Teaching Songbirds to Sing
Bonn, our long-term prayer room coordinator and missionary in Eurasia, loves cats, elegant wildflowers, and heartfelt poetry. She enjoys beauty in all its forms. But most of all, she loves and enjoys Jesus. It is her love for Him that drew her to MAPS Global six years ago, and that same love has kept her through the many trials of ministry in a Muslim nation. Today, she can look back on her time as a MAPS Global student and point to the moment the Lord first called her to the nation.
“During my placement, which was in Eurasia, I had a vision in which the Father spoke to me, ‘Eurasia has a song only they can sing, and I want you to teach them,’” said Bonn. “I knew from that moment I was called to the people of this land, and have been able to ‘teach them’ their part of the song by coordinating the prayer room and empowering locals to pray and sing their hearts’ song.”
Like an explorer in search of hidden treasure, Bonn set out to find the treasure of hearts in Eurasia. Her desire was not only for salvations, but for the treasure of indigenous worship to be presented before the Lord as a fragrant offering.
As Bonn has ministered in the nation, she has seen a beautiful change start to happen. Like flowers blooming when touched by the light, hearts are turning to the Lord. In a land where worship arises to a false god five times a day, the heart song of the people to the one true God is being lifted up above every other song.
“We went from mostly all [non-indigenous] led worship and teaching to our main worship leader being an [indigenous believer] and many of our teachers being [indigenous] as well. There were little to no spontaneous choruses in the local language, but now we hear them every week. It’s incredible,” said Bonn. “The Lord is moving all across Eurasia. It’s incredible to be a part of it. There has been an unheard of, unprecedented amount of salvations.”
Before the 50 Hours of prayer and worship took place in April of this year, Bonn and the Eurasia Missions Base Director felt they should invite all of the prayer room leaders they knew of within the nation to come together with the goal of connection, encouragement and unity. The invitation was a huge success. Many prayer room leaders came and greatly encouraged one another.
“This is something we hope to continue in the coming years, a convergence of the prayer rooms across Eurasia,” said Bonn. “Some of the indigenous prayer room leaders have [also] begun a prayer chain amongst their community with the hopes of it stretching across the nation...Outside of when we did a similar prayer chain during the COVID Pandemic, something like this started by local believers has not been seen since the Sleepless Ones (a monastery of monks) prayed 24/7 for nearly 1000 years.”
Going forward, Bonn continues to advocate for the heart song of Eurasia’s indigenous believers to be lifted up before the Lord.
“He is looking for the Joshua’s, who will not leave the tent, and the Mary’s, who will waste it all at the feet of Jesus. But not only is He seeking these ones, I believe His heart is to bring them into communities so that they may grow in maturity and be discipled unto being the future leaders of the church in Eurasia. There’s been an idea in the minds of locals that it is only the job of the pastors or foreign workers to do the work of ministry. But Jesus is breaking this mindset and more locals are seeking to serve in the house of God,” said Bonn. “The Lord is maturing His indigenous bride to do the work. His desire is for a mature Bride to work alongside Him in Eurasia. By building the prayer room, running the training program, and discipling locals, we get to be a part of that.”
Presently, our missionary continues to love cats, wildflowers and poetry, but most of all, she loves Jesus and she will continue to be found at His feet in worship as she advocates for Eurasia to lift up its’ heart song to the Lord.