Blog : Prayer Letter

I am not much of prayer warrior. You would think that after 25 years as a missionary, I would be better than I am. My prayer life tends to be very unsystematic. At times it is superficial. And when I actually do pray I must struggle to maintain my focus. You know that dog in the Disney movie Up? The one distracted by squirrels? That’s me at prayer. 

But here is the punchline: God answers me.

Over and over God has answered my prayers. In spite of the fact that I am not even good at being grateful. I don’t know how many times I have asked God for something, moved on to other things, forgotten what I asked for, seen God answer the original request, and then not recognized the answer until much later. Which makes me wonder how many things has God answered that I still haven’t recognized. I am so oblivious at times. And yet God still answers my prayers.

Beyond the fact that I am a bit of an airhead, I think one of my biggest weaknesses in prayer stems from the fact that I am a knee-jerk activist: see a need—do something—now. It is like an automatic switch in my brain. Sometimes it goes like this: see a need—don’t know what to do—worry. 

Over the years I have slowly learned that when I find myself worrying I need to go back and do what I should have done first: go to the Lord in prayer. In other words, I have begun to see my worries not as legitimate reactions to the reality around me so much as system alarms that tell me to pray.

Dealing with my over-activism has been harder. Years ago I was struck by the story of David in 1 Samuel 30 where his camp is raided and all the women are children are carried off. His men are desperate to pursue the raiders, but David stops to first “inquire of the Lord.” Had I been David, I would have prayed for direction, protection, and success AS I was already galloping off after the raiders. It would have never occurred to me to inquire of the Lord IF I should give pursuit. To this day I find myself leading a planning meeting and not thinking to pray for guidance until we have already made our plans.

Now, I do not believe that we are called to a life of prayerful passivity. But neither are we called to take God’s place. God does the work and uses us as instruments.

For a number of years, I have been a student of the life and ministry of William Carey (1761-1834) who is known as the Father of Modern Missions. Carey led a vigorously active life, He saw considerable fruit from his ministry, but not before he had endured years of frustration and suffering.  He was not perfect but in many ways here’s a great model for missionaries today. That is why one of the first courses our seminary students take is about Carey’s life and ministry. We want them to be men and women of active, prayerful faith.

Over the next five weeks I want to share with you five principles that lie behind Carey’s approach to prayer.

These ideas have been a great encouragement to me. And they are helpful to our students. I hope they will encourage you in your prayer life as well.

I hope that as you learn about Carey’s approach to prayer you will begin to feel the call to pray for the students of Seminario Bíblico William Carey. Latin American leaders desperately need quality theological training. However, even more importantly they need committed followers of Jesus Christ praying for their perseverance and proclamation of the gospel. Can you join them as they take the gospel to their churches and surrounding communities?

Sam Masters

Count Me In

In March of this year our province was hit by severe flooding. Highway bridges were washed away and the people from our congregation in Jesus Maria were cut off for a time. Things were worse for some of the members of our congregation in Saldán. One family lives in Unquillo, a town in the foothill of the Sierras de Córdoba where a torrent of water washed away houses, cars, and seven people who drowned. Pablo and Ornela, a couple from the church that lives in the area, stayed out of danger, but their store was flooded with mud and water.

The day of the flood I struggled to get news about our people. Phone lines were out and roads were cut. When I finally got some information I found out one of our deacons, Daniel Pastor (yes, Señor Pastor is a deacon), had already made it in and was organizing a cleanup operation. University students and others from our church shoveled the mud out of Pablo and Ornela’s business. When they were done, they did the same for the businesses on either side.

Gospel or Social Action?

The flooding and the response of our church brought to mind debates from my college years about the proper relation between gospel preaching and social action. Back in the 1980s, many of my peers were wary of falling into the trap of preaching a social gospel. Over the years however, many called for a more “holistic” approach to ministry. Some repeated the trope that a poor person couldn’t possibly be receptive to the gospel with an empty belly.

The discussion has advanced considerably since those days. I think, most pastors or missionaries in my current peer group would now reject an either/or position. At the same time, most I think, would argue that the priority must rest on the preaching of the cross. As important as it might be to meet people’s physical needs, it is infinitely more important to reach them with the message of the gospel.

Non-governmental Organization or Churches?

Raising missionary funds has always been a challenge. Over the last several years I have had with growing frequency the experience of discovering that many Christians are interested in social projects that provide water, or food, or literacy training to needy communities. At the same time, eyes often glaze over a bit if they are challenged to support things like church planting or theological education for national pastors.

The sad irony of this situation is illustrated by the efforts of our congregations following the floods earlier this year. To put it bluntly, Pablo and Ornela and their neighbors­, were not helped by an NGO.

Now, I know there is a need for Christian NGOs. The individual local church is not equipped to deal with a massive famine, for example. Good NGOs become a channel for individual Christians and local congregations when specialized expertise is required. But even here, most Christian NGOs would agree that effectiveness requires an open feedback loop between the NGO and local churches.

However, while there is a need for the specialized expertise of large NGOs, a gospel-driven local church excels at responding to a broad range of local needs on a smaller scale. The people who responded to the floods were not experts at disaster relief, but they responded well, and have since moved on to meet other needs. They visit the sick, care for the elderly, volunteer at orphanages, work in the prisons, and many other ministries. This doesn’t take into account the many hours they dedicate to more overtly church-oriented ministries such as evangelism, discipleship, small group leadership, etc.

As counter-intuitive as it might seem, I believe that planting a gospel-driven local church provides the most effective social program for needy communities.

Doña Cuca began attending our congregation in the city of Jesús Maria three or four years ago when it was still a small group that met on Tuesday nights (Don and Doña are honorifics usually reserved for elderly people.) Although she was almost 90 years old, and a little deaf, she rarely missed and always had a smile and hug for everyone. She was concerned for the salvation of her extended family and always asked for me to pray for them when I spoke there.

She had a hard life in many ways, but she was still full of joy. I loved to hear her tell stories of her life and of the area where she lived which had been colonized by Italian immigrants over one hundred years ago. She still knew how to make many of the traditional recipes.

In spite of her age she was very spunky. Last year we all got a little scared when she told us the water tank on the roof of her house was leaking so she just climbed up and fixed it herself.

I think her greatest joy last year was to see a niece begin to come to meetings with her and to be able to bring some of her great-grandchildren to services.

Several weeks ago, Alejandro Grande, the pastor of the congregation in Jesús Maria called me. Doña Cuca had been crossing the main street and was hit by a truck.

I preached at the wake the next day. The congregation showed up as a body. Their concern and evident love had a great impact on the extended family. I preached the Gospel to them because I knew that is what Doña Cuca would have wanted. Her strong testimony made it easy.

We all missed her at the next Sunday meeting. But we were very happy to see present some of the people she always asked us to pray for.

Sam Masters

Dr. David Sills was the main speaker for this year’s Seminario Carey theological conference. Dr. Sills is a missions professor at Southern Theological Seminary. He is also the founder of Reaching and Teaching, a ministry that, among other things, provides training for pastors in the majority world who are primarily oral learners.

The conference’s theme was “The Unfinished Task.” It was a great challenge to our students and congregations. It was also a challenge for those of us in leadership to get serious about concrete plans to send Argentines to other continents to share the gospel.

Dr. Sills will return next year to host a training session for our leaders to enable them to teach pastors who are primarily oral learners. This is going to be a great help for our missionaries working in Cachi and La Rinconada. It will also allow us to reach into some of the neediest areas of the southern cone.

The seminary continues to grow. We will be opening a new study center in Tucumán in Northern Argentina and in Valdivia in Southern Chile.

Please pray for our fundraising efforts. Resources are lagging far behind the opportunities for ministry that open on every hand.

Thanks for your faithful prayers and support.

Sam Masters

MISSION DEI

May brought the group from Missio Dei Church in Columbia, MO.  They helped build the children’s Sunday school building for the congregation in Saldán.

BEFORE

AFTER

ROCK HARBOR & FBC BOISE

In June we had help from two different ministries from the states! Rock Harbor Church from Boise and FBC also from Boise.

ROCK HARBOR

FBC BOISE

In March we began monthly prayer meetings to pray especially for our congregations and of the Lord’s work around the world. The idea is an old one. Jonathan Edwards urged New England churches of his day to join in “concerts of prayer” for the “the revival of religion and the advancement of Christ’s kingdom on the earth”. When at a later date, the Baptist churches of Northamptonshire, England took up the challenge it led to the launch of the modern missionary movement and William Carey’s ministry in India.

We are not in the same class as Edwards or Carey, but we can appeal to the same Lord. So, on the first Tuesday of the month at 8.30 pm we are gathering in each congregation to pray for one another and God’s larger purpose in the world.

Here is a list of requests from each congregation:

Thanks for your faithful prayers and support.

Sam Masters