Thank you for joining together to pray for the next 12 weeks! We are so grateful for your partnership with us in this ministry of seeing hearts in Lincoln County turned toward Jesus. This first week we'll be calling out to God and especially praising His greatness.

We'd encourage you to read the Scripture references before you go out to prayer walk, and then ask the Spirit to call them to your mind as you're praying.

Don't forget to look over Ted and Judy's bulletin insert from yesterday as you begin this prayer walking experience. That can be helpful in giving us a framework as we begin this ministry. If you lost yours, see the 10 Steps to Prayer Walking on our Summer Prayer Walking page.

Again, thank you for your labor for the Lord. Remember, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:58, "Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." (CSB)

This week's theme: Call to God (2 Chronicles 7:14)

• Day 1: Call to God with praise and worship (Psalm 66:1-5)

• Day 2: Call to God in gratitude for all He has done (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

• Day 3: Call to God in desperation (Psalm 27:13)

This update comes from Alyssa E.:

Day 2 in Manizales was not the day I was expecting, but it was the day that I needed. Right before I came to Colombia, I thought that when I came to this country I would get away from the issues and the negative feelings that I had in America, but that's not exactly how it works.

Monday I was incredibly distracted and the enemy was really trying to use all my hardships back at home against me. By Tuesday, many of my team members had talked to me early in the morning about realizing that I wasn't feeling quite comfortable. I had told them that I had been feeling pretty alone, especially because my family wasn't here and I was in a brand new place. I spent the day observing two of my team members share the gospel throughout the whole day. By the end of the day, I had finally realized that God was teaching me how to let go and talk about the hardships that I was experiencing rather than holding it all in. Jeff had told that there is truly a great power in sharing what we're going through, and he couldn't be more right.

That night during our debrief, I shared with my team that I had been struggling with some hardships so far and feeling very discouraged. That wasn't the only thing I wanted to share though. I wanted to share that I had felt an incredibly unique love from my team members that whole day that I had been feeling down. I had some of the adults approach me and tell me that they would "fill in" as my parents since my parents were back home. I also had some amazing friends encourage me continuously throughout the whole day and make me feel very loved. God blessed me with an amazing team and knew just who needed to be on this trip. They had prayed over me as I was going through my "broken heart" moment.

Since I'm technically writing this on day 3, I am happy to announce that I had an incredibly encouraging day and I am filled with so much joy. God is so good – He answers our prayers and is working in so many people's hearts here, including mine.

The teams had an amazing first few days in the Barrios (Colombian neighborhoods). The harvest is already plentiful! The four local churches we are working with have been greatly encouraged by this partnership. Here is the fruit of the work so far:

• 15 North Americans in four Barrios around Manizales

• 146 individual Gospel presentations

• 77 people trusted Jesus as Savior

• 28 extended discipleship meetings with new believers and the local churches

Praise God for his power and grace in salvation! Pray for the teams tomorrow as they go back to these Barrios to follow up with people from yesterday and continue to share the Gospel with new people.

Today's update is from Will H.:

Day one is done here in Colombia, and the Lord has been working in so many big ways. To all who have been praying about the hearts of the people here in advance, the harvest is plentiful. We've had some truly exciting stories about the Holy Spirit penetrating hearts and people believing in the name of Jesus. The team is hitting this head on, and things are running smoothly, despite this being the first e3 trip to this city! God is mighty, and he is moving here in Colombia. We are doing well here, and we're ecstatic that we get to continue to be here for 3 more days to see what the Lord has in store.

These are the Scriptures we will be using as we prayer walk and share Christ in the neighborhoods Monday morning; we ask that you use these Scriptures as you pray and think of us.

Big first day...team training, city tour, great food, and worship and prayer with the churches we will be ministering with this week. (Click photos to enlarge.)

Several of our church family are gone this week on a mission trip to Colombia (South America) with e3 Partners. Here are some ideas for how you can pray each day: Colombia 2017 Prayer Calendar

Further updates coming soon!