The LORD is active among many people groups in Kansas City as He sends out laborers and draws people to Himself from all tribes and tongues. Because of the LORD’s leading and investment of BR-KC, MBC, and NAMB, the People Teams ministry has been able to challenge the Greater Church in Kansas City to pray for and reach all nations in Kansas City. Over 3,000 Prayer Guides (plus unknown digital downloads) have been distributed into the hands of believers from many denominations. I want to humbly celebrate this with you.

Reaching all Nations here requires an army of disciple makers and prayer worriers beyond just the Southern Baptists. There are now at least one believer in Kansas City from Sudan, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Algeria, Kurdistan, Japan, India, Nepal, and nations too dangerous to mention. I can only think of one nationality mentioned in the prayer guide that does not now have a believer residing in KC. These brothers and sisters in Christ come from Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist backgrounds; some were saved in Kansas City and others were saved elsewhere and moved here. We pray that God will use them to reach their own people. We partner with these believers – sometimes overtly and sometimes just by staying out of their way – to network and see all nations reached.

To be clear, the LORD is doing all of this, and People Teams has a very small piece of the people groups ministry pie in KC. Although I (Andrew) sometimes desire in my flesh to impress people with cross-cultural God stories so that I can be honored as a great missionary, the truth is that I have little involvement with these miracles and I deserve no credit at all for what the LORD is doing. We all know that this is really the case for all ministry happening in our city: no individual or church or denomination can claim credit or glory for the good ministry that is happening. We cannot say in our hearts or in our attitude, “For the LORD and for Gideon” because it is just, “For the LORD.” And such is the way it should be so that He receives all the Glory. Having said that, the LORD does have a place for People Teams in the grind of weekly cross-cultural ministry. This semester, it is taking this form:

  • Monday night continues to be a time of soccer and discipleship with teens who come from culturally Christian backgrounds. We use this time to teach them to follow Jesus and equip them to reach other Swahili speakers from Muslim and animist backgrounds. Some of these guys are pictured bounding through the woods on a dune buggy at the prompting of Jim Brown of Noland Road Baptist Church during a Spring Break camping trip also attended by youth from Crossroads Baptist Church of Grain Valley. 
  • Tuesdays is Basketball and Bible study at Milestone Gym at 12th and Bales manned by volunteers from FBC Blue Springs. Thirty or forty teen boys from Muslim or inner city backgrounds come each week to play and hear a Bible story about life issues and the Gospel of Jesus. Many have questions about elements of the Gospel, and the volunteers have done a great job of reaching to connect with the teens and show the love of Christ.
  • A group from various churches gathers on Friday nights as a team to pray for and share the Gospel with Somalis. Pray for them and the dozens of contacts made through the outreach. Pray for team unity and vision to go about this ministry focus in the most Biblical and Holy Spirit led way possible.
  • Women gather in partnership with Refuge KC to pray for and minister to women from various nations. Pray for them to keep moving forward in their plans and for their desire to reach teenage girls with love and the Gospel of Jesus.

Prayer warriors desiring email updates for specific prayer requests can contact People Teams at [email protected] to get on the email list.

Thank you, BR-KC, for your continued support of this ministry. It is because of your faithful partnership that we have distributed over 3,000 printed All Nations Prayer Guides (and countless downloaded digital copies. We have people from a variety of denominations all over KC and beyond praying for and reaching all nations in KC.