The hands that hold SOMA: The Intercessors Network
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Romans 12:12
This is one of my favourite verses. In a 10-word sentence, we have a solid life rule that says, whatever is going on, bring it all back to Jesus. Hold on to hope with joy, let that hope keep you going through the hard times and through it all keep praying.
Here at SOMA UK, we have a team of people who in season and out of season keep praying for us and the work we do. These intercessors rejoice with us and they hold us in prayer when things are tough. If a team member is going through a tough time, if we have pressing fundraising needs, are facing spiritual battles or an urgent prayer request from a present mission trip, they are the first line of defense!
The power of this team of dedicated prayer warriors cannot be underestimated. Time and again those out on missions have seen God answer their prayer requests powerfully and precisely. The week I began in my role surprise provision popped up in the SOMA UK mailbox as God met our prayer for financial needs. Partnering with God in prayer has proven results.
It is this partnership with God that underpins everything we do - in fact, at SOMA we would go as far as to say that we could do none of what we do if it wasn’t prayed about first. Intercession is where we turn our face towards Jesus once again. In the midst of potential distraction as we pray we refocus on the “why” behind all that we do; we remember it’s for God’s glory.
During Advent, some of our supporters signed up to pray with us weekly, and we felt such encouragement from being able to share the joys and difficulties facing SOMA at present. It is great to feel that we are a SOMA family and do not carry the weight of our vision alone. Those that prayed brought perspective and shared pictures from God that we might not have had ourselves. Again, we saw miraculous provision coming out of these prayer times for our next missions in South Sudan.
These prayer sessions were opened up to everybody throughout December, but our Intercessors Network also meets once a month to pray with and for us, and we’d love to extend the invitation to you. Not everyone can make every Zoom prayer session, but they get our emails during missions and other key times, and we know we are being faithfully interceded for. If you would like to commit to the Intercessors Network too, please get in touch.
I am going to be on maternity leave from 2 February until November 2023 and will miss the intercessors immensely. I’d love to hear from you if you could help cover the team and missions in prayer while I am away. Perhaps you could even coordinate prayer for one of our upcoming missions?
As a staff team we know how much we need the intercessors in the SOMA family. I’ll close by quoting Melanie’s experience of being on the network: "It has been a privilege for me to be part of the intercessor team for SOMA, and to see so many answers to prayer. It has helped my faith grow over these years. It is wonderful to see God's hand in all that SOMA is doing."
I look forward to hearing from you.
Grace
