Myers Weekly Prayer Letter

The last few days the temperatures have literally soared to between 100-108.  Everything is so dry and dusty and in need of good rains.  This time of year it is very vital that rains come weekly and no rain is forecast for the reminder of the week.  Please pray the rains will come and provide the moisture that will enable crops/gardens to grow and rivers/streams to fill!!

We enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship with the IMB video team that were in Tshaneni Saturday-Wednesday (November 5-8).  Margie, Katie, Tyler and Jess stayed busy photographing and talking with Brandi and Kim and many Swazis along the way.  Besides the various AIDS ministries in which Kim and Brandi are involved, the group was able to experience the sharing of the True Love Waits message with the students at the Vuvulane Seconday School.   Pray for this group as they continue their work with Sienna, Heather and the Allens in Mbabane.  Sunday they will return to Jo’burg.  Pray for a safe journey.

NOTE***Stories from this visit will appear on AfricaStories.org the first appearing on the 30th of November.  Swaziland will also be featured for the World AIDS Day emphasis December 1st.

Sunday was a very warm day as we loaded up the children from Vuvulane after worship and made our way to Mafucula for a combined children’s Bible study.  Brandi and Kim shared the truth/facts about AIDS with about 50 children under three small shade trees.  After a time of work the children enjoyed chips, cookies and juice!!   It is so important that our children begin to understand the causes and effects of AIDS.  Pray Swazi children will have a chance to hear the truth about AIDS and its causes.  Pray for a brighter future for our Swazi Baptist children.

SPECIAL PRAYER REQUEST:
The last few months the Swazi Team has requested prayer for the monthly executive committee meetings of the Swaziland Baptist Convention.  There have been questions concerning the working relationship between the Baptist Mission and the Swazi Baptist pastors/churches and convention. We have asked you to pray for open minds and a desire to have unity between the convention and the missionaries.  Unfortunately, last Saturday’s meeting was very discouraging for the missionaries and it has become obvious that the leadership of the convention does not want the missionaries working with individual churches unless the convention is informed what they plan to teach or do. (Rather odd since it was the missionaries that began the Baptist work in Swaziland.)  So this continues to raise the question, “How can the convention and the missionaries work together?”   Pray the missionaries will be able to work through this difficulty with a future of promise and hope.  Pray the Lord will lay His hand on this situation and He alone will be glorified in its outcome.

--The date for the Ladies’ Retreat for the Mgamudze Baptist Church has been changed from November 18-19 to November 25-26.  Pray the church will be adequately prepared for this event and ladies will plan to attend every session.

--Planning has begun for the Swazi Team’s end-of-the year retreat December 12-15.  In the past, the time has enabled the Team to not only have great fellowship together, but also praise the Lord for His blessings the past year and a time of prayer for future work.  The selected venue is the Buckleigh Guest House in North Durban.  Pray for the continued planning of this special event and for the members of the Swazi Team to prepare to be encouraged and spiritually renewed!!

--Our Hands On missionaries’ time of ministry in Swaziland is coming to an end.  They arrived for 6 months in June and will depart from Swaziland on the 8th of December (week of debriefing in Jo’burg before departing for the states).  It has been a wonderful 6  months for the Swazi Team and hopefully for these missionaries.  Wayne and I know the Mafucula and Vuvulane Baptist Churches and communities will be very sad to say goodbye to Brandi and Kim.  Plans for a farewell service combining the two churches has been planned for the 4th of December.  The Swazi Team will also say goodbye to the “girls” on the 2nd of December.  Pray for Sienna, Heather, Brandi and Kim as their work in Swaziland slowly comes to an end.  Pray for a great feeling of accomplishment as they prepare to return to the states.

OFFICE OF GLOBAL PRAYER STATEGY:
Please be in prayer for IMB trustees and staff as they gather in Richmond for their fall meeting, November 14-15.  May the Holy Spirit be their guide as they discuss important strategic and administrative matters.  Pray also for the missionary appointment service that will follow the meeting on November 16.  The service will be held at Temple Baptist Church, Hattisburg, Mississippi.

Formed in 1845 with missions a major priority, the Southern Baptist Convention immediately created Domestic and Foreign Mission Boards, promoted the monthly Concert of Prayer meetings for missions, and sent missionaries to China and Africa.  By the 1880s the SBC, however, interest in missions had waned, and the prayer emphasis had fallen into serious decline.  A report of the convention’s Committee on Progress and Prayer in 1881 attributed the decline of interest in missions primarily to the abandonment of the monthly Concert of Prayer and urged the reestablishment of the monthly event in each church throughout the bounds of the Convention.   (From the book The Life That Prays by Minette Drumwright)

Your church’s Cooperative Program contribution goes to your Southern Baptist state convention office.  Between 13 percent and 53 percent goes from there to the SBC Executive Committee office in Nashville.  Half of those funds go to the International Mission Board (IMB), and half go to other SBC entities.  The IMB receives 35 percent of its total income from CP.  That money, along with Lottie Moon Christmas Offering dollars, supports missionaries sharing the love of Jesus Christ around the world.  Please support and give to the 2011 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering so missionaries can continue the “Great Commission” calling to go, teach and baptize in the uttermost parts of the world.