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October 2005
Dear Family and Friends of Allen and Rachel Hood,
I am writing to recommend Allen and Rachel to you and to describe a ministry that they helped start over six years ago and have been part of in a full-time way the past 5 years. It is a missionary organization based in Kansas City, Missouri, that we refer to as the ”Missions Base.“ In the ”heart“ of the Missions Base is a non-stop prayer ministry that has continued 24 hours a day, for over 4 years called the International House of Prayer. It is touching thousands of young adults around the world as well as reaching out to the poor and needy to communicate the healing power and love of Jesus.
Allen and Rachel are amazing people as you already know. They obviously have unusual leadership abilities. Allen is Associate Director of the entire Missions Base as well as the Director of Forerunner School of Ministry, a full time bible school. In the school he is training hundreds of leaders from all over the world and is equipping short and long term missionaries. Allen provides excellent leadership abilities for the operation of the Mission Base, but also serves the churches of Kansas City by leading intercessory meetings for revival in the USA and the nations. He is a servant with unusual faithfulness and character whom God has seasoned and prepared through many years for such a time as this.
We currently have a full time staff of over 400 people who each raise their financial support as missionaries. We view ourselves as intercessory missionaries who labor for the Great Harvest through a commitment to continual prayer and fasting. One of the top hindrances for young people to enter the mission field is school debt. The Forerunner School of Ministry is committed to train up the next generation of missionaries without this hindrance. Thus, we continually seek to keep tuition as low as possible and give tens of thousands of dollars away in scholarships each year as well as our leaders and instructors serve sacrificially because of their zeal to train missionaries that live lives of prayer, fasting, and evangelism.
As with everyone who is part of the International House of Prayer team, Allen and Rachel are committed to raising their own support. I recommend this couple as faithful servants of the Lord Jesus and of us, and I invite you to prayerfully consider how you can invest into the commission God has given us to further the Kingdom by supporting them.
Our staff is doing missionary work in the following 5 ways:
1. Prayer - by doing the hard work of prayer and fasting for the release of the Harvest locally and in the nations (Matt. 9:37-38). Also, by providing diligent prayer covering for missionaries currently on the missions field. Night and day prayer with fasting is a primary Scriptural requirement for the release of revival and the Great Commission.
2. Outreach ministry – to the poor, sick, and needy locally and abroad.
3. Training – we have extensive programs to train missionaries desiring to be sent to the nations.
4. Short-term mission trips – our team serve other missionary works across the nations.
5. Being sent - personally relocating to other nations as long-term missionaries.
We require that all our full-time staff missionaries commit themselves to at least 50 hours per week of dedicated service. This includes helping to lead prayer and worship meetings, training missionaries and leaders, evangelism, outreach to the poor, administration of the Missions Base, etc. Our missionaries maintain a rigorous prayer life with regular fasting as they serve the poor, sick, and needy in our outreaches.
Our Missions Base has been inspired by the work of two well known leaders in the worldwide missions’ movement, Loren Cunningham and Bill Bright. Over 40 years ago, Loren launched his vision to train thousands of young people to raise their own financial support as missionaries to go to the unreached peoples of the earth. He started a missionary organization called Youth With A Mission (YWAM). Today over 17,000 missionaries are on the missions field serving Jesus in over 150 nations with YWAM. Similarly, Bill Bright started Campus Crusade for Christ over 50 years ago. He had the same idea of calling young people to live simple lifestyles as they raised their support as missionaries. Today, 20,000 people are serving in Campus Crusade worldwide.
In December 1999, I resigned as the senior pastor of Metro Christian Fellowship's 3,000-member congregation to devote myself entirely to this ministry. For 17 years I pastored the church and enjoyed it greatly. However, I felt called to focus on training up missionaries who embraced prayer with fasting as the foundation of ministry as described in the New Testament. I have given up my salary and have raised my own financial support to provide inspiration and example for those that I am leading. I deeply believe in this calling and in the necessity to raise my support to pursue it. Allen and Rachel were on the pastoral staff with me and made the decision five years ago to lay down their regular salary and begin to assist me in leading the missionary thrust in the Western world. He has used all his personal savings because he has so believed in living a life of prayer with fasting and in training the next generation for this hour in human history. His dedication is remarkable.
It is both awkward and difficult for people to raise their own financial support. This tension, along with living a simple lifestyle, is part of the price one pays for being a missionary. History has shown the good fruit that has resulted from missionaries. Most denominations have supported missionaries who have embraced this lifestyle. This is not new.
As Director of the Missions Base and the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, I invite you to consider partnering with Allen and Rachel. One practical way to do this is through monthly financial support. They are embracing a sacrificial and noble lifestyle for the cause of Christ. They will need your spiritual, emotional, and financial support. This will not be an easy calling to fulfill.
For more information on our Missions Base you may visit our website at www.ihop.org.
Thank you for your prayerful consideration,
Mike Bickle
Director
International House of Prayer of Kansas City
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