Though this article won’t be published until mid-January, as I write we at World Mission Prayer League (WMPL) are in the midst of looking back at the year-end. I don’t think 2024 was any more monumental for us than in any of the years before, but there is a certain soberness this year for me to reflect upon the state of the world.
It is easy to feel that one person’s efforts are really not enough to make a difference in the world, or for the kingdom of Christ. The needs of the world continue to seem insurmountable with the reporting of “bad news” much more likely to generate attention, than the reporting of “good news.” Let me share some Good News.
Telling the Christmas Story
Each Advent/Christmas holiday since 2020 I have paused to create an online telling of the Christmas story. In 2020, I took the story from Luke 2:1-20, and verse by verse we heard the story recited in 20 different languages. In 2021, I used some 15 verses that foretold the coming of Jesus, which were interpreted by 15 members of our fellowship. In 2022, I used the story from Matthew 1:18-23, with nine different languages telling the story of Immanuel.
Following are a few examples of the variety of languages represented in the 2022 version:

Matthew 1:18a in the Bangla language

Matthew 1:19 in the Salasaka Kichua language

Matthew 1:20c in the Hindi language

Matthew 1:23b in the French language

Matthew 1:23c in 10 languages
Each time we hear the story and look at the number of people in WMPL who can communicate with someone speaking one of those languages, it’s thrilling. Our small fellowship of just a couple of thousand members, with fewer than 50 global workers, can share the Good News with people from some of the most remote places on earth!
For those who are interested, here is a list of the 30 languages I could identify in which someone from the World Mission Prayer League could communicate:
1. Anufo 2. Bangla 3. Buryat 4. Danish 5. Dari 6. A language we call Islander 7. English 8. French 9. German
10. Hebrew 11. Hindi 12. A travel language of north India 13. A language we call Bahah 14. Mandarin Chinese 15. Mongolian
16. Nepali 17. Quechua 18. Russian 19. Salasaka Kichua 20. Samburu 21. Santali 22. A language of the Sea Gypsies
23. Spanish 24. Swahili 25. Swiss German 26. Tagalog 27. A language spoken in East Africa 28. Tajik 29. Urdu 30. Wampis
What is that Good News Today?
- Because German missionaries shared with a people group in India over 100 years ago, a movement of the Holy Spirit began within that people. Today descendants of that church are teaching believers to pray for several other people groups around them to come to faith in Jesus, and backing up those prayers with works of education.
- A global worker from southern California in rural Bangladesh felt an urgent need for medical care to the poor and marginalized of Dinajpur. God laid the need upon his heart in prayer and he shared that prayer with a small Lutheran church in Los Angeles. Today LAMB Hospital treats 55,000 outpatients a year with a staff of 28 full-time doctors available 24/7.
• A church plant and school for missionary kids in Ecuador has sponsored their own overseas workers.
• A group of farmers from northern Minnesota and other non-descript places prayed for the kingdom of Nepal to be opened to missionaries and worked with dozens of other mission agencies to create one ecumenical mission to preach Immanuel to Nepalis.
• Fasting and prayer efforts led to the breakthrough in southern Philippines of the church there reaching out to those who did not know Jesus as Lord.
Those are things from years past. From this year:
- 15 church congregations who have adopted one people group to pray for until a church is planted among them.
- A small online seminary in Latin America is training up church leaders with a passion for prayer and a heart to trust in Jesus.
- After years of seeing interest in overseas missions decline, young people are seeking God’s heart, beginning with prayer in community.
Good Advice
There is a verse in Hebrews that gives us good advice when it seems that “nothing” is happening. “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24).
Another version uses the curious phrase to “provoke one another to love.” Sometimes we have to be provoked to get up and … pray, send, go. Then we can look back and say, “Look what God has done with one prayer!”
A small group has been praying for the release of a young woman kidnapped in a very dangerous country on Good Friday a year or so ago. I don’t think her captors knew the significance of Good Friday, but it added to my prayers for her. What rejoicing when she was able to contact her family this past fall. What amazement when we learned that she had escaped and was reunited with her family this past week! I can think, “Oh, my prayer didn’t matter much.” But it did! It mattered to the kingdom. I don’t know exactly how, but I know that it did!
Celebrate the Victories!
We must celebrate the victories that God allows us to participate in: a young girl released, an illness healed in the name of Jesus, even visas restored to places that just don’t “do” that. We celebrate that God’s Word is going out. We rely upon the power of His Word, not our own, in proclaiming Immanuel, in bringing Good News to the poor, in celebrating mission.
For more information about WMPL, contact us at wmpl.org