The Journey Back

In The Footsteps of Paul

Posted on November 14, 2013

I love reading Paul’s letters to the churches.  They are full of encouragement, teaching and sometimes reproach – all of which applies to us today just as much as it did to first century churches. Paul was able to give these things to the churches and pray for their differing needs because he KNEW them.  He says hi to people by name and speaks about very specific situations.  He visited them and invested himself in them.  He connected them.  “The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings.  Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets in their house.” (1 Corinthians 16:19)

During our last time in Poland, Ben was able to do something that reminded me of this.  He and Dave Hatfield traveled to several churches that are under the care of Polish Christian Ministries.  Their visits were meant to do much of what Paul did with his visits and letters.  These are churches that we continue to pray for, and hope to have contact with again.  As part of his role with the board of directors, Ben also has a list of US churches that support PCM, and by extension the ministry of these Polish churches, which he has committed to pray for.  So here is what God has laid on our hearts.  How can we effectively pray for these churches when their support of PCM is really all we know of them?  Do they know all the good things their financial contributions are going towards?  We want to visit them, get to know them, so we can pray for them on a deeper and more personal level.  We want to share with them what we as a family have been able to see and do in Poland, giving them a personal connection with real people that are passionate about this ministry. So we feel that God has grown in us a prompting to begin our own tour of churches.   Our little family won’t bring the wisdom and guidance of the great apostle Paul, but we feel God has some plan in mind from this leading, so we will obey.

If you’re still reading this, you must either be bored or you really care about this stuff like we do!  Either way, we ask you to pray for us as we do this. We’ll start with PCM supporters closest to us, and then include some other churches that may be looking to grow their missions giving.  In addition, there are a couple of other areas of ministry, unrelated to PCM, in which we feel God’s nudging.  When Ben pursued his ministry degree and ordination, we didn’t really know where it would lead.  Ben isn’t designed for church office hours and Sunday morning preaching.  But God seems to be molding together a unique and unconventional sort of ministry for us, a collection of ways for us to share hope and joy with some people who just don’t know where to find it.  We’re pretty excited about that, but we need your prayers for guidance, wisdom and obedience.

We have recently printed some prayer cards with our contact information on the back. If you want to commit to praying for us and would like one, please send your mailing address to
rbporter15-poland@yahoo.com