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Praying for Crosslinks - some ideas

“And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ.” - Colossians 4:3

Information sources - this web site contains information about countries, and mission and study partners.

• Crosslinks Prayer News - printed with the magazine or click here
• Mission partners’ prayer letters (click here)
• Mission partners’ monthly updates, some are on the web site, more confidential ones on application
• Crosslinks magazine available printed or click here
• Prayerline  020 8692 5321 or on the web
• Prayer Call CD's - contact lblake@crosslinks.org to go on the mailing list
• Using prayer letters leaflet
• Country profiles 
• Use news sources about a specific country
• Internet
• If you're planning a meeting you could email or telephone a mission partner first

Opportunities for Prayer 

• The intercessions during a service
• Put prayer requests on the OHP before and after a service
• House group
• Start a prayer triplet – invite two (or more) others to your home, show part of a Crosslinks video, or listen to a section from Prayer Call, and have a short time of prayer.
• Include a short Mission section within the main church mid-week meeting
• Ask the young people to present a short prayer time, using their imaginations, not just a stereotype!
• Include times of praise, worship and thanksgiving as well as intercession

Make prayer interesting! 

• Don’t just sit with your eyes closed!  People feel very threatened and bored.  Help them by having some deliberately silent times, some read prayers as well as extempore ones.
• Maybe even try having everyone praying out loud at once (they do this in other countries), and after a short time, the leader says, “We’ll draw our prayers to a close now.”
• Break it up into different sections – sometimes in small groups, pairs or all together.
• Have a map on the floor.  Ask people to put a lighted nightlight candle on the country they want to pray for – if the map is big enough, walk on it and stand in each place.
• Have pens and paper available so people can write a prayer, or write a poem to God (that’s a prayer).
• Have coloured pencils or paints, and ask some people to express their feelings to God, or their picture of the country or mission partner.
• Walk around the church as a group – praying for the different things that happen in each place.
• Walk round a room and pray for different countries in different places in the room.

Re-invent the wheel! 

Using an OHP draw a circle to represent an hour and divide it into segments – if you make 12 they will represent 5 minutes.  Choose (or ask group members to choose) prayer topics and write them into the segments, then pray for each item for as long as the segment represents.  This could be for different countries, or it could be for different things within a country, such as repentance, praise, peace and reconciliation, racial harmony, AIDS sufferers, orphans/street children, single mothers, church leaders, church growth, education, national evangelists, outreach, debt, safety in travel, appropriate rains/harvest, education, health needs, church building safety, economy, mission partners, study partners, globalisation effects, government, thanksgiving.

It’s surprising how quickly the hour passes!