My dear friend, I ran into you the other day. I noticed the faraway look in your eyes, the ever-so-slight tapping of one foot. I know you were thinking about the zillion and one items on your to-do list. Maybe you were wishing there were a way you could put me on Bluetooth and multitask the way you love to do with phone calls. How did I know? Because I often think like that, too. But sometimes, we need to slow down. Sometimes, we need to meet face to face. Last week, we talked about how God’s Word informs and inspires our prayers. I want to add to that today with this week’s PrayerKeeper tip: Take time to read God’s Word with a heart of prayer. In other words, when you read the Bible, don’t just read it. Don’t try to plan your day or pack lunches during your Bible-reading time. Instead, ask God to show you the jewels of prayer locked inside His Word. Yes, some lie glistening on the surface: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin” (Ps. 51:1-2). Other gems may even identify themselves with words like “I bow my knees,” which comes just before one of my favorite prayers in the New Testament: “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:14b, 16-19). But some treasures reveal themselves only with time and care. When I read the story of Jacob and Esau, for example (Genesis 25-27), I pray for the many who struggle with a sibling relationship. When I read of a warrior who considered his own reputation more important than following the simple instructions passed on to him by a man of God, I pray for myself and others who, like Captain Naaman (2 Kings 5) often let pride play too great a role in our lives. Read the Word. Ask the Father to open your eyes to the prayers, hidden and otherwise, there. And let me know what you find (or have found) in the comments below, in an email (see “Contact Me” at the top of this page), or via social media. I’d love to share in your prayer journey, and your insights will touch others as well. For His glory, Marti...

My dear friend, So you’re wondering about how to fit prayer into your life. Or, more appropriately, how to fit more prayer into your life. After all, you already squeeze in eating and sleeping and working and preparing meals and running errands and–sometimes–exercise and relationships and HUNDREDS OF OTHER THINGS THAT ALL SCREAM FOR YOUR TIME. Right? Although some of the verbs vary, of course right. So how can you find time to pray? I won’t pretend to know the answer. But I will share, today and over the next few letters (formerly known as blog posts), what I’ve learned and am still learning. And maybe it will help. It might even become the answer to a prayer. First of all, please know that I don’t consider myself any kind of expert on prayer. Intercession is both a gift which God has given me and a task to which He has assigned me. I can’t approach it, then, without a sense of both wonder and responsibility. My prayers have no special power other than the power of Christ in me. And my advice has no special weight except as it carries the holy burden of God’s Word. So today’s tip for improving your prayer life is a simple one: Fit more of God’s Word into your life, and He’ll pour more prayer out of it. I’m not referring to a book that teaches you how to pray God’s Word (although I know of several good ones) or a set of Scriptures hand-picked to cover particular areas or relationships. Instead, I encourage you to spend time reading, studying, and even memorizing the Bible. I already acknowledged your full schedule. And now I want you to fit one more thing into it? Yes, because that one thing will transform the others. It will change your priorities. It will, especially as you read it over days and weeks and years, change you. And if you approach the Word with an open mind and heart, you’ll find yourself praying what you read. For example, part of my reading today was Psalm 141, which begins, “O Lord, I call upon you! Hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to you!” Yes, I read these words, but I also prayed them. God’s Spirit took the words I was reading and applied them personally and specifically to my life and my situation. And even when the words of Scripture might not look as much like a prayer as this example, He can still do the same thing. We’ll talk more about that next time. But for now, let’s join together in asking God to help you fit more of His Word into...

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve posted excerpts from my unpublished article, “Here Am I. Send Me? Courage in Costa Rica.” If you missed any of the other excerpts, you can find them by clicking these links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. You’ll want to make sure to read those before you read the final section, posted below along with a sidebar that offers some fundraising tips. Send Me? The courage all these student missionaries displayed came from the same source as the prophet Isaiah’s: a living, loving relationship with a God who wants to draw people of all nations to Himself. Is your courage stuck on Empty? Do you make excuses instead of stepping up and stepping out? Check with your heavenly Father. He has grace for all, on the mission field and at home. No matter the situation, He’ll provide the courage you need to say along with Isaiah, “Here am I. Send me!” [Sidebar: Courage to Fundraise] Do you suffer from EWS, Empty Wallet Syndrome? Not to fear. The God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills can provide moo-lah for missions. Check out these fun ideas from some of our Costa Rica missionaries: KaytLyn: “My mom and I had a dessert business. We sold chocolate strawberries, chocolate pretzels, cake pops and caramel corn. For two years, all the money we raised went toward my trip!” Stephanie: “I had people sponsor beaded bracelets I made to give to children in Costa Rica. I asked for $5 apiece, but some people gave much more. Felicia: “My sister and I had buckets at the front of our church, each with a picture of someone’s face attached. The person whose bucket ended up with the most money got a pie in the face!” Felicia (part 2): “We also forked people’s yards [placing hundreds of plastic forks tine-down]. People had to pay $15 for us to remove them or $20 to fork someone else’s yard.” Have you served God in international missions, or would you like to? Is God giving you the courage to connect? I’d love to receive your questions and comments below, on social media, or through the email link at the top of this page. If you have other fundraising ideas, feel free to add those as well. My husband and I hope to join Never the Same in Ecuador June 29-July 12, 2015. Teen guys and girls as well as adults are welcome and needed to make a difference. Will you be the next one to say, “Here am I. Send me”?...

So far, I’ve shared two installments of my missions story from last year’s Never the Same Missions trip to Costa Rica and four stories of courageous people. You should know that I always have more stories than will fit in the word count limit the magazine gives me, so if you want a few more stories, check back to last summer’s blog (try here and here for examples). But I love the stories reserved for Part 3, and I hope you will, too!   Courage to Speak: Sammie Unlike John, “I’m a worship leader,” Sammie says. “Not a speaker.” That’s what she tried to tell God one morning as her team prepared for ministry. Her head team leader, Rob Kirkpatrick, needed someone to share the gospel after the second drama of the day. “Who’s gonna do it?” he asked. No one volunteered. “It felt like God was pressing his hands on my shoulders,” Sammie confesses. “I knew He was saying, ‘You do it.’” So she did. So well, in fact, that the crowd in the noisy street market had no idea she was anything but an experienced speaker. So well that God used her to help others receive His message of salvation. So well that she kept sharing with anyone who would listen. Watch out. When you follow God in obedience, He’ll give you courage to speak, too.   Courage to Connect: Yemi                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Yemi, another Faith in the Wait entrant, was the contest runner-up. But when it comes to courage, she’s a big winner. She shared her story before one of the group’s supercharged evening worship services, called FUAGNEM (Fired up and Going Nuts Every Minute). Yemi’s unusual background—adopted from Ethiopia at age 10—helped prepare her for the missions trip in ways she never expected. On their first day of ministry, her team spent time at a home for abused girls ages 12-18. Leah, one of the head team leaders, asked Yemi to share her testimony. “I forgot she was adopted,” Leah says. But God didn’t. As Yemi spoke, she didn’t know...

The other day, I posted Part I of an article that, because of the cessation of Sisterhood Magazine, never hit print. Since I still want others to read the great things God did through the Never the Same missions team in Costa Rica, I’m posting the story in installments on my blog. Enjoy the stories of two more courageous missionaries in Part II of “Here I Am: Send Me? Courage in Costa Rica.”   Courage to Care: Kohlie Kohlie also traveled to Costa Rica, but on a free ride. Her winning entry in Sisterhood’s Faith in the Wait contest covered the cost. Not only was this her first missions trip, but the journey from home to Florida was also her first flight. “My mom and dad were nervous,” she confessed during training. “But I want to be the hands and feet of Jesus, I’m excited to learn about the culture—and I want to be brave in my faith and stepping out.” As the trip progressed, God brought opportunities to do just that. “Lord, use me today,” Kohlie prayed one morning. Never the Same teams use a pantomime drama, “Spellbound” to share the gospel. Her team performed that day on a dirt road in one of San Jose’s poorest areas. Afterwards, “I turned around and saw a little girl who looked dead,” Kohlie explains. “Her friend was carrying her like a rag doll. I didn’t know what to do.” But Kohlie remembered her prayer. “I went over to check on her, then ran to get Chris,” she says. The medical clinic, a new ministry on this year’s trip, was operating alongside Kohlie’s team that day. Two doctors, several nurses, other medical professionals and students took turns meeting basic health care needs. When Kohlie called, Chris, a pediatric nurse practitioner, went into instant action. “The little girl really did look dead,” Chris explains. “But when I checked her, I realized she had passed out from dehydration and lack of food. We gave her some water, and soon, she was running around again.” Since the team also operated a feeding station alongside the clinic, this little girl and many of her neighbors received a full lunch. “It broke my heart,” says Kohlie. “I realized how selfish I can be when I don’t get what I want at a restaurant, and here’s a little girl who doesn’t have enough to eat and drink.” For this first-time missionary, Faith in the Wait meant courage to care.     Courage to Share: John John’s Costa Rica courage also began with a morning prayer. “I asked for the language barrier not to be an issue,” he says. A short time later, his team arrived at its...

Dear Friends, I don’t keep my love for missions a secret. Over the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of serving the Lord in six different countries (two of them twice) on mission trips. For the past five years, I’ve traveled with Never the Same Missions and first SUSIE¸ then Sisterhood Magazine as the writer for their annual missions trip. In 1996, author and speaker Susie Shellenberger, then of Focus on the Family and Brio Magazine, first partnered with Steve Goley of Big World Ventures on an international mission trip. The goal, as Susie says, was to produce a trip that gave teens the combined experience of “missions, youth camp, and an old-fashioned revival.” Over the years, Never the Same has refined the trip, taken thousands of students and adult chaperones overseas, and seen tens of thousands come to know Christ as a result. This past year, my husband and I served with NTS in Costa Rica, our first mission trip together. My article about the trip was scheduled as the cover story for Sisterhood’s January issue. But near the end of 2014, the publishing house that produced the magazine closed temporarily and shut down Sisterhood permanently. That’s a loss not only for me but for the thousands of teen girls who need and want a positive, Christ-centered print magazine. Rather than waste my article, I’ve received permission to share it. You’ll find it in four parts, posted in this blog both this week and next. If you have any interest in missions, I hope you’ll read, share, and visit the links above for more information. Here I am, Send Me? Courage in Costa Rica by Marti Pieper Think you’ve got excuses to avoid the mission field? Check out these beauties: I’m not qualified. I’ve got a lot going on. I’m needed at home. I’m in mourning. I’m unworthy. Meet a man who could have used all these excuses and more. In fact, if we matched him up to a checklist of qualifications, our missionary candidate would score a perfect zero. Except in one area. When God called Isaiah, the Old Testament prophet, he responded not with excuses but faith-filled courage: “Here am I. Send me!” (Isa. 6:8). And so did the nearly 200 Never the Same summer missionaries to Costa Rica. When I spent two weeks with them this past July, I saw courage in action—over and over again. Courage to Ask: Jordyn Join me on a journey (co-sponsored by Big World Ventures and Susie Shellenberger Ministries) that began long before our training time in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. For a soccer-playing girl named Jordyn, it started last summer on the Never the Same trip to Peru. There,...