Seven Ways to Lift Up Workers on Home Assignment
Praying for workers is a powerful way to support their ministries from afar. But what about when workers aren’t far away? Here are seven ways you can support workers on home assignment.
It’s easy to think that workers go on “vacation” during their home assignment or furlough. In reality, being in their home environment can sometimes feel just as overwhelming as their initial transition to life overseas. Home assignment can feel lonely and unsettling. Workers are often away for several years at a time, and family, friends and churches change in their absence. It can also be hard to find a sense of community when they’re always on the move.
When workers leave for the field, Christar ensures that each one goes with at least 100 prayer partners lifting up their needs each day. Our workers depend on those who join in the daily spiritual battles by bringing them before the Lord. Prayer is a critical way to support workers’ ministries from afar. But what about when workers aren’t far away?
Read on for seven ways you can pray for your worker when they come “home” for furlough or home assignment.
Spiritual Life
- Pray that workers will be renewed by time in the God’s word, in prayer and in fellowship with the body of Christ.
- Pray that they will keep godliness, integrity and purity as unwavering priorities.
Transition and Adjustment
- Ask God to provide for travel needs like funds for plane tickets, cars to borrow, places to stay and opportunities to share with other believers about their ministry and experiences.
- Pray for patience as workers readjust to their home culture. Ask God to give them restful sleep and relief from jet lag.
- Whether their schedule contains a hectic frenzy of travel and presentations or slow weeks with time for rest and reflection, ask God to remind them of His presence with them daily.
Perspective and Processing
- When workers come home, they need to unpack more than just their luggage. Ask God to give them His perspective on what they have seen, done and experienced.
- Ask God to send wise counselors and compassionate listeners.
Community and Relationships
- Pray that workers will find comfort in the God who doesn’t change, and that their relationships will be strengthened as they reacquaint themselves with “home.”
- Pray that God would provide workers with strong connections and friendships. Ask Him to overwhelm feelings of inadequacy and isolation with reminders of His strength, power and joy, and with fellowship with Himself and His people.
Family, Here and There
- Ask God to remind workers that He continues to carry out His plans for their friends, neighbors and teammates who remain overseas. Pray for safety, growth and faith for believers in their countries of service.
- Pray for unity and encouragement for family members as they travel together. Change can be particularly hard on families with young children. Pray that mercy and grace will strengthen and sustain workers through a season of nomadic travel and lack of routine.
Support Team
- Pray that God will direct workers to meaningful appointments to share their stories. As they do, ask God to raise up additional prayer and financial support for their ministries.
- Ask God to remind workers of His deep love and care for them. Ask Him to empower them with humility to share honestly about their victories and struggles.
- Pray that God will use their testimonies to inspire new laborers to serve Him cross-culturally!
Physical Needs
- Ask God to give good health to workers in the midst of changing climates and locations. Pray that their practical needs, like scheduling medical checkups in preparation to return to their fields of service, will be met.
- Pray that workers will return to the field strong and refreshed.
- Ask God to supply what may be lacking, whether it is physical, emotional or spiritual.
Will you join us in prayer for our workers—whether at “home” or abroad? Pray that God will powerfully impact the communities they serve so that people who have never heard the good news will be transformed into vibrant fellowships of Christ-honoring worshipers!
Participate by Praying
- Use this list and the other resources available on our website to regularly lift up workers’ needs in prayer.
- Consider becoming a daily prayer partner for a worker.
- Subscribe to the monthly e-prayer calendar: Call To Prayer.
- Our Praying Daily for Christar Workers weekly prayer guide pairs topics and requests with days of the week.
Related Projects
Help more workers reach the field so they can share the hope of the gospel.
Help workers in the Middle East run a language school and build relationships through which they can share the gospel.
Help us walk alongside our workers so that they can minister effectively in least-reached communities.
Help a South Asian church finish constructing a building and increase its ability to reach out.
Provide affordable Christian education that equips national and international students in South Asia.
Equip spiritual leaders for planting and strengthening churches in the Arab World.
Help meet the physical, psychological and spiritual needs of refugees and other marginalized people in the Middle East.
Help recruit and prepare workers from throughout the world outside of North America to serve in Muslim communities.
Equip Filipino believers to plant churches among some of the hardest-to-reach people groups in the world.
Provide refuge and counsel to Middle Eastern women and their children who are victims of abuse, and introduce them to Jesus.
Meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of refugees and those impacted by disaster.
Introduce people to Jesus Christ in places where there is little or no Christian witness.
Help mobilize new workers and equip them to share the message of Christ.
Equip Christar workers to provide short-term assistance in the wake of natural disasters or other crises, laying the foundation for future ministry.
Your gifts empower Christar Workers to share transforming hope
with communities around the world.
Enable a Persian to hear the gospel or help train Persian believers for ministry.
Equips South Asian believers to plant reproducing fellowships in small villages and support the ministries of their churches.
Help workers and local believers continue to serve and thrive in hard places.
In a community with no known believers, a new multipurpose building will provide opportunities to grow connections, meet needs and share Christ.
Help Middle Eastern followers of Christ learn how to apply and share biblical truth.
SESaMe disperses bite-sized pieces of the Word of God to least-reached people in a country with little access to this good news.
Help cultivate Christ-honoring transformation through medical care in Albania.
Equipping pathways help prepare aspiring cross-cultural workers for life and ministry in least-reached communities.
Ministry in least-reached communities is hard. Our Member Care team invests heart and skill to help workers serve to the best of their ability.
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