Saturday, February 04, 2012

Sponsor Needed


Some fine young friends of ours have felt God’s call to minister in Denmark. They have completed their training and are further preparing themselves toward that end. Recently, they were commissioned by their local church for overseas ministry in Denmark. Their hope is to be able to take up residence in the country this year, as God leads. They write: “Please continue to pray for a sponsoring church in Denmark. We feel that having this puzzle piece in place would make for a smoother transition, but we want to continually submit these plans to the Lord.”

Denmark has tightened immigration and residence requirements in recent months. For this fine Christian couple to have a place of ministry in Denmark, they will need an existing church or Christian organization to agree to sponsor them for their residence and work. As Pray for Denmark has noted previously, free churches in the country have been experiencing difficulty filling vacant pastoral positions. Older pastors are retiring and an insufficient number of young people appear to be interested in or seeking the Lord’s direction in training for the ministry. We believe therefore that vibrant, well-trained, and biblically and spiritually sound workers from other countries could help immeasurably to pick up the slack. We believe our friendscould give a great boost to the Lord's work in Denmark.

PRAY that an established Danish church or Christian organization would welcome the opportunity to sponsor our friends mentioned above and would welcome the opportunity to partner with them in their efforts in church planting and evangelism.

PRAY that all visa and immigration processes will flow smoothly for this committed family and that the Lord would make it clear to them where they should engage in language study once they have established residence in Denmark.

PRAY that in the larger context Danish believers themselves will actively seek God’s will and respond to His call for training and ultimately for pastoral ministry so that free church churches will not be faced with long-term pastoral vacancies.