Blog

Happy New Year to you all. It seems like an appropriate time to provide an update, given that much has happened in a relatively short amount of time.

A quick recap:

In October, our family transitioned from the ABWE CeeMed (central/eastern Europe and Mediterranean) team to the ABWE Live Global team. This decision means that we are putting our original plans of moving to that region on the back burner. Instead, we can continue to raise support from the US while beginning certain key ministry opportunities more quickly. It also broadens our potential for impact to places that likely would not have been possible otherwise.

With those things now clarified, Brandi has begun the process of renewing her nursing license. In December she was able (after several weeks of refresher courses) to begin some clinical hours for a pediatrician for whom she had worked previously, filling in for other nurses who were out with Covid related illnesses.

New Opportunities:

Brandi will finish up clinical hours in January, and then likely work for the pediatrician on an “as needed” basis until she finds more permanent work. She is excited to begin again in the healthcare field, which will also provide her with outreach opportunities.

My first official assignment with Live Global begins in about 24 hours. I have been asked to teach a class (over Zoom) for an accredited Bible college/seminary in southern India. For nine weeks, three late nights a week (early morning for them), we will cover Romans and Galatians. There are 19 students, many of whom are preparing to help plant/lead churches among unreached people groups in India. Consider the following statistics for the country of India (according to Operation World).

-Out of a population of over 1.2 billion people, just over 2% are evangelical believers.

-India has over 2,500 distinct people groups, and 88% are considered unreached.

-There is, on average, one trained pastor for every six evangelical congregations.

How can you pray?

Pray for Brandi as she completes the clinical hours this month and begins to seek future employment as a nurse.

Pray for this spring class. Pray that I will be helpful to the students. Pray that they will be well-equipped for current and future ministry opportunities. Pray that whatever good I am able to pass along to them will be multiplied as they pass it on to others.

Pray that we will continue to raise our level of support.

Pray for me as I seek to phase out of my role as youth pastor at Grace Baptist in Chattanooga.

Thank you for interceding for us and for your many generous gifts and kind words.

By David Prairie

 

O Righteous Father,

You are good. Your steadfast love endures forever, as does your faithfulness and truth to all generations. Glorify your name in all the earth with the glory you had with your Son before the world existed, especially by giving eternal life to all you have given to your Son. Eternal life is knowing you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. As your children, your people, and the flock of your pasture, we fear not, knowing that it is your good pleasure to grant your kingdom as an inheritance to us.

Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come! Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing! To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.

O God, our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments, which you commanded by your servants, the prophets. Forgive us, Lord.

And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved. You, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which you loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, have made us alive together with Christ—by grace we have been saved—and have raised us up together with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ, so that in the coming ages you might show the immeasurable riches of your grace in kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

We come to you now at a time where we, looking around, recognize that things are out of our control. But we gladly confess that nothing ever has been, nor is, nor ever will be out of your control. We don’t need you now more than ever, because there has never been a time when we have not fully needed you, but perhaps we are now more in tune with and aware of our great need for you, and our lack of control. We look to you. We truly have no other place to look. To whom else shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life.

Grant us, Lord, that we would not be anxious about anything, but that in everything, with all thanksgiving, we would make our requests known to you. And may your peace which surpasses all understanding guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, the one who took our illnesses and bore our diseases. In making our requests known to you, we submit the following:

• Please help us to express our love for you by continually seeking you and your kingdom first, by having no other gods before you, and by not being ruled by a spirit of fear, but by letting the peace of God rule in our hearts.
• Please help us to follow the example of Jesus as we seek to love our neighbors well by caring for the sick, the poor, the outcast, and the vulnerable. Let us humbly count others more significant than ourselves. Let each of us look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others. Give to your servants discernment to know whether to express our affections for one another in person or from a distance.
• Teach us, during these uncertain times, to love our families well. If we have extra time at home with our spouses and children, let us relish the opportunity to endure such historic times together. Give us patience with one another, especially as we navigate what we don’t yet know.
• Provide wisdom, endurance, and strength to the countless healthcare workers who are logging tireless shifts responding to increased demands. Protect their health and reward their efforts. For those studying the virus and seeking to provide cures, we pray hasten their research and clarify their thoughts.
• Cause journalists, reporters, and media outlets to broadcast and publish information truthfully and without bias. Give consumers and viewers clear judgment as we take in statistics and stories. Let us filter all things with logic, reason, common sense, and prudence. Let us not politicize, downplay, or overreact to such issues.
• Equip us, not with fear, but with sound minds, fully aware of your power and love. Help us that we would not be overcome with panic, but with assurance of your presence.
• For those who have been diagnosed with this illness, we ask you that you would grant healing. We pray for the spread of the virus to stop, and for the afflicted to recover.
• For those who have lost loved ones as a result of this sickness, we pray for comfort, and we ask that you would grant to them the hope of eternal life that is found only in you.
• We pray that, when we or others we know and love fall ill and test positive, you would let us face these trials with our confidence not ultimately in the healing of the body in this life, but in the promise of a resurrection from the dead. Remind us that the last enemy to be defeated is death itself, and that the grave will have no more success holding the bodies of Christians than it did holding the body of Christ.
• During these uncertainties, let us cross paths with others who need the hope that is only found in the gospel of Jesus, and let us boldly and transparently share that good news with them. Draw many who do not yet believe to yourself, reveal your Son to them, call them by your grace, put your Spirit within them, and adopt them as your children.
• Give abundant measures of grace to missionaries scattered among the nations. Make them to bear much fruit in this season. And when travel bans are lifted, send more workers into such places, that the glory of God may cover the dry lands as the waters cover the sea.

We pray all this and more, longing for the day when a great and innumerable multitude from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages are standing before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes which have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” Hasten the day when God dwells with all his people, and they with him, and when he wipes away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things will have passed away.

Amen.

By David Prairie

My wife (Brandi) and I love the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The main protagonist, George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart), is one of the most admirable characters I’ve ever come across in a film. He’s not perfect, which makes him especially relatable. At various points he’s sarcastic, selfish, angry, hateful, condescending, and even suicidal. But throughout the story, he’s also generous, patient, and hardworking. He stands up for decency against Henry Potter and his greedy attempts to monopolize the town. In all, George is a class act who, although seemingly down on his luck most of the time, ends up gaining perspective and some good karma for the way he treated his fellow man along the way.

But one thing you must understand about George is that he spends the whole movie trying to leave his hometown of Bedford Falls. He has dreams and plans to attend college, see the world, run a big business, and make lots of money. And he knows that the only way he can do any of those things is to get out of Bedford Falls, where everyone has known him since he was a child. To be sure, George was doing great (though small, in his mind at least) things while still based in Bedford Falls. He developed a reputation as a reliable, trustworthy, and honorable man. But he wanted more.

I don’t claim to possess all (or even most) of the positive traits displayed by George Bailey. But I do find myself relating to the character in his desire to begin a new adventure in another part of the world. I’ve lived my whole life up to this point in Chattanooga. The church in which I currently serve I’ve attended since age 5. I had plans of moving away for college, seminary, and other jobs, but none of that ever materialized. Our ongoing pre-field ministry often makes me wonder if, like George, maybe we never will leave home. I trust that we’re being faithful while we’re here. Still, I can’t help but long for and hope for the day to come when we are able to relocate and plant our roots in Moldova.

Would you pray that God will do the work of supplying what is needed through his people so that we can see these plans become a reality? Pray that as we continue to seek partnerships with churches, individuals, and businesses, God would direct us to those that can invest in the work to which he has called us. Perhaps you could be a part of the answer to that prayer, either by committing to monthly support, or by helping connect us with others who could do so.

To discuss these things further with us, contact me at dprairie@abwe.cc. To learn more about our opportunity and how you can be a part of it, visit https://www.abwe.org/work/missionaries/david-and-brandi-prairie.

I recently had an opportunity to post a blog on the ABWE site on the topic, “What is a healthy sermon?” Please click here to read my thoughts on the question and how it relates to missions and the life of a local church.

By David Prairie

In God’s kind provision, he provided an opportunity for our family to spend a week in Chisinau, Moldova a couple of weeks ago. While Brandi and I had visited there previously for a survey trip, this was the first chance that our children had to experience Moldova, which was something that our boys had especially been hoping for. As a result of our week there, they (and we) are all the more eager to live there and serve the Lord alongside Imago Dei Church.

The primary purpose of our visit was to assist IDC with a children’s camp (ages 10-15). This was to be the biggest evangelistic outreach by the church in its brief history. Pastor Mihai Chisari had promoted and advertised the camp throughout the city in hopes that many children would come and hear the gospel for the first time.

In all, about 60 campers attended Speranta Camp (about 45 minutes northwest of Chisinau), and very few of them had any Christian background. I was able to speak twice at the camp. Mihai spoke twice as well. We worked through the Creation-Fall-Redemption-Restoration storyline of the Bible, and were able to explain the gospel clearly each time. Brandi and I each participated in small group discussions after the chapels, and realized that many of the campers were hearing these truths for the first time. They asked simple, but serious questions about God, the Bible, church, and Christianity.

Please pray for the members and leaders of Imago Dei Church to have wisdom to know how best to follow up with campers in the coming weeks. Pray that they will be able to strengthen relationships with students as well as to establish connections with parents. Pray for the gospel to be continually and clearly explained and that God would draw people to himself.

We were especially encouraged by brothers and sisters in Christ from Imago Dei Church and from partnering churches in Chisinau. They formed a great team of leaders for the campers. They led discussions, singing, skits, games, and provided help with the language barriers for those of who are still beginners in Romanian. Pray for these Moldovan believers to continue to be united together in service to the Lord and to others. We also enjoyed meeting and working with Daniel, an ABWE appointee to Romania. Daniel helped Brandi lead a workshop on conversational English. Finally, we were privileged to work alongside the Sokol family, missionaries to Ukraine (from our home church in Chattanooga) who made the trip to Moldova for the week. They are exceptional missionaries who are remarkably gifted and faithful.

I was able to lead a baseball workshop, teaching several boys about the game, its rules, how its played, and the fundamentals. Judah and Asher were able to assist me with this, and each day the boys learned more and enjoyed playing the game.

I also led the camp staff in devotions throughout the week from 1 Corinthians 12-13, talking about how to use our gifts in a loving way. I also preached at Imago Dei Church on the Sunday before camp, talking about the attributes of God found in Exodus 34:6-7, and what it means to worship him based on how he reveals himself.

Our kids traveled well, and we anticipate being able to move there and minister together among the people of Moldova. Please pray that our visit will have ongoing effects, and that we will soon be fully supported so that we can serve there full time.

We continue to seek ministry partners who will pray for us and who can come alongside this ministry opportunity financially. If you would like to learn more or become a regular supporter, please click here.

By David Prairie

At the beginning of the month, we asked you to pray with us about seeing our support level increase to 50% by the end of the NCAA “March Madness” Tournament, which actually ends April 8 (see the post here). Now that we are nearly half way through the month, I thought I would share the progress we have seen so far.

As of now, we have seen an increase in $218/month in support. Our goal for this time frame is $1,200, so we are still praying for an additional $982 in monthly commitments between now and April 8. But we are extremely encouraged by the $218 that has been pledged. Praise the Lord!

We have also learned recently that you can make a pledge without actually giving immediately, and the pledge still counts toward our current support level. So let’s say that you want to support our mission but can’t actually begin giving until September. If you will go ahead and visit the support page, you can set up your commitment to begin in September, but our support level will increase now! That could still help us to reach our goals for this month.

Pray about a few upcoming opportunities to share our work with others:

-There is the possibility of a meeting with several pastors in Virginia next Tuesday, March 19. Pray for that meeting to happen and for a fruitful presentation and time with those brothers.

-We will be sharing in the morning service at a church just north of Chattanooga on Sunday, May 5. Pray again for others to catch the vision of what God is doing in Eastern Europe and our role there.

-We have contacted several churches via e-mail over the past couple of weeks, and have applied for support at one. Pray for more meetings with churches who can partner with us.

Pray also for continued meetings with individuals and families, that God would help us to make quick connections with those he has already ordained to give.

Thanks to you all who read these updates and pray for us regularly. We are humbled that you would intercede for us before the Lord, and we ask you to keep it up. John Piper has said, “Sometimes, the prayer you prayed 999 times is answered in attempt 1,000. Don’t give up.”

As always, if you can help us make connections with others with whom we could share our story, we would be extremely grateful.

By David Prairie

 

As a lover of college basketball, March is possibly my favorite month of the year.

This March, you can be involved in a type of “Bracket Challenge” with us as we continue to work toward raising our support to serve in Moldova. But this is not the kind of challenge where we predict which teams will advance to the Final Four. Instead, we are looking for an additional $1,200 of committed monthly support in March so that we can reach the 50% mark necessary for us to qualify for our next training.

Here’s how it works. We are looking for 31 new supporters at varying amounts from $15/month to $240/month. You simply choose which “round” of the tournament to join and pledge the amount for that round.

When you are ready to make that commitment, just visit abwe.org/work/support and set up your donations as instructed. If you prefer to give another way (such as through a church or by writing checks) please contact us at dprairie@abwe.cc.

We also recently learned of another way that people can pledge support for us. If you do any type of farming—or if you know someone who does—would you consider raising a cow to help us increase support? If this sounds strange to you, please visit steerinc.com to see how Steer Inc utilizes donors to provide cattle for those who can care for them. You don’t have to sacrifice your money, simply raise a cow (or other farm animal) for a donor who will then pledge support for us through ABWE. If you’d like to learn more, or if you know of someone who does cattle farming already who might like to see their work benefit missionaries, please contact us.

Please pray that the Lord will provide in these ways for us so that we can progress in our journey. And pray about how you can partner with us, and how you might help us to connect with other individuals, families, churches, or businesses who might be interested in partnering with us as well.

By David Prairie

I will do my best to recap some of what we have been involved in over the past several weeks, and some of the ways we have seen God at work.

The new year began with a trip to Louisville, KY for the Cross Conference, at which over 7,000 people, almost all of them in their late teens and early twenties, considered the theme of missions throughout the whole Bible. I took four students, all of whom are praying about their future involvement in God’s work around the world. During the conference, we learned from some very gifted speakers about God’s priority for his glory among all nations. We also enjoyed the panel discussions and breakout sessions, which helped us to think very practically about how our lives can be used to make disciples locally and globally. Pray for those four students (and the thousands of others as well) as they continue to discern how they might be most obedient to this calling.

In mid-January, I was able to travel to Nashville to meet with a missions pastor and share our plans and goals for the future. He and I were mutually encouraged by each other’s ministries, and we are hoping that his church will be able to take us on for monthly financial support as well. Please pray that God will allow that partnership to be established. I have also continued to have discussions with individuals regarding support as well. We are making slow progress, so pray that we will be sustained through it, and that the Lord will allow us to reach our goals so that we can complete our fundraising and training this year.

There were more preaching opportunities than normal this past month. Our youth ministry began a study in the book of Acts, focusing on the reality that we are called to be “witnesses” for Christ “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). I continue to teach Sunday school as well, leading discussions on Salvation for the next couple of months. It has also been a great joy to see young men help me teach Sunday school electives. I also preached two sermons (here and here) at Grace Baptist, focusing on the encounters with Jesus found in Matthew 8:1-17. There was also an opportunity to lead a Lord’s Supper service at GBC. I am grateful for continued opportunities to preach and teach. Please pray for our church as we seek the Lord’s guidance on new pastoral leadership.

Brandi continues to stay busy with pre-field classes. She is making great progress in her OT Survey class, and I get to see her reading and studying the Scriptures regularly. She even makes time to get a head start on Romanian, working on lessons through the Duolingo app and labeling household items in Romanian. She is also working at home and has taken on a part-time job outside the home as well. Pray for her continued progress in all of those things.

Our children are busy as well. Judah is playing basketball for the school team. Asher just turned 9 on the 28^th, and he is doing well in school. Eva is learning so much at K-4, and is very eager to begin reading. Tori has mostly mastered potty training! Pray that the Lord will pursue our children, and that they will pursue him. They have mixed emotions about what a future in another culture might be like, so pray that they will adapt well.

We stand at 37% monthly supported, and 75% of our O&P fund has come in. We are about $1,100 of monthly support away from 50%, which is where we need to be in order to qualify for our next round of training this summer. Please pray for that amount to be committed soon, so that we can finalize plans for this summer. We are hoping for the opportunity to visit churches soon as well, in order to share our vision and passion for Moldova. If we had 85 more people who could commit $60/month we would be at 100%. Please pray for God to provide and to connect us with those he already has lined up to supply for our ministry. Pray about how you might be an answer to these prayers.

Thank you for your prayers and for your care for our family. We are glad to serve the Lord alongside you.

As eager as we are to begin a new season of life in Moldova, we did very much enjoy the opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving with our family last week. We are thankful to God for each of you who read these updates, pray for us, and sacrifice financially as we work towards raising our support.

Over the past month, Brandi ran a 5K race in which she placed 9th (out of more than 50 runners) in her age group, and Judah has started practice for the elementary basketball team at Grace Academy. Asher also finished up a football season playing for a local rec team. We are grateful for the health God has given our family to participate in these physical activities and to use them as a way to interact with others.

Our youth ministry conducted a weekend retreat, in which 34 people participated. Four other youth leaders and I shared the teaching responsibilities that weekend, and we discussed the themes of God’s holiness, man’s depravity, how the gospel reconciles the two, and the progress of sanctification that continues until we are with the Lord. In addition, I have continued to teach a high school Sunday school class on the local church, and to teach through the book of Isaiah to our students on Wednesday nights.

I have built a friendship with a man who works at a local restaurant where I eat lunch about once a week. He is a nominal Catholic, but a few days ago I gave him a copy of John’s gospel which he promised to read, and I invited him to church, and he said he will attend soon. He typically wears a crucifix, and I asked him if he really believed that Jesus died a cross. He said he wasn’t sure. I told him that some, including me, believe that Jesus not only died on a cross but that he came back to life. He seemed surprised at that. Pray for God to save him and use him to reach others also.

Though we have not seen a dramatic increase in support this month, I have had a few encouraging interactions with some local pastors about the possibility of presenting at their churches in coming months. Pray that we will be able to finalize meetings at these and other places, and that through the meetings we will see churches and individuals partner with us financially. Pray also that some who have made verbal commitments will follow through with giving.

I am also hoping to take some young adults to the Cross Conference in Louisville, KY in early January. Cross is a missions conference specifically designed for college students who are either pursuing full-time missions or who want to learn more about how their careers can be used to make much of God globally. Pray that we will be able to take this trip and that through it God will call some of these students to serve him full-time cross-culturally and that he will enable the rest to give so that the others can go.

That’s enough for now. Please continue to pray regularly for us, for those we will serve in Moldova, and for our home church, Grace Baptist. Please let us know how we can pray for you as well.

By David Prairie

October has been a very encouraging month for our pre-field journey. We saw an increase in support of about $420/month, which brings us up to about 35% of our goal. Our prayer for November would be to see that double. If we could get $840 in new commitments this month, that would put us at 45% by December 1. Please pray that we would begin to gain this kind of momentum with our financial partnerships.

In addition to these commitments, we contacted a variety of churches where we hope to be able to make presentations in the future. Please pray that these contacts will turn into meetings, which can turn into financial partners.

Our home church, Grace Baptist here in Chattanooga, conducted its annual missions conference in October. We shared our plans for Moldova with a class of seniors at Grace Academy and heard from one student who shared that he also wants to spend his life teaching the Bible. Praise the Lord for raising up more teachers of his Word! We also were able to give an update to our church. I shared from Isaiah 35 how the nations one day “shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God” (v. 2). That is our primary motivation for going.

I continue to lead our youth ministry at GBC by preaching weekly and overseeing multiple discipleship groups. I am also currently teaching a Sunday school elective on “Life in the Local Church.” In early November, I’ll help lead a retreat for our students where we will discuss the theme “Depraved Yet Delivered.” I’m excited to have several of our younger adult leaders help me teach the sessions at that event. Please pray for many students to participate and to benefit from our time away. One fellow youth leader and I have also taken up podcasting recently. Once a month we publish a topic related to youth ministry. If you’re interested in these discussions, simply search “David Prairie” in the podcast portion of iTunes or on Podbean.

Please also pray for the inevitable transition that will take place as I step out of youth ministry at some point in the future. Pray for me and for our students, as well as for our church as it seeks my replacement. Of course, pray also for whoever that will be. Pray for our church leadership, as we are working through other transitions in leadership as well.

Our three oldest children continue to do well in school, and our youngest enjoys staying home with Brandi during the day. Brandi is currently taking an OT survey class as part of our pre-field prep. She has already completed a Bible study methods class as well.

The Imago Dei church plant in Chisinau, Moldova is now about a month old. Please continue to pray for our national partners there who are overseeing that work, and for the people to whom they are ministering. Pray that we would be able to join them soon. We are hopeful to move next August, but we are dependent on the Lord’s provision through the generosity of his people for that to become a reality. Pray with us toward that end.

As always, if you are able to join us as monthly partners, please visit abwe.org/give and search for “Prairie” on that page. If we can meet with you to discuss more about this opportunity, please email dprairie@abwe.cc. Feel free to pass our information on to other individuals and churches who you think might be interested in learning more.