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PRAYER FOCUS

APRIL 2006

BEE Moravian!

As Director of Intercultural Ministries and Communication for the BWM, I had the opportunity of attending a BEE (Bible Education By Extension) Facilitators’ Conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand, February 21-25, 2006.  My presence there was part of the BWM’s commitment to involving Moravian pastors and seminary students in a “BEE Moravian” Campaign, designed to give them experience in cross-cultural ministry while serving the greater Body of Christ.

What a joy it was to get to know committed servants of Jesus Christ who are training Bible teachers and church leaders in many countries in Europe and Asia.  My specific assignment was music and worship leadership.  It was wonderful to be able to share some of our deeply spiritual Moravian chorales (such as “The Savior’s Blood And Righteousness”) with people who were hearing them for the first time!  I also found that my “Moravian-ness” made it possible for me to be a uniting factor in a group with diverse theological and cultural views.  I was presented with the opportunity of leading the closing session – a time during which they asked me to share some thoughts about Moravian mission history as well as present-day Moravian mission endeavors.  The difficult part for me was hearing the tendency to refer to Moravian missionary zeal in the past tense (or to quote a sign in the Visitors’ Center in Old Salem, “who were the Moravians?”).

So my prayer request for this month’s Prayer Focus is two-fold:

1)     Pray for the exciting partnership between BEE World and the Moravian Board of World Mission (BEE Moravian); and

2)     Pray that Moravians might allow God to do in us in the present what God was able to do in the past.  Pray that in the future the year 2006 would be almost as recognized and remembered as the years 1727 or 1732, and then pray that God would give you the courage and the commitment to be part of the answer to that prayer!

                                                                                              Submitted by Sam Gray