At Gospel for Asia, Prayer is Woven Into Everything We Do

Dozens of hands pressed down on pieces of paper while more hands lifted toward the sky. An unintelligible murmur filled the room as the Gospel for Asia staff prayed. We were about to send out a mailing, letting people know about the opportunity to give toward constructing places of worship, and we didn’t want to do it without bringing it before the Lord one more time.

At Gospel for Asia (GFA), prayer is woven into everything we do. It’s been that way since before the beginning of the ministry.

Gospel for Asia has this set of 10 things we call our Core Values. Number five is “Being a people of prayer and worship.”

Even as I write this, one of my coworkers exemplified this value.

“I’m going to the prayer room,” he said as he walked by, “if anyone wants to know where I am.”

He said it as casually as someone announcing they’re going for a coffee break. No boast, no shame. Just letting us know why he’s not at his desk.

At many prayer meetings, the Gospel for Asia staff will gather around projects or people, lay hands on them and pray for them specifically.

A Lifestyle of Prayer

We’re continually encouraged by our leaders to take time away from our desks to pray. We have a chapel open for prayer. We have a room upstairs for those who feel a burden to talk with the Father.

Almost every day, during lunch, people can be found gathering and interceding for one another or for needs in Asia—there are groups that pray for persecuted believers every Monday; Uttar Pradesh, a state in India, every Tuesday; and North Korea every Thursday.

I can’t count how many times I’ve heard Dr. KP Yohannan Metropolitan challenge us to pray. He’s often told us, “The quickest way from point A to point B is prayer.”

We know it’s true, and we strive to live in the light of that reality every day, every week—yet we know it’s not easy. There are times when we don’t want to pray because it just feels wearisome. It’s easy to want to skip a prayer meeting from time to time. We’re human. God is still working in all of us. And even though there are times we find it difficult to pray or we just don’t feel like it, we still do it.

The act of spending time with God and seeking His face is a joy, and it is also a discipline. Whether we feel like it in the moment or not, we come to Him because we know we must in order to see God’s will accomplished on earth, in our lives and in the lives of those who don’t know His name.


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