Week of Prayer for North American Missions
March 5-12, 2023
National Offering Goal: $70 Million
The North American Mission Board serves a diverse and complex region comprised of the United States, Canada and U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa.
Here, the North American Mission Board sees a mission field that needs the hope of the gospel. With your partnership, we’re committed to taking this hope to cities, small towns and college campuses.
Your prayers and gifts to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering® provide support for thousands of missionaries. These men and women are planting new churches in unreached communities and meeting needs through compassion ministries. Every day, lives are being impacted and transformed.
The needs are great, but the living hope of Christ is greater. Thank you for reaching out with hope to your own community and for your passionate support for North American Missions.
Week of Prayer
The Week of Prayer is annually observed by SBC churches to pray for missionaries, their ministries and their families. Prayer is the fuel for spiritually sustaining missionaries in places where the gospel is greatly needed, but often opposed.
The official date is the first Sunday in March through the second Sunday. Your church can choose this date or another time during the Easter season to participate.
In addition to downloading these items, if your church needs additional prayer guides or envelopes, please contact us at the Helpdesk at helpdesk@brnunited.org.
Day One
Kay Bennett
New Orleans, Louisiana
Human trafficking emergencies don’t happen on schedule, so there’s no such thing as an “average day” for Kay Bennett, director of Send Relief’s Baptist Friendship House.
“The doorbell or phone can ring and change my whole day,” says Kay. Chances are that day was already filled with serving meals to those experiencing homelessness, handing out hygiene supplies, leading Bible study, managing training programs and more… Read her story
Pray:
- People experiencing homelessness to be drawn to Baptist Friendship House for help.
- Human trafficking victims to be able to escape exploitation.
- Strength and encouragement for staff and volunteers.
Day Two
Vergil & Kelsey Brown
Portland, Oregon
More than a decade ago, Michael and Traci Byrd moved out of a rough inner-city neighborhood of St. Louis, swearing they’d never go back. Oregon is one of the least-churched states in the nation. It’s where Vergil and Kelsey Brown planted one successful church in Portland and after 10 years, felt God’s call to leave it in the hands of a new pastor and plant again.
The family moved to a part of the city that might as well have been another world away—especially for the couple’s kids. For people in the Brown’s community, Christians are an oddity…. Read their story
Pray:
- Redemption Church to be faithful and bold in their evangelism efforts.
- Unity in the growing young church.
- Joy in the journey for the Brown family.
Day Three
Sam & Joanna Choi
Minneapolis, Minnesota
The Twin Cities area has the largest Somali population outside of Somalia. It is home to the largest Hmong population in the United States, and the Hispanic population has grown by 38% in a decade.
“Although you have different ethnicities and backgrounds in our city, they’re all pocketed and avoid each other,” says church planting missionary Sam Choi of All Peoples Church. But All Peoples Church sets a different example — Unity from diversity… Read their story
Pray:
- Growth in numbers to be matched with spiritual maturity.
- Faithfulness to the mission to reach the nations in Minneapolis.
- Church to be an everyday experience that doesn’t begin and end in a building.
Day Four
Philip & Andi Coleman
Anchorage, Alaska
Alaska has a rugged, forbidding, environment. That’s also true for churches. Thirty Percent of Alaskan Southern Baptist Churches have died in the last six years.
Philip and Andi Coleman uprooted their lives in Kentucky and moved to Anchorage determined to change that statistic…Read their story
Pray:
- The Colemans as they reach a culture that doesn’t see a need for Jesus.
- The residency to grow new missionaries to reach Alaska.
- Strong relationships with local Alaska associations.
Day Five
Emanuel & Ioana Grozea
Ridgewood, New York
Emanuel Grozea was born in communist Romania to a family of smugglers–Bible smugglers. As a teenager, Emanuel felt God calling him into ministry.
He pastored for almost a decade in Romania before God moved him and his family to lead a Romanian Baptist church on the verge of closing in New York City. In the Ridgewood community, about half of the neighborhood speaks a language other than English and once was heavily populated with Romanian immigrants… Read their story
Pray:
- Faithfulness in sharing the gospel to all nations in the community.
- Maranatha to plant three new churches by 2030.
- More supporting churches to partner with Maranatha in prayer and serving.
Day Six
Matt & Amanda Hadden
Porcupine, South Dakota
When Matt went to the Pine Ridge Reservation, home of the Oglala Lakota tribe, for a short-term, construction mission trip, his plan to be an international missionary changed.
“I looked around and saw tremendous need,” says Matt. “I could hear people speaking a different language. I had entered a different culture and was in the missile of a different people group right here in my own country. These people had been forgotten and I knew God was calling me here.”… Read their story
Pray:
- Wisdom to meet the many needs of the Oglala Lakota people.
- Continued favor and partnerships with tribal leaders.
- Growth and support for wellness and construction ministries.
Day Seven
Matthew & Ruth Lahey
St. John’s, Newfoundland
More than a hundred years before Matthew and Ruth Lahey came here as church planters, the last church in the Kilbride neighborhood of St. John’s burned to the ground and was never rebuilt.
“For many Newfoundlanders, the idea of church is bound up in a building: church is something you go to, not what you are, ” says Matthew. So, when the building was destroyed, so was the church…Read their story
Pray:
- God to open eyes and soften hearts of people towards the gospel in St. John’s.
- Kilbride Community Church to represent Christ well in an apathetic environment.
- God to raise up more workers to come into this harvest.
Day Eight
Angel and Vanesa Viveros
Lincoln, Nebraska
The Viveros Family had no plans to leave Mexico City where Angel was a local pastor. Then they heard about the great need in the U.S. Midwest. Angel and Vanesa felt God calling them more than 1,700 miles away to minister to immigrants – In Lincoln, Nebraska.
“The impulse in our hearts is to be missionaries, and the Midwest is greatly lacking in ministry to Hispanics” says Angel…Read their story
Pray:
- The Spanish-speaking community in Lincoln, Nebraska, to find community and gospel hope at Cosecha Iglesia Bíblica.
- Outreach opportunities to build relationships.
- People to understand the true gospel and be rescued from the prosperity gospel.
