PrayerReach

About Me

Hi, I’m Randy Pierce, creator of PrayerReach and this site. I’ve served in various roles at Extreme Missionary Adventures (XMA) for over 24 years. 19 of those years as a team leader leading over 200 volunteer mission teams sharing the love of Christ in 34 countries around our world. Please continue reading to find out more about me and what PrayerReach is all about.
For several years now I’ve felt God calling me more and more to a ministry of spiritual formation (or sanctification as we Baptists have called it for generations). It became obvious pretty early on that our XMA mission trips were as much about what God does in our volunteers lives as it was what we do for those we go to serve. So, through XMA, I and all our teamleaders have been involved in spiritual formation all along. But this call from God is different from that general call to disciple others. It is more specific. It’s about helping individuals and small groups recover some of the ancient practices of the early church such as:
• Silence and stillness before the Lord
• Contemplative prayer practices
• Spiritual mentoring
In the words of author Robert Mulholland, Spiritual formation is the process of being formed in the image of Christ for the sake of others. That’s what these spiritual practices do–slowly, patiently form us in the image of Christ.
To be honest I fought this change of calling from God. I liked being an XMA team leader–the challenge of sharing Christ with the unreached, the adventure of going to the ends of the earth. But God continued to call, while I continued to resist. Then, in His mercy, He put a tree in my path which brought me to a sudden and complete stop. My mountain bike wreck was the beginning of the end of my team leading.
I led my last XMA trip six years ago. For the next few years God held me in the seclusion of my hermitage and woodworking shop as he continued teaching me the value of prayer and serving others from behind the scenes. As I moved deeper into this hidden role of prayer and quiet service God blessed XMA and our ministries and partners around the world.
Then, in February 2019 after two years of seclusion God brought me word of a prayer retreat in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. Just as He did with my first volunteer mission trip back in November 1997 God touched me with certainty that I was to go on this retreat. And, much like that first mission trip, I knew very little about where we were going and what we would do but I was certain that God wanted me to go.
In 1 Samuel 3 we read the story of God calling Samuel into His service. Although Samuel was already ministering to the Lord and living day and night in the temple, he needed Eli’s help hearing and acting on God’s voice to him. We, too, often need a guide or mentor to help us hear and respond to God’s voice. God used Tom Smith on that first mission trip over 25 years ago to help me hear and understand God’s call to missions and, coincidentally, he used another man named Tom on the Sonoran retreat to reveal my new ministry. In essence what Eli and the two Toms did is spiritual mentoring–helping others hear and respond to God.
Please bear with me as I try to explain where I hear God calling me. Going back to 1997 again, soon after I heard God’s call to missions, I overheard Tom Smith and IMB missionary Sam Jones talking about the Jesus Film and God once again spoke deeply into my heart. I had no idea what the Jesus Film was, but I knew without a doubt it would play a big role in my missions ministry and it has. Likewise, one day on the Sonoran Desert retreat the other Tom shared about the old Russian startzy or hermits.
The startzy trace their roots to the early church. A staretz (singular) is a committed Russian Christian who, upon hearing God’s call, sets off on pilgrimage searching for a deeper relationship with God. Over time, often 15-20 years, the staretz learns much about God and His ways as the staretz’ prayer life deepens. Then after years of travel in service to God and others the staretz hears the call to settle down and become a hermit. Hearing this call, the staretz seeks spiritual mentoring from an elder in preparation for his new role. He lives out his life in separation from the distractions of the world while offering himself in prayer and service to others. The staretz’s very presence is a spiritual blessing and a light to the community around them and to all whom God brings to them for spiritual mentoring.
Like the old Russian staretz I’ve invested over 20 years of my life as a pilgrim–traveling the world serving others and learning more about God and His ways. I’ve also spent several years in relative seclusion deepening my prayer life and relationship with God.
I believe God has confirmed this call on my life with all these “coincidences” (if you believe in that) and with two Scripture passages–

Lord, my heart is not proud;
my eyes are not haughty.
I do not get involved with things
too great or too difficult for me.
Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself
like a little weaned child with its mother;
I am like a little child.
-Psalm 131
Seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business,
and to work with your own hands…
-1 Thessalonians 4:11.

Like the old Russian staretz, my role now is to continue my life of seclusion from unnecessary distractions of the world while serving my co-workers at XMA, our partners around the world, and others as God brings them into my life. I’m to do this by dedicating myself to:
• unceasing prayer
• developing and freely sharing contemplative prayer resources
• offering spiritual companionship to whomever God brings to me.
As Henry Blackaby wrote in Experiencing God, we should look to see where God is already working and join Him there. I’m seeing an increasing interest in ancient Christian practices within evangelical Christianity and I want to a part of this movement of God.

I have been a member of Woodlawn Baptist Church in Rayville, LA since 1986. Woodlawn has ordained me as a deacon and then as a minister of the Gospel. I live in Rayville, LA with Jane, my wife of 49 years. We have 2 daughters, 4 grandsons, 1 granddaughter, and 1 great-grandson. I enjoy the outdoors, reading, and woodworking but most especially spending quiet time alone with my Lord.