Reaching the Wala 2gether Holston Baptist Association
Dear Parent/Guardian,
We’re thrilled you’ve chosen to involve your whole family in what God wants to do among the Wala people group through people just like you throughout Holston Churches! Our hope is that this booklet will help make praying for the Wala a habit-forming time for your family to come, pray and talk with each other about “God-stuff” in our lives. Included is one devotional story with scripture each week for 2 months, an application aimed toward the Wala people, and then a guided question time, “time4talking 2gether,” to help get conversation started with you and your children. We anxiously wait to see how the Lord will use ALL of us to reach the unreached Wala people. Thanks again for your willingness to take part and may the Lord bless you and your family in the grace and knowledge of Him.
We’re so glad your family has decided to come along in this journey with us! On the continent of Africa, way across the Atlantic Ocean is a group of people who are called the Wala people. Like you and I live in America, they live in a country called Burkina Faso. This book will help us learn more about the Wala people and how we can get to know them better. But there is one thing you have to know before we can go on! …They’ve never heard of someone pretty important, someone they really need to know! They don’t know about Jesus and how much he loves them! This book will help you to pray that they will find out really soon. So read on and make some new friends!
For God so loved
! ! ! ! ! the world...
Week 1
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8 Just as the disciples went out and told other people all about Jesus, the Wala people need people to tell them! They don’t know that Jesus loves them and died for them so they can be forgiven from everything they have ever done wrong and live with him in heaven one day. Pray that just as the disciples went and told people far away, God would put a desire in the hearts of the people right here in Tennessee to go and tell the Wala people! time4talking 2gether!! How did each of you first hear about Jesus? Is there anyone you know who doesn’t know very much about Jesus? Why is it important for us who do know Jesus to tell others who don’t know?
Week 2
“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.” James 5:17-18
Elijah prayed for so long and God was listening! Just as Elijah’s prayers caused it not to rain, if we are faithful to pray for the Wala people, they can open their hearts to the missionaries and people who go to tell them about God’s love. They need to know so they can trust in Jesus as their Savior! Pray for people here to love the Wala people so much that we pray for them every day! time4talking 2gether!! Is there anything you pray for every day? If we do not pray for the Wala people, who will? If we do pray for them, what will God do? Will he hear us?
Let the peoples praise you, oh God!
Week 3
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” Pslam 122:1
David was so excited to get to go to “God’s house” – his church and worship! He enjoyed singing songs and learning more about the Savior and how he loves the whole world so much. We have been blessed to get to do the same things David did, to sing to and learn about God. But the Wala people don’t have a church like we do, because there aren’t many Christians at all. Pray that there will be a “house of the Lord” in every village so the Wala people can know the happiness and excitement that come from knowing and worshipping God together.
time4talking 2gether!! How does going to church make you feel? What does it mean to worship God? Why should we get excited about worshipping the God of the world, the Wala people, and each one of you too?
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! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Week 4 I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
Romans 8:38-39 The Message
Paul knew that Jesus’ love was so big that nothing could happen that would make him stop loving us! Isn’t that incredible?! Nothing we do and nothing anyone else does can ever make Jesus stop loving any of us! He loves us the same no matter what, even when we’re bad. But the Wala people that do know Jesus can get discouraged pretty easily since there aren’t many other Christians around them. We need to pray that they will understand just how much Jesus loves them and that they can overcome anything since they have him living inside them now! time4talking 2gether!! Is it hard to believe that Jesus still loves you even when you mess up? How do you think you would feel if you didn’t have other Christians around you to help you learn more about Jesus? Why?
Week 5 We can't quit thanking God our Father and Jesus our Messiah for you! We keep getting reports on your steady faith in Christ, our Jesus, and the love you continuously extend to all Christians.
Colossians 1:3 The Message
Paul, who wrote this, was talking to Christians in another city that were telling people all around them about Jesus. They had a whole lot of faith in Jesus, so much that how they lived everyday showed people just how much they loved Jesus. “How!?” you might be asking. Well, they showed others how much they loved Jesus through loving everyone around them! Just as the people that Paul is writing to in a far away city, there are people like this who live with the Wala people. Their name is the Lyons family. They have moved from America to Africa to show Jesus’s love to the people there, the Wala people. They are missionaries in Burkina Faso, where the Wala people are. Just like Paul was thankful for the people he wrote to in Colossae and prayed for them, we also need to be thankful and pray for the Lyons family as they love on the Wala people. time4talking 2gether!! How do you think the Christians Paul wrote to showed the people around them God’s love? What kind of things do you think Mr. and Mrs. Lyons and their children do to share God’s love with the Wala? Can you think of anyone you can show God’s love to? If so, what might you do?
Clap your hands all peoples!!
Shout to God with loud shouts of joy!
Week 6
Later God's angel spoke to Philip: "At noon today I want you to walk over to that desolate road that goes from Jerusalem down to Gaza." He got up and went. He met an Ethiopian eunuch coming down the road. The eunuch had been on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and was returning to Ethiopia, where he was minister in charge of all the finances of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. He was riding in a chariot and reading the prophet Isaiah. The Spirit told Philip, "Climb into the chariot." Running up alongside, Philip heard the eunuch reading Isaiah and asked, "Do you understand what you're reading?" He answered, "How can I without some help?" and invited Philip into the chariot with him. The passage he was reading was this: As a sheep led to slaughter, and quiet as a lamb being sheared, He was silent, saying nothing. He was mocked and put down, never got a fair trial. But who now can count his kin since he's been taken from the earth? The eunuch said, "Tell me, who is the prophet talking about: himself or some other?" Phillip grabbed his chance. Using this passage as his text, he preached Jesus to him. As they continued down the road, they came to a stream of water. The eunuch said, "Here's water. Why can't I be baptized?" He ordered the chariot to stop. They both went down to the water, and Philip baptized him on the spot. Acts 8:26-37 Phillip obeyed when God told him to go to the eunuch, and because he was there, the eunuch was able to understand that Jesus loved him and died for him so that he could be forgiven from everything he had done wrong. As soon as the eunuch heard about Jesus, he gladly followed Jesus and loved him with all his heart. Pray that just as this man, the eunuch, heard the good news and immediately followed after Jesus, the Wala people would also hear the good news and follow Jesus! Pray that they will be able to understand that Jesus has died so that they can be forgiven and know the One true God. time4talking 2gether!! Even though we have talked so much about the Wala people knowing Jesus, do you know him? Do you know that he died for you? Do you know that if you know this and decide to follow after Jesus and ask him, that he will forgive all you have ever and will ever do wrong – all the things that displease him? Why do we, all of us – you, your mom, your dad, brothers, sisters and friends too, need to be forgiven of the wrong things we’ve done?
Week 7
For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Philippians 2:13 Paul is writing to a church that is far away. He is encouraging them to keep making Jesus the very most important thing in their life. Paul wants them to know that sometimes it is hard, but as Christians following Jesus, his spirit lives inside of us and gives us help, strength and courage to do everything he asks us to. If you are a Christian, God is working inside of you too! Let’s pray that just as God works inside of every Christian, he would work in the hearts of the Wala people too. Pray that he would work so much that a whole bunch of Wala people come to know him and share about him to everyone they know! time4talking 2gether!! How does it make you feel to know that if you have made Jesus the most important thing in your life, he is working inside of you to give you help, strength & courage? What things do you need help with? What do you need strength for? And courage?
Week 8 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20 Just as Jesus told his disciples to go and tell others, he is asking us to go and tell too! If we don’t, people like the Wala will never hear about Jesus and the good news that he loves them! Pray that we here in east Tennessee will pray for the Wala, that we will give what we can – our time and effort to reach them, and that we will go and tell them about Jesus and all that he has done for them! Remember too, to thank God for all that he has done and is doing in the Wala people already! Thank him for his great love for you, your family, the Wala people and the whole world! time4talking 2gether!! Maybe you can’t go to Africa just yet, but is there anything you could do that would help other people know they should pray for the Wala people? What if your family worked together? Can you think of anything?
Thanks again for bringing your family on this journey with us! We hope that you and your children have not only learned about the Wala people, but you have grown to love them as well. It is our prayer that this has been a tool to help facilitate spiritual growth in your family and make talking about “God stuff” with your kids a little easier. We love families and know how important it is for families to love each other, and together love and worship their Creator. We pray that you and your family will continue seeking to make time to come together around God’s word and be able to talk about what it means to follow hard after Christ. We pray for you and your family as you seek to raise kids who God uses in great ways.
All photos courtesy of William Haun www.whaun.com