Portland ESL Class—So far we have students from Eritrea, Morocco, Iran, Angola, Iraq, and Libya—just in one class! Our lives are richer through their friendships, but… may their’s be richer for eternity. Please pray for ongoing conversations regarding the Good News.
O Lord, grant ‘R’ faith
This afternoon, “R” came to my house with the Qur’an in hand ready to talk. We started with, “What does the Bible and the Qur’an say about the birth of Jesus?” Interestingly, the Qur’an talks about the birth of Jesus as being miraculous.
Then we discussed, “Why was Jesus’ birth miraculous and no one else’s?” We wanted to see if this means that Jesus is just a prophet or more than a prophet. Please continue to pray for “R”. He has agreed to come back to talk. At the very end I posed a question to “R” which was hard for him to answer. I simply asked him, “If you were to die, where would you go…Heaven or Hell?” His answer was, “I can only follow the teachings of Islam and the five pillars and try to live a good life.” I asked him if it was guaranteed that he would make it to Heaven and he said no.
I explained that I know with certainty that when I die I will go to Heaven. In fact, it is not based on my good works at all but on the blood of Jesus. Pray the Lord would remove the veil and grant him understanding.
Keep praying for peace
There were four more attacks in the north of Mozambique last month, with killings and burning of villages. Much of this doesn’t get any journalistic recognition, but the instability in the north continues. Keep praying for peace! Pray for believers to stand firm and share the reason for the hope they have.
Diaspora in Canada
PLEASE PRAY 10:00-2:00 Saturday, Oct 27th
1. THAT JUST THE RIGHT NUMBER OF BELIEVERS FROM ACROSS THE GTA WOULD JOIN US
2. FOR OUR SPEAKER, AC, AS HE EXPLAINS WHAT BIBLICAL CHRISTIANS BELIEVE ABOUT JESUS
3. PREPARED HEARTS AMONG THE MANY MUSLIMS COMING TO THEIR OWN MOSQUE IN MARKHAM
4. THAT DOZENS OF “GOSPEL FRIENDSHIPS” WILL BE MADE
5. THAT PRECIOUS SOULS WILL BE SAVED
Diaspora in Canada
THIS SATURDAY, Oct 27TH
OUR FIRST CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM FRIENDSHIP DAY
Please be in prayer for us to build bridges & share the Good News.
Only God can do this! We have a wide open door to share the Good News of Jesus in the grand sanctuary of one of Toronto’s largest mosques. But for miracles to happen we NEED your prayers…
Beautiful believes!
This past week I received a phone call from Moussa, national missionary with whom we partner. He excitedly shared with me how a woman whom we had previously named, “Beautiful”, showed up at his house and talked for hours about the gospel with him and his wife. This woman is the older sister of two other believers in that town and she has heard the gospel many times, but never truly responded to it. Moussa shared with us how Beautiful had come to truly understand and accept her need for Jesus and then went on to explain how she wanted Moussa to go and speak with her husband about the gospel when he returned from his trip. Moussa couldn’t believe her joy and enthusiasm for the gospel.
This very same day, a group of five Chadian Arab believers showed up in this same town, having fled from eastern Chad seeking a place of refuge. They were headed towards southern Chad when someone stopped them and told them they should go to this town and find Moussa. These five newer believers are now staying in the same town as Moussa and are hungry to be discipled and grow in their faith. Praise God for what is happening in this location!
Closing the mosque?!
In one of the communities where fellowship takes place, there are a few Muslims who are questioning why most of the people are claiming to be Christians and they have even been thinking about closing the mosque. Pray that the Christians show them love as they witness to their Muslim neighbors. Pray that those who are seeking for answers will see God revealing Himself to them, and they will believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior of the world.
A Pastor and His Wife
Pray for a Rangi pastor who came from a Muslim background. Last year he was married. He and his wife began to have problems, and she left him to return to her family. His Muslim father is mocking him for this failure. Now his health is deteriorating. Please pray for this man of God to settle his heart in God. Pray that God will help his wife remember her marriage vows and repent in obedience to God’s Word. Pray that this pastor will have courage, and perseverance as well as mercy and grace as he stays in ministry on his own. Will you also pray for his wife? He doesn’t know what is currently happening with her. He desperately needs God’s direction in this situation. Thank you for your prayers.
Needing Direction
A missionary has returned to her place of service, and is seeking the Lord’s direction and open doors for renewing ministry to her South Asian friends. Pray that she will be guided to those who need her–and the Savior–most.
Apps and the Word
Pray for blessing on the translation project. Pray for the Word to be spread via apps. Pray for wisdom for those working on the apps. There have been some difficulties launching them. Pray for the Word to be widely shared and read and believed!
Leaders
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!
First time Jesus film showing
Please be in prayer for the first showing of the Jesus film by the Kilwa Churches in 3 local villages in the Kilwa district. This is the first time this permission has been given by the District government. We are targeting 3 separate villages. Several Churches are taking part in this outreach together.
Two groups
One potential new extended family group and another separate location family group, who have studied before but stopped due to persecutions, are considering and reconsidering allowing the start/restart of regular Bible studies. Both families have seen miracles in Jesus name, and God’s provision (from the followers of Jesus here) of loving help and care through illnesses. One part of a group has invited a worker for Monday night. Pray that both groups will choose to hear, and will be given understanding and choose to respond to God’s Word in obedience and with eventually receiving salvation through Jesus.
nursery school
Pray for the children attending our nursery school and their families. We’re teaching the word of God there. The Christian teacher was transferred, and the new teacher is Muslim. Pray for him, he’s also hearing God’s Word.
May he accept the audio Bible
I would like to request your prayers for an old man of our community who has been sick many months. All through his time at the hospital, his health has not improved. The LORD put on my heart to give him an audio Bible, for him to listen to the good news. Please pray that the LORD prepares his heart to accept the radio, listen to the gospel and accept Christ. Pray for my visit to him this afternoon.
Diaspora in Detroit
Pray for the church members who are having training sessions twice a month with AH to become fruitful leaders in reaching out to the Detroit disapora community. Pray for passion to teach others to proclaim the Gospel. Ask the Lord to be preparing hearts to hear and believe.
Sweetest time
News from our Fulani colleagues:
We have had very encouraging reports from A working in East Niger. He said that he is still seeing many come to faith in Jesus. Tam also reported that the Fulani Bible Teaching Week that he has held for the past ten years in the grazing lands was a very positive time again. He said that there were over 20 new believers and also over 30 who were baptised. He reported that many described this as the sweetest time that they had had yet.
Diaspora in Portland
Praise God- The school year at the friendship center has gotten off to a good start. We have many returning students and a number of new students as well.
Praise God- The men’s program has a lot of men this year.
Please pray for understanding from students. We have 3 ESL levels that are full. It is hard to ask students to wait for openings.
Please pray that we will conduct ourselves with wisdom in our interactions with the students. That we will make the most of each opportunity, (treating it as something precious). Colossians 4:5 AMP
Kids Club
Please pray for the Karimojong secondary students involved in Scripture Union Club. Sadly, the club has had much influence from prosperity gospel and false teachers. Please ask our Father to transform the club in Karamoja, that students will be drawn to Him, and truly give their lives to Him! Please pray that the club becomes what it is meant to be: a place where students are equipped in His Word. Please pray that He raises up a generation of loving laborers for His field through this very club!
Diaspora in USA
Please pray for Omar, his wife and three children who live Stateside. The Lord is working in their hearts drawing them to Himself. Please pray that they would have more contacts with other Christians who will befriend them and proclaim the Gospel.
Islamic outreach training
Please pray for our Islamic outreach training for Kilwa Masoko pastors on 22- 24 October 2018. This will take place in Kilwa Masoko and be lead by Cecil S. We are expecting 5 plus church leaders to have part in this, along with many lay leaders. Pray for passionate vision casting and effective training in Muslim outreach. Ask the Lord to send many Tanzanian workers into His Muslim harvest field!
Diaspora in Europe
Pray for a developing friendship with a Sufi leader from Senegal who is visiting the Bay Area. Pray for good opportunities and wisdom as JB shares the Gospel with him. Pray that the Lord soften this Sufi’s heart to be receptive to the Good News.
Points of Proclamation
Pray for planning this month regarding places of proclamation of the Gospel among the Nyamwezi. We ask for God’s wisdom in leading and opening land spaces where congregations of believers may hold Sunday meetings for fellowship and weekly invite those seeking to learn more. Ask the Lord to make clear preaching points from which Christians may reach out to neighbors and communities in sharing God’s love.
Diaspora in Europe
Praise for continuing salvations coming out of our Dream Teams in Spain. Praise for a successful visit by our partners in Spain to the Bay Area.
Pray for preparations for Dream Teams 2019 in Spain, France, Italy and Malta – there is lots of preparation work to do. Ask the Lord to go before and prepare many refugee hearts to seek Him.
May the Spirit tend His crop
Formal ministry is closing for the year as the Ndau are subsistent farmers, and will be in their fields all day working. The children, youth, & ladies’ ministries are already closed and the little Bible School will close at the end of October. Pray for the folks to stand firm, remember what they’ve learned, encourage one another, and continue to desire to have a deeper knowledge of who God is and who Jesus is. The break is a long one- until February. Pray the Spirit will continue the work He has begun in these precious lives.
Diaspora in Philadelphia
Please pray for good opportunities to disciple Z and K, two Algerian believers, amidst their busy work schedules.
And for outreach to Algerian believers, and follow-up conversations with L and A, who are very open and interested.
Pray for meeting and sharing Truth with ESL Arab/Berber friends, both new and old. May the Lord open their hearts to the gospel.
Prayers for patients
Missionaries and Kenyans regularly visit the hospital to pray with the patients and their families. Last week, after seeing a missionary praying for others in her child’s room, a Somali mom invited the missionary to pray for her child. Pray this family will meet Jesus during their stay at hospital. Pray many Somalis will come to see Jesus is the LORD.
Diaspora in Minnesota
Many Somali ladies have been calling LS since school started, asking for help. Pray for LS as she shares about the tutoring ministry (SALT) with her church body in Minneapolis in October- pray that she might be able to recruit several new tutors, who will have a heart to love Somali women and share the gospel with them.
Coming on Sundays
Our team is having many opportunities to interact with people. We have started teaching games to a group of young boys. Some children are coming to our Sunday service, last Sunday we had about 19 children! Let’s pray that they keep coming. Also some men and women are frequently joining us on Sundays as well. Let’s pray that they keep coming and have ears to hear the word of God.
We’re sharing, discipling & visiting with many, but one man (*Ali) has been a regular every week. Pray for Ali and many others to respond and believe in Christ.
Diaspora in Florida
While D & J are away in Kenya, ask our Lord for faithful people to follow up the work with Muslim ladies in the weekly sewing class, prayer meeting for Muslims, and our contacts. Praise the Lord for the interests of those who are working alongside D & J. Ask the Lord to grant faith to seeking Muslims.
Promising female discipler
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)!
Boys growing in their faith
There are several Toposa boys who are in Torit for secondary school – pray they would grow in their faith while they have a strong church in Torit around them and that they would be able to share their faith with their classmates throughout the school year.
Diaspora in Portland
Please pray for our volunteers at the ESL center in Portland to connect deeply with our students. Please pray for them as they invite new students into their homes and that they will have wonderful spiritual conversations.
Pray for our Portland team to follow up on conversations from our potluck dinner on Sept. 28. Please pray that God would allow deep spiritual conversations to happen and relationships to deepen with our diaspora friends.
Radio needs
In November we are looking forward to hosting a possible donor for two more transmitter relay sites which would boost our signal to a much greater extent east and west opening more doors among the Dasinach and Turkana on the west and the Borana and Somali on the east.
Very exciting times!
Please pray for funding for every day running (staff salaries) as this is an area we are struggling to generate.
Hunger and openness
The Kachipo live in the Boma plateau region of South Sudan. They believe in the existence of a supreme being- God -as well as lesser spirits. They offer sacrifices and pray through a medium in times of calamity. Although they are deep into witchcraft, they are very receptive to the gospel, and in the past few years a church with over 150 people has begun. There is a great movement of the Spirit amongst the Kachipo, and though there is no Kachipo Bible, (the translation of the gospel of Mark has just begun!) they are hungry to know the Word of God. Pray for this reality for the Kachipo: “At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD Almighty from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers…” Isaiah 18:7.
Jesus’ people
We were thrilled to hear last week that some more of our friends in Yo were baptised. Three of the women that we mentioned in our last prayer letter, Hap, Kaa and Har, along with another of Ab’s daughters, Aa, made this bold statement that they are now “Jesus’ people”. Pray for them that God will strengthen their faith and help them to withstand possible opposition from their community. Give thanks that Hap’s husband was not ashamed that his wife has chosen to follow Jesus.
Enduring persecution
Pray for a brother here who is facing persecution from his family. He spent a couple years on another island to escape this, but returned in the last few months. Last week, this persecution culminated when he came home one day to find his uncle had taken all his things out of his room and burned them. He reported his uncle to the authorities, but they sided with the uncle (that it was in his right as a parent to teach his “son” a lesson for converting.) His mother told him she was worried for him and that he should leave the island again. He spoke with team members and a local brother, who encouraged him. For now, he has decided to go to a different island. Ask for him to connect with local brothers and sisters there and for him to grow in strength and boldness.
First church!
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.
2 men!
We have prayed for Samburu men of northern Kenya to come to Christ. There are currently two attending a Bible study in the our living room, while 17-27 women regularly attend. Pray God’s Spirit will work in the hearts of those attending, that they may understand their need for a Savior and Christ’s great love for them. In the last year, we have given out approximately 300 solar-powered audio players called Treasures. Pray that those who have received a Treasure will listen to them and hear God’s voice. Pray they will seek to understand more about Jesus and decide to follow Him.
Funerals
This time of year sees many funerals in the Lopit mountains as rain spreads water born diseases and this combines with the end of the hunger season and a lot of hard work in the gardens. Pray that the words shared at funerals may cause people to think about their eternal destination and the great gift of eternal life in Christ.
