Pray for an upcoming veterinary outreach clinic planned this month with one or our AIM missionaries in South Sudan who is a vet from California. Imagine the keen interest the Laarim cattle keepers will have in this! Pray for open hearts to the Gospel in addition to animal husbandry.

Angelo, our South Sudanese team member in Kimatong, has been participating with the team in using DBS to reach the Laarim. He was excited and refreshed by the DBS training here in Torit and went back to Kimatong with renewed enthusiasm to keep reaching out to more homes and communities, sharing the Word of God in simple Bible studies, so that more Laarim will come to faith. Pray for him! Pray that he will “be strong and not give up, for [his] work will be rewarded” (2 Chronicles 15:7).

Angelo, an educated Laarim youth who has assisted much in outreach among his own people, is regularly helping in the local clinic. He has a vision to study to become a clinical officer, and thus support himself in doing ministry. Pray for God’s direction in his life and blessing on his ministry.

After showing the JESUS video in an outlying village, the people gave an invitation to begin a Discovery Bible Study on their compound. Praise God for this opportunity, and pray for the Light to illuminate the multigenerational darkness enshrouding this village.

One 8 year old girl, Nawuyo, who accepted the Lord as her Savior and was baptized 6 months ago, has been sharing her new joy in Jesus, and the Bible stories which she is receiving weekly. Through her witness others in the village have also chosen to follow Jesus. Last week another 11 people from her village were baptized. Pray for continued multiplication of believers in this community which is very open to the gospel.

One of the Laarim believers, Logwe, has been blind since an infection attacked his eyes when he was a child. Recently a Christian doctor offered him hope that perhaps his vision could be restored to give him “navigational vision” by laser surgery. However, upon arrival the ophthalmologist’s further studies revealed that there was nothing available to restore sight. Although disappointed, Logwe still steadfastly clings to his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has already witnessed to many in his village, composed multiple songs in the local traditional style, organized believers to meet regularly, and recently assisted in baptizing a group of new believers. Pray that his limitation of physical blindness will actually be redeemed by Jesus to enhance his spiritual vision and bring glory to God.

Praise the Lord for Jacob’s recent outreach in a village called Kerenge, where six children who professed faith in Jesus asked to be baptized. Pray for many others in all the villages in Kimatong region where the gospel has been proclaimed to “repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds” (Acts 26:20).

We praise God for all that He is doing among the Laarim! Pray for the 20 Discovery Bible Studies that are meeting in different Laarim villages throughout Kimatong. Pray for Angelo and Loboy who will continue to lead some of these weekly meetings, as well as for the chiefs who have stepped up to lead the gatherings meeting in their compounds. Pray these churches will be truly indigenous, led by the Laarim, and reaching far beyond where we could ever go as missionaries.

Praise God for the 30 new believers who have followed the Lord’s instructions to be baptized as an outward symbol of their inner commitment to Jesus this year here in Laarim. Pray for them to grow in their faith daily, and to recognize the devil’s snares which so easily can entangle them. Amen.

Most of the missionaries living among this unreached people group will be departing this month. Pray for the Discipleship Bible Study leaders as they facilitate the gatherings of believers and pre-believers in the communities of Kerenge, Kuduli, Yei, Kali, and Chawa. Thank God that He has given His Spirit to teach, remind, and counsel them. Ask God to give them wisdom beyond their experience, persistence in face of difficulties, and grace and truth for the task ahead of them.

Prayer for the chiefs of the Laarim people: Lord, you have placed these men in leadership over their people. You have allowed them to hear the gospel in their own language and to experience the presence of believers among them. You have given them authority and skills, and now we pray that you make them wise and discerning in their use of their knowledge and position. May they not be selfish and greedy, but instead be just and fair, encouraging the people to obey God and His instructions for living well in the land that God has given to them. Amen.

Pray for a Laarim man who recently heard the Word of God on the solar “treasure” and then had a dream of Jesus speaking to him about finding water. May You, Lord, continue to reveal yourself to him. May those who know You assist him in his search, and support him in his quest for a new source of water/life!

Maria has answered the call from another family compound to come and tell the stories she has been learning. When she arrived on Friday, the women, youth and children were assembled and eagerly sang some songs. When it was time for the story, Maria told the creation story by memory. The women had comments of the story even as it was being told. They demanded a return ‘every week to tell us another story’.
We believe Maria has the potential to be a strong female leader in this faith community. Pray for her protection from the Evil One and for the Lord’s hand to be upon her.

Prayer of confession for the Laarim: Forgive us, Lord, for the sins of our society—the cattle idolatry which causes us to raid and kill our neighbors, the hunger for things which causes us to fight and steal from one another, and the thirst for alcohol that distorts our thinking and actions. Father, we have sinned against You, and each other. Forgive us, and heal us, and cleanse our land. Amen.

“My compound doesn’t have a treasure.” “I want to hear the word of God”. These are frequent requests since we’ve begun distributing our new batch of Treasures. Praise God for the 150 solar players speaking truth, and pray for their continued functioning and testimony to many Laarim, along with prayer for the wise distribution to compounds, as long as the supply lasts.
Pray especially for the women, who are now recipients of these treasures, to share and to understand more of the gospel and its implications! Last week I asked the young ladies in the Tuesday evening group, “Who will you tell this story to?” One said that her brother’s wife has asked that she tell the story to her because her husband will not allow her to come to the gathering anymore, and another said that a lady from another compound had asked her to come and share the story after she got it this week. So there is real interest!

Praise for Longele and Lokolong and other believers who are gaining confidence in retelling the Bible stories! Pray that they will not only share the gospel message by stories, but by their testimonies and the witness of their lives, which everyone is watching!

Praise for Maria’s baptism and leadership in the community. Pray as we disciple her to disciple the other young women who also are ready for baptism! Pray for a real breakthrough among the female Laarim population—these youth and also the adult women and the “abuba” (grandmas)!

We praise the Lord for the beginnings of an indigenous church among the Laarim! Last month was the first ever Laarim- led worship service in the village of Yei. It was a service complete with Laarim gospel songs accompanied by a drum, and the telling of a Bible story by a Laarim youth. This is one of numerous little churches sprouting up in different villages throughout Kimatong. Pray for these churches to grow and spread throughout this people group.

Praise God with us for seekers inquiring about unclear translations. It opens doors for great conversations. In the passage on prayer, the word for “knock” was used. Although a proper word, real entrance doors in Laarim are few and far between. So when a listener heard the phrase “knock and it shall be opened”, he immediately thought of the more frequent use of “knock” as “beating (people)”. He recognized this idea did not fit with the other parts of the story!

The elders of one community stated that they now know the stories of the Bible. A missionary wanting to help them understand it is not enough to just know the stories, gently asked why the big tree under which we were meeting was not cut down and used for firewood. The community group said it was a good tree and provided for them shade and fruit. Other trees which are not helpful or bearing fruit are cut for firewood, he was told. It was a natural lead in to share that God sees us as trees. He wants trees that are bearing fruit—the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, etc. Other trees will be cut down and thrown in the fire!

Marino, the now retired police chief, has been the welcoming host for a weekly Discipleship Bible Study in his compound; the group is predominately young males between the ages of 6 and 12 years. Recently he asked if he could come for regular Bible study with one of our team members, which he has faithfully been doing. Now he is inquiring about baptism, so a special teaching time has been arranged for him and some of the youth from this compound group. Pray for the Holy Spirit to baptize them also with His presence and power, so that the Spirit can teach them all that they need to know in applying the gospel to their lives in this culture, and remind them of what they have heard. Marino was the outspoken leader who said to the AIM surveying team ten years ago, “Come and teach us the Word of God. That is exactly what our young people need!”

Two female youth recently were baptized and are learning the ways of God. Culture here dictates which clans can marry. In their new awareness, they have started to pray for Christian male youth of eligible clans to choose to follow Jesus also, as many of those making decisions thus far have been from their same clan group. Pray with them. Ask for the strength of these believing youth to stand up against the common immoral sexual practices of this people group, and prepare for a Christian marriage.

Angelo walks weekly to his family village of Karamorok for a Discovery Bible Study. He comes back with encouraging reports of how eager the people are to receive him and the Word of God. Yesterday, he returned with 8 boys who have declared they want to follow Jesus. I quizzed them for their testimony. Once their shyness lightened a bit they gave some encouraging answers. One said, “Before I knew Jesus, I had a mean heart. I did not care about others’ misfortunes. Now my heart is soft toward them.” We did the discipleship lesson on baptism and all 8 of them said they are ready!

Recently Naremo, a young widow who had bilateral cataracts, has had her sight restored physically through surgery. She is listening to the Word of God on a digital solar device, and she is attending a local Bible study in a village compound. Pray that she will believe the truth of the Word and see the big picture of God’s plan for her and her family—transformation through faith in Jesus Christ.

Pray for those contacted through the medical ministry. Pray that their physical needs will be the gate to their spiritual needs. Little five year old Lokine and his family and his ward mates are listening to the Treasure recordings of Bible stories and songs much of the time, along with observing the lives of believers.

Pray for the new believers who are youth. Three young men were baptized this past week, and ten more youth will be studying the discipleship lesson on baptism this week. One who was recently baptized with his family members is an unschooled youth with definite spiritual insight. Pray for the believers’ boldness and courage to share their testimony and all that they are learning with others.

Nakai and Napir, two Laarim girls, were baptized this morning. Praise God for building His church among the Laarim! Pray for these two girls to grow strong in the Lord and share with others the good things God has done.

On team day, we dedicated 80 Treasures, loaded and ready to give away. This is a huge milestone that required many hours of Bible story crafting, translation and recording, editing, and choosing/adding memory verses for each one. In addition, almost 200 chapters of scripture were recorded by various Laarim readers. Also 21 original Laarim songs were carefully recorded and included. Despite its small size the Treasure has a speaker that is easy for a group of 20 people to hear well. We are pleased. Now we are planning and praying for the right people to give them to. We consider these to be 80 little digital missionaries to take the Word of God to the Laarim in ways we cannot. Please pray for many Laarim to hear the Word and respond in faith.

Yesterday Logue came by again. He is the blind man who became a believer about one year ago. We had asked him to come to record the new worship songs he has created. With him was Lokio a teenager who leads him around and Thomas another new believer. I took the opportunity to do a discipleship lesson with them. Using the story of the Baptism of Jesus we discussed baptism. I learned that Lokio had become a believer under Logue’s influence. I asked Logue how many others he had led to faith. He thought a bit before replying “Eighteen people.” He went on to say that he gathers together children and others in his village and gives his testimony, sings songs and shares in fellowship with them. He stated thanksgiving for his blindness as, “it keeps me from cattle raiding which has killed so many of my age mates.” Pray for Logue and his ministry.

Praise God for 8 family members who were baptised! They each shared a powerful testimony of leaving the darkness and walking in the light. Pray for them to continue to grow strong in the Lord and share their faith with others.

Please keep praying for the new believers among the Laarim. There continues to be new professions of faith, baptisms, and ongoing bible study and discipleship. Pray that their “love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so they may be able to discern what is best, and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

Praise God for the group of boys/young men and group of girls/young women who meet regularly to hear a Bible story, learn a symbol to represent the story, and memorize a verse. This week they learned about the sprit world and memorized John 10;10- The thief comes to steal the sheep and kill them. Praise God for the salvation of Bakita this week! Pray each one would grow in understanding and those who are saved would walk in a manner pleasing to the Lord.

Praise God for Napir’s baptism last Sunday! Pray that in her early steps of faith she would be protected from the enemy’s attack and we would continue to be able to teach and encourage her. Pray that this would be a great witness of personal faith and acceptance of Jesus to those around her.

On Friday morning, our DBS started with the usual small group from Paulo and Mary’s compound. However minutes later another mother came with 4 of her children and then a group of 4 women joined us. It turns out Mary has been taking our challenge and sharing the Bible Stories with them. These ladies from two nearby compounds wanted to come and see for themselves if what Mary is saying is true. Pray that these families would welcome a DBS in their compounds.

Rejoice that the children and youth and women are all singing the Laarim Bible songs, which have been created for and by them. This has been a powerful tool in these communities. Even those who have never attended a story session or gathering, have learned the songs and sing along with the children. A local believer is working on more songs, one for each of the 25 key stories in our story set for this people group.

Pray for all the listeners who heard the message to repent this weekend. They were told, ‘If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins and will heal their land.’ You have a choice today to choose the blessing of obedience to God or the curse of obedience to Satan.” Pray they will be doers of the Word and not hearers only.

This week we will show the Jesus film at the cattle camp. Most of the population is there now. Pray for the Lord to open blind eyes to the truth of the gospel.

K keenly wanted the Jesus film brought to his home, which was done last week. Early this week K came to tell us he wants to follow Jesus. As we talked and prayed together, he reported a changed heart, away from quarreling and drinking alcohol (a common past-time) towards wanting to have a clear mind to hear and follow God’s word. He has asked that we bring God’s word to his compound for him and his family (one wife and multiple children). Praise God for a new life and light among the Laarim!

This week the portion of the Word shared in the discovery Bible studies, (DBS), was the story of Job, and what was happening behind the scenes.

Here are a few responses from the participants:
“Sometimes we speak out in anger and say things we shouldn’t say…then we should apologize like Job did.”
“When we are disciplining our children, they may get angry with us and even hit back at us, but we are disciplining them for their own good to train them.”
“When bad things happen, we should not accuse God for them. Rather we should do good and trust God.”

Please be praying that the DBS continue to be fruitful and those present would have clear understanding and changed hearts where needed.

Mary, now a six month-old new believer, meets for prayers with some ladies whom she has led to the Lord. The DBS story this week was Jesus raising Jarius’s daughter. When the group was asked what they learned from the story, they spoke of the life-bringing power of Jesus in a hopeless situation. Laguwe shared that her 3 year old had gotten very sick, and “since you were not here, I decided not to go to the witchdoctor, but to do what I had seen and heard you do. I prayed like you do to Jesus to heal…and HE DID IT, even for me!” Praise God for maturing faith in new believers!