Spend much time in prayer as you prepare for the lesson. Ask God to burden you for the missionaries and their needs. Ask Him to show you exactly how to present the lesson so the girls will also become burdened with the need to pray for the specific needs of the missionaries.

You will need to use illustrations for each day's needs. You may choose to locate pictures to represent those needs, or you may with to prepare posters showing those areas of needs. If you have girl or lady who is an artist, enlist her help to prepare your illustrations.

You may illustrate day one with an open Bible and/or person praying with an open Bible on a table.

Day two may be illustrated with a picture of a person doing exercises contrasted with another picture of a person in distress.

Day three may picture a family around the dinner table, reading the Bible together, or playing games together. You may also picture a family in a foreign country as well as a family in the United States, showing a map of each country in the background.

Day four may picture a man and /or woman studying a foreign language. You may also illustrate the contrast in the culture of the United States and another country.

Day five would be illustrated well with a picture of an open door and person with an open heart on his chest.

For day six choose pictures of missionaries together. You may show two of the same culture and/or one of the United States and another country.

For day seven find pictures showing political controversies. You may wish to use a variety of pictures on the same poster illustrating the area included in the list for day seven according to the present political situations in the world.

Ask each member to select a missionary to pray for during the following week or month. At the end of the week, month, or other specified time period, allow a few minutes for reports on their praying, then select another missionary to pray for. Encourage the selection of a different missionary each month. In order to include all missionaries in your prayer times, make a list with the names of all the missionaries your church supports.

You may need to ask your pastor or a person who is interested in missionaries to help you prepare your list. Include your district or local association, state, interstate, and foreign missionaries. You will find lists of these in the Directory and handbook, Baptist Missionary Association of America, prepared and distributed by the Baptist News Service. Your church should have a copy. Check with your pastor or church clerk. You may also find names listed in the minutes books for each association, your state Baptist paper, and The Gleaner.

Make copies of the areas of prayer for each member. You may photocopy from this article. File a copy in your missions lesson plans for future use.

You may also wish to ask the girls to write a letter to the chosen missionary telling him they are praying for him and the mission work. Addresses may also be found in the Directory and Handbook.

Your missionary's own relationship with God. This is a missionary's primary area of need. On behalf of your missionary, pray for his or her:

• Personal Bible study for feeding of God's Word
• Personal prayer life
• Filling with the Holy Spirit
• Maturity and growth in grace
• Victory over Satan and the flesh

Your missionary's physical and emotional life. Satan frequently is successful in disrupting a missionary's mission work by tempting in this important area of life. Your missionary needs you to pray for his or her:

• Good health
• Safety
• Deliverance from discouragement, loneliness, and depression

Your missionary's family. Too often missionaries are lost to their field of service because of concern for their family. Their family relationships need to be strong. You should pray for their:

• Marital relationship
• Children (by name if you know their names)
• Close relatives back at home
• A good example in their family life before the people with whom they work.

Your missionary's ability to communicate. Communication is one of the most important elements in mission work. It is really "the name of the game." Pray for:

• A continued grasp of the language
• An adaptation to the national culture.

Your missionary's ministry. You want to support your missionary in what he is doing as you pray on this day. Pray for:

• Boldness, open doors, and open hearts
• Power from the Holy Spirit for fruitful service.

Your missionary's fellow workers. Most missionaries do not work completely on their own away from other workers. They are usually part of a team. Pray for:

• Their relationship with other missionaries
• Their relationship with believers in the country where they are working.

Your missionary's country of service. Now you may expand your praying to include the whole country where your missionary is located. Pray for:

• The political situation
• The government and its leaders
• Visas (permission to be in the country) and a continued open door to that country
• Freedom to extend the preaching of the gospel throughout that country
• The climate of responsiveness to the gospel--that it will become stronger and more open to the gospel.

Close with a special circle prayer of dedication and commitment to follow through with the week of prayer for each missionary. Be alert to announcements of where the missionary will be speaking so you and the girls may attend the service and get to personally know each missionary and his or her field of service.