knowing we are being used of God to accomplish His purposes.
Let us all respond to this appeal and bring a sacrificial offering that is commensurate with our love for Christ and that will help meet the needs of the mission fields. We must always bear in mind that the primary purpose of the Week of Prayer is to afford an opportunity for the members of the church to engage in seasons of earnest prayer and supplication and offer gratitude to God for His sustaining grace.
Let us take time out of our busy program to seek the spiritual blessing that is in store for us.
When we properly conduct ourselves, the services of the Week of Prayer can be of inestimable value in fostering the spiritual life of the church. They can serve to revive drooping spirits, fan the smoking flax into a bright flame, reclaim backsliders, and bring added hope and courage into the most ardent souls. These services also tend to deepen the interest of the church in our great mission program and to increase its gifts for the finishing of the work at home and abroad.
May God grant that every believer around the world may, under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, strive to the utmost to make this year’s Week of Prayer all that God wants it to be.
Your Brother in Christ,
D. Sureshkumar
Stewardship Department