When is the last time you stayed a few weeks in your parents’ home? What about the last time you were on the road away from home for two months? Have you ever tried to prepare your home and your work for an extended absence – I’m talking months, not weeks – and then tried to step right back in and pick up not only where you left off but farther down the road? 

Every worker who’s ever taken a furlough has done this – and more! This month, as many worker families are preparing to take a summer furlough, we’re calling you to pray into this unique-to-the-field challenge and opportunity. 

Furlough (or stateside assignment, as many refer to it these days) is an extended stepping-away from the work in the field to reconnect with family, friends, and supporters. While many misconstrue it as a break, it often winds up as some of the most intense, most draining weeks of a worker’s term. While some do not, many workers log thousands of miles of stateside travel visiting family and individual supporters and churches (not to mention the miles needed to get stateside). 

This month, please pray for soon-to-be-furloughing workers that: 

• Preparations for their furlough would come together more easily than anticipated and that they can adequately say their goodbyes; 

• Travels to their sending country and around it would go smoothly; 

• Families would be able to reconnect deeply with their loved ones; 

• Workers would have the words to paint 30-second, 5-minute, and whole-evening pictures (depending on time and attention span) for their senders of what God is doing in their work; 

• The work on the field would expand more rapidly in the workers’ absence and that the Kingdom would come in those places in part because the workers step aside periodically; 

• Workers would miraculously return home to their fields of service more rested than they left. 

Thank you for praying, friend. 

Peace. 

Andy 

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