Here is a ready-to-use, field-tested minute for mission promoting the Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study. Elder Carol E. Johnson, the designer and formatter of the Mission Yearbook, wrote and presented it at her home congregation, Bardstown Road Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. If you have a Minute for Mission or other promotional tool to share, please let us know. We would be happy to post it.

What in the World Are You Doing?

The Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study answers this question and many more. At PC(USA) headquarters, we have heard that when our fellow Presbyterians travel, they consider their Mission Yearbooks as much a necessity as their Bibles.

This little book was started by women of our Presbyterian church in 1892 when the Women’s Executive Committee for Home Mission prepared a simple calendar of prayer to help women’s societies pray for missionaries on designated days. Three years later, the first book appeared. It was called the Year Book of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church. Having been in continuous annual publication since 1892, this book has the longest history of any denominational mission and prayer book in the United States.

To quote from the 1896 edition,

This little yearbook has been prepared with the design of uniting those who love our Lord and are watching for His coming to all nations, in a great circle of prayer extending round the earth and reaching up to the Throne on High.

It is dedicated to the missionaries of the Presbyterian Church, as an evidence of the daily, prayerful remembrance of them by the home friends (and my own favorite part)

. . . a guarantee of interest unfailing—with the expectation that they, too, will join the circle and make the connection complete between the members of the family so widely separated.

In the 2008 Yearbook, there’s a story about a boy in Bangladesh named Monir. When he was eleven his mother died, and he ended up on the streets. He sleeps in a park at night and collects paper scraps in a large fertilizer sack to sell for two cents a pound. A PC(USA) partner church, the Church of Bangladesh, welcomes children like Monir with a smile, gives them a place to wash their hands and faces, hear a story, learn to read and write, receive medical care, and have something to eat. With your continued help, Monir’s dream of running his own tea stall may come true.

The ten members of First Presbyterian Church of Augusta, New York, who could no longer afford an ordained minister, invited a lay pastor to serve the church. Before accepting the invitation, the pastor and his wife walked around the sanctuary and prayed for a choir, for a Sunday school with children, and for pews filled with people.

Before long their prayers were answered. Young families began to come. Their children brought their friends to vacation Bible school. Those children brought their parents to church. Soon, where there had been no children, there were twenty. Where there had been no choir, people began to gather to sing. On Christmas Eve, chairs had to be set up in the lobby because every seat in the sanctuary was filled.

There are 365 such stories in every Mission Yearbook. I invite you to join me in daily meditation and prayer for all mission workers and partners around the world. Learn what is carried out every day in our name throughout the world by our church and its ecumenical partners.

Since 2003 the Mission Yearbook has had a younger sibling! How many of you are familiar with the Children’s Mission Yearbook? The CMYB, in a weekly format, has been enthusiastically received by the denomination. It welcomes young Presbyterians into the world of mission through engaging stories, lessons, prayers, and crafts.

See me after the service. I would be happy to coordinate orders for the Mission Yearbook and the Children’s Mission Yearbook for the church. The more we order, the lower the price will be on each copy. If you would rather order as an individual, the number to call is (800) 524-2612.

So read for yourself our story, a story of our Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that will inspire you and call you to action. Please join me in making the connection complete and order a copy of the Mission Yearbook and the Children’s Mission Yearbook today.

Let us pray.

Dear God, we thank for always being at work in the world on behalf of those you created. Thank you for stories of your faithfulness that keep us connected as your people. Keep us faithful in prayer and diligent in service for all those whom you love. In the name of Jesus. Amen.