Originally from: "Bruce K. Camp" <71033.1470@compuserve.com> Originally dated: 28 Apr 95 14:26:01 EDT I feel like I am out of sync in regard to what is going on in our mobilizing efforts for the Praying thru the 10/40 Window. On the one hand, I have had other issues pressing me that I have had to deal with so I have not participated in the running e-mail dialogue as much as I desire. I hope you do not misread my lack of involvement as a lack of enthusiasm for Praying thru the 10/40 Window.

On the other hand, I have been working on ideas on how to assist our Evangelical Free churches to pray thru the window. Let me update you on where I am in this process.

My thought is that, normally, people are reluctant to go to another meeting. Thus, we need to take our message to them.

In my setting, that means: How can I mobilize as many Free Churches as possible to pray thru the window? Here is what I have in mind. These ideas are all in the embryonic stages. We will make adjustments as we begin to work on the various ideas.

1. I will work with the leaders of our mission to determine five cities, which we want our people to pray for especially. These five cities are ones that we currently work in or seek to enter.
2. Ideally in late August/early Sept., we will provide to all of our churches camera ready materials for them to photo copy and disturbute. Thus, our costs are minimal.
3. Each Sunday, the churches will use a bulletin insert which gives information on the country, the city and our specific prayer requests. That way, everyone in the congregation can be encouraged to pray for that city. Perhaps, on the front side we will have info. on the particular city and on the back we might have info. on other cities to pray for.
4. Information will be sent to the church which can be used in an adult Sunday School class, if they want to pray for the cities or have a concert of prayer. I am thinking that we will give documents to the church which they can make into overhead transparencies. For example, overheads could include: a map of the country showing where the city is, a map of the 10/40 area, an overhead which deals with the status of Christianity in the city, the status of our work in the city and specific prayer requests. This information is similar to what will be on the bulletin insert. It is provided in another format (overheads) so that it can be used in church or in a Sunday School class.
5. I am in discussion with the director of our short term ministries to see if we can coordinate some vision trips/prayer walks in a few of the cities in the next 12 months after the October prayer emphasis.
6. Perhaps, we can take a Thanksgiving offering in our churches for one of the cities to help mobilize funds, prayers and interest in the work in that city.
7. Starting this summer, we will highlight to our churches what we hope to accomplish in our Praying thru the Window effort.

I assume other ideas will surface as I give more thought to this topic and dialogue with others. However, you have the rough outline of what I hope to accomplish.

I bring this to your attention: (1) to show you another model of how we might mobilize our churches. And (2), to ask you consider this idea with your network. While it might be more natural for me to do this since I work in a denomination, I think you could offer the idea to churches/groups in your network. Instead of taking on 100 cities to pray for, maybe we should suggest that a church/group consider 5 cities which they are more naturally connected to. For example, an independent church could have an interest in China. If so, they might choose 5 cities from China.

I am willing to encourage our folks to participate in the Concerts of Prayer on October 21. However, I question if many will go to another meeting, as good as the meeting might be. For our constituency, our taking the information to them, as opposed to them coming to us, makes more sense. By offering both options: materials to them and promoting the Concerts of Prayer, maybe we will have a win win situation for everyone.

I welcome your feedback on these thoughts. Again, I appreciate all that you are trying to do with the rallies or Concerts of Prayer.

Originally from: "GFritz" <GFritz@cproject.com> Originally dated: Fri, 28 Apr 95 14:35:36 What good thinking Bruce has offered us! I'd like to add my two cents:

I showed the recently produced "Light the Window" video to my Church's Missions Committee this week and they got excited about encouraging our Church (Cherry Hills Community Church) to focus on praying through the Window this October. I figure if we can do it at CHCC it can be done anywhere. We are also considering taking some of the Church leaders to the region of our adopted People and taking some from the "Pacesetters" class there on a Prayer Journey around that time. Gregory Fritz

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