Every Wednesday at 12 pm, people gather at Grace Church to pray. They pray for the needs of the church family and needs from our missions' partners. We are blessed to have several faithful women who are committed to praying together each week. Fiona Thiessen, Sharon Townsend, Sue Castlen, Kem Williams, Melody Benson, Kim Eden and Becca McDougall. We reached out to Becca McDougall and asked her to share her motivation for regularly joining this group:
"The Lord is such a wonderful God who answers prayer. From the time I was a young child He has listened to my prayers and answered them. If I tried to recount all those stories it would create a long book! He is keeping the record in heaven, and it will be available to anyone who wants to review it in eternity, to the praise of the glory of His grace. In the two years since Colin and I moved to Atlanta, He has continued to answer prayers. When we came I asked Him for likeminded people who would pray for me as I looked for Africans and other immigrants from UPGs in order to share the gospel with and disciple them into life with Christ. I told people, “I’m looking for the Africans in the area.” If I saw a little glimmer of interest in that idea, I got the person's phone number and kept in touch. I asked them if they would pray for me and with me. Eventually all those 20+ people from 12 different churches became the Prayer Outreach Fellowship. We keep in touch by email and by WhatAapp.
In 2022 we simply prayed that the Lord would "open doors of ministry to Africans in the south Atlanta area." That was our “breakthrough prayer.” We reminded ourselves that the Lord said, “Call to Me and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things you don’t know.” He began introducing me to Africans through teaching ESL, through volunteering at the Fayette Pregnancy Resource Center, and through the Mobile Food Pantry. He also guided me to visit the African Hair Braiding Salons on Hwy 85 in Fayetteville, and to take a couple of the tours of the mosque (“Islamic Community Center of Atlanta"). We met not only Africans but also immigrants from many other nations, including Muslims who introduced me to their families. Now I have too many immigrant friends to be able to visit all of them in their homes or places of work.
"The Lord is such a wonderful God who answers prayer. From the time I was a young child He has listened to my prayers and answered them. If I tried to recount all those stories it would create a long book! He is keeping the record in heaven, and it will be available to anyone who wants to review it in eternity, to the praise of the glory of His grace. In the two years since Colin and I moved to Atlanta, He has continued to answer prayers. When we came I asked Him for likeminded people who would pray for me as I looked for Africans and other immigrants from UPGs in order to share the gospel with and disciple them into life with Christ. I told people, “I’m looking for the Africans in the area.” If I saw a little glimmer of interest in that idea, I got the person's phone number and kept in touch. I asked them if they would pray for me and with me. Eventually all those 20+ people from 12 different churches became the Prayer Outreach Fellowship. We keep in touch by email and by WhatAapp.
In 2022 we simply prayed that the Lord would "open doors of ministry to Africans in the south Atlanta area." That was our “breakthrough prayer.” We reminded ourselves that the Lord said, “Call to Me and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things you don’t know.” He began introducing me to Africans through teaching ESL, through volunteering at the Fayette Pregnancy Resource Center, and through the Mobile Food Pantry. He also guided me to visit the African Hair Braiding Salons on Hwy 85 in Fayetteville, and to take a couple of the tours of the mosque (“Islamic Community Center of Atlanta"). We met not only Africans but also immigrants from many other nations, including Muslims who introduced me to their families. Now I have too many immigrant friends to be able to visit all of them in their homes or places of work.