Dear Friends,
We have some exciting news to share with you! As you know, for 17 years we have been ministering all over the world, and we have had such great fruit throughout the years. We have seen God do amazing things in the lives of the people we have had the privilege of ministering to and God’s power has been so present in every place we have gone. That being said, we know God has even more in store for us. There are a number of things we are doing to expand our ministry, but one of the most important things we are doing is integrating more prayer into our ministry. Six months ago we mentioned that we were launching an intentional prayer initiative with our partners and we have seen great effectiveness in that already.
I’d like to give you just one example of how your prayers have helped since we started Intercessors International. In February Joshua was traveling to Cuba. To preach in Cuba requires a special preaching visa issued by the Cuban government. It was only three days before Joshua’s trip that he received this visa and unfortunately the Cuban government had made a few mistakes on his visa. While we knew this may be an issue, we decided Joshua should still attempt to go to Cuba as many preparations had been made for him to minister. So Joshua flew to Florida and went to the airport in Ft. Lauderdale, FL to get his ticket to Cuba when the airline looked at his visa and notified him he would not be allowed to travel to Cuba.
It was at this point that Joshua contacted me and we began to pray. We contacted others and asked them to begin to pray for the Lord to make a way where there seemed to be no way. To make a long story short, after hours of negotiating, Joshua was able to purchase a tourist visa that would allow him entrance into the country, but he was strictly forbidden from preaching because his preaching visa was incorrect. Joshua got on the plane to Cuba with no guarantee to preach or minister at all, but we knew this would get him one step closer to doing so. We continued to pray, and asked others to pray as well.
Because Cuba is such a closed country, I did not hear from Joshua until he arrived in the United States over one week later. To be honest, we had no idea whether he was ministering that whole week as we had planned or not. But when he returned, he gave me the incredible news: upon arrival in Cuba, and as he was waiting in the immigration line, a Cuban official approached him and asked if he was “Joshua Wagner.” Stunned that this man knew who he was, Joshua confirmed that he was Joshua Wagner. Then the man told him in broken English that he had a new preaching visa for him. The Cuban government realized they had made a mistake and provided Joshua with a brand new preaching visa, giving him legal authority to preach throughout the entire island; and preach he did. Joshua preached 10 times, including some of the first outdoor services in Cuba since the Communist revolution in the 1950s!
This story is truly a miracle and is just one example of how powerful prayer is. It was prayer that got Joshua on the flight from Florida to Cuba. It was prayer that granted him a brand new preaching visa upon arrival. And it was prayer that enabled him to see the amazing miracles throughout his time of ministry in Cuba. We know that prayer works and that is why we are asking for it from you. To do what we do, and to go where we go, requires the prayers of our partners. We know that many of you have already been praying for the ministry we are doing, but we want to help you pray more specifically and intentionally. We believe in the power of prayer and are reminded of the words of Jesus in Matthew 18:20 when He says:
“For where two or three are gathered together in My name,
I am there in the midst of them.”
Intercessors International is this new branch of our ministry for our partners to join with us in prayer. We are inviting you to commit to one hour of weekly prayer for specific things happening within our ministry for that week or month. If you choose to sign up and join Intercessors International, we will e-mail you weekly updates on what we would like you to join us for in prayer. Oftentimes our prayer requests are sensitive in nature and require focused attention. We know the need for prayer for the type of ministry that we do, and we know that God has given our ministry many people who will pray for us in the ways that we need.
Some of you may wonder why we chose to ask you to pray for one hour a week for our ministry. Well, one hour a week works out to a little less than ten minutes a day, which we believe is an appropriate amount of time. Plus, remember when Jesus took Peter, James and John with Him into the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before He was crucified? After praying by Himself, He went back to find His disciples sleeping. He was disappointed and asked them why they could not have spent even one hour joining Him in prayer for the salvation of the world. Well, that is what we are inviting you to do as well!
If you would like to be added to our prayer partnership group, Intercessors International, simply click here and fill out the form, or let us know you’d like to join by emailing us at prayer@wagnerministries.org. We are so grateful for every one of you and believe that your continued partnership and prayer will help us continue to impact millions of people in some of the most unreached parts of the world.
Lastly, while we so greatly need and desire your prayers, as partners of our ministry, we also desire to pray for you. We would love the opportunity to hear from you about how we can specifically pray for any needs that you may have. As a result, would you please send us your phone number via email (prayer@wagnerministries.org) so that we can reach out to you in the coming weeks and pray with you? If you’ve known our ministry for any length of time, then you know that we will not bother you via phone or email. We simply want to be able to periodically contact you to pray with you and to pray for you on an ongoing basis. We hope to hear from each of you very soon and look forward to agreeing with you in prayer for your needs.
God Bless,
Michelle Wagner