In this sermon, the speaker expresses his deep admiration for Eric Little, the Olympic athlete featured in the movie "Chariots of Fire." He is moved to purchase and distribute 100 copies of the film to spread its message worldwide. The speaker also discusses the importance of utilizing videocassettes in spreading the word of God, as they are more accessible and popular than books. He emphasizes the need for prayer in this endeavor. The speaker also reflects on the self-pity syndrome and encourages listeners to overcome their personal challenges by looking at the struggles of others, such as handicapped individuals and Vietnam veterans.

1 Corinthians 9, a familiar passage. I really want to thank you for praying. I don't take that lightly. I believe God's work, as I'm sure you've heard me say before, is done through prayer. I believe O.M.'s greatest victories and greatest defeats are on the same sentence. The victories have been the lessons we've learned in prayer, the times we've persevered in prayer. Perhaps O.M.'s strongest point, and at the same time the thing that concerns me the most in O.M. is not the lack of money, but the lack of prayer. People who still are not experiencing personal reality in their own prayer lives and in the prayer fellowship, in the half-nights of prayer. And it's easy in O.M. to take these things for granted. Perhaps I have the privilege that most of my life has lived outside of O.M. these days. It hasn't always been that way. When I was directing the Lagos ministry years ago in India, many of my years have been spent very much within the O.M. community. But now I'm more on the road, out of the community, leading, often, nights of prayer for other people. Tomorrow I'm all day with YWAM and their whole national conference of all their workers in the whole country. And as some of you know, I've been with Campus Crusade for the last short time, Expo in Berlin, where four and a half thousand were gathered. And I was asked to lead the prayer time, sort of extended prayer time in Birmingham, before going over to Berlin. And you know, it's amazing, people just so appreciate these meetings. In fact, in the Birmingham meeting, after sharing these very short sentences on the unreached people, I asked how many had never really been gripped with this before, what the whole thing of world vision and the unreached people is all about. Ninety percent raised their hand that they never had really seen this before. That's about 2,000 people. And I think one of the greatest dangers in O.M. is we become so accustomed to spiritual things. And a night of prayer, for some it's a bore, for others they don't bother to go. For others it's, of course, a chore. Not that we expect it always to be easy, because we don't. Just imagine in the Soviet Union if they had a privilege for a prayer meeting like this. I will tell you, with the information we have, they would, you know, can't believe it. The most appreciative people, I think, in my ministry in the past weeks was just a few days ago in East Berlin, Communist Germany. And going through the famous checkpoint Charlie, which you see in all these spy films, too many of which I have watched, is quite an experience. You know, you're just waiting for someone to shoot. But it was all rather dull, actually. Except the meetings and the privilege of meeting these believers who, you know, just are so appreciative of people willing to come from the West. And they want to give. Their money isn't worth anything out of East Germany. One dear lady came to me and gave me her watch right off her wrist. And she said, I'd like you to give this to a Christian worker in the West. Do you think anybody could use it? And I was reluctant, but I said I'd try to get it to someone in India. And I took it. I wondered, you know, going back through the checkpoint Charlie, am I going to find this woman's watch on my arm? And somehow it was late at night, and they didn't even have any customs inspection going out of East Germany. Anyway, it's good to be back for this short time. And I thank you for praying, and I know many of you have prayed. And I know that it's more difficult, at least for some people, week after week to be in the same somewhat chilly location interceding than it is to have perhaps the variety I face in praying with so many different people. Anyway, 1 Corinthians 9 is the New Year's message the Lord gave me that I shared this past Sunday evening in a tremendous sending church up near Birmingham, back here in England. And I just thought I'd share a few thoughts from this before I share prayer burdens. Verse 24, 1 Corinthians 9. Know ye not that they who run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize, so run that ye may obtain. Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate or self-controlled in all things. They do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached to others I myself should be a castaway. Is this the first night of prayer for the New Year? Did you have one last Tuesday? You did. Well, that's great. And was last Tuesday New Year's Eve? That's even better yet. But if it went past midnight, then you prayed into the New Year. Otherwise, this is your first prayer meeting in the New Year. I don't think it's too late in the year to set goals, and I hope you will be setting realistic goals for 1986. And I often think of this exhortation, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. The person, the team, the fellowship that doesn't have goals is easily the fellowship or individual that is beating the air. And God wants to give us personal goals. Some people type up goal sheet. I remember one of the leaders from India typed up his goal sheet when he was headed back for a year home in Canada. So I wrote him just recently. I said, could I have a summary of how you did on the goals? I think I sent him a photocopy. And I got a very interesting reply back. Most of us idealistic zealots fall short of the goals that we set, but better to have goals and fall short than have no goals and drift or beat the air. Sometimes, occasionally, I meet people who are on OM beating the air, and the main thing they seem to be thinking about is when they're going to leave. And God has often challenged me, live where I am now. I also can get caught up thinking about the next big challenge coming up. But again and again, the Lord has rebuked me and brought me back to the day in which I was and say, live for today. It may not be any big events today, but each day is important. I was jogging along the beaches in the Netherlands a couple days ago at this tremendous youth conference of a movement I'd like you to pray for called Young and Free. They certainly have a good name, almost a better name than OM. Young and Free. And I had brought with me from Australia. I'm pushing Australia these days, as you can see by my koala bear. It's proven to be an embarrassment, actually, in some of the meetings, especially in Berlin when they had this giant television screen behind me. And I think unconverted people on the cameras. And when I was trying to drive home this very strategic point, people started laughing. And I wondered, what is going on? I'm obviously not communicating. Apparently the man with the camera had blown this up giant size on the screen while I was trying to pour out my heart. So I have taken it off in the presence of video cameras, which we also had over there in the Netherlands. But I brought this message with me from an outstanding Methodist minister in Sydney who's obviously a sportsman. And he was giving this message just before the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, in Queensland. And he gave these tremendous illustrations from sportsman. Started with Eric Little. I had just seen Chariots of Fire again, the fourth time on the plane. Only wept six times, I think, this time. Decided I'm going to, whatever the cost, purchase at least 100 copies of that videocassette and circulate them around the world. And I know when I get to heaven I'm going to see the results. I don't want to get into this because it would be a sidetrack, but I feel the greatest area where OM is missing the boat is in the use of the videocassette. We're about 10 years behind. Most groups are 20 years behind. We're only 10 years behind. But when I think of some groups still distributing phonograph records, which is probably good for certain parts of the world, in an age when the videocassette is just everywhere, it's just literally everywhere. People are renting mainline movies now for two pounds. And we ought to pray, and maybe we can include that in our prayer requests, that as God's people we may do more with videocassettes, and that there'll be a day when the videocassette will appear on every OM book table just like books. Most young people are not reading books, at least in the Western world, certainly totally different in many Third World countries. And I just have very much that burden on my heart and had that confirmed again on this trip. So he shared a bit about Eric Little, things that I hadn't known before, and the tremendous challenge of him running the race. He used this same passage of Scripture. And then he shared about a woman who was a swimmer, a world champion swimmer, and her goal was to get her swimming one more minute less. Now you'd think one minute, you know, that isn't much. But in this particular race, not a very long race, one minute is just like, you know, going over Mount Everest again if you were a mountain climber. And she worked at this such a long period of time and could not break that minute. But she stuck at it, and stuck at it, and eventually she broke that world record through cutting down her swimming time by one minute. And then he told the man who was a discus thrower, you know, if you've watched the Olympics, these men sort of whirl around and then heave this heavy disc into the air. And apparently this man had won three gold medals over a period of 16 years, forgive me for not knowing the names, then went into retirement and came out again and started throwing and broke the world record again. But at one of the major events, something unbelievable happened within him. You know, he sort of began to rip apart in his ribcage and started spewing blood and just about died. They put him in the hospital, tied him up, and they couldn't keep him. They didn't tie him to the bed, they tied up his chest, strapped it up. And he went out. I think it was in the Olympics again or some very major sporting events. And he decided to throw. In excruciating pain, I think they take a number of throws, he cut down the number of throws. And somehow in his last throw as he felt this pain ripping through his body, he said in God's name, I don't know if he was a Christian or a believer in God, let this discus throw and he beat the world record. Twenty years this man, he wasn't young any longer, had been training and working on that. You know, we have an enormous problem in O.M. We have about a hundred problems and I'm thinking of one right now. That our whole goal, one of our main goals is love. And if love isn't kept in balance, it becomes very soft, it becomes very insipid. And it becomes an enemy of excellency. Anybody who trains any of these sportsmen, they have to be vicious. If you saw the man who trained Abraham in the Eric Little film, you know, this old Italian who won some award for acting. You know, he was really rough. And all these people who win these contests, almost all of them have trainers. And to properly train someone, believe me, you cannot just have the doctrine of 1 Corinthians 13. You have got to really be rough and hard and firm. And that's the only way you'll create excellency. If you took a secular public speaking course, some of you who take meetings, they'd rip you apart. Christians won't tell you anything. You'll go your whole life, a lousy preacher, with a few shaking hands with you at the meeting and always some results. And you'll never know that you're just a C-league speaker. You'll always wonder why you don't get invited back. But if you took a secular course in public speaking, they'd tear you apart. And you'd learn to communicate if you're going to graduate from the course. And this is the enormous dilemma we find ourselves in, O.M., as we go into 1986. I mean, let's face it, in places O.M. is getting very soft. Very soft. We had another young person quit not long ago. He said, this is a joke. It's so easy. I heard this movement was hard. I don't believe, of course, that paints a true picture. He'd only been on a summer campaign. I don't know whether he expected he was going to eat just bread and water and sleep on nails or what. But he went home disillusioned with this movement. That has gone soft. Now, if we go soft, we will never create excellence. And I'm not a fanatic on excellence. I even attack it if it becomes extreme because I know God uses all kinds of people. And I know God uses ordinary efforts. God can use the world's greatest singer, Amy Grant or Sandy Patti or Sheila, to sing in her local church. And I really get upset when messages come across that give the idea that only the best, you know, God can use only the best. I mean, God is merciful. That's the bottom line for all of us. But we must not take that mercy and forgiveness and grace as an advantage for slawfulness, slipshod work, lack of discipline, and all the kind of thing that we do see in the sports world. We see it in the world of acting. Whatever the Christian church may say about Hollywood and about acting, many of those people are very disciplined people in their field. They may drink some things that you don't drink and go places that you don't go to, but a lot of them are very disciplined people. The state of the church in terms of memorizing Scripture could make the most optimistic depressed if he takes surveys as I do all over the world. God's people just don't memorize Scripture. In Holland, when I took a survey recently, just a couple days ago, 90% of the young people in the meeting had never read the Bible through even once. That also is just lack of discipline perhaps also. Lack of motivation. Any training program, and we realize that OM is many things, and that's been emphasized a lot lately, but it is among other things a training program. You know, you will only get out of it what you put into it. There is no way we can force people into spirituality on OM. We have tried for a long time. In fact, some of the people who we thought were going the furthest fell on their faces the quickest when they left. Spirituality is a very personal thing. There are people growing in grace as much as any of us who don't know anything about Operation Mobilization or YWAM or any of the other great movements that God has raised up. They just have a personal, deep walk with God in the midst of their own tough, vicious, often secular environment. I don't think we should be intimidated by our environment. Each environment has pluses and negatives. OM has a lot of pluses. It also has a lot of negatives. You will all change environment as life goes on, and you'll just get different pluses and different negatives. Do not think all these people in the communist countries are all spiritual people. That is a great miscommunication. They are just like many of us, and among them there are some very spiritual people. They're the ones we usually incorporate into our message illustrations. I just read something by quite a famous British writer about the people of Poland. It was an absolute laugh. He compared the people of Poland with the people of America and made the people of America look like absolute sawdust, lazy bone, materialist Christians. And the people of Poland, the most dynamic, sold-out, committed, anti-non-materialist saints that have ever lived. I just had considerable feedback from Poland, and the state of the church in Poland is extremely mixed with a very high degree of materialism running rampant throughout the nation. We're all more similar than we'd like to admit. And in the communist countries, I remember the last time I was in the Soviet Union, the first girl, not many people talked to me because they didn't know English, but this one girl took me aside in the kitchen and started to pour out her heart, the same struggles that the average woman has on operation mobilization back in the Western world. It was really quite interesting. But I think as we go into this new year, it would be so tremendous if we could sit down and write out some goals for 1986 and to determine, by God's grace, to improve in various areas that we have already talked about and discussed endless times. I don't want to take the time, and I know the Holy Spirit can point out specific areas in each one of our lives. To me, all this, of course, indicates that the whole Christian life is so challenging because no matter how far you are along, there's just so much ground to take. And in my own life, I just, of course, I get over esteemed in many parts of the world. I mean, some of the introductions I get in some of these countries where they don't know me, it's just quite a laugh. But I just see so much ground yet to be taken in my own life in various areas. And I want to, by God's grace, make 1986 a fighting year for God. Sheila Walsh, a tremendous fighter for the Lord, has written a book which Hodder is publishing and I hope we'll distribute. I don't know if it's out yet. It's coming out this year. You saw it in the Hodder catalog. There's a lot of great books coming out in 1986. She just shared, you know, she was a little shy Scottish girl that was afraid of relationships with anybody and how God just took her and made her an international fighter in presenting the gospel to the rock and roll generation that is still out there growing bananas. It's just unbelievable the interest in rock and roll right around the entire world. Somebody like Bruce Springsteen has a meeting. It can be the biggest stadium in the world. Everything will be sold out 21 days before the guy even arrives. People are paying $200 a ticket by the time the night arrives. People just go in there for hours. The commitment even of people in the music world sometimes is quite a challenge to me. So I guess I'm still where I was many years ago, wanting to get a greater grip on my own body, my tone, my eyes. You know, I had another, one of those interesting phone calls from a pornoholic. I seem to be setting up almost a pornoholic anonymous agency around the world. They phoned me from overseas. Can't imagine how thankful people are to talk to somebody who understands their problem. This fellow called me from the continent and he had just had a defeat. He'd been going for months. His fellow is absolutely hooked on pornography. He's a Christian. He loves Jesus. He's studying theology. He'll probably be a minister. And his wife knows his problem and one of the ways he overcomes his problem is by not, you know, letting his wife give him any money because then he can't buy anything. But he persuaded his wife, in a moment of weakness, to give him some money to buy toys for the children and went out, actually this morning went out and blew his mind on some pornography. He called up again discouraged, broken. Asked me to pray with him on the phone. And we shared together. He called back and he said he read in a magazine that actually in New York City they have a sexaholics anonymous. They didn't have any address, so we can't join. But it's amazing how many people are enslaved by their body. Some habit has just got a grip on their life. It may be something else. It may be jealousy. Jealousy with God is just as evil as lust. It may be bitterness. I would say that's far more evil and does far more harm than lust. That's why we have so much killing around the world. So I have this goal and I hope you have the same goal that in 1986 I may bring my body into subjection, as it says in some of your translations. Keep it under. Bring it into subjection. Lest that by any means when I have preached to others I myself should be a castaway. You know one of the encouraging things as I've looked back over the years of OM is that there don't seem to be many ex-OM people who have been with us say a year or two who are castaways today. I have castaway research. I had one of my subsidiaries do anything to find out any ex-OMer, especially in your program, who is away from the Lord. There are people of course. But wherever you go in the world you find quite a number of OM people. I saw it in Australia and New Zealand going on for God. And it seems somehow despite all of our weaknesses many have learned something quite significant during their time in OM about buffeting that old body. It takes quite a bit of buffeting these days as you get out of bed in the morning and just get into orbit. It's slushy and cold and snow and most of the cars that we have don't just leap into action. This thing that we drive around here is like a turtle who's lost its head. And then you're out scraping off the windshield. Interesting, right? This time of the year. But I believe it's all a challenge. If we could see each problem each problem as a challenge. This man shared on this tape about the handicapped Olympics. And all these people running in these handicapped Olympics have serious handicaps. And they have hurdles for people with only one leg. I don't know if you've ever run hurdles. That is not easy with two legs. And here they were running down the field with their one leg heaving themselves over these hurdles. And this one man was running, winning the race. He bumped his knee on the hurdle and his leg fell off. And he grabbed his leg, picked it up and kept running and finished the race. You know, it's so easy for us, isn't it? I don't know about you, but it's so easy for us to get into our self-pity syndrome. People don't love us enough. They don't appreciate us enough. Or I'm not. You know, why didn't God make me more gifted? Why am I a scatterbrain? Why do I lose my wallet once a week? Whatever other great disadvantage you seem to be facing in life. And I would really like to get to see one of these handicapped races. I did see a film once about X... I don't know if they're focusing in on my equilibrium. I did see a film once about all these Vietnam veterans. That has been so much on my heart in 1985. All these Vietnam people. So easily, I could have been born just a little bit later. Gone out to Vietnam so easily. Do you ever picture yourself in the shoes of other people? Come back without legs, without eyes. Napalm burned all over you. And I saw this film, I think I saw it when I was in Pakistan, of people coming back from Vietnam at the time when nobody wanted to talk to these soldiers. And this was all taken in a hospital. Jonathan McCrosty had just had his accident. This was all taken in a hospital and they were all amputees. And they had one of these handicapped races. What a great challenge it is, isn't it? To think of the Apostle Paul also, with all of his disadvantages. Most of the churches misunderstood him. He was a man, apparently, that wasn't so pleasant to look at. He had these terrible three, this problem that he prayed would disappear three times and it didn't go. God just said, I'm going to give you grace, press on. You know what the present day prosperity extremist movement teaches about Paul? And all of his problems and his illnesses and his lack of clothing. You've read about Paul. They say, you know, if he'd only had faith. That's what they're teaching about the Apostle Paul. If he had faith, he wouldn't have any of these problems. I tell you, that doesn't make you barf. I don't know what it does. And I hope you don't know that term. But really, it really does make me very, very upset. So the Apostle Paul, with all of his disadvantages and weaknesses, he says, I therefore so run. I therefore so fight. Not as one that beateth the air. I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. There's no shortcuts to this. Cannot be done in a one-year OM program. This is a lifetime marathon. So don't get discouraged if you're falling along the race. Don't get discouraged if you're trying to increase your prayer life a little bit, like that woman was trying to decrease her swimming time, if you don't seem to be making progress. And I thought of this in terms of our financial problems. The finance committee is meeting in Belgium. I've had them on the phone. We're in an awesome situation in one sense. But you know, as we look back over 1985, the amount of money that's overdue as we go into this year, which we feel very burdened about, and we're not happy about moving into the year with overdue bills, probably a quarter of a million dollars. But as we go into this with this huge amount of bills that we're trying to pay and all the agony that brings, we realize that money is only a tiny percentage, a small percentage, a few percent, of all the money that God has brought in in 1985. And so though we have this burden, and we're going to be praying about that in this meeting, the priority really needs to be, even when it comes to money, the giving of thanks. The Word of God says, with food and shelter, be thou content. We've had no problem getting the money for food and shelter. There may have been occasions when, through organizational problems and cash flow and other things, you know, we didn't have it right in the hand. But the reason OM has financial problems is we are trying to evangelize the world. That's why I don't believe it's just a simple claiming of the promise for God to supply our needs. What we are trying to do is much bigger than that, much more complex than that. We're trying to evangelize the world. We produced another 10, 15, 20, no one seems to know anymore, millions of pieces of literature in 1985. We've seen the ships continue in their ministry every single week. We've seen a massive summer campaign. We've seen so much. And 97% of all of the bills for the whole year are paid, or 95, I don't have the exact amount. So I think even as we think of these overdue bills, it's easy to focus on the problems and the negative, and no one's saying it's not a problem. But we have a lot to thank God for. We really do. The growth that he's given, the strength, also his miraculous watch over us in the area of accidents in 1985 is quite amazing. I don't have the exact statistics, but we have had very few accidents at all in 1985, the greatest year of air disasters in history, even before the last American Air Force charter flight crash. It already was a record year. Always interesting to hear this on the radio each day as I flew around the world. But the Lord gave lots of grace, not without struggle, as I'm sure you can be. Well, we're recording this for teams around the world, and we'd like to welcome any OM team that's got the patience to listen to this recording. We're going to stop now and spend a little time in thanksgiving, and then we're going to go on a little world tour, and I'm just going to share some prayer requests on each place I've touched since I was last with you here in Bromley, and I think that will keep us busy for quite a while. So let's just stop and pause, and let's pray together on the basis of 1 Corinthians 9, the new year facing us, and thanksgiving. Let me just share a couple of burdens, and we're going to go right back to prayer for this area known as the Arab Gulf. This was our first stop off, as I think most of you know, Bob Rose and I traveling together. About 40 days ago, flew directly to Dubai, and God really opened the way because Friday is the one key day for meetings in Dubai. That's their sort of Sunday when they have the day off because it's a Muslim country. My main contacts there are Indians, and it's always just such an emotional and great challenge to meet ex-OMers and to meet Indians, to have time in their homes and to minister in their churches. But a group of brethren assemblies, a number of assemblies, they were the first group really to have churches in Dubai among the Indians, had arranged a united meeting, and you know, even as soon as I got there, they presented me with a love offering of over $1,000, which was, you know, we were sort of, I wasn't really believing, but I was praying somehow my ticket could be paid for just in the first day in Dubai. We carry interesting things on our trips to the Gulf. We carry mainly music tapes. They sell at a very interesting price, nothing illegal, but we sold 700 pounds sterling in music tapes in that one day, and we were able to send most of that money back in a bank draft here to Bromley. But it indicates a potential in the Gulf that I'd like you to pray about, and that is to see financial support for the work in India. And these places are not easy to get visas, and airfares are also expensive. Mine wasn't because I just, it was a stopover on this cheap around-the-world discount ticket. It would cost almost as much just to fly to the Gulf and back than it would to go halfway around the world on a discount ticket. And I'd like you to pray for the Indian believers in the Gulf. Now, many of them are being sent home. The great day of big money for large numbers of people in the Gulf is over. Many of them are going home. Others are desperately trying to immigrate to America. But there are now enough Indians overseas, if they became really committed to world missions, to be the largest single help for financing the work of God. I'm speaking in general terms in India today. Let's give thanks. We squeezed, Bob took a meeting, and I took about three or four meetings on that day. I can't go into details. But we thank the Lord for the response, people who committed their lives. And a number of people came from a place called El Ayn. That's down here. It doesn't show on this map. But there's a hospital there reaching the Arab population. And the pastor came and sort of was hoping I'd go back with him the next day. I had to tell him early in the morning we were flying to Singapore. He seemed a bit disappointed. But pray for that Arab pastor, without mentioning his name, of the church in El Ayn, which is a work among the Arabs. There are very, very few national Dubai or United Arab Emirate people who are followers of Jesus Christ. It's incredible, really. These believers we're talking about are Indians or Americans, British, a lot of expatriates, especially in Dubai. Pray for them. Very hard to have contact with the local people. There's a wall bigger than what I saw in Berlin. Let's pray for the breaking down of this wall. Somehow, something could happen there that the Arab people would ask some of these other people, what's this all about? And for the few Arab believers that are there, I met some of them, because it's an overwhelming task to be such a minority in such a totally Muslim-dominated area. So let's pray right now for Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. And if you feel that's too limited, branch out into any of those Gulf countries. Kuwait is a similar situation. Oman, similar situation. Qatar, Bahrain, I've heard of some exciting things happening there. Few here and there professing Christ. And it is a neglected area of the world. So let's cry out to God. There are a number of exoemers in these areas. Some of them have jobs. Some are tent makers, usually in disguise. But if you know some of them, maybe you could pray not by name, but pray by country. For people you know down there, public meetings, it's not good to pray for high-security areas for people by name in your flat. You know everybody. You might want to do that. And we might just pray for the real problem of security in these countries. There's certain kinds of freedom. Like these Indians, they have freedom to worship. But I tell you, when it starts moving over among the Arabs, it gets very, very tense. Let's cry out to God. One other prayer request for that area is that's a country where our good friend Irving Sylvia, we can mention him, I think, by name, is translating the Baluch New Testament. He is in that country. I didn't see him on this trip. Working away, trying to get that New Testament into Baluch language. Because there are a lot of Baluch people in the United Arab Emirates who he's using to test the translation. Amen. Let's just focus now on praying on Singapore. Just some specific prayer requests for Singapore. It is not getting easier to get recruits out of this country, though. It's got enormous potential. Upon arrival in Singapore, the stock market there crashed so desperate they closed it. Malaysia followed, and the government said the great heyday for Singapore economically is over. This is already affecting the church. They have all kinds of building programs and projects. They're going to battle to meet their own local needs, much less start sending out missionaries or supporting missionaries. If you could pray in retrospect, especially for the pastor's meetings we had in Singapore. We'll pray for Malaysia separately. They are separate nations, I'm sure most of you realize. Pray especially that we may have greater rapport and breakthroughs with the real sort of Chinese pastors whose churches are in one of the Chinese dialects. We don't have a Chinese prayer letter. Some of those people don't get any information. Our letter there is in English. There's considerable tension at times between the English congregations, they often meet in the same church, and the more Chinese congregations. One of the sisters who's been on OM, went back to Singapore early, was just sharing with me, because she's of the very Chinese kind of church, that OM tends to be mainly people, of course, of the English side. Even though we meet them, they're all Chinese. There are actually quite large differences in their thinking. So we'd like to see a greater breakthrough among these churches where they do largely work in Chinese languages. We had a prayer breakfast with some of those men. It was quite encouraging. And we had pastors' meetings for a wider range of pastors in the English medium. One of the reasons it's harder to get recruits is a positive reason, that there are many, many groups now taking Singaporeans out. YWAM has grown quite large there, but there are other indigenous groups, plus the denominations, starting their own little OM-type movements. And so we thank the Lord for that. But let's pray for the right people for this year coming out of Singapore. We pray for Chung Ho, his wife gave birth to a baby girl when we were there. He hadn't named her at that time. Has anybody heard any names coming out for this little piece of Chinese dynamite? Let's pray for him. It was good to meet so many XOMers. We must have had 60 in the Singapore XOMers meeting somewhere around that time. Let's pray that they will see the need to support the work. We were able to share very openly about the little changes in the OM's approach, and it was greatly appreciated in that part of the world. Even James Hudson Taylor III, President and Director of OMF, was in the meetings. In fact, I had lunch with him, and that was very encouraging, as they wrestled with similar things in their movement. In fact, he wanted to speak to me about what I thought and what was my advice for OMF beginning in Pakistan. I had already announced publicly that they are 40 years late. Because I've always had this theory that when the OMF came out of China, they should have not only included in their target fields Asia, but they should have included the subcontinent. It's one of my little theories I've spouted out in different places around the world, but not ever before in front of the Director of OMF. But he was quite challenged by that, and long before he ever heard that, they have been praying about doing something in Pakistan. They need God's man. Let's pray for OMF. An OMF man who has the gift, but will give himself to Pakistan. Until they have God's man, they will not do much other than research. So let's pray for Singapore. The office situation there, they need some more staff. I met Rodney in Melbourne. He is definitely committed to go back to Singapore as the country leader. Chunghor will work with him starting in May. Alan Adams may be making a somewhat important trip out to that part of the world in the next month or two as he oversees the area leadership for that Southeast Asia and the Far East. Let's pray for Alan. And one of the most important prayer requests, mark this down, is for an associate area leader for that part of the world who can be Alan's arms and legs as he's on the do-lots to travel around. Exciting things are happening in that part of the world. I just had a letter from Korea. They want to support 10 OM Indian nationals from Korea. God has set us free so that we can talk to third world countries, which is not just about people, because the bigger factor in third world countries is not people. Really, they've got people. It's finance. Where is the money going to come from? From these countries. And in Mexico, I talked to Mexican pastors. And in Singapore and Malaysia, I talked. And I've talked a little bit to Koreans. And, you know, it's an enormous help for these people to understand what OM actually practices. This has been a well-kept secret for a couple of decades. And people are quite encouraged to find out what we actually do and believe. And they want to get involved. So let's pray for Singapore right here, in case you don't know. It's like a huge city. Pray for the churches. Pray for the exilers and these requests that I shared in our groups of five or six. Okay? Amen. Amen. We had about three or four days, actually, in Singapore, including a day after we visited Malaysia. Malaysia, just north of Singapore, you may not realize, is a country that is dominated also by Islam. It's actually against the law to try to witness to a Malay Muslim. And almost all the Christians are from the Chinese community or Indian community. That's most of the people who come on OM. We went to a town north of Kuala Lumpur called Ipoh and had a very encouraging time, a smaller place. Often, of course, smaller places, people are more appreciative of your visits since these big cities, they do get an interesting number of people coming through. But if we could especially pray for the pastors and Christian leaders who came to the meetings there. Peter Maiden came just after I departed. He came and took part in the Christian camp in Malaysia. I haven't had any official report from that camp, but that is one of the key events of the whole OM year in that part of the world. We call it a camp because we have to watch out for our terminology. Just like in Malaysia, we don't have Operation Mobilization. We have a Mobilization Fellowship as a registered organization. We certainly seem to need a strengthening of our board of directors in both of these countries or trustees or whatever you want to call them. Maybe you could pray for that. We went back then to KL. I had the joy of meeting Kulham's pastor, a huge Assembly of God church, Mr. Gunaratnam. Maybe you could pray for him. It's a tremendous ministry. The Assembly of God is probably the fastest growing ministry in Malaysia. I was staying with another Assembly of God pastor who's had a man named Henry. He's had about 15 people on OM. It was just so encouraging to fellowship with him and see the real burden for evangelism. New churches are coming into being there in Malaysia. Peter Maiden was commenting on when you minister to people in Malaysia, and it's true in Singapore, there's a tremendous response, tremendous enthusiasm, more than you would find in the average English audience. The way Peter put it, better for him to say that than me. But at the same time, it isn't any easier for these young people to convert that enthusiasm into long-term action. There are many obstacles. There's more peer pressure and parent pressure in that part of the world because of the way society is structured. We cannot continue an in-depth work there with just breakthroughs among youth. We have to see breakthroughs among pastors, among adults, among businessmen. I had a few meetings with laymen and businessmen in both Singapore and Malaysia. We could pray for results. You know, you're reminded of STL wherever you go because there your books are always just seemingly ahead of you. Sometimes they do tend to get stockpiled. I've never seen such a stockpile of magazine books in my life in any small headquarters like I saw in Malaysia. Apparently, some of them were left behind by the ship or previous enthusiastic leaders. So we had a special magazine book bonanza at the evening meeting there in Malaysia. Generally speaking, however, because of the cutback and the watchful eye on inventories, my experience is that most O.M. bases do not have proper good literature supply. And so when you come in for meetings and you want to really push outstanding books, you can get a little bit frustrated to say the least. I was talking to Harley Rollins on the phone about this and have challenged Harley about a trip around the world to just visit all these O.M. bases and see how we can help. These people need help. This understanding of how to distribute literature, how to sell literature, how to set up a book table, how to handle these things doesn't just fall out of a tree. And maybe you can make this a matter of prayer that we could increase the on-the-field training side for literature evangelism within O.M. Because we really are dropping the ball in some cases. Great intentions and great enthusiasm usually, at least I'm sure when I arrive, and I trust I had that long before I arrived, need to believe the best, but the literature stocks in some places are rather low. And when I think of all the tremendous books we have here, you go to some of these places and you can't find them. Now for Australia, Bill Lowe had been here to Bromley and had ordered a great stock of books and they arrived just in time for the meetings. In Sydney, he thought he was in Brisbane, in the north, and he didn't think that I needed these books in Sydney. He thought maybe CLC could help out. In my experience, most of the groups when they put up book tables do not have quantity of any title so that you can push it. They have usually a nice little selection, 400 young people there in Sydney. But let's, before we jump the big leap to Australia, pray for Malaysia, touching on those things that I have just mentioned. All right, let's pray for Malaysia. I think the most exciting thing on this trip, the most intensive thing, comes at the final moment of some of the bigger meetings when, though I often fight it during the meeting, I get the squeeze of the Spirit upon my heart, trust it's the Holy Spirit, that says, you know, go all the way and give an invitation and call people out to act. If you've never done that kind of preaching, you may not understand, at least for characters like me, the struggle that often is. You immediately hear the voice of people who criticize invitations. You immediately know and are reminded of those who respond that it's an emotional thing and nothing happens. All kinds of little voices come. But the Lord gave grace maybe every fourth or fifth meeting when it just seemed appropriate. He took all young people to stand. They fill out the little piece of paper, write out their prayer requests, all of which I pray through personally, which are now being followed up on by the ICT people here. But let's praise the Lord and pray when we pray for Australia. Also, just remember, in general, quite a few hundreds in the past few weeks have stood up. For us, it may be just one more person, one more name, one more prayer request. But for some of them, it's the first time in their life they've ever openly made a recommitment in their life. Often the results are more catastrophic than their conversion. Conversion generally leaves you geographically where you are. It leaves you in your own family. You might have some struggles. But this kind of commitment linked with world evangelism in varying degrees often brings absolute chaos in the home because they go back and start talking about discipleship or commitment. The average young person doesn't know how to express these things. He says, I think about joining OM for a year, and I tell you the sparks begin to fly. Many of the young people in Singapore and Malaysia are not from Christian homes. You're going back into some home where they're worshipping idols and are loyal to the ancient religions of yesteryear and tell them you're going to launch out to reach the Middle East for Christ or something. Parents just about go up in smoke. So that's a real challenge for prayer for all of the countries that we visited. We flew through the night to Australia. I have had 20 years of invitations to this country. Contrary to public concepts, I'm very conservative in travel, really, considering the size of OM. I don't go unless I'm really sure the Lord is in it and it's going to be worthwhile in terms of the money invested. But I soon discovered that Australia is a very, very unique and special country. I always had that feeling. And people are very state-conscious in Australia, very state-conscious. And it might be good for those of you non-Aussies, which are most of us, to realize that this is Victoria. This is New South Wales. This is Queensland. This is the Northern Territory, Southern Australia. We have a lady in South Australia. She came all the way from there to tell us that OM is very weak in South Australia and wants us to come there. That includes Australia's very key city that I did not go to, Adelaide. When I got to New Zealand, I heard that Adelaide really, according to some of my men in New Zealand, is the real best city in Australia for spiritual life. I don't know if that's true. And then Western Australia, I didn't get out there either. We flew into Melbourne. We're met by an ex-OMer Indian. Australia is a very cosmopolitan society. And interesting ex-OMers pop up there from all different countries. But we actually have a Victoria office under John Mann. Let's pray for him, an elderly retired man who's sort of running things down there with the help of some tremendous prayer groups. One of the best places I have ever been in the entire world for OM prayer groups is Melbourne. By the way, a huge city. It seemed that we were everlastingly driving around to the next meeting. But let's pray for John Mann and the prayer groups there. The literature had not arrived there, but he had some literature in his closet. You know, in OM, you learn to sniff around. And some of that literature had actually been left by John Yar, who a number of years ago went to heaven. Old copies of Operation World. But we sold almost every item that he had in his closet, quite a few hundreds of dollars worth of literature in the meeting. So that was an encouragement all the way around. Usually we were having three to four meetings every day, plus radio interviews, magazine interviews. It was wild. Mark Smith is a very, to me, key man for Melbourne. Ex-OMer from friends from abroad now with Tier Fund Australia. We had an ex-OMer reunion barbecue in his back garden. He's married a young woman who came out of Vietnam as a refugee. And her mother and father were there. I'm not sure if they know the Lord yet. You could remember then they certainly didn't know much English. And if I got talking to you about ex-OMers, the meeting would go too long. And I always have this fear when this tape goes around that some ex-OMer is going to wonder why I didn't mention him. No one would ever say that. But we do like to get all the prayer we possibly can. But we just don't have time to mention but a few. And my mentioning them is not very systematic. So let's pray, probably for some of you, the first time in your life you've prayed for Victoria. Pray for David Pennon. He was an old friend of mine from Pakistan. He used to be with InterVarsity, saved through InterVarsity. Then he was in Lebanon. He is now the Archbishop of Victoria. I never realized how many Anglicans there were in Australia. One out of every three persons in Victoria is an Anglican. Phenomenal, high church, low church, whatever, they're Anglicans. This man is the Archbishop. And he's the first Evangelical Archbishop in 150 years in that whole area. He acts as a bishop, really of Melbourne as well as the Archbishop covering the whole of Victoria. And I know he would appreciate prayers because of the large number of Anglicans he has a degree of political involvement. In fact, I had to sit and wait to see him even though I was late because the French ambassador had gotten there ahead of me. By the way, that's the first in-depth fellowship I've ever had with an Archbishop, so I really am beginning to move into interesting realms. But let's pray for David Pennon and his wife. They have taken a very strong stand in a number of areas that really have shaken people. For example, I have quite a few practicing homosexual ministers in that state, and he will now no longer ordain homosexuals. So that's leading to some very interesting counseling. And I know he would appreciate very much our prayers. And he just said, look, anything I can do to open the way for OM in this state, just let me know. So that was quite encouraging. So let's pray for Melbourne, for OM in the state of Victoria. They even process their own money there. They don't send their money to the national headquarters in Australia. They send it to the state headquarters. John Mann and his wife process it. It's part-time. And then they send it on to the Australia headquarters up in Brisbane. Okay, let's pray just in our groups again for Victoria. Well, let's just pray for Mexico for a while. You've got that little leaflet. If you could take a look at that, that's really aiming at next summer. This is actually the kind of leaflet that people have to write in to get because, in fact, it has financial information on the back of it. But as an OMer, of course, you're privileged to have all the facts. And I think this is quite well done and would like to use it for prayer. I was in Mexico mainly the entire time in Veracruz living on the ship Lagos. I think it's so important at times to mention answers to prayer, but you remember all the hassle we were having just being in Mexico. That all just went. They were allowed to sell books, and they were allowed to carry on. You know, there were some regulations, of course. There were a couple of hundred people at the Christmas campaign, mainly all Mexicans. One group came from Prairie. They seemed to be special privileged Canadians. I guess Burk Kempis was behind that. But largely they were Mexicans. And in the evening meetings, when they opened it to the general public, there were a lot of people joining locally. It was a bit difficult to figure out all the different things that were happening. But in some of the evening meetings, we had up to 1,500 people. When I first spoke to the pastors on the Lagos, I went through interpreter two meetings. But by the time I got to that big meeting on shore, I just let loose in Spanish. And somehow the Lord gave grace to preach Spanish all the rest of the time. But I'd like you to pray because a lot of people stood to make a recommitment. We have all these Spanish feedback papers. I don't know if we're going to get Kathy or Jack or somebody to translate those. But I'd appreciate prayer because it does seem that in Mexico, again, the place is so ripe for this message. And with OM's shift, I can tell you the old policy of OM about finance is absolutely bad news beyond any question in a place like Mexico. I actually said that to Dick Griffin 15 years ago. I said, Dick, if we don't change it here, nothing will ever work because they so easily believe all American groups, and they think of OM as American, they don't easily understand European things, is loaded with money. And we were able to share with some this change. And immediately they were taking offerings in the meetings. I'm not saying they never did that years ago. They did. And I talked, you see, because before we'd always just talk about personnel. OM talks about personnel and recruits to cut out your ears. But that's so hard for them. It costs thousands of pesos to get one. A hundred thousand maybe to get somebody out. Now we can talk to them not, we can talk to them about prayer. We're talking to them about partnership. And we're talking about one of the ways of partnership is giving. They can give. They can support an Indian who maybe costs ten rupees a day to support. And the few that we share this with are really interested in this kind of partnership for World Mission. So prayer first, spreading the vision, definite giving, and then as the Lord leads, perhaps sending their own personnel. So let's pray that as Dick and his men, Daryl and Dwayne Grassman, praise the Lord for the healing of Daryl, is it Daryl or Dwayne's child? Daryl's child. Some of you heard he got electric wire in his mouth, but it wasn't an electric wire, it was caustic soda. It was just bad, but none of it went into the esophagus. So actually I saw the little child. She was rapidly improving. But what an awesome experience. The little child in a laundromat started eating caustic soda. So let's pray for Mexico. Praise the Lord for the great open door the ship had. They put their international night on in one of the really big luxurious theaters of Veracruz. They had to do it twice, so many people came. Then they were able to put it on in the open air. Just endless opportunities. And the day I left the ship, you know, this long queue of people, just like I've so often seen, queued up waiting to get on the Envi Lagas. They were selling a couple thousand dollars a book. Some days only a thousand, some days more. And they of course should be arriving in Puerto Rico. Anybody know, is it today or tomorrow or the next day? Certainly, yeah, probably tomorrow. Let's pray for the program in Puerto Rico. Had a number of good sessions with Dick Griffin. Continue to remember him. Mexico has such terrific church growth, really. But there's a need for teaching. There's a need for the books that we so passionately believe in. And they were able to get an enormous amount of books off Lagas for Dick's program in Mexico City. They already have four to five million tracks ready for Mexico 86, most of them free. And I just feel the work in Mexico has taken some real steps forward. David Hicks, of course, was down there very much involved. Maybe for sake of time we can use this leaflet and pray together. Okay, let's start getting on Mexico for a while. In our small groups. Amen. Yeah, if some of you are getting a little cold, you can get closer to the heaters. Let me just say that the ship Lagas has been ministering now for I guess it's 15 years. And it's something that we really have a lot to thank the Lord for. I found in general the staff and crew on the ship, I spent quite a lot of time with individuals, you know, quite encouraged. The ministry going on. Very good unity in the men who are leading this, the planning group. Spent time with the captain, Jonathan Stewart. Keep praying for him. Lagas since Dave Thomas, who by the way has been in a terrible motor accident. The car is completely written off. This is several weeks ago now. Traveling in the states. I met him in LA briefly. He's all right. But the man taking his place is an Indian, Alan. Forgive the pronunciation. Remember him. He's the chief engineer. We heard very good things about his leadership of the engine room. It was a very exciting visit. It's only for lack of time. I don't say more about that. Pray for the lineup. Of course, there's several ports in Puerto Rico. Then Norfolk. Baltimore. I'll be visiting those places, both of them in about a month's time. Very, very much going forward in preparation. And also French speaking Canada, George Barathon. John Matthew is up there now. So that's moving in connection with the Lagas. I guess one of the great privileges of this whole trip, as we come toward the end of it, is that I was with my parents on Christmas Day, the first time in 30 years. Hard to believe in a lifetime. Seemingly it goes by. And we went out and visited relatives and had a very interesting Christmas. Also, Daniel was there because he's on a vacation. He's back now in the states visiting relatives. Maybe we could just pray for the USA situation. The work there has greatly increased in the last few years. But they are certainly short a couple of very key people in the New Jersey operation. They also fight an accommodation problem similar to us. They're also fighting increased costs problem. Dave, of course, not only has the USA now. Paul Troper is on a sabbatical. Will not be going back into the same ministry. Had a good time with Paul and Elsa. But Dave also has quite a lot of responsibility in connection with Mexico and Canada. He will be going out to the subcontinent for the leaders meetings there. So let's uphold Dave and Kathy. They're very active also in the church. The board members, very active board there. We could pray a little bit more for them. There's been a continued increase of giving in the states over the last couple of years. Not huge, but steady. And they, I found in New Jersey, really have a burden to see funds coming in. I'm sure most offices do. I don't think they saw in December what they were aiming at. They were aiming very high. But certainly we had some encouraging giving in the month of December. So let's just pray right now. Some of you perhaps who are from the states could lead us in prayer for OMUSA. And I would appreciate prayer for this next trip I have. My trips don't always work out the best in terms of the calendar. I have to build my trips around key invitations. They're usually the people paying the airfares. And OM has got too much money, as you know, to pay for airfares. So if someone else is willing to do that, it's interesting. I've just had an invitation today to go to Texas next July to a big Jesus thing, I think partly lined up by YWAM, of several thousand people. I'll just come back from there, and I'll be in Switzerland. I guess I said I'd be in England. And they telegrammed today and said, Look, we'll pay the round-trip fare, and we want you here. And this trip now to Chicago, Minneapolis, and Denver is built around my speaking at the Anniversary Founders Week. I forget what year, but it's the anniversary year. Founders Week at Moody. Many, many thousands of people. Then the bigger meeting really was Mandate 86. This is a missions conference, a mini-urbana, for university-level students in the whole Midwest. Mission 80, Mandate 86. In fact, I have a telephone link up with them this Saturday for the final planning. David Bryant and David Howard and others are involved in this, so I have the main chunk of speaking. And then I've given the meeting to others for the last 15 or 20 years. Whenever they've invited me, I've finally accepted the meeting. Bethany Fellowship's main annual missions conference. That's my first meeting starting 17th of January. There's a very key church that God has just linked us with out in Denver. And I have their main missions conference. This church has got enough potential, believe me, to do more than I'd like to put down on a cassette tape. But let's pray for that church meeting. Cherry Hills Presbyterian Church already got a great vision. And at a number of other meetings, including a Muslim Emphasis Day that Roger Malsted has lined up. And then Wheaton College, and going to be a whole day with my friends with Jesus People Chicago, Resurrection Band, and that crowd. Quite a mixed challenge, which is what I usually have. And then a day with a line-up people in Norfolk, a line-up people in Baltimore, before coming back. Ken Taylor wrote a letter, absolutely thrilled with our financial policy change. He said, I spent many years at Moody Bible Institute, enough to learn that Moody's method is better than Mueller's. And he sent a check with it. Praise the Lord for Mueller and Moody, and may we, in the end, take the best and mix the best, and still have our own roots. So let's pray for the USA, and maybe some Americans here. Jack Rendell, African-reared American, can lead us off in this prayer session for the United States. At the end of this session, at least the amount that I'm putting on cheap, I'd like us to just pray in follow-up for Expo 85. Past history, the largest media event in the history of the Christian Church, according to the press, even the secular press. In fact, that media event covering 94 centers around the world was so complicated that it made that Aid Africa rock festival, which also used satellite, look like a very simple operation. And I know that when we were in Berlin, we were in this beautiful Congress Hall in Berlin, there were four and a half thousand there. And when I was there, I had a brief time of fellowship with Bill Bright, and some prayer together. He was just going around the world in four days, speaking at these different places. And that day that I was there, the day before I spoke, he was going to speak from Berlin, and it would go around the entire world. Quite amazing. And then on the screen, we'd have everybody in Mexico City singing, and then we'd be singing, and then we'd see the Philippines singing. And actually, all 94 centers were singing the same song at the same time throughout the entire world. You know, it's quite a mind-bending thing. I think, however, the key prayer request is for the follow-up. My message, which is only a small part of the whole thing, very much tried to emphasize the process, God's process when you leave here, the cross for the Lordship of Christ. I felt a terrific response in both places. I spoke in Birmingham, main evening meeting, and then had the night of prayer, and in Berlin at the final New Year's meeting, which was the last meeting of the Congress, followed by the invitation, which was, I didn't have time to give the invitation myself. It was mainly to fill out a form that they were going to keep with them. So in this case, we only know, only God knows, the number of that 4,500 who made some kind of commitment. I had a very unique opportunity to be interviewed in Birmingham, and the next day, that was on satellite for the entire world. You know, if I was only given one or two minutes, and that's all I had on this interview, the one thing I'd like to talk about was prayer. Well, that's the question they asked me. They asked me several questions. They only transmitted. Let's just pray. We've heard some interesting feedback from our Indian brothers in Lucknow, also their little friend on the screen, big nose of her work. But let's pray that somehow what I shared about prayer, somehow God would use that to stir these people. I challenged them in Berlin, all go back and start prayer groups. I really feel any young person that is on fire for Christ or world missions should start or get involved in a prayer group. Let's pray also for the Lord to raise up missionary prayer groups throughout the entire world. The local church is really dropping the ball in terms of missionary prayer. My goal is still the local church. I think they're the key to world evangelism. I pray and work day and night to see prayer brought into a more rightful place than the local church. But I believe at the same time God wants to raise up missionary prayer groups in homes, in offices, lunchtime, morning time, whenever. And let's pray that X-Blow, I'm sure there will be many other results from X-Blow, but that X-Blow will result in a worldwide prayer movement for world missions and for those things that we know are in the heart of the Lord Jesus. So let's pray right now for Campus Crusade to organize that. A number of XOM are especially involved in European Campus Crusade. Let's remember Bill Bright as he's back once again in his home office in Southern California. He's 63, 64 years of age. What a great example he has been of faith and world vision really is quite phenomenal. Let's pray for the tremendous ministry of Campus Crusade. They must have about 15,000 on their staff now throughout the world. One of the most phenomenal movements of our century. Let's cry out to God for that and for the follow-up on X-Blow as it went right around the world. Okay? Let's again pray as one.