Week of Prayer

Every year, SBC churches observe the Week of Prayer for North American missions by praying for missionaries, their ministries and their families. Because these missionaries make Jesus known in places all over the U.S. and Canada where there’s little or no gospel witness, they experience opposition and they battle loneliness and discouragement. That’s why they need your prayers.

This year, the official date for the Week of Prayer is March 3-10. Your church can choose this week or any other time during the Easter season to participate. Your prayers and gifts to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering will fuel their work. The offering goal for this year is $75 million. Use this page or download the prayer guide to follow along daily.

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Day One: Lost

281 million is a big number. How big? When someone says the word “missionary”, it’s perfectly natural for most people to think of someone in a faraway place. That makes sense. There’s a vast mission field “out there.” But for some people, putting a name and face on just one or two of the estimated 281 million lost people living “right here” in the U.S. and Canada changes everything.

PRAY
  • God to call out more laborers who will make Jesus known everywhere in North America.

  • Churches to develop a passion for missions in the hearts of their people to pray, give and go. 

  • Every believer in North America to see their neighborhood as a mission field.

NAMB, AAEO, Sterling, VA

Day Two: Jefferson & Carol Hernandez

Sterling, Virginia

Many years ago, Jefferson and Carol Hernandez had an American dream. They came to the U.S. looking for wealth and prosperity. But when they found something much better than that, they started a church called, appropriately enough, Campo Blanco (White Field). Now, in a place where Latin American immigrants are arriving seemingly every day, Jefferson and Carol are making Jesus known to their Hispanic neighbors.

Meet Jefferson & Carol

PRAY
  • Opportunities to build witnessing relationships with Hispanic immigrants.

  • Leaders who’ll one day leave Campo Blanco to start more new churches.

  • Families in the church to grow in their devotion to Christ.

AAEO, Las Vegas, Henderson, NV, 2023

Day Three: Joseph & Kristen Gibbons

Las Vegas, Nevada

It’s 1,914 miles from Joseph and Kristen Gibbons’ old home in Alabama to their new home in Las Vegas. It might as well be a million miles. Several years ago, the Gibbons left their comfortable, Bible Belt community and moved to “Sin City” to start Favor City Church. Now, Joseph and Kristen know all about culture shock. But they also know all about the power of the gospel.

Meet Joseph & Kristen

PRAY
  • Wisdom to effectively disciple new believers.

  • The people and resources Favor City needs to start more new churches.

  • Opportunities to share the gospel with leaders at the school where Favor City Church meets.

AAEO, NAMB, Boston, July 2023

Day Four: Faith Garland

Boston, Massachusetts

Sometimes it takes a prodigal to know a prodigal. Maybe that’s why Faith Garland, a missionary at the Send Relief Boston Ministry Center, has so many opportunities to make Jesus known. Faith’s troubled past helps her connect with strippers, prostitutes and other women in Boston who’re in danger of being trafficked. She leads volunteers out onto the streets where they share the hope of Christ with the prodigals they find there.

Meet Faith

PRAY
  • Faith and her volunteers to build witnessing relationships with people who are trafficked or abused.

  • More churches to learn about and join the fight against human trafficking.

  • Endurance, encouragement and safety for Faith and her volunteer teams.

NAMB, AAEO, Jacksonville, Florida

Day Six: Josh & Beth Glymph

Jacksonville, Florida

The Glymphs are an eclectic looking family and that’s just the way they like it. In addition to their two biological children, Josh and Beth Glymph have three adopted children. God used their experience with adoption and foster care to start and grow Refuge Church, a very unusual church in a very unchurched neighborhood of Jacksonville, Florida.

Meet Josh & Beth

PRAY
  • Foster and adoptive families like the Glymphs to grow in their love for Jesus and each other.

  • New witnessing relationships to form out of Refuge’s foster and adoptive care ministry.

  • Families who’ll be willing to help plant more churches in Jacksonville’s other unreached communities.

NAMB, AAEO, Philadelphia, 2023

Day Seven: Noelson & Edna Chery

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Their worship leader is 16 years old. They meet in a karate studio. The sermon is in English, or Haitian Creole, or sometimes both. But the most unusual thing about Philadelphia’s First Haitian Metanoia Baptist Church might be this: Noelson Chery and his wife Edna never had any intention of starting this church. And yet here they are, baptizing new believers and watching God grow a very unexpected church plant.

Meet Noelson & Edna

PRAY
  • Noelson to have time and energy to devote to First Haitian Metanoia Baptist Church.

  • A dedicated space where their new church can meet and do ministry.

  • Growth of mentoring relationships between young and older believers in the church.

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Day Eight: Found

When God sends missionaries like the ones featured here into places where the gospel has not yet reached, amazing things happen. Today there are more than 3,000 Southern Baptist missionaries making Jesus known in communities all over the U.S. and Canada. They’re starting new churches, meeting physical needs and baptizing new believers. This is what happens when you pray: the gospel spreads.

PRAY
  • North American missionaries to reach more like Rony, Elizabeth and Maki who need the hope and love of Christ. 

  • North American missionaries to have all the resources they need to plant churches and meet needs.

  • God to call and equip more missionaries to make Jesus known in North America.