All Nations

Posted on by Michele Morin

I have the best of intentions.
I’ve backed them up with a nifty notebook:
divided into sections for the days of the week;
pages of personalized prayer requests;
an alphabetized list of missionaries (Can I make it through the list from memory at 3 a.m. on a wakeful night?);
even a few answers to prayer, dutifully recorded with the date.

I have the best of intentions, but how does one pray for the whole world,
for the advance of God’s kingdom in every nation and tribe and people and tongue?

Pray for the World:  A New Prayer Resource from Operation World is a resource for this very purpose.  Various editions of Operation World have been around since 1964, and our family has owned at least two of them.  We’ve used them as references in teaching our children about people groups and world evangelization; we’ve used them to keep our church family informed about missions and the countries where our missionaries serve.  Pray for the World is an abridged and paraphrased version of Operation World that is accessible and affordable for use by Christians all over the world.  More concise, its 313 pages (compared with nearly 1,000 in Operation World 2010) feature simple English for non-native speakers and for ease of translation.

This is an exciting development, because I’m picturing more informed readers of missionary prayer letters, magazines and newspapers.  I’m envisioning dining room tables and mini-vans, Sunday school classrooms and church sanctuaries where we’ll be growing our missions I.Q. with fun quiz questions and a methodical building of a heart for missions.  I’m imagining people around the world who listen to the news or who watch international sporting events satisfying their curiosity about other lands and cultures with the stats and facts in Pray for the World:
Where in the world is Guinea-Bissau?
How do people in Tajikistan make a living?
Are they free to vote and to worship?
How can I pray for them?
From page 310 to the end of the book, a Daily Prayer Calendar invites readers to join the huge concert of prayer around the world for each specific country.

Rejoicing together in answered prayer, sharing burdens together — this is the work and the privilege of the world-wide body of Christ with our eyes on the fulfillment of His Great Commission and our hearts longing for the glory of God to be revealed.

Parents of younger children will be happy to know that Operation World has an edition designed to engage younger children in learning about and praying for the world.  Windows on the World is an A-Z collection of brightly illustrated and winsomely presented data and prayer challenges for kids.  We used it with all four of our boys in homeschool and family devotions.

This book was provided by InterVarsity Press in exchange for my review.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Published by Michele Morin

Michele Morin is a Bible teacher, writer, reader, and gardener committed to the truth that women can become confident Christ-followers and students of God's Word. She has been married to an unreasonably patient husband for thirty-plus years, and together they have four sons, four daughters-in-love, and six adorable grandchildren. Michele loves hot tea and well-crafted sentences, poems that stop her in her tracks, and days at the ocean with the whole family. She laments biblical illiteracy and advocates for the prudent use of “little minutes.” She blogs at Living Our Days, and you can connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

13 thoughts on “All Nations”

  5. Love Window on the World and Operation World. Use them often in our homeschool geography studies. Looks like another book I should own. Thanks for sharing with #What to Read Wednesday. We hope you will link up again next week.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. As one who desperately wants to see the Kingdom of God expand to all peoples, I love this post, Michele! I HIGHLY recommend every single Christian take the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course too, so many resources are shared there for discipleship into these very things. Thank you for sharing it with us at Grace & Truth! You are so valuable to our community!!

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    1. I just checked out the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement which I had never heard of, but am very interested in learning more about! Thanks for the heads up! And thanks for reading!

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  7. I’m so excited to hear about this book! We’ve been through Windows on the World a few times and I was looking for something for my kids that would cover some of the other countries of the world that aren’t in the 10/40 window. We are studying Europe in our homeschool right now and I want them to be praying for Europe while we study! I’ll be checking this book out right away. I found you on Literacy Musing Mondays, and I’m so glad I did. I too host an all-things-book linky party every Thursday on Mommynificent.com. I’d love to have you join us for Booknificent Thursdays anytime!
    Tina

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    1. I was excited as well, and the book has lived up to my hopes. We’ve been using it for family devos lately, and we have a missions conference coming up at church, so my husband is anticipating lots of uses in that context. Thanks for the invite. I’ll be looking for your linkup!

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  9. This sounds like a great resource! I believe in praying specifically whenever we can so I can see how this would be a big help. Thanks for sharing at the Loft!

    Also, I wanted to tell you I got a kick out of your mentioning on my blog that you have a “tent” you drag with you wherever you go to help with prayer time. I like the idea very much. Although I’d love to have a prayer closet per se, my little house has no spare room at all. I have to get creative with prayer locations. My car is used the most.

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