This is why it is said:
     “Wake up, sleeper,
          rise from the dead,
          and Christ will shine on you.”

    – Ephesians 5:14

Have you ever rolled out of bed,bleary-eyed and feeling unprepared for the day ahead? If you don’t start theday off right, it can feel as though you’re sleepwalking through the rest ofit. No wonder, then, that coffee is the preserve of so many in their dailyroutine. When I can muster up the courage to go beyond a customary caffeinatedcuppa, I like to kick things off with an ice-cold shower. The shock ofthe water’s impact on my face and body is more than enough to wake me up andimbue my being with fresh vigour and focus. It may not be pleasant, butgoodness me is it effective.

I’ve lived more than half of my life in theUK and witnessed its great beauty and many strengths as well as its vast,glaring shortcomings. I’ve learned of the historic revivals that have sweptthrough the nation and across the seas. I’ve heard the names of those who havegone before and marvelled at their love and passion for Jesus. What motivatedthem? What led them to go? I’ve looked around at the current state ofaffairs and mourned the lack of such bold faith and desire to see Jesus knownand His Spirit freed amongst the peoples of the world.

The UK needs to wake up! It is asleeping giant in great need of the intercession of the saints. The land thathoused the Hebrides and Welsh revivals, raised faithful heroes like GeorgeWhitefield, John Wesley, and J Hudson Taylor, and spread the fire of the gospelEast to China and West to Azusa Street is now a slumbering shadow of its formerself. A mere 5% of the population attends church with any regularity (as of2015) and most of the population professes either irreligiousness or a vague,undefined belief in ‘something, somewhere’.[1] Caffeine cannot save the country of myearthly citizenship; only the biting, perhaps unpleasant water of the HolySpirit can stir its people into a living, active faith once more.

What might this burst of life look like?Where could this outpouring come from? I prayerfully believe that we must askGod to restore past currents of His Kingdom here – to pray that we mightreconnect with those who have preceded us and the work they have faithfullygiven their lives for. The UK must wake up and remember who it is and whoseit is.

“Isaac reopened the wells that had beendug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped upafter Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.” – Genesis 26:18

The upcoming Friends Around the Tableconference in the UK is a glorious opportunity for such prayer, however smallit may seem in the midst of the global pandemic. We may not be able to gatherin large numbers this time around, but if we can take a leaf out of Isaac’sbook and the re-dig ancient wells of our forebears, we can release God’sintended will and blessing on the people of this nation and indeed the wholeworld. This will require prayer that ploughs up the land to prepare it forharvest, prayer that removes the debris the enemy has been dumping into andaround the sources of our spiritual life, prayer that restores the treasures ofold the British were given to steward.

I am mixing metaphors; hopefully you canexcuse me for that. What I do know, however, is that we will need a diverse mixin order to see the kind of change I am writing about here – a mix of generations,cultures and strategies of partnering with God to see His Kingdom come in thispart of the world in new ways and old.

Over the last three years, I have been doing some Kingdom ‘mixing’ of my own with my father and grandfather, both of whom are based in the UK and both of whom have a heart to see God move in ways that speed the Lord’s soon return all across the earth. Most recently, this has involved partnering with my grandfather to help him write Growing Leaders – an autobiography with his lived reflections on servant-leadership sprinkled throughout. Before that, I worked as a consultant with my father’s social enterprise and not-for-profit, Authentic Business and Authentic Lives, which run values-based initiatives that foster greater relational connection and awareness of meaning and purpose on a personal and corporate scale.

What connects us as three generations in the UK, even though we have slightly different callings and expressions in our walk with the Lord, is a heart to see God’s beloved children equipped to go to the nations – to change the direction of their lives and to walk in a new way. In a country that has accepted the status quo (an inward focus, gradual decline and muddled pluralism) we want to see people discover a heart for relationship (loving one another) and live lives that show God’s outward, passionate, sending love, even as we are loved. We are all excited for the upcoming Friends conference, however small it may end up being. It brings us great joy to think of Kingdom friends from around the world joining us to pray for a shift here: to call this people to repentance and rediscover its great corporate calling once more.

[1] httpss://faithsurvey.co.uk/uk-christianity.html

In celebration of SEAPC’s 30th anniversary, throughout the next 12 months, we will be sharing stories and testimonies of God’s goodness and faithfulness from friends around the nations! Each of these testimonies is like a stone of remembrance (Joshua 4) for all that He has accomplished. We are taking this year not just to look to the past, but also to praise God for what He has in store for us and those we serve in the years to come. We hope you enjoy these stories our friends have prepared each week!

It was cold as I laid in my heavy-duty sleeping bag buriedunder two horse blankets, clothed in multiple layers of clothes and a heavyjacket, but I still shook and shivered until it seemed my bones rattled.

As the hours of the night slowly passed, I could hear the 30-mile-per-hourwinds whipping through the camp. I could hear the chomping of the yak herd asit fed on the thick Tibetan tundra, and I could hear the labored breathing ofmy tent-mate as he was dealing with a combination of food poisoning and severealtitude sickness camping at 16,000 feet. 

"Steve, are you okay?" I asked but got noresponse. "Steve!  Are you okay?"I asked again. No response. A third time I called out, he groaned as hecommenced rolling over and laying his head right on mine. Steve and I are good friends,but not this good.

I rolled out of my bag and blankets and began to shake him,calling his name to get him fully conscious but to no avail. "This is notgood!" I thought. Having my roommate die on my first prayer journey in aforeign land was not the experience I was looking for!

I jumped up to get help when I saw Mark Geppert walking by.The sun was just beginning to rise, casting yellow hues across our bright bluepup tents. I went over to Mark, trying to sound as calm as I could. "Steveis breathing, but he is not conscious," I said.

Mark's eyes penetrated mine. "Hmm, what to do?"  He said in typical Mark fashion. Heimmediately rounded up our tour guides, who applied oxygen, and we managed tolift Steve onto a bus to be taken down the mountain to a local hospital.

As the bus lumbered away, I took a moment to look at my surroundings in the early morning sunlight. The snowcapped mountains in the background; with a herd of yak and sheep tended to by a few Tibetan nomads; a beautiful deep blue lake nearby was glistening with the early morning sun; the colorful round tents covered with animal skins that the nomads called "yurts," were scattered across the green plateau…and looking at Mark, I thought, "How did this guy get me to come out here to the ends of the earth?"

Since then, I have realized that I am only one of a great cloud of witnesses to ask that same question!

I had met Mark a few months earlier when he came to Phoenixto recruit people to join one of his prayer journeys. Mark has been prayerwalking the nations for forty years and is a legendary missionary to unreachedpeople groups. He spoke of his work in Tibet, providing heart surgeries forchildren and planting house churches. That is all very nice; I attended this meetingas a favor to my friend Steve, thinking I would pray for him from Phoenix whilehe was on the trip.

Then, Mark spoke the words that would change my life. "Iwould like to invite you to come on a prayer journey to Tibet and proclaim thename of Jesus where His name has never been proclaimed before."

His words profoundly startled me!  Are there still places that a Christian hasnever touched?  Places where no one hasever taken the Good News of Jesus before? Those words penetrated my heart likean arrow. The thought of being the first person to proclaim Jesus to those whohad never heard and never even had a chance to hear overwhelmed me entirely. Thethought of literally going to the outermost parts of the earth to advance theKingdom of God completely captivated my heart. 

As I sat and listened to Mark speaking about doing rawpioneer work, tears began to stream down my face. Traveling to unreached peopleand going to a place like Tibet had never crossed my mind, but the Holy Spiritwas squeezing my heart. I didn't even know where Tibet was.  Suddenly, it seemed the old church classroomwas empty except for Mark, Holy Spirit, and me. Every word he spoke profoundly affected me. Out of nowhere, Jesus wasspeaking. "Daniel, I want to go to Tibet. Are you willing to take me there?' All I could say was, "Yes,Lord.  Yes, I will go!"

My wife looked over at me and saw the tears that would notstop flowing. "You are going to Tibet, aren't you?" I nodded yes andkept wiping the tears.

Now, I was standing somewhere in Tibet next to Mark gazingat the incredible surroundings; I asked him, "What now?  How do we reach these people with Jesus?"Mark looked back at me and said, "Hmmm, what to do?" As I prepared togo into spiritual warfare to bind the spiritual "strong man" of theregion, casting down spirits of false religion, attacking any dark spirit thatI could think of, believing this would open the way for people to hear andunderstand the gospel freely,  I heard Markpraying a simple prayer. "Jesus, you brought us here.  What do you want to do?"

"Okay, let's now wait and see what happens." He said as he glanced over at me.

"What? Wait. That's it? No spiritual warfare? You pray that little prayer and wait?"

"Yep. Spiritual warfare was completed through the Cross.Colossians 2:15 tells us that every spirit and principality was stripped nakedof their authority; he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamedthem publicly by his victory over them on the Cross. According to thatscripture, there are no powerful demons, only those that Christ has defeated. Moreover,Ephesians 2:4-5 tells us that we have been seated with Christ at our Heavenly Father'sright hand. That is a position of total, complete, absolute authority. We arehere to enforce what Jesus has already accomplished. Why should I pick a fightwith demons Jesus has already defeated?" Mark went on to say that helearned that if he focused on Jesus and walked in His Spirit, demons wouldcower to the Spirit of Christ. The LORD would show Himself almighty in settingpeople free of sickness and disease.

I thought I was a seasoned veteran in spiritual warfare, but I had never heard this insight into God's truth before. "So, no strategy? No agenda? We have no big plans? We pray and wait to see what God will do?"

Mark laughed a little. "Yep. Do you think you can comeup with a better plan than He can?" 

"Hmmm, what to do?" I thought.

Later that afternoon, a woman had come down to the lake tofill water bottles. She looked at our camp filled with foreigners with greatcuriosity. At 16,000 feet and hours from the nearest town, they didn't get manyvisitors up here. She must have wondered who we were and why we had come. Acouple of ladies on our team greeted her with smiles which she returned; herbright smile made her dark weathered face brighten and glow. Our translatorspoke to her briefly and then turned to me. "Come, come!  She has invited us to visit her home."

With curiosity, I followed, knowing I was about to step into a new world and a culture that was utterly unknown to me. As we entered her yurt, it took a few moments to see through the smoke of burning yak dung that filled the room. As I squinted through the smoke, I could see another woman sitting on the ground tending the fire. She was a little older, with a weathered face that looked like tough leather seasoned in the sun and the many hard years in this high Tibetan altitude.

Our translators spoke with her asking if she had any painand would like to receive prayer.  Theyhad not mentioned anything about Jesus. They just said we had come to pray forpeople in pain. The woman quickly began to point to different parts of her bodythat were hurting. She stood in front of me, her eyes full of expectancy. Igently laid my hands on her head and released the Presence of God into herbody. After I prayed, she chatted with our translators for a few moments, andwe made our way out of the yurt. As we left, the woman came to me and pulled atmy arm, then touched her head with both hands motioning for me to pray again. AsI did so, the Presence of God came on us both.

Again, we said our goodbyes, and we began to walk away.Again, the woman pulled at my arm and touched her head, motioning me to prayfor her. For the first time in her life, this woman was experiencing thePresence of God, and she wanted more! Finally, we made our goodbyes and wentback to camp.

The following day, after another sleepless, bone-chattering,cold night, the sun began to come up over the mountains casting the softmorning light across our camp. As I crawled out of my cocoon of bag andblankets, I looked up and saw a group of nomad women coming over the hill intoour camp. I watched as they spoke briefly with our translator. Quickly, thetranslator motioned for me, and I walked over, curious about what was goingon. 

"They want you to pray for them," she said. Thewoman I prayed for the previous day had gone from tent to tent, telling herneighbors about the foreigner who had prayed for her and that she experiencedGod. With great excitement and expectations, a number of us on the team beganto lay hands and pray for these precious women. We called out for God torelease His immeasurable love, His Kingdom, and His Presence upon these womenand their families.

Our translators were able to speak to them about Jesus, theone true God who loved them, died for them, wanted to forgive them, and givethem eternal life. After prayer, two of the women approached me. In Tibetanculture, it is their custom to honor someone by placing a white scarf aroundtheir neck. One at a time, the women stepped forward and placed a scarf aroundmy neck, bestowing upon me their highest honor.

I could not help think how God had entrusted us with such agreat responsibility being the first Christians they had ever met. What theynow thought about Jesus would be based on what they thought about us.

We had prayed our simple prayer asking God what He wantedto do. We then waited, and He revealed His plan. He did what we could havenever manufactured on our own. People experienced the power and presence of Godand heard the message of Jesus Christ for the first time. In fact, at this sametime, my friend Steve was back at the hospital recovering from his sickness andwas praying for the sick in that same hospital. Our act of spiritual warfarewas to apply the finished work of Jesus on the Cross and watch God do what He doesbest; show His magnificent Love and power to heal and transform lives.

I had just presented the magnificent love and power of Jesus where He was unknown before. I'll never forget that moment; I experienced the presence and power of God in such an intimate way. I felt like Jesus was saying, "Thank you. I have been waiting to come here for 2,000 years. Thank you for bringing me here and being My ambassador."

This time I did not even bother trying to wipe the tearsthat were streaming down my face.

In celebration of SEAPC's 30th anniversary, throughout the next 12 months, we will be sharing stories and testimonies of God's goodness and faithfulness from friends around the nations! Each of these testimonies is like a stone of remembrance (Joshua 4) for all that He has accomplished. We are taking this year not just to look to the past, but also to praise God for what He has in store for us and those we serve in the years to come. We hope you enjoy these stories our friends have prepared each week!

I’m not a medical person.

The bodies I fix are cars, not people. But I went to Nepal as a member of a medical mission team to provide the important component of prayer. The doctors and nurses who travel for SEAPC all agree: prayer is the most important gift the team brings because, for everyone, it’s all about Jesus.

LC, a Bible student who spoke English, helped me during the medical outreach. She brought people to the prayer area one at a time and translated. One such person made an impression on me that day.

After seeing the nurse and doctor and going to the pharmacy, a young Hindu girl named Narita came for prayer. She was shy and made no eye contact with anyone. Her misery was palpable. Her friends said she hadn’t even spoken for two months. They shared that she had been seeing a demon every night, standing at her doorway and threatening her.

I reached out and put my hand on her shoulder, and began to pray. Tears flowed down her face, making dark droplets on the floor below. When I finished, she staying seated beside me. Others came for prayer, and I lifted them to the Lord. In-between, I continued to pray for Narita.

Eventually, she stood up. Her tear-stained face lifted, and hereyes met mine. She offered a tentative smile…and spoke to her friends! It wasbeautiful, a visible picture of peace restored. Then she left.

I asked LC if she believed God heard our prayers. She was skeptical in spite of her Bible training. As her first in-the-field mission experience, she seemed overwhelmed.

Later in the day, Narita returned with her mother and her brother. She brought a small gift of thanks for LC, who had brought her for intercession. And her family, after receiving medical care, also came for prayer.

LC’s skepticism fell away, replaced by faith in the awesome powerof prayer. The Word was plowed in prayer for Narita, even as LC received awatering of her faith. 

Sometimes, God’s plan isn’t made known to the intercessor. But he has one—and it’s always perfect!

Vongvaly was a life-giver. Born in Hanoi and orphaned by the US "Christmas bombing," she and her sister were adopted by a couple on the rise. Her adoptive parents raised her in the atheistic communist culture to prepare her for leadership. They would become the founders of the Lao Democratic Republic, carrying the torch of the atheistic communist culture to a land of hundreds of tribal cultures with the common ethic of hating the United States and its culture for all the bombs dropped upon their children.

Vongvaly graduated with a master’s degree from the University of Moscow. Her pathway to leadership in the culture was set before her. Orphaned by the Christian West, patriated at the highest level of the emerging Communist East, her life had been touched by one fellow student who spoke life and forgiveness. A little light had touched her heart.

Coming to Laos as a member of the ruling family, she was deeply moved by the poverty of a nation that had received more tonnage of bombs than all of Europe in World War 2. Each explosive had dropped from a plane with markings of the United States as the bombers returned to their bases just over the Me Kong River in Thailand. Villages decimated, jungles defoliated, families destroyed, this was the nation to which her parents were called to rebuild.

Sister Vongvaly cried out to God for life for her adopted country. She wept for the women. She challenged the men. She spoke to leaders at the provincial level, and she spoke to nations far and wide, asking for help.

Brother Hubert Chan of Singapore shares when he first met Vongvaly:

It was a very hot and humid day and my friend, Lawrence and I had just crossed the border from Nong Khai, Thailand, to Laos. We had just passed immigration when I heard a voice call out to me. I turned to look and it was Pastor Phon. He was in a van with some visitors from Ethnos Asia – a ministry group that works with the unreached in Asia. I asked where he was going and he said that the next day he was going to be handing over a medical clinic, that had been built through the help of a mission group called Mission Possible, to local leadership and invited me to join them.

My friend happened to be a doctor and it was his first time in Laos, so I thought, “why not?”

So, early the next morning we got up and went to a village that was slightly north of Vientiane. The medical clinic was situated on a hill. When we arrived there, I told the people in charge that my friend was a doctor. They also happened to be my friends, so they said, ‘let’s put him to work.” So, Dr. Lawrence Ng saw patients for the whole day. If the medical advice didn’t work, the people would come to me, I would pray, and the Lord would heal them.

During this time, Dr. Sylavine, a dentist, pastor, and director of Campus Crusade for Christ at the time, asked if I wanted to meet Mother Siphandone. Mother Siphandone was the former First Lady of Laos who happened to be the VIP in this outreach. Sure enough, I got to meet her. With her was a younger lady who was introduced to me as her daughter, Dr. Vongvaly Viravogsa. The year was 2008. That was the beginning of an amazing journey with her until she went back to the Lord.

Brother Hubert Chan then introduced Sister V, as we lovingly call her, to Mark Geppert, founder of SEAPC. It was risky for her to approach us because of the hate felt in the nation of Laos for anyone from the United States. But she felt that the life they brought in the name of Jesus could overcome the spirit of hatred that bound her people in poverty.

They met at the only 5-star hotel buffet in Vientiane; Sister V, Mother Siphandone, her sister, Hubert, Mark, and a couple of members of the international group. From that meeting, the Lao International Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (LIFPA) was born. This was just one of many risks that Sister V took to bring the life and love of Jesus to the people of Laos to bring them out of the bonds of poverty and hatred.

Hubert shares, “I remember her as a woman who loves Jesus and even the government officials are afraid and respect her and she would take the time to minister to them. I became her pastor in 2010 and every time she wanted to evangelize to her friend, she would bring me along so that I would follow up on the new convert. There are a lot of amazing stories about her and I want to share one recent story that was to be the last until we see her again in eternity.

About three days before she went home to the Lord, the Lord took her to heaven and showed her around. Previously, she had been in pain and could not talk much, but after she returned to her body, she woke up and shared with everyone about Jesus and things pertaining to heaven. This lasted for many hours. The next day, she breathed her last.

Sister Vongvaly Viravongsa was and is a true woman of God. When a person becomes a memory, that memory becomes very precious.”

On May 12, 2021, Sister V entered the gates of heaven to join in the rejoicing before the Lamb. She was a nation changer. She was a life-giver. She will be missed at Friends Around the Table.

Please pray for Laos, for Sister V’s family, the Garden of Hope, and the many people in Laos whose lives were changed because of the love that our dear sister has for Jesus.

In celebration of SEAPC's 30th anniversary, throughout the next 12 months, we will be sharing stories and testimonies of God's goodness and faithfulness from friends around the nations! Each of these testimonies is like a stone of remembrance (Joshua 4) for all that He has accomplished. We are taking this year not just to look to the past, but also to praise God for what He has in store for us and those we serve in the years to come.</em> <em>We hope you enjoy these stories our friends have prepared each week!

This writing is an excerpt from Wei Wei Chang’s book, "The Lens of Love"

In 2010, my husband Steve and I had a pastor friend who invited us to join a mission trip to the Tibet Autonomous Region. What comes to mind when thinking about this Region is Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, which is located there, and the fact that Tibetan Buddhism is deeply entrenched among the people.

Somehow, we had a heart for this city. We started to read about its people, religion, and culture, and the more we read, the more our love grew for this foreign land and its inhabitants. How difficult it has always been for good news to reach this land.

One of the books we read was about translating the Bible into the local language, which took almost a hundred years and cost many people their lives. Reading the stories of the saints who died because they dared to share the gospel, we could almost hear the voices of the martyrs crying for the righteousness of God to rain down from heaven.

Buddhism was popular in the early '90s in the United States, and there were several Buddhist Temples in Arizona. Together with the other members of the group who would be going on the mission trip to Tibet, my husband and I decided to visit a Tibetan Buddhist temple in Phoenix. I had done some research about Tibetan Buddhism on the internet and discovered there are a lot of deities for different purposes. When we arrived at the temple, we saw statues and images of the gods everywhere. Fear of the evil spirits gripped some of us, with a number complaining of headaches after the visit. In general, if we as Christians do not believe we have authority over the evil spirits, then we should avoid going to such dark places; otherwise, we may be affected by those evil spirits.

To further my preparation for the trip, I conducted a lot of research online, including finding images of the gods and spirits of the Tibetan religious beliefs. Suddenly, I heard a voice: "Look how much attention you have given me." Immediately, I stopped researching. I shared this with our friend Matthew, who had been to this land more than ten times, and he said I should delete all the research. So, I did. I hit the Delete button, and all my research on Tibetan Buddhist gods and spirits disappeared from the screen of my computer.

A couple of months later, we flew into Lhasa, Tibet's capital city, on a special visa. A giant rainbow hanging in a cloudy sky welcomed us. It was exciting to see, and we were filled with expectations that His promise would be fulfilled for the people in this land. About ten of us from different parts of the world rode a bus to the Kyichu Hotel. Inside the hotel, the paintings of gods and the artifacts all had similar faces and feelings to the gods and spirits I had found during my online research. Every morning, noon, and afternoon, incense was offered to the Tibetan Buddhist gods and spirits in the hallways.

During one of our morning devotion times, I plucked up the courage to speak to our leader, Pastor Mark, about it.

"We are here for a mission trip," I said. "Why are we staying in this place that is full of demons and evil spirits? The images of the gods and spirits are everywhere in this hotel."

"I don't see any demons and spirits," Pastor Mark said. "All I see is Jesus."

The conviction hit me: while my eyes focused on demons and spirits, there was no space for Jesus. I had been so afraid of the demons and evil spirits and of what they might do to me. Why was I so frightened? Maybe, when I gazed upon these images, I had surrendered myself to the power of darkness. I had allowed fear to influence and overtake me. It was all about the focus of my eyes. When my eyes focus on Jesus, there is no space and concern for demons and evil spirits. He is love and light, the truth, the life, and the way. In the light of Jesus, all darkness must flee.

That was huge for me. True freedom from fear is not in the absence of fearful objects. Instead, true freedom is when we gaze upon Jesus in the presence of fearful things. His light dispels the power of darkness.

Suddenly, a shift occurred, and I was no longer concerned with the power of darkness or what it could do to me. The word I read became alive: "You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4). With this lightning switch, I was filled with boldness to proclaim the good news of Jesus to those who had never heard about Him.

Pastor Mark is the South East Asia Prayer Center (SEAPC) founder and led a team of doctors, nurses, project managers, and intercessors on this mission trip. My husband and I were intercessors, serving a ministry called Touching Hearts. Many children in Tibet have a heart condition due to a lack of oxygen in high altitudes. At the height of 12,000 feet or higher, some children's hearts do not fully develop while many others have a hole in their hearts, a condition manifested in purple lips, purple cheeks, frequent sickness, and low immunity.

During our mission trip, one of our activities was to sit with the families who anxiously awaited the outcome of heart surgery on their precious children in the SEAPC Cath lab. They once again allowed themselves to hope for a healthy child who would breathe freely in the heights of the Himalayas. The promise was on the horizon: the children would no longer have purple cheeks and purple lips; they'd no longer be tied to their tents for lack of oxygen. Instead, they would be able to run freely after the mountain yaks and goats.

The families felt the presence of peace as we prayed for them and successful surgery in the operating room. During one procedure, a child's blood pressure plunged dangerously low, and the surgeon came out and asked for prayer. The child's blood pressure came back to normal shortly after the prayer, and the doctor and nurses gave glory to God in this foreign land where His name was forbidden.

Our God is love. His love is so vast. He called people like us from the other side of the world to come to this place in Tibet, 12,000 ft above the sea. We were filled with His great love to touch the hearts with holes in these people. We hugged them and embraced them even though they smelled like yak butter. God's love is deep and wide; His love reaches the people dressed in suits and ties in metropolitan cities, and His love also reaches the nomads in the heights of the Himalayas. In 2011, my husband Steve went back to Tibet and met with one of the young girls who received the procedure and stayed in the hospital much longer because of her liver complications. She grew much taller and looked healthy. We gave glory to God for His healing in her body and salvation in her soul.

\"Together we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.\"  

Ephesians 2:20 (NLT)

Thirty years is a long time. Looking back, there are major events to remember. In Cambodia, the civil war ended. Aung San Suu Kyi, from then-Burma (Myanmar), won the Nobel Peace Prize as a human rights advocate. The World Wide Web debuted as a public service on the internet. And South East Asia Prayer Center began.

Everything starts somewhere. To borrow from a farming image, the ground must first be plowed. Until the soil is made soft and pliable, nothing will grow in it. Next, seeds must be sown. They won’t sprout unless they are watered. And finally comes the glorious harvest. The same model is one that SEAPC uses to come alongside friends in the nations in the work of the Lord. Plow in prayer. Sow in the Word. Water in love. Reap a harvest of new believers.

The SEAPC albumis filled with snapshots of then that are growing in the now—and will continueto blossom in the future. All of these moments rest on the firm foundation ofJesus Christ, the cornerstone of life itself. In scripture, Jesus is referredto as living stone, stonemason, cornerstone, capstone—solid, strong, reliable.

The metaphor isapt. Biblical history was written in a dry, dusty land where stones abounded.There are numerous instances where encounters with the Lord were memorializedby building an altar. Rather than our modern image of a stately platform in agrand cathedral, these were simple affairs. Starting with the most substantial rock,a pile of mismatched stones would be stacked together, using what wasavailable.

Today, in thesame part of the world, people continue to erect piles of stone as memorials. Duringa visit to Israel several years ago, after climbing Mt. Sinai at 2:00 AM andwatching the landscape glow bright red at dawn, I descended the backside of themountain. Here and there along the way, stones had been stacked in small, crudepiles. I had no way to know what these present-day altars meant to those whohad erected them. But I knew what I had to do. I gathered stones of many sizesand stacked them, one at a time, with the strongest stone holding up theothers. And prayed that I would never forget the import of standing on holyground at that very moment.

Joshua’sdirection to the people of Israel became real to me at that moment. He toldtwelve men from each tribe to take stones from the Jordan, so their childrenwould remember God’s protection as they passed through the Jordan River. Itwould be a memorial to the people of Israel forever. The Bible furtherrecords this: Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle ofthe Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenanthad stood. And they are there to this day. (Joshua 4:9 NIV).

As we celebrateand remember, friends from across the globe and across thirty years arerecalling special moments working hand in hand with SEAPC. Over the next year,they will be sharing their personal stories. Each story is a stone, a memorialto God for his grace, mercy, and provision. They all are built on thecornerstone of Jesus. The resulting altar will glorify our God, who has donegreat things in both large and small ways through so many of his people. Fromplowing, to sowing, to watering, to harvest, lives have been claimed for theLord.

Everyone has a story. Those built on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ will withstand anything. And be an ongoing memorial—one layer at a time—to the wonders and miracles God has performed as he has called hearts to service through South East Asia Prayer Center.

Join us on the SEAPC Blog in the coming year as we remember these stories of God\'s goodness each week!

“My heart feels broken,” my daughter Abigail said as tears poured down her cheeks.

Silently, I asked for God’s help as I pulled off of the road and saw her reflection in my rearview mirror. In a way, I felt responsible for this outburst of pain and emotion. After all, I was the one who had asked her to describe how she was feeling.

“I don’t know what to do,</em> and <em>I feel so helpless because I know we can’t help everyone, but…”

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by heartache because of something that you are seeing? Whether that pain is deeply personal in your own heart or in the life of someone you love, or a pain that seems connected to larger parts of our culture, it can feel easier to want to control that pain by stepping away or turning our eyes away. Still, that form of disengagement doesn’t help us or anyone else, for that matter.

As my fourteen-year-old daughter spoke, the tears continued, and her voice was quivering. I had sensed her heartache from the moment that we walked past one particular homeless woman on the streets of Portland. She was not the first one that we saw on our prayer walk around the downtown of that beautiful city, but she was the one who had captured something deep in my daughter’s heart on that day.

It was Day 8 of an epic family road trip from our home in western Pennsylvania across the United States. We were on our way to spend some time at the Pacific Rim Prayer Center, where we would be spending time praying and serving our friends in the Seattle region. Our journey had been filled with gasps from the backseat as Abigail took in the stunning beauty throughout our trek across mountains, plains, and deserts.

Each night she would ask my wife and me about our favorite sight of the day. From majestic snow-capped mountains to jagged rock formations that looked like they were from another planet, and from brilliant sunsets that set the sky on fire, to the strange, stark scenes of the Great Salt Lake, it was clear that what Abigail was seeing was making an impact on her heart.

Of course, the trip had not been all beautiful sights. There is deep need everywhere. In every city center, we saw the homeless, and it was hard every time. Of course, pain and poverty are not limited to the homeless. We saw need among the wealthy in the suburbs of Kansas City and Colorado Springs. We saw it among the weary in the tiny, time-forgotten towns across Wyoming and Utah. I especially remember seeing it in the empty eyes behind the mask of an attendant when we stopped late one night at an isolated truck stop in the middle of nowhere.

As Abigail’s heart was breaking in the backseat, I knew that it was important for me to be present with her as she processed the pain that she was experiencing. I have always loved my daughter's heart for the poor and broken. It reminds me so much of the purity in the way that Jesus loves. After all, His good news was made for the poor, and we can only access its power when we humble ourselves to receive it into our own need.

The tender-heartedness in Abigail also reminds me of one of the most beautiful parts of my wife. Her heart for the down-and-outer has so shaped our Jesus journey as a family, and now it felt like Abigail was trying to figure out how to manage the pain that was hitting that tender heart.

“Holy Spirit, Help us!” I prayed.

Sometimes it seems like being tough and impervious to pain must be a sign of spiritual or emotional maturity, but consider what Ezekiel 36:26 says. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

As God pours His Spirit out on us, He is removing the tough, stony, impervious to pain parts and replacing them with tender flesh. Flesh feels and is aware of pain. Pain is not pleasant, but pain itself is not the enemy. After all, God created our physical bodies to experience pain to let us know that something is wrong.

When Abigail walked by the homeless woman on the sidewalk in Portland and heard her writhing in torment, the pain that her heart experienced was letting her know that something was definitely wrong. As much as I did not want my daughter to be heartbroken, I knew that things would be worse if she turned her heart off to what she was seeing.

I do not believe that God wants us to be overwhelmed by the pain of what we see around us, but He did create us to be impacted by it. I remember hearing a sermon when I was a teenager about Lamentations 3:48-51. The text in the King James Version reads, “Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission. Till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven. Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.”

I believe that God created us so that what we see would affect our hearts and become fuel for our intercession and even our actions. We see this modeled so beautifully in the life of Jesus. Throughout the stories that are given to us in the gospels, Jesus was moved with compassion when He saw the condition of the people around Him.

How did Jesus navigate all of the pain and brokenness He saw without being overwhelmed by all of the need? How did He decide who to spend His time with and where He would go when everyone everywhere needed to hear His good news? In John 5:19, Jesus tells the Jewish leaders that He did nothing on His own but focused His life by doing only what He saw the Father doing. This is essential if we hope to courageously follow His example and see the power of the gospel transform the lives of the poor and broken around us.

When I cried out in Portland, asking the Holy Spirit for help that day, I should not have been surprised when He directed my attention to the life of Jesus. Jesus spent His life focused on the Father, and then He invites us to follow Him into that lifestyle. Hebrews 12:1-2 encapsulates a theme that is repeated over and over throughout the New Testament when it calls us to fix our eyes and focus our lives on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. As we gaze on Him, we are able to engage the pain and brokenness around us with His love and the power of His gospel.

With all that we are seeing around us in culture, it can be easy to become overwhelmed. Between the pandemic and the seemingly countless ways our nation is divided, it can be tempting to turn away or shut down our hearts. But in the midst of all that is happening, God is drawing our hearts to the reality that no ideology or political party has all of the answers to the uncertainty that surrounds us. Even the “successful” find themselves unsatisfied in life.

Could it be that the unrest in our culture creates the perfect backdrop for the story of God’s love to be put on display? Consider Haggai 2:7, “and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts.”

As our family journeyed across the United States, I could not help but think about this upcoming summer and Pray Americas. From June 15th to July 25th, we will join together with partners and friends from around the nation to concentrate forty days of prayer over our nation, seeking God’s face and asking Him to pour out His Spirit in a way that brings a true spirit of revival to our land. As we go out to prayer walk our neighborhoods and the centers of influence in our own communities, we will undoubtedly encounter both beauty and pain.

May we not be like those who shrink back or turn a blind eye to the hard things, but may we have the courage to fix our eyes on Jesus and see all that He would show us. Then we can follow Him and move with compassion to engage the hurting with the love of God.

Over the next few months, our team will be working together with others to encourage and equip God’s people to step out into this lifestyle of prayer and engagement as we enter into Pray Americas this summer. Would you join us in praying that God would use this 40-Day Prayer Focus as a catalyst to empower many followers of Jesus to embrace this lifestyle of prayer and living on mission?

Thank you for your faithfulness in praying with us each month. Click here to learn more about this summer's initiative or to sign up to be a part of the Pray Americas team to cover our nation in prayer.

Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when his disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to him. And he said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another which will not be torn down.” </p><p> Matthew 24:1-2

There has always been a dearth of many things in the Holy Land. Water. Vegetation. Peace. But from ancient days, one commodity is there in abundance: stone. Even in Jerusalem today, one walks down the Via Dolorosa through passageways of stone, to the Temple Mount constructed of stone, into shops with stone walls. It is both the ancient and the modern answer for building materials. Because, for one thing, of its abundance.

One scholar also notes that an ancient Jerusalem built of stone is a precursor to the new Jerusalem of John’s revelation. This heavenly city will also be constructed of stone; instead of the common, quarried variety, it will rise from precious stones. The old mirrors the new, just as so many places in Scripture where we are given a glimpse of what will come, a hint of God’s plan within an everyday circumstance.

Stones play a pivotal role in many Bible stories. Think Moses: tablets of stone that form the foundation of a better way of life. Think David: five smooth stones that slay evil and usher in a man after God’s own heart, in the lineage of our Savior. Think Paul: believers are <em>letters from Christ, written by the Holy Spirit not on tablets of stone but on human hearts.</em> (2 Corinthians 3:17). And so many, many more references throughout the pages of Scripture.

But perhaps the biggest stone, both physically and symbolically, is the one that is synonymous with the events of Jesus’s death and resurrection. Matthew tells us that after his death, Jesus was laid in a new tomb and a “great stone” was rolled to the entrance. (Matthew 27:60). Provision had been made, humanly speaking, to keep everyone and anyone from getting to the Lord’s body. After all, if something is said to be ‘set in stone,’ we consider it permanent.

By nature, stone is heavy, secure, immovable. The most common stone used in the Holy Land has always been limestone. It is one of the most durable materials for building, with few pores that make it weather resistant and able to withstand abrasion. The authorities further sealed the tomb with clay and imprinted the Emperor’s seal on it. That stone should never have moved. And yet, it did. Matthew further describes this. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and rolled back the stone and sat on it. (Matthew 28:2).

Most sites in modern-day Israel are shown to tourists as, “the traditional site of” whatever is being visited. The actual place where Jesus was laid that sorrowful day so long ago is not known with certainty. The stone that the angel rolled away could be any stone. The tomb that is said to have held Jesus’s body—although representative—is not necessarily the real deal. But do we need that? Is it necessary to see the actual stone moved before we believe in the resurrection?

Spoiler alert: the answer is no. We have been given so much information, just not every single piece of it. And it is, indeed, set in stone. Jesus entered that tomb, carved into a limestone hillside, as a dead body. Fully man, fully God, fully deceased. Friday led to Saturday, Saturday to Sunday. And then, just as he said he would, Jesus emerged from within and behind the rock, fully alive!

It turns out that the only thing stronger than stone is the Word of the Lord. It is as alive as Jesus is, speaking to us, guiding us, protecting us. Within the arms of our resurrected Savior, we are rock-solid. And as surely as the sealed tomb was meant to keep him in and others out, we are sealed for eternity by the blood of the Lamb. Scripture assures us that <em>nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. </em>(Romans 8:39).

As you garden this spring and grumble about the rocks, or your bike skids on a stone, or you are smacked in the face with an immovable obstacle, remember that God put the stones in our lives for a reason. They are there to give us a glimpse of the hope—which is set in stone—for forgiveness and eternal life. Praise the Lord for showing us the way. What is stone? Each one is a memorial, a reminder, of a love so great that nothing could move it.

And nothing ever will.

“Have your people meet us at this address,” my friend anxiously whispered to me as he handed a folded napkin across the table.

The noise in Ho Chin Minh is legendary to begin with, but when it's confined to an overcaffeinated coffee shop, asking someone to repeat themselves or speak up should be understandable and expected. Although I'm certain he heard me ask, he didn't repeat himself. He simply stood up, nodded to the four friends joining him, and together they left.

Frustrated, confused, and nearly overwhelmed by the situation, I took the napkin. I began to prepare my pitch to the multitudes of friends from dozens of different nations who had gathered in Vietnam at my request to participate in SEAPC’s Friends Around the Table event. According to the information I had just received, our venue for this event (which was scheduled to begin in only a few hours) was now redirected to the location written on the back of the napkin I held.

These were my thoughts in that moment:

Why are we here? God, am I hearing you correctly? I know that you have me here for a purpose. I believe I am in your will, and I know you want to use me to help these people. So what do I say to them? Jesus, help me!

Are you having any of these thoughts as you pray through what the future will hold and look like as God restores us in Himself and His post-pandemic purpose for our lives? Maybe you haven’t gotten to these questions yet and are right now just asking God to get you through today and the challenges around you. I believe it is time for us to ask God to pick us up and send us forward in Him. He is calling us to GO! The first place that He is calling us to go to is faith. Faith is a location. It is where I put my hope and trust. Prayer is how I put them there. Jesus is who receives them. Love is His exchange to me.

Our friends obliged to the sudden change in plans and got into buses that took us to the address on the napkin. It was a shipping yard on the banks of the Saigon River. A massive riverboat clipper was tied to the docks there, and our friends from the coffee shop stood next to it, frantically waving for us to rush onto the boat with them. Per their instruction, we were sent to the bottom of the boat and asked to wait. After about an hour, our friends came down and invited us to join them upstairs. At the top of the stairs was a grand ballroom where hundreds of pastors from 29 different Vietnamese denominations were gathered. For fear of persecution, arrest, and extortion, they felt they needed us to meet them there, in secrecy, in the middle of the river.

That night we witnessed them celebrate their 30th anniversary of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Vietnam. We watched lives being restored, hope filling the future, and the real love of Jesus Christ empowering His people to overcome any trial they could imagine. They had made it to faith, and so had we!

As we GO to faith together, let’s pray this prayer:

Jesus, I put my hope and trust in you. Help me. I choose to go wherever you are leading me, and I trust that your love will overcome all obstacles along the way. Send me to faith today, I pray. Amen.

Please join us in the vision to witness a world connected through prayer that brings Christ-based change to those in need. SEAPC will host four quarterly Friends Around the Table events in 2021. We want you to be a part of this movement of friendship in Christ by attending, praying, financially supporting its efforts, or sponsoring someone else to go. To learn more about these opportunities, email us at friends@seapc.org

I know that youcan do anything, and no plan of yours can be thwarted. Job 42:2

There’s an old American saying: When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Those who serve the Lord are certainly the type of people who are equipped to step up and handle difficult situations.

In the missionfield, we are routinely faced with a variety of scenarios. Transportation notavailable? Ride a horse through Kashmir or trek the Himalayas. The governmentdecides the team who just arrived in one Asian nation can’t do medical clinicsafter all? Travel across a border and watch lives being changed. Plans weren’tcommunicated and sites to serve haven’t been prepared? Spend the day in aprison watching inmates meet Jesus.

God always has a perfect plan. It’s superior to ours. And yet. Over a year into travel restrictions, the call to GO for him hasn’t waned—but also isn’t possible. And there is nothing to indicate it will change any time soon. What’s a tough missionary to do when we simply can’t get going?

Turns out God really does have a plan—multiple, unbelievable, amazing plans—for his work to continue. Hearts that are tuned in to him are finding ways to cope personally and to further the kingdom from home base. One such opportunity has the potential to improve lives in a very real, very concrete way.

We all have wish lists. For the medical team, of course, being creative in improving health is a constant challenge. The main goal is always to be the catalyst to bring people in for prayer so that they can find and follow Jesus. But medical treatment and holistic wellness is in short supply in villages across the world. A two-week packet of medicine and health teaching is not the best answer. And telling a desperately poor diabetic man in Guatemala or Nepal that he can only eat a small palm-full of rice a day, when that’s the staple of his diet, is not a viable solution.

During one Missions meeting in the fall of 2020, a longstanding item on my wish list popped up. “If only we could find a nutritionist to travel with us, we might be able to figure out longer term solutions for people. We see the same stuff all over the world.”

Justin McGurgan, a member of the team, spoke up. “My sister-in-law is a nutritionist. Maybe she could help.”

And we moved on to other topics. But Justin put me in touch with Jenee. Who, it turns out, has many initials after her name, MS, RD, LDN, CNSC, and an equally impressive job, CMD Clinical Instructor at the University of Pittsburgh. After honing in on the Registered Dietician part, I couldn’t wait to meet her.

What followed has turned into a project so exciting that it’s absolutely clear God is making a way, both for his people and for his workers. Jenee put the project out to her students as an option for their independent study in the spring. Two young women were interested. And so it began in the early part of 2021.

They are developing healthy diet plans for two general regions, Central America and Asia, and for three disorders, heart disease, diabetes, and gastric reflux. With the cheapest, most readily available foodstuffs being rice and highly spiced rice, there is much research needed. The students are busy doing just that. In addition, they completed a Zoom meeting with Debbie Zetino, who was able to discuss what people in Guatemala eat most often, including what they can and cannot afford to buy. Within weeks, they will be meeting with our friend Man Dai in Nepal to gather the same information for Asia.

The final product will be three diet plans, specific to each of these illnesses, that will help to control symptoms and maintain health. They will be based on common, easily accessed, affordable foods. Once completed, friends in the nations will translate them into local languages.

In countries where we can Google a plethora of diets with a few keystrokes, this may not seem earth-shattering. To the poor in under-developed nations, some of whom are still living in caves and digging roots for food, it is revolutionary. When the medical team can once more hit the road, it will be with an added tool. Yes, medicine is important. But when that runs out, it’s uncertain if patients can find a pharmacy or afford a refill. With the ability to manage disease through a healthy diet, wellness will increase. And because we go in the name of Jesus, God will be glorified.

That’s the thing about medical missions. We who are believers understand that eternal life is so much more important than temporal life. But medicine is the hook that brings people in to meet their basic physical needs. So that their need for a savior can also be met. At a normal clinic, one hundred or more people are seen a day. At least fifty percent suffer from heart disease, diabetes, and/or reflux. One hundred percent have poor nutrition. If we can provide lasting wellness to bodies through diet, souls called by the Lord will become healthy as well.

Sometimes, when the going gets tough, the tough need to find new ways to get going.

God is providing opportunities for growth, for evangelism, for creativity, for faith, and for so much more during this time of waiting. Rather than bemoaning what is, the tough need to seek God’s will, listen for his direction, and be obedient to his call.

How can you serve from home? What gifts do you have that can be used in missions while stranded in the States? Could your personal or career expertise impact people around the world even in this season? Pray about it. See where you are led. Reach out to SEAPC with your thoughts and ideas. Together, we can make a difference for Jesus.

The going may be tough right now, but our Lord and Savior is always tougher!