This is a great article of by Shane Bennett from a recent Missions Catalyst ezine.  I hope it will inspire you to pray more diligently for those serving in cross cultural missions work.  You can start with me!:

It’s a fascinating picture, isn’t it? As long as Moses holds his staff aloft toward the throne of God, Joshua and his army prevail against the bad guys. But Moses, though a galactic superman, got tired. Exodus 17 tells us his buds Aaron and Hur got a rock for him to sit on. Then they began to hold up his arms! I know you’ve heard this story since you were a kid, but think about it for a second: They used their arms to hold up his arms. I suppose Moses got tired of holding the staff, but how long until Aaron and Hur got tired of holding his arms, holding the stick? Couldn’t have been long. Yet they persevered through sun, fatigue, and smelliness … and it worked. Come evening, Joshua prevailed on the battlefield below.

Now maybe it’s a stretch to equate missionaries and mobilizers with Moses. If it doesn’t totally feel like you’re cheating on your hermeneutics prof, try this on: We have the opportunity, through prayer, to be Aaron and Hur for our friends who are holding up the staff of God for the advance of his kingdom among the least evangelized peoples on the planet.

When I think of you who read this column, I realize that (unless you were assigned to read this as a “bad example” of persuasive writing) you probably have some stake in the completion of the Great Commission. You’ve made sacrifices in an effort to see the good grace of Jesus go to where it hadn’t before. So I asked myself, how I would pray for you? How would I hold up your arms so that the dreams of your heart might find success?

Here it is. Here’s what I pray for you. Maybe these things would be good to pray for every last one of us, but I think they have particular relevance for those who have laid it on the line for the “sheep of another pen.”

1. Freedom from Fear

Perhaps more frequently than any other command, the Bible tells us not to fear. At the same time many of us live in cultures both saturated with and fueled by fear. I know I fear failure. I fear discomfort. I fear the loss of my health, security, and status. But this is not normal life for a follower of Jesus. John tells us that “perfect love drives out fear.” Continue Reading…