See His kingdom come

Please pray for the church amongst the Alagwa. Pray that they will know and rejoice in the true gospel whilst learning to reject prosperity teaching. Please also pray that they would be people after God’s heart, committing their energies to see his kingdom come in their communities.

Prosperity

Please pray for the local church as we work through a series of teaching on the true gospel and how to understand and recognise the dangers in prosperity teaching. Almost everyone has been exposed to the prosperity gospel through the radio, television and teaching from other churches. May the believers find new joy in the spiritual blessings we have in Christ and be able to lay aside wrong thinking. Please pray too as midweek groups have been relaunched that the believers will grow in their relationship with God and with their Christian brothers and sisters. May they also find courage and encouragement together to reach out to friends and neighbours with the good news of God’s love and salvation through Jesus.

Armor of God

Please pray for two believing women in different villages who we are teaching to recognise the devil’s schemes and resist him (1 Peter 5 v 8-9). Praise God for their engagement in this teaching! Please pray for perseverance in putting on the armor of God, that daily they will set time aside to meet with God in prayer and His Word.

Become a core group

Praise God for three women who have been discipled for some time in one neighbourhood and are now more and more looking to study God’s word and pray together. Please pray that they would become the core from which a group of believers and seekers could develop one day soon! Pray for the courage and conviction for each of them to be baptised this year.

needing inner healing

Please pray for one believer, baptised some years ago, who is continuing to struggle with the damage done to her in the past, demonic oppression and the challenges of living as a single mother who was rejected by her husband many years ago, and the only believer in her community. Please pray for increased inner healing and increased boldness to resist the devil and his lies. May this lady grasp more and more profoundly God’s huge mercy to her and so present herself fully as a living sacrifice (Romans 12 v 1).

Healing

Praise God for a secret believer in one village who prayed on her own for her own healing, after having sustained an injury which continued to cause significant and debilitating pain at times. God graciously and instantly healed her some weeks ago and she has not had any pain since. Please pray that she would continue to see more clearly the God who loves her and cling to him. May she be transformed from one degree of glory to another.

Know nothing except Jesus

We are becoming more aware of the effects of prosperity teaching, from the obvious to the subtle. We see this in church members and also seekers and believers in the community. This can come through the radio, phones, or sadly through church sermons. Please pray for the true gospel to be fully embraced and for believers to resolve “to know nothing… except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” I Corinthians 2,2

Mid-week groups

Please pray for the team and church leadership as we launch new mid-week groups in the church with a whole church seminar on 9th April. We have a vision to see these groups intentionally encourage:
* more personal growth in church members’ relationship with Jesus
* more accountability with one another
* and more reaching out to their neighbours and communities.
May your Kingdom come, may your will be done, Father, amongst the Alagwa!

Spouses and Translators

Pray for the spouses of secret believers that they too might surrender their lives to Jesus. Pray for couples and families coming to Jesus together.
Pray for the translators: one particularly who was antagonistic towards Christians, but now his heart has been softening for quite a few months now. May the Holy Spirit draw him to fully surrender his life to God.

Secret believers

Pray for a neighbourhood where some of the team live. There are a few hidden disciples and many more asking questions, along with a strong attraction amongst many to listen to God’s word. Please pray for a community of believers to start meeting regularly this year. It’s a big prayer but nothing is impossible for God! May the fear of consequences be overwhelmed by knowing the love of God in their lives. Please pray Ephesians 1 v 18-20 for the secret believers and those who are drawn but too scared to commit themselves to Jesus.

Follow together

Please pray for a couple who have had a consistent gospel witness for many years. Praise God the husband is now opening his heart more to Jesus and thinking about the possibility of following him. Pray that this couple would make a decision to follow Jesus together.

Worship in spirit and truth

“Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: ‘People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship – and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.” Acts 17 v 22-3 May the Alagwa know Jesus, the fulfillment of all their spiritual hunger and hopes. Bring an awakening amongst them as a people Oh Lord! May they know they were made to worship God in spirit and truth!

Local church

Pray for the local church, that God would envision them for the coming year, bringing unity and a passion for their communities.

Translators

Pray for the Bible translators who are not yet believers- as they are learning more and more about Jesus, may they give their whole lives to him.

Push through

Please pray for one lady who was initially and for a long time full of excitement and joy to study God’s word and was thinking about baptism. She now seems to have “hit a wall”, as we call it. Please stand with her and pray she will persevere. Whether she is now counting the cost, or is facing some other barrier, may she push through and surrender her whole life to Jesus. Pray for other seekers, that they would push through the barriers before them.

Out of darkness

“…because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.’”
May many Alagwa will be guided onto the path of true peace, wholeness in God. Praising God for his tender mercy, we ask that Jesus, our rising sun, would lead Alagwa out of darkness and the shadow of death.

know their Saviour

Please pray for Alagwa believers this Christmas. May they know their Saviour more deeply and share the good news of salvation with many others.

Special showing of JF

In one village, there will be an afternoon showing of the Jesus Film especially for women this Wednesday. Please pray that God will prepare hearts to receive him.

Support

Please pray for one Alagwa believer as she seeks to support a handful of believers and seekers in a rural area about 50 km from where she lives. Please pray for God’s guidance and for his kingdom to be built. Pray for all those involved: for our team as we seek to support her, for her local church in town to catch the vision, for the Alagwa and Rangi believers and seekers in that location to be built up in Christ, and for the two churches nearest to that location to be a part of the vision.

Pull down strongholds

“One who is wise can go up against the city of the mighty and pull down the stronghold in which they trust.” Proverbs 21 v 22.

Please pray for wisdom in pulling down the spiritual strongholds in which the Alagwa have mistakenly put their trust. May these strongholds, which have gripped many Alagwa hearts and held them captive for so long, be pulled down! May many Alagwa find life and freedom in the saving grace of Jesus.

Stand firm

Please pray for one seeker who is under pressure to go back to Islamic classes with the ladies in her community. They have threatened to turn their back on her and exclude her if she doesn’t attend the mosque with them. Last time she gave in to this, she struggled for months with demonic attack as a direct result. Please stand with her, that she might also find the strength in Jesus to stand firm this time.

Never let go

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.” 2 Corinthians 3, 17
Please pray for an Alagwa believer who is step by step being released from many hurts in the past which left deep scars and ways for Satan to continue to oppress her. Praise God for the freedom she already has and for the way she is more secure now in her identity in Jesus. Pray that she would know the gospel in increasingly deeper ways and that she will cling to Jesus when pain, lies and fear threaten to overwhelm her. May she know that God, who called her, will never let her go.

Mini survey

Please pray for a mini survey trip we are taking this week. An Alagwa seeker has asked us a number of times to come and build a church in his village because he-and some other believers/church goers there- walk a long way to attend services on Sundays. (He is thinking about a physical building; we are focusing on a body of believers being established there.) We are hoping to go with an Alagwa Christian who has just finished a bible college course and has a vision to church plant. May God give us wisdom and good connections with both the Alagwa seeker and the believers where he is. May that seeker surrender his whole life to Jesus and lead the rest of his extended family to Jesus too.

Grappling

Pray for the women who are grappling with what it might mean to be public about their faith. Pray that they would receive boldness and wisdom from the Holy Spirit. Please pray for their husbands to come to Jesus.

Full armor

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6 v 12
Pray against the principalities and powers still holding many Alagwa hearts captive. Pray for breakthroughs. May the believers put on the full armor of God and take their stand!

Be the body

Pray for the church amongst the Alagwa. May they grow in love and BE the body of Christ in their communities. May they be known as Jesus’ disciples because of their love for one another.

I will feed my sheep

“I myself will feed my sheep and I myself will make them lie down, declares the sovereign LORD. I will seek the lost and bring back the strays; I will bandage the injured and strengthen the sick ” Ez 34:15-16.

Pray for the Alagwa, that they would recognise the Good Shepherd. May broken hearts and lives be strengthened and healed.

Deep love

“Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.” Col. 3:14. Pray for deep love and honesty to be the hallmark of all the believers who gather as church here.

Warmly received

Praise God that the Jesus Film in Alagwaisa has so far been warmly received. Praise God for the way it has given courage to some secret believers to want to share more boldly. May they follow through and share with others. Pray for wisdom as further showings are planned and more than anything, pray that the Holy Spirit would use this tool to reveal the truth of God’s love in Jesus to many people.

Soften his heart

Pray for the translation work as we near the end of John and move towards the book of Acts. Praise God for one of the translators who is continuing to seek Jesus and is keen to share the good news with his friends. Pray for another translator who has recently softened a lot towards Jesus. “Please God, continue to soften his heart that he would follow you with his whole life!”

New pastor

Praise God for our new AICT pastor who is spending time learning language and culture here. Pray that God will continue to strengthen and envision him as he serves here.

True repentance

This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel says: “ In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.”
May the Holy Spirit bring deep conviction to the Alagwa of lostness and sin and bring them to true repentance and therefore rest.

New Pastor

Please pray for the new pastor and his family coming to work amongst the Alagwa who will move here in a few weeks’ time. Pray that God will give him vision and perseverance as he leads the church.

Jesus is God

Please pray for an Alagwa lady who is a secret believer. She and her sister in law and another guy were chatting in our front room. The guy had been talking to us about how he didn’t believe Jesus is God. He asked her if she thought Jesus is God and she said, “Yes Jesus is God”! This is the first open confession of this kind I have heard from any one in the village. Please pray for her that this confession will give her strength and that she would know Jesus’ presence with her.

Jesus Film tonight

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of salvation of everyone who believes…”
Please pray for the second showing of the Jesus Film in Alagwaisa this evening. May the Holy Spirit touch many hearts and many conversations start in the community. May many Alagwa turn to Jesus together!

Set them free!

Please continue to pray for breakthrough amongst a few Alagwa believers who need healing from hurt in their past. May God continue to heal them and set them free.

Jesus Film

Prayers appreciated as we start the voice recordings for the Jesus Film in Alagwaisa next Monday morning. We will spend a week in town with the guys voicing Jesus and the Narrator. The second week we will record the rest of the voices in our location.

Translators

Pray for the translators as they continue to work on the gospel of John. Pray that the Muslim translators would understand who Jesus truly is as they grapple with the work of translation and that the Christian translators also would grow in the depth of their understanding of and love for Jesus.

Oh Church, arise!

“And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.” Eph 2 v22
Please pray for the church as it continues to struggle. Pray especially for restored relationships between some members and for a vision to be the body of Christ together in their community for the glory of God.
Pray for one family who have understood the good news of Jesus for some time but are not yet ready to follow him. Their children are struggling with multiple demonic attacks – please pray that they will turn to Jesus for help, the only one who has the power to set them free.

Repent and surrender

“ For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” Eph 6 ,12
There seem to be spiritual battles raging in many Alagwa communities. Pray for those who are being deceived by the pull of the witchdoctor and “medicine” of the religious leaders. May their eyes be opened to see that they are just enslaving themselves, not getting true healing. Pray for one disciple particularly who has been using “medicine” from the religious leader. May she repent and surrender to Jesus even more fully than before.