Woodlands and the World Prayer Week

23-29 May, 8-9pm

Zoom etiquette: Please mute your microphone (1) during worship and (2) when in a large group (unless you are speaking). If your internet connection is unstable, turning off video can help to improve audio and prevent dropping out of the meeting.

Breakout Rooms in Chinese and English. We would allocate folks into breakout rooms where we would pray mainly in one language. Please do indicate behind your name whether you are comfortable to pray in Chinese (C), English (E) or both Chinese and English (CE) so we can allocate you to a suitable group. Praying in unity pleases our Father and the Lord Jesus and is a witness to the world! Jesus prayed “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” John 17:20–21 (ESV)

Mon 24 May: Vietnam and East Asia

VN & East Asia/ Rev Ho Kum Weng and Shi Mu

Pray for Covid Situation: The recent increase in the number of Covid cases have spread to 19 other provinces. Three hospitals need to be lockdown. Pray for protection of healthcare staff and adequate equipment in containing the Covid situation. Pray for the Lord’s continuous mercy, compassion and protection on His People. Pray for the Lord’s wisdom and discernment in leading the Government in this fight with His People taking the needed steps to exercise social responsibility. Pray for the Lord’s leading as Church service goes online.
Pray for Mission team: Ps. Tien: Pray for the Lord's intervention to control Ps Tien's blood pressure and fluid imbalance of the ear，especially during Saturday and Sunday Service.
Sister Xiu Hui: She has been back to Hong Kong for more than two months, pray for her renovation work at home. Pray for wisdom from Dr to see if she is suitable for Covid Vaccine as she has a number for drug allergies. Pray that she can return to Vietnam soon to continue her service to the Lord.
Ps Ho: Pray for the Lord's enablement, anointing, wisdom, discernment and leading as Ps Ho balance his service between WEFC and the Mei Ting Chinese Church (Sunday worship & Saturday prayer meeting). Pray for the Lord's continuous protection on him, body, soul and spirit and grant him rest on every side. Pray for wisdom in time management.
Shimu: Praise for the Lord's healing as we continue to pray and trust God for healing and sustaining grace on the painful knee. Pray for protectiion over her body, soul and spirit in every way. Pray for her continual volunteer work in Student Care. Pray for the Lord's continuous anointing and wisdom as she prepares for Mei Ting Church monthly sermon and Prayer Ministry preparation.
Thank the Lord for leading the family of Mr Leow who has returned from Korea to continue their Ministry work in Bac Ninh. We pray and trust that the Lord Himself will provide the help and workers needed to run this Ministry.
As the business visa in Vietnam is due to expire, we continue to seek the Lord's leading in the application of student visa in order that Ps Ho and Shimu can return to Vietnam to continue the good work that the Lord has begun. Pray for Lord's leading and favour in the conversion of business visa to student visa to allow them to stay in Vietnam for service.
We pray for the Lord’s leading and helping Ps. Tien to plan a summertime outskirts evangelistic event of Hanoi Mei Ting Chinese Church in June. Pray for the Lord’s providence and funding.
Pray for the Lord's leading as they prepare the courses needed to return to Vietnam. Pray for the Lord's continuous leading for a suitable dumpling venue as a form of outreach. Pray for the Lord's leading in Hanoi's Uni Campus Ministry.

East Asia/ Ps Philip Yang

Thank God for leading our MOC sending missionary. There are more than 10 units now. Glad to have regular meeting with them.
Continue to pray for Ps Yang's involvement in East Asia YMT team working in XJ, even though political situation is very tight. Very encouraging that the local YMT team persevered on in their ministry.
Due to Covid 19 pandemic restrictions, travelling is difficult, MOC will be focusing on the M group in East Asia. Will send more missionaries to NW East Asia, planning for projects in XJ. MOC suggested Ps Yang to lead a project there which seems impossible now for him to travel there. Pray for wisdom to work among the leaders to carry out better projects for East Asia local M people.
Pray for the weekly training through zoom for the 5 new missionary candidates from East Asia in June. This will be the first time in SIM history to conduct the course in Chinese. Ps Yang will be taking the session (22 June) on The Transition and Integration in the Field. He would be sharing mostly from his past experience in the field. He will also share on how to raise support and funding from locally. Pray for wisdom to be able to help the newcomers.
Pray for the planning for the next cross cultural training for the local East Asia leaders.
Pray for God's protection from Covid19 as he is still on waiting list to have his vaccination.

Tue 25 May: Timor-Leste

Timor Leste/ Jose and Sandra Guerreiro

Thank God for the congregational approval for the purchase of the land! Pray for the process for the land purchase - for wisdom for the Renovar Board and Guerreiro as they go through the legal process.
Pray for the landowner Manoel’s health. Pray that he will be committed to the land sale and that he will be a man of peace for us in Maubisse.
Pray that village chief, Wilson, will give his declaration that Manuel is the land owner. Then we can start the official process next week. Praise God for these good first steps.
Pray for our staff, Jose and his wife Anna. He is strong in his faith. They are joyful that their daughter Annalouise was born, but now in hospital they are worried about the COVID situation and there are many sick around them.
Ask for God's protection for our supported theological student, Madalena, who is with her family re-adjusting back to life in Timor. So far she is happy to be back and is excited looking forward to being back in Maubisse to share the gospel.
Guerreiro will be going to the district of Ainaro with the landowner Manoel at the land and property department to check the title deed of the land on (26/5). Please pray for a smooth bureaucratic process. Praise God that he has already travelled to Ainaro with Jose and done this.
Pray for the community needs. So far the village chief has indicated there have been 31 families who are in need of help.
Pray for the Guerreiros’ transition to missions agency Pioneers. So far it has not been an easy and straightforward process. Pray for their financial support from Brazil too.

Imro, Cynthia and Madalena 2 years ago

Timor Leste/ Imro and Cynthia Strok

Pray for the Stroks as they discern their next steps.
Pray for Imro as he explores digital missions using English teaching in Timor-Leste. Pray he will be able to plan a digital mission trip with our church on this platform.
Pray for God’s wisdom and guidance for Cynthia so that she can submit her last Montessori Early Childhood assignment before June 15.

Wed 26 May: Japan

Japan/ Louis and Christina Lau

The Lord has been preparing workers for the harvest field ready for harvesting. It is exciting to see how the Lord has challenged and motivated various groups regarding church planting multiplication. Allow me to share a bigger picture of the Lord orchestrating and aligning different groups working together through various network groups.
Church Multiplication Vision Festa: God has raised up this Japanese leaders-led group in 2014 with the goal of planting 50,000 churches. Yes, there is no mistake in the number. The goal is 50,000! These will include different models of churches although the focus will be mainly simple or micro churches with the ability to multiply. It is exciting to hear of the progress made, such as in sports ministry, the disaster areas, church planting efforts by churches and agencies in urban cities as well as rural church planting. Pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to see this being accomplished.
Train & Multiply (T&M): Under the leadership of Ps Kina, an OMS Japanese missionary and Ps Saeki, this DMM-style training has trained more than 1000 pastors and lay leaders involving 400 churches since 2017. This is momentous as we see how the impasse in church growth in Japan has generated an urgency amongst the Japanese pastors & leaders to take the responsibility to start new churches in view of the declining number of churches. Pray for us as we collaborate with T&M trained pastors to collaborate in evangelism (evangelistic teams travelling to the local areas) and to work with LoveJapan teams from Singapore.
LoveJapan Project: This is an exciting project of church planting partnership between Singapore and Japanese churches. Louis' involvement in this project consists of coordinating and training Singapore teams and missionaries as well as coordinating the collaborations between the churches in Japan and Singapore. Coordinators on both Singapore and Japan sides are meeting on June 2nd to meet for the first time to collaborate on the ZOOM Exploration Trips. The aim of the Zoom Exploration trips is to gather participating churches on both sides in separate 9 regions to get to know each other and collaborate when travel is permitted. Pray for Louis as he coordinates this important meeting of getting to know each other and setting the plans ahead in the midst of covid travel restrictions.
noplaceleft Japan: The vision is to give every person in Japan a chance to hear the Gospel through the multiplication of healthy disciples and churches. David Cervanka and Tex, who lead noplaceleft Japan, believe that their focus is to come alongside the Body of Christ in Japan in order to get the job done through equipping, empowering and encouraging Christians in reaching out to others. They have seen some amazing response rates to the Gospel among ordinary Japanese people as they mobilized the laity to share their faith and to gather communities to follow Jesus. Our collaborations will involve going to some other cities to do DMM training as well as doing prayer walks in the months ahead.
Evangelistic Bands: Thank God for the 2 days (22-23 May) 12-member team Evangelistic Outreach at Utsunomiya city, Tochigi Prefecture which is 2 hours north of Tokyo. Together with the pastor and some church members, we went out to do door to door evangelism. We praise God for 8 people (6 primary school children, 1 Sec student and 1 adult) who prayed to receive Christ and 12 people (all adults) who indicated interest to learn more about the Christian faith. Pray for this family near the church whose 2 children believed and the father being so open for us to pray for the household. Pray for Keita, a U student whom Louis will follow up as he is not ready to believe yet but wants to know more. This week, please uphold all these people that the Holy Spirit will keep their faith and interest in the Lord. With this as a start, we are planning for more Evangelistic teams to go to different cities to do prayer walks and encounter persons of peace in reaching out.
Journeying with Japanese Ladies: Chris is ministering to Japanese ladies with mental health challenges. Pray for Ms. T who has been depressed and suicidal. The Holy Spirit has guided her to have a desire to go to church and to read the NT. Pray for her salvation and assimilation into the Christian community and wisdom for Chris as she continues to encourage her weekly. Chris is discipling Ms N and meeting her weekly for online BS. She had a relapse in her mental health condition recently. Pray for healing and strengthening of her faith. Ms. TN also has a mental health situation and often contacts Chris on a regular basis. Pray for wisdom as Chris journeys and encourages these ladies, pointing them closer to Jesus. 
Counseling Ministry: Pray for guidance and discernment as Chris continues to counsel and encourage missionaries serving in Japan as well as others who are working in Japan, who need help in daily challenges. 
Homeless: During this Emergency state, many homeless are given stays at hotels until 31 May. Pray for Lazarus ministry as we reach out to the Homeless and the poor weekly. Thank God that we could resume sharing God’s word with them and praying for them. Pray for salvations for those who have not yet believed. Many have come to know the Lord. One Ms. T is getting baptized once the Emergency is over. Pray for the 14-member voluntary staff that we will be protected at all times.

Thur 27 May: Sawa of Thailand

Sawa/ Lees

Some of our Sawa friends are affected or infected by Covid-19. As most live in close proximity and have a large family, it poses a great risk to not only those living in the same house but the entire community. Please pray for God’s protection for them and for our team.
Discipleship has come to a halt: As many do not have a computer or sufficient data plan to do a long bible study, it has been reduced to mostly a care and prayer approach. Pray for Miss H and her family. Their food business has been struggling and Miss H who recently graduated is struggling to get a job.
Monthly Group: A stricter but not a total lockdown has been imposed. Pray for safety and protection of all members.
Business: The mushroom farm has daily harvest now and we are selling them daily to neighbours and passer by. Praise God for the program as it helps our local team members feel fulfilled.
Sports outreach: Please pray for sustaining ideas and for members to stay fit and healthy during this time.
Weekly Life Coaching: Pray for Calvin who has been close to Khun Son. He consults Khun Son in many things. Please pray for opportunities to hear the good news through Khun Son.
Family: Pray for Belle’s (the Lee’s eldest daughter) future career direction after June if she will continue to be an assistant to her NTU Professor. Pray for open doors and for her to be led by the Holy Spirit. Both Rose and Grace have finished their school term and new term will start in August. Both will be in their senior year. Rose in final year at University and Grace at High School. Rose will start an internship job in Michigan over summer break with a web design company. Praise God for this wonderful work opportunity and experience. Pray for Jasmine as she now takes team leadership onsite as Johannes is back in Singapore on compassionate leave to tend his mother's health needs.

Fri 28 May: WEFC missions and other fields

SIM Singapore/ Leonard and Bettina Leow

Thank the Lord for bringing Michael Chay to join our SIM S’pore team as the new SIM S’pore Director. Pray that he will be well-orientated for the role and its responsibilities, work well with the team and also be a channel of blessings to the churches.
Thank God for the recent online SIM Candidates Orientation (May17-25). 9 candidates attended all the concise 23 topical sessions. Pray that the candidates will be able to apply what they have learnt in their new mission fields.
Gabriel Chua’s Internship with SIM, in May and June. Pray that it will be a beneficial time of spiritual learning and growing, in particular on missions. Remember him as he prayerfully consider joining SIM when he graduates from his Bible school in May 2022.
Enquirers and Applicants - pray for the 2 couples and 2 singles who are applying to join SIM. Pray for the Lord’s guidance upon our SIM staffs as they journey with them during the application process. Pray that they will be able to hear and be guided by the Lord for
their field deployment.
Please continue to pray that both Bettina and Leonard will be kept by the Lord. Recently, our Trace Together app showed that we were close to a Covid 19 case at a supermarket, on 2 occasions. Both of us went for a swab test and thank God that the result was negative.
Benjamin will officially complete his internship with his NUS researcher in end May, but he will continue till mid-June voluntarily as he wants to complete some ongoing tasks for his researcher. Pray that he will be able to finish well. He is praying and planning to join ReGen, a University christian fellowship group that he’s been involved for the last 4 years. It will be for a 1-year commitment, basically to serve the undergraduates in their weekly Christian Fellowship meetings. Pray that the Lord will prepare his heart as he dedicates one year to serve Him through ReGen.

Media/ Donald & Sandra Leow

Thank God several churches and individuals responded to a call for discipleship help in Inner Mongolia. We are in advanced discussion with a church. Pray for wisdom in moving forward carefully for the safety of the Mongolian believers. A mission pastor from another church even provided daily audio 5-6 minutes Book by Book devotional for our use. He’s done Genesis, Mark, James and Galatians.
Pray for us as we travel to Joplin, Missouri mid May (1900km, 18 hour drive) to help Good News Productions International train and dub a series and short animated Bible stories into English (Donald worked for them for 12 years and was Executive Director of the Singapore office till 2007). These Bible stories were commissioned by them, produced in Indonesia and have only Indonesian dialogue. The English dialogue will be used as the base to dub to many other languages later.
Pray for Cheryl and Caleb. Cheryl has several job offers – pray for God’s guidance and wisdom. Pray also for them as they have found a house to purchase after renting for 3 years. Please pray that their marriage stays strong amidst the stresses of a new job and setting up a new home.
Pray for NK, the people are in desperate need for food. Pray relief efforts will not be hindered

Singapore/ Mindy Zhong

The current Discipleship Training School is on the local outreach phase. Do pray for the students to have unity, a teachable heart and to be able to apply as much as they can of what they have learned in the last 3 months during lecture phase.
There are different initiatives by YWAM to reach out to the people in Geylang during this Covid time. Do pray that despite the current Phase 2 situation, we will not lose the relationships we have built with our neighbours.
Pray for a good time of rest and being recharged by the Lord in this busy period.

SE Asia/ Gladis

Praise God that the core team at my district church has gained some momentum! Pray that we would carry out all the great ministry initiatives well. Please pray for the young adults at church, we are losing them! They are a special generation that faces many unique challenges. Pray that they would have the desire to seek God and the time to connect with other believers despite the business. Pray for wisdom, strength and creativity for me to journey with them well.
Please pray for preaching assignments on 30th May, 13th & 20th June. Pray for God’s special mercy and anointing as I prepare and share His words.
One of my sister’s friends has come to stay with us. She would probably be here till the end of August. Pray for grace and patience as we learn how to share this small apartment and how to build each other up well.
Please pray for a possible trip to the west of the country at the end of June, visiting some teams and a young lady I have been journeying with. Pray for fruitful connections with people, mobilization opportunities, safety, good health and financial needs.
Praise God for the helpful coaching course. I’m really hoping to practice what I’ve learned and to acquire the credentials. May God bring clients to me and may they be truly helped through me.
Please pray for wisdom in time management, continuous spiritual input and Sabbath rest.

Sat 29 May: WEFC missions and other fields: a focus on intercessory prayer

Programme

8.00 to 8.05 pm Opening of meeting by Andy Chong, Chairman, Missions Committee

8.05 to 8.20 pm Devotion by Elder Te Neng, Chairman, Missions Board

8.20 to 8.30pm Reading of scripture and quotes by Elly, head of Prayer Ministry

8.20 to 8.55 pm Breakout Rooms: A focus on intercessory prayer

8.55 to 9.00pm Break

9 to 9.30 pm Back to the main room: Open to the missionaries and group to share about what God has laid on their hearts during this week of prayer.

9.30 to 9.35 pm Closing prayer by Elder Te Chih, Chairman, Church Board

Intercessory prayer scriptures and quotes

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. Ephesians 3:20

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14

For Paul, it wasn’t a matter of building something bigger. It was about being a part of something greater: Christ’s Body. Leaving past mistakes behind, Paul strained toward all that God had in store, focusing on eternity.

Psalm 37:4-5 says, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this.”

As we do the work of ministry, we should continually ask God to align our desires with His, joining Him in what He is doing after all it is His harvest field.

Quotes
"We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God." — John Stott

"The man or woman at home who prays often has as much to do with the effectiveness of the missionary on the field, and consequently with the results of his or her labors, as the missionary." — R. A. Torrey, Congregational evangelist and pastor

"God is a God of missions. He wills missions. He commands missions. He demands missions. He made missions possible through His Son. He made missions actual in sending the Holy Spirit." — George W. Peters

Intercessory prayer points (you may refer to the previous prayer pointers as the Spirit leads)

Pray that God will continue to stir up our hearts to pray corporately during these difficult times. Pray that WEFC will be a House of Prayer and be a modern-day praying Moravian church (they prayed non-stop for 100 years).
Pray that we will continue to stand in the gap (Ezekiel 22:30) and intercede (1 Timothy 2:1) for those who have not heard the gospel of Jesus Christ in Singapore and in the nations.
Pray that our missionaries and partners—who faced tremendous pressure doing missions during a pandemic—will continue to strain ahead and keep their eyes fixed on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2).
Pray that God will raise up a new generation of missionaries and home-based missions mobilisers in WEFC to carry on the mantle of spreading the gospel to the unreached.
Pray that WEFC and its sister EFC churches will persevere with the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) and serve boldly in local and cross-cultural missions.
Pray for Breakthrough and Harvest in the various fields – East Asia, Timor-Leste, Japan, Sawa Thailand and other fields. Pray for a spiritual revival in these nations - that the great numbers of unreached people groups will be reached by the gospel.

Other scripture passages to pray over:

Matthew 9:37–38 (NIV84) Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Habakkuk 2:14 (NIV84) For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
Revelation 5:9–10 (NIV84) And they sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”