Twice a year, since our founding in 1951, the entire global staff of Campus Crusade for Christ sets aside a day for prayer for the needs of our ministry around the world.

On April 22nd, we gathered with our fellow staff at headquarters to worship and pray. In my previous post, A Faith that Keeps Us Focused, I shared the devotional that started our time together. In this post I’ll share some of the prayer needs of the day.

Prayer Needs from around the World

Our prayers focused on many countries of the world. We held times of prayer with our staff from several countries using computers and video. We heard from staff gathered in Costa Rica about their plans with our Athletes in Action ministry to use the World Cup in Brazil to share the gospel. Our staff director from Turkey was actually with us in person. Even though he didn’t know any English, we could sense his heart and fervor for sharing Christ. He was good friends with the three men martyred seven years ago in Turkey. (See my post, The Seed of the Church.)

The Ukraine

I’ve had a great concern for the Ukraine, so it was heart-warming just to see three faces of our Ukrainian staff projected on the screen as they shared about the six months of stress and fear that has been life for Ukrainians. The country is facing a political and economic crisis, as well as a threat from neighboring Russia.

Will you pray for the 87 Campus Crusade for Christ staff laboring in the Ukraine? God is working!

• Criminal activity is intense every weekend.
• Pray for Separatists to lay down their arms and for tensions to ease in eastern Ukraine.
• Pray for the outreach to the military.
• Pray for helping meet the needs of Tartar refugees from Crimea.
• Pray for the prayer ministry and Bible distribution in Kiev. People are very open.

We’ve seen how God has used this tense situation to bring great openness. Our staff were distributing 3,000 Bibles a day in Kiev recently. Watch the video for more news and footage. (Use the icon in the lower right to view the video “full screen.”)
http://player.ooyala.com/iframe.js#ec=Fxb2JlbDoxEruUi6xAm0ln9WeeYh1bHY&pbid=48fb46fc2d94405b8a5abaa6d9ea288a

NOTES:

• Read more about, Oleksandr Turchynov, the current acting president of the Ukraine in my blog, The Sovereign. He gave the Easter sermon in a church in Kiev last month.
• The photo of Ukrainians praying is a screenshot from the video.