A mission challenge from the Barkers from YWAM – crown media on Vimeo.

Colossians 4:2-6 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. ³ And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. ⁴ Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. ⁵Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. ⁶ Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

For me, in my outreach history, this is a time to work as hard as possible, preach as much as possible, teach, evangelize, and do as many crazy things as possible to see God’s kingdom extended across the globe.  Now, I am still just as passionate for those things, but the Lord has re-centered my focus onto His face.  The Lord called our team to take each morning this past week and devote ourselves to prayer for three hours.  This was motivated in part by this passage.

Take a moment to consider this.  Paul, one of the greatest evangelists to walk the earth challenged the readers of this letter to devote themselves to prayer.  He challenges us elsewhere about evangelism, but here he takes the time to challenge us to be devoted to prayer.  Devotion to prayer requires the willingness to be inconvenienced.  We must be willing to lay down our plans, agendas, and striving to take up what is on His heart.  In Philippians Paul calls us to press in for the prize of knowing Jesus our Lord.  Here, he challenges us to press into prayer to see the doors open up for the Gospel.  We are to pray that the Gospel message is declared clearly and with wisdom.  From this place of being devoted to prayer he challenges us further to have our conversations seasoned with salt.

The devotion to prayer is what allows our seasoning to be appropriately directed.  If we don’t have the foundation of prayer then our saltiness can be wasted at the wrong time and in the wrong amounts.  My hope and prayer is that every time I take the saltshaker out and spread the salt in my conversations it would be tossed on top of a foundation of prayer.

I will no longer scoff at outreaches filled with prayer walks and prayer watches.  I want to live my life like this passage challenges me to live.  Devoted to prayer and seasoned with salt!  This is a powerful combination.  Our team begins a 24 hour prayer watch tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m.  Maybe you want to join us.  Pray for doors to open for the Gospel message to go forth.  Pray that the Word would be preached with clarity and wisdom and that we would always be seasoned with salt to share the love of Christ with all He calls us to minister to here in Brazil and across the nations!

The Flame Goes Forward – Children’s Performance from Aaron Barker on Vimeo.

We have been sharing daily with about 100 students at the University of Nations Youth Center in Battambang and also another 60 children in a nearby village. In both of these places we have begun to see physical healings and salvation that has been such an incredible joy!

As I lead a young man to the Lord on Sunday he declared that he felt so loved by the Father as He surrendered his life to Jesus. He clearly renounced believing in every other religion and gave his life completely to Jesus Christ as the Lord of his life. It was such an incredible privilege to pray with him and see such an authentic decision to follow Jesus.

Pray for us as we continue to invest our lives into this beautiful community and believe for real lasting transformation in individual lives and this community in Cambodia. We believe that what we have seen this past weekend is just a small taste of what we will be  apart of the next 6 weeks here in Battambang, Cambodia! Join with us to see this come to pass.

Today is yet another day filled with service projects and evangelism at the university. Pray for us that the Lord would go before us and prepare the way of the hearts that we meet. We want to see continued harvest while we are here and are grateful for every opportunity to share His love in these communities!

Thanks to everyone who is praying with us!