NAMB 2021 Prayer Calendar highlights missionaries, chaplains

NAMB 2021 Prayer Calendar highlights missionaries, chaplains

Missionaries across North America continue to move the mission forward during a turbulent time.

In 2020, hundreds of church planting and compassion ministry missionaries met needs in their communities and shared the gospel with those looking for hope.

Rafael Valter, Billy Judge and Dustin Conner either recently launched a new church or are on the precipice of starting new churches in Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Calgary, respectively.

Prayer resource

Each is also represented in the North American Mission Board’s 2021 desktop Prayer Calendar, a 109-page resource designed by NAMB to help Southern Baptists pray for their missionaries and chaplains.

Valter leads Iglesia Bautista Ágape (Agape Baptist Church), a congregation focused on reaching Spanish speaking peoples in a growing Atlanta suburb.

Church plants

While the pandemic has generated challenges, Valter has still been going door to door to meet people in his community.

Judge moved with his family — wife Sarah, a toddler and a newborn — to Pittsburgh in July 2020 after going through NAMB’s Send Network assessment process.

“We didn’t know what COVID-19 would be for church planting, but looking back, we would not have chosen another time to do it,” Judge said. “We have seen God work in incredible ways.”

Conner, originally from North Carolina, moved to Calgary in January 2017 after serving as a pastor for several years. He and his wife Jill had sensed the call to start a church, but they initially did not know when or where.

They did know, however, that they wanted to serve a place that did not have many churches, and Calgary fit the bill. The city is 95% unchurched, Conner said.

Orders limited

Printed copies of NAMB’s 2021 Prayer Calendar are available for free (plus the cost of shipping). Go to namb.net/resource/missionary-prayer-calendar for details. Orders of physical copies are limited to 25 through the end of January.

A free digital download is also available at the same website.

Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.