Printed in white on a 6-by-65-foot black wall are the names of 7,200 unreached people groups from around the world. This wall of the unreached is an intercessory prayer tool at Christian Celebration Center in Midland, Michigan. Christian Celebration Center (CCC) is an Assemblies of God church with a powerful commitment to support local, national, and international missions through giving and prayer. Pat Rusch has served as CCC’s assistant and missions pastor since 2005.

During his first week as missions pastor, Pat reviewed missionary newsletters from the 100 missionaries Christian Celebration Center supported at the time. Realizing that the time required to read each newsletter and pray for each missionary was too much for him alone, Pat and the CCC leadership designed a structure to provide the missionaries CCC supported with more individualized prayer. During this process, Pat traveled to Atlanta for an AGWM event. He was considering how to best organize prayer for missions and missionaries. While on a plane, the Lord spoke to him. “Pat, you’ve allowed your finances to determine the parameters of your mission’s ministry. I have told you what the parameters of your mission’s ministry should be –– when I said to into every nation – and to every people group.”

When CCC financially supported a missionary, they prayed for the missionary and his or her country. If the church did not financially support a missionary, they generally did not pray for that missionary or that nation. Christian Celebration Center’s prayer coverage only went as far as their missionary support. The Lord continued, “You have underutilized the unlimited resource of intercessory prayer.” This conversation with God eventually led to organizing monthly prayer meetings. “It doesn’t take a big church and tons of money to pray for the nations intentionally and strategically,” says Pat.

One Monday each month, Christian Celebration Center hosts a Global Prayer Initiative. Attendees arrive at 6 p.m. to prepare their hearts. The church displays prayer prompts on a screen to shift the attendees’ minds from the mundane to intercession. Worship begins at 6:15. Worship helps members prepare their hearts to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. At 6:30, the group makes a declaration reminding themselves of the reason for which they came.

“We prepare people to shift from what they have been doing all day to a holy purpose and tuck themselves into the authority of Christ. We’re about to do something that’s not in our own power. It’s only by the power of the Spirit. To make that shift, we put on the armor of God,” says Pat.

CCC currently supports more than 230 missionaries. During what they call flag time, attendees hold flags from a particular country and pray, by name, for the missionaries who minister in that country. Attendees often receive words of knowledge and words of wisdom. Sometimes Pat asks attendees to share what the Holy Spirit has spoken to them during prayer. Other times, they tell Pat what they have heard. This way Pat can discern and respond to what the Holy Spirit has said. After flag time, Pat officially welcomes those who are attending and introduces missionary guests — typically the speaker from missions Sunday and a few other missionaries who they invite to come.

After this, attendees divide into teams. These teams represent the five AGWM geographic regions: Africa, Latin America Caribbean, Europe, Eurasia, Asia Pacific, along with U.S. and local missions. Each team has a director responsible for managing the team, interviewing missionaries who are seeking support, maintaining relationships with the missionaries CCC supports, and managing the church’s missionary budget for his or her respective geographic region. Each director often connects with Assemblies of God World Missions area and regional directors about specific needs, special projects, and missionary support. Each team member prays for certain missionaries in their region and is responsible for staying connected with them.

CCC places 12-by-15-foot regional maps on the floor. Each team heads to its respective map and spends 20 minutes praying for requests the church received from missionaries that week. “Every month we receive between 400 and 600 requests,” says Pat.

The meeting then shifts to a specialized focus. This can be overarching prayers for the nations, different pressing issues such as international natural disasters, political issues, or any other crises. Each month, groups pray for the Lord to call workers to the nations. Often, groups pray at the wall of unreached people groups.

“One time, we did a walk of the call. Attendees put themselves in an intercessory mindset, thinking, God is going to call somebody from a particular country to go to unreached people groups. With that thought, they walked from the country they were standing on to the unreached wall,” explains Pat. “They stopped at an unreached people group and interceded for somebody in the sending country to get a Macedonian call to go to an unreached people group.”

During a time of intercessory prayer, attendees pray that God will push back the darkness, that spiritual blinders will fall off, and the lost will turn to Christ. The collective service concludes with prayer for the missionary guests. Surrounded by the church’s geographical regional director and other attendees, someone holds the missionary guest’s national flag overhead. Other attendees gather around these missionaries and lay hands on them and pray. After prayer, the church gives each missionary a check from Sunday’s missions offering. “Our people are extremely generous. People are cheering, celebrating, and crying. It’s a great way to end our time together,” says Pat.

The Global Prayer Initiative meetings aren’t just for adults. Realizing the challenge young families face in attending gatherings and the need to teach children prayer, Pat partnered with Christian Celebration Center’s children’s pastor to create a kid’s version of the Global Prayer Initiative. Running simultaneously with the adult Global Prayer Initiative, more than 50 kids and volunteers attend. “The kids come in and get a passport stamp for whatever country we focused on that weekend. They crawl through a tunnel. This simulates flying to the country. At one station kids learn about that country’s culture. At another station they pray for the missionaries,” says Pat. “They’ll have their own flag. If we have missionary kids there, Christian Celebration Center’s kids gather around the missionary kids, hold the flag over their heads, and pray for them.”

At the end of the meeting, Pat multiplies the number of attendees by the time spent in prayer to calculate the total hours spent interceding for the nations. Since 2010, Christian Celebration Center has spent more than 13,000 hours in intercessory prayer for the nations.

These Global Prayer Initiative meetings not only benefit the missionaries at these meetings but have produced countless testimonies. One missionary in Peru was traveling on a domestic flight to engage in church planting and outreach. Mid-flight, the plane began to experience difficulties and nosedived. The missionary remembered thinking, This is going to be it and started to pray along with the other passengers. Across time zones, the Global Prayer Initiative flag time was taking place. “It felt as if a big angel took their hands and put them around the plane and gently lifted it back up and stabilized it. We landed safely,” says the missionary. The next day, the missionary’s wife emailed Pat, telling him about the miraculous occurrence. This testimony not only encouraged those who gather at the Global Prayer Initiative but also to believers across the world who intercede for missionaries. “I’m not saying it all happened because of a little group of people at this church in mid-Michigan,” says Pat. “I believe the Holy Spirit tugged on the hearts of thousands of intercessors all over the world at that moment and we had a part in it.” This is proof that prayer for the nations is a powerful tool. The Lord listens and answers the prayers of His people. This is only one example of hundreds of testimonies of God’s miraculous work through intercessory prayer. CCC has received reports of answered prayers for healing, safety, and travel-related issues, and numerous other requests.

The main goal of these meetings is to connect with the heart of the Father, according to Pat. Seeking out what the Father wants to do and then engaging in it –– praying that His purposes come to pass. “We don’t become the creators of the fruit of prayer. We become the conduit through which the Holy Spirit can pour His ideas, His passion, His purposes through us, and we pray accordingly. When it comes to prayer, especially global prayer, the most important thing is to connect with the heart of the Father and be faithful to pray that His purposes prevail, “says Pat.

Global intercession is a responsibility and privilege as believers. Although Christ-followers cannot go into all the world, they can reach the world through intercession. “The Great Commission is all people everywhere. As impossible as that sounds, it isn’t, if you take intercessory prayer into account,” says Pat. “If physical presence is required, then we can’t reach everywhere, we can only go to the place that God is calling us to go to and serve. But if intercession is in our tool belt, a responsibility we all have, we need a practical way to walk that out.” These Global Prayer Initiative meetings are one practical way to fulfill the Great Commission and go into all the world.

Although Christian Celebration Center has an unwavering commitment to interceding and for the nations, Pat hasn’t always had a heart for missions. At a previous pastorate, Pat realized he had not seen the importance of missions, even though he had been exposed to missions and knew some missionaries. He humbly confessed this to his congregation. Pat asked the congregation to pray that he and the church would cultivate a burden for missions. Reading about missions and listening to sermons on missions “opened my eyes to a whole other world they’ve been closed to for so long. The more I exposed myself to missions, the more of a heart I got for it.” The Lord also ignited the church’s heart for missions. “I’m a testimony,” says Pat. “I went from zero missions vision to what I’m involved in today. There’s hope. God will change anyone’s heart if they’re willing.”

God is not only answering the prayers of missionaries through the faithful prayers of those at CCC and around the globe, but He is also shifting the hearts of ministry leaders and others to gain a passion for His work across the nations. Prayer can shift the atmosphere, change trajectories, and impact the lives of both the recipient of prayer, and the one praying –– here, in mid-Michigan, and across the world.

By Holly A.V. Knapp