Category: Resource Reviews

Source: Wycliffe Bible Translators

Kids off school next week? Consider taking the time to dive into Scripture as a family with this five-day family devotional. Each day, enjoy a short, Scripture-based teaching, questions to answer together and a fun activity (including a few international recipes).

Download the 11-page PDF, The Best Gift Ever: A 5-Day Christmas Devotional with Kate & Mack devotional. No registration required.

Also see Kate & Mack’s 12 Days of Christmas (a look at Christmas traditions around the world) and other Wycliffe resources for kids.

Source: Wheaton College Billy Graham Center

Where: Zoom
When: Wednesday, December 14, 7pm Central Time

Christmas time is full of social gatherings with family and friends as well as opportunities for meaningful conversations. To help us enter the season with hopeful expectations, Wheaton professor emeritus Dr. Jerry Root will present his annual talk on sharing Christ with your friends and family at Christmas. Dr. Root shares inspiring stories and winsome ways to help us all share our faith boldly.

Dr. Timothy Larsen, author of The Oxford Handbook of Christmas, will follow to share some of the rich history of our Christmas traditions.

Register to attend.

For a taste of Tim Larsen, see his article No One Took Christ Out of Christmas (Christianity Today). The subtitle summarizes, “Let’s dispense with our worries that Christmas as we know it isn’t Christian.” Whew!

Ready to think about the new year? Check out our growing calendar of 2023 mission events. Submissions welcome.

1. A Prayer Guide for Nearly a Billion People
2. Article: When You Won’t Be Home for the Holidays
3. Book: Stories of Courage from Women Serving Around the World
4. Podcast: David Garrison on Movements in the Muslim World
5. Events in December: Mission Conferences and More

Read or share the email edition or scroll down for more.

Source: Joshua Project, Telos Fellowship, and Go31.org

So we’ve made it to Advent. You may be using these weeks to imagine yourself back in the days of Mary and Joseph, Anna and Simeon, and the angels and shepherds longing for God to show himself in the world once again.

Why not take some time after Christmas to intercede for those who have yet to hear the good news of what Christ has done for them?

Several organizations and networks came together to produce a prayer guide for the 31 largest “frontier” people groups, those among which the gospel has seen the least progress. The third edition came out earlier this year.

Visit Go31.org for the electronic version (no cost), request a review copy, or order bulk copies of the 57-page booklet at 10 copies for US$20 or 100 for US$100. You might also want to download the Bless Frontier Peoples Prayer App. It shows you the frontier people group of the day. Today (November 30) it features Day 30 (Moroccan Arabs).

Check out the Frontier People Groups poster and a roundup of related resources from Joshua Project.

Here’s another prayer guide to consider. Let All the Peoples Praise You: 30 Days of Praying for Urgent Needs Among the Nations uses data from Stratus.earth (which ranks how needy nations are on several scales) alongside reflections from Scripture adapted from David Platt’s podcast Pray the Word. High-quality paper copies are US$2.99 from Radical but the digital edition can be downloaded for free.

Source: Go.Serve.Love

It was December 24th, but I was the only person out shopping that night thinking about stocking stuffers. I ran down to purchase a few last-minute items, missing my extended family and the unintended tradition of wrapping gifts in a crazy flurry on Christmas Eve.

It wasn’t Christmas Eve for most of the people in Egypt. I was one more person out shopping on a normal night. I was homesick and worried I wouldn’t be able to make the holiday special for my family.

Read the article. See also Loneliness Overseas: 12+ Ways to Deal.

Other practical articles you might find helpful include A Pocket Guide for Talking to Missionaries: Dozens of Missionaries Open Up About Questions They Love and Questions They Don’t (A Life Overseas) and one from a few years back about why missionaries need friends and how to be one (Catalyst Services).

Source: Velvet Ashes

Yet We Still Hope: Stories of Courage from Women Serving Around the World, edited by Denise Beck and Sarah Hilkermann. Velvet Ashes Publishing, 2022. 374 pages.

Velvet Ashes is an online community of women serving cross-culturally. In this book, 45 of them, serving in many different countries, share both their everyday challenges and their darkest moments and how God has met them in both—resetting their expectations, sending them help, and giving them hope.

Delving into issues like depression and anxiety, failure and rejection, serious illness and betrayal, it’s not an easy read. Nor is it a how-to book. These deeply personal stories may, however, serve as they are intended: to let others experiencing such challenges (even in their home countries) know they are not alone and help them persevere. As one of the editors says, “The famous stories may have inspired you to go. But these are the stories that may inspire you to stay.”

Learn more or purchase the book for yourself or someone you know. The Kindle edition is currently US$8.49.

Source: Maverick Podcast

After hearing rumors of Muslims coming to Christ in great numbers, researcher and missiologist David Garrison travels the world to investigate. Is God drawing Muslims to himself like never before in history? And if so, what is he using to do it?

You may recognize some of the content of this podcast from Garrison’s 2014 book A Wind in the House of Islam. Garrison is currently the Executive Director of Global Gates, which sponsored this season of the podcast. Five episodes so far, each focused on a different region and blending history and context with testimonies. Drop in at any point.

Listen to Maverick, Season 2. I learned a lot in the episode about Persia.

Other active missions podcasts you might enjoy:

• Missions Pulse with David Joannes
• God Network News from Create International
• Frontiers UK’s RAW Mission
• The Missionary Mobilization Podcast
• The Global Missions Podcast

Some of these and others are included in the Missions Podcast Directory from Missio Nexus.

Source: Missions Catalyst Events Calendar

December 1, How to Share Your Organization’s Message Through Self-Publishing Books (online). A webinar from Missio Nexus.

December 5-7, Support Raising Bootcamp (online). Provided by Support Raising Solutions. In-person training is also offered in various places throughout the year.

December 6-8, Standards Introductory Workshop (online). A 10-hour seminar designed to help short-term mission leaders and mobilizers make their mission trips better. Provided by MissionExcellence, a ministry of MissionWorks.

December 8, Which Is Greater—the Commandment or the Commission? (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.

December 11, Call to Prayer Virtual Prayer Gathering (online). Engage the Muslim world through prayer on the second Sunday of each month.

December 12, Perspectives St. Louis Area Ministry Fair (St. Louis, MO, USA). Looking for practical hands-on ways to connect with God’s global mission in the St. Louis area and abroad. Visit 25+ local ministries and mission organizations to find your place to serve.

December 13, Using Specific Skills for God’s Great Commission (online). Webinar from MissionExcellence.

December 20, Contend: Monthly Day of Prayer For Mission Mobilization (global). Coordinated by GMMI for the third Tuesday of each month. 

December 28-31, Urbana Student Mission Conference (Indianapolis, IN, USA). Triennial mission conference for college students provided by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

View the complete calendar, updated regularly. We welcome your submissions.

Can you help me fill in the 2023 calendar? Thanks!

Source: Voice of the Martyrs

The 2022 International Day of Prayer video, Rebecca: Nigeria tells the story of a Nigerian woman who watched helplessly with her daughter as Boko Haram militants killed her husband and son and burned her home. When she searched the charred remains of her home, she found the Bible she and her husband had received on their wedding day. “I still use this Bible,” Rebecca said. “It reminds me of God’s faithfulness.”

You might want to share this video with others on or before the day of prayer, November 6, or some other time during November. Learn more about the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church and download additional resources.