From its source near Dijon to its discharge into the English Channel, the Seine River drains most of Northern France, and its history is inseparably linked to the nation’s. Dating back to 500 BC, the largest ancient bronze vessel in the world (5 feet, 5 inches tall) was found in a burial mound for the Lady of Vix. Additionally, this week in AD 845 Vikings sailed up the Seine and looted Paris. In modern history, the Seine River was part of the WW2 Allied campaign to free France from Nazi control. It was also the location for the 1900 Summer Olympics, and will be again for the opening international boat parade of this year’s Summer Olympics. However, since 1923 river swimming has been banned, because pollution has been a problem for 500 years.
1. Pray for someone involved in planning the upcoming Olympic boat parade to trust Christ as his personal Lord and Savior.
2. Missionary endeavors in France typically take a long time to see results, due to the characteristic European mindset regarding Christianity. Pray for a missionary there to be encouraged to keep serving Jesus today.
3. Pray for a family planning to attend Easter mass this weekend to hear about the correct Biblical way of salvation, and believe.
GOOD NEWS LETTER!🙏📖🎊🎉🎶🎊🎶🎊🎉🎶🎊🎉 We are on our way home from the Junior Class mission trip. It was so beautiful to see how God used the students. They were so engaged, attentive to the children and their families. Our students led 13 children and young teens to Christ and we saw 12 to 14 PARENTS & GRANDPARENTS followed JESUS yesterday afternoon by giving their lives to him! Thank you for praying for us! 🙏🎉💙
“I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.”
The rotation of continents and church jobs is now complete, so today is an opportunity for two things. The first is to review / pray for again the previously mentioned categories and locations of people:
European Pastors
North American Church Custodians
Oceanian Discipleship / Sunday School Teachers
South American Church Musicians
African Deacons
Asian Believers
With today being Palm Sunday, it is also an opportunity to pray that the Father will find many of His children genuinely worshipping Him throughout the world today. That is something all believers should do, regardless of what continent they live on or particular church role they have.
Below is a link to a Palm Sunday poem I wrote last year. The last section is my favorite. Through His enablement alone, may it always be true of each TGP team member.
“And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.”
1. TGP: Pray for more pray-ers to join us.
2. Rio Grande Valley Mission Trip: Pray for today’s gospel outreaches to bring forth fruit for eternity.
3. Your Choice: Please pray for a request you remember from any of this week’s other posts:
TGP received a request to be praying for a high school mission trip happening today through Sunday in the Rio Grande valley. It will be led by the same administrator who facilitated the 1990’s mission trips to Pasa Lajitas mentioned earlier this week. Thank you for lifting up this group in prayer as they reach out with the hope of the gospel!
Named for the same British queen as Africa’s Lake Victoria, Australia’s Lake Victoria is smaller, yet also of historical and current importance. It is part of the Murray-Darling Drainage Basin, and has been a First Nation place of living for thousands of years. It currently does not exceed a depth of eighteen feet, and serves as a reservoir for extra water from the Murray River, releasing water to the south as needed.
1. Pray for the salvation of an archaeologist who has excavated around Lake Victoria. Many artifacts have been uncovered, but pray for an archaeologist to find an even greater treasure in the truth of the Word of God.
2. Pray for Christian outreaches among Australia’s aboriginal people to being forth much fruit.
3. Pray for the professional who makes the final call on regulating water flow out of Lake Victoria to cheerfully let the Lord make the final decisions for his life.
3. Earth’s second largest freshwater lake by surface area
Forty million people (and growing quickly every year) live in the drainage basin of Lake Victoria, from the countries of Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda. The lake is the source of the Nile River. David Livingston was one of several British explorers in the 1800’s who worked to confirm or deny this fact when it was still in question.
1. This picture is from a park along the coastline of Mwanza, a Tanzanian town famous for its granite rock. Pray for the next person who steps on the pictured rocks to find a sure footing for life by placing faith in Christ alone.
2. Just as the Nile’s source was a topic of debate and much exploration, the source of true happiness and significant meaning in life is also. Pray for a Ugandan worker at one of Lake Victoria’s many resorts to personally find the answer to this vital quest.
3. Harvesting 2,000,000,000 pounds of fish annually, the lake provides the world’s biggest freshwater fish supply. * Pray for Christians among the 200,000 workers in that industry to walk in the Spirit today.
This picture hangs on my kitchen wall. It’s a page from a calendar of photographs of children from Peru, given to me Christmas of 2004. I don’t know who the boy is, but the look in his eyes stirs my soul. Children all over the world have that look in their eyes in a spiritual sense – hungry, wondering, hoping, not sure. I wish that I could walk up to each of them and tell them about Jesus. He’s the ultimate answer to their need. I wish I could give each of them a hug and a smile, look into their eyes, and tell them about the Bread of Life who loves them so very, very much.
The only way I know for one person to reach around the whole world is through prayer. In prayer, it is possible to make a difference in more places than our feet could ever travel in a lifetime. Jesus said to pray for the Lord of the Harvest to thrust out laborers into His harvestfield (Matt. 9:36-38). Each of us are working in our particular corner of that field, but we can pray for the whole field a piece at a time. Indeed, we must pray, for the Savior is worth knowing by every person, but “the night comes, when no man can work” (John 9:4).
Today marks three years since TGP’s first prayer post. I sincerely thank all of you who have prayed with us, from the first person who signed up to the most recent. The grand goal at the beginning was that TGP would have 1440 people praying a minute each day, because that would add up to a solid 24 hours worth of prayer every day for whatever the particular requests / location were. Though we are far from that goal, only the Lord knows how many cumulative hours of prayer have been offered on behalf of the peoples of the world coming to know Jesus. To God be the glory for this work to advance His kingdom! Occasionally, we hear about a specific answer to our prayers, and we trust that many more times, those visible answers will be waiting for us in heaven. Let us keep praying!
In 2016, five years before TGP started, I wrote a poem called “On Mission to Serve Jesus.” That was a phrase embroidered on a backpack given to me when I participated in a summer internship program helping a church plant in June of 1999. Wherever God has us today, we are disciples on the most important mission of all time – loving and serving Jesus. I’m putting a link to that poem here from my poetry blog, and I hope that it will be an encouragement to you:
For our prayer request today, please join me in praying that more pray-ers will join our team. If you think of people who might be interested, please tell them about Targeted Global Prayer. Any questions can be directed to targetedglobalprayer@gmail.com, or they can go to the website itself to find out more and sign up.
Thank you again for praying! “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Timothy 1:17)
1. Haiti, through which most of the Artibonite River flows, has been the scene of political upheaval in recent days. Pray for innocent lives to be protected today, and for the Lord to bring a gang leader to a saving knowledge of Himself.
2. At 199 miles, the Artibonite River is the longest on the island of Hispaniola, and the second longest in the Caribbean. Pollution and deforestation have negatively impacted its water quality, though it is still used some for irrigation and production of hydroelectricity. Coming inland from the ocean, smaller boats can navigate the river for half its length. Pray for both a boat owner and someone involved in the hydroelectric industry to hear and respond in faith to the gospel.
3. Pray that today the Father will grant His peace to His Haitian children, giving them a strong sense that He will take care of them during this tumultuous time.
1. A component of everything from songs to controversial current events, 1,896 mile long Rio Grande forms part of the border between the USA and Mexico. Pray for today to be “the day of salvation” for a person who regularly crosses the river.
2. Near the Rio Grande, the village of Pasa Lajitas has often been a high school mission trip destination. Pray that gospel seeds planted there in the 1990’s will continue to bear fruit.
3. Many large border towns on the Rio Grande are notorious for gang activity and drug trafficking. Pray that someone in bondage to these things will meet the Light of the World, and be transferred into His kingdom this week (Col. 1:13-14).
