Pray that the miracle of Christmas & the birth of Jesus would pierce the hearts of unbelievers, that they would recognise this event as life-changing & that it would prompt them to seek him for themselves. Pray the open proclamation of the Christmas message would cause unbelievers to re-evaluate their lives in light of it. Pray the joy of believers in this season would prompt an openness in non believers to new faith possibilities.
First Christmas Ever
For many of our outreach Gabbra church plants this will be their first Christmas ever. So as a ministry team we are praying about how to make this year memorable and use the great event to draw more people to Christ. Pray that their hearts would be open to accepting the Prince of Peace! Also, praise God for all the rain this last month: grass is tall and livestock are full!
Christmas party island style
Local believer Sophie invited her sisters and her neighbors to join us for a meal and a viewing of the Magdalena film. It was a packed little living room and front porch, full of women and their children, which was cool. Please pray for His light to shine in their hearts and for Sophie to have lots of follow-up conversations
Diaspora in Portland
Thank you so much for praying! The Gospel was shared very clearly in Arabic and English at our Christmas event (Dec 20) and the people at our table were mesmerized with hearing and understanding–for the first time–the whole Gospel!
An Iraqi lady leaned close to me and asked . . .”If Jesus paid the full price. . . What motivates you as Christians to do good?” I was able to share with her how it is our great love and deep respect for God and for the debt that He paid for us. . . that motivates us to please Him. . .
She answered that for the first time in her life she completely understands why it is good news. .
Translation testing
We have started monthly meetings for testing the newly translated scripture drafts with new believers. Testing is a crucial part of the translation process, but also the hardest part to make happen.
Ask that these believers would not only be committed to the work but also start to take a more proactive role.
Christmas Baptisms
Praise God that this Christmas we will be baptizing new believers. Pray that God will bring more people to Him during Christmas time.
Submission of Kings
The King of one village and his wife had decided to follow Jesus, but it wasn’t seeming to make much difference to their daily lives. A local pastor moved into the area and took the responsibility of going to preach in the village weekly despite struggles with their dialect. He was well received and the king has since been thinking seriously about the practical consequences of following Jesus.
Meanwhile the king in another village had a son who went away to study and then returned with news that he had become a believer and been baptised. The king has now decided that he and his family will also follow Jesus, having been convinced through the testimony of his son that the stories he had been hearing were in fact true!
Praise God! Keep lifting up the kings of these villages as they allow the gospel to transform every area of their lives.
Bible Storying and literacy
Pray for the Spirit to give Didinga a hunger for the Word and for God’s Truth as plans are put together for a Bible Storying workshop and literacy classes next month (January).
Diaspora in Portland
Please pray that God will intervene on behalf of an Egyptian family we have been reaching out to- that He will open their hearts to the Gospel.
Please pray that God will open up the hearts of a Libyan family we have been spending a lot of time with- that God will open their hearts to the Gospel as well.
Please pray that God opens the hearts of our students as we prepare to share about the true meaning of Christmas with our Muslim friends this month through many different outreach events.
Christmas celebrations
Please pray for the Christmas celebrations. May they be opportunities for Alagwa to hear the gospel clearly and respond.
A Village Homestay
Pray for Pastor Josphat Musanga as he and his family will be hosting missionaries Jeff and Mandy this Wednesday to Sunday for their village home stay. Pray that he and Jeff and Mandy will build a good relationship for their future work with the Dorobo. Pray that through their partnership Dorobo will come to Christ and churches will be planted and a missionary movement empowered among the Dorobo people.
Diaspora in USA
Pray for Mo, one of the ESL students in Noel, MO. Pray that our opportunities to visit will continue and that we can share about Jesus. He drove 50 miles to/from to visit with us and desires to do it again! May we be a sweet aroma and proclaimers of the Gospel news.
Pray for people to join the DR US Unit to strengthen and expand our work across the US.
Pray for God to raise up people to work among Somalis in Twin Cities, MN. There are great opportunities to partner with others.
Diaspora in UK
Praise for spiritual seeds sown through conversations at Friday night International Student Globe Café.
Pray for open hearts to hear and accept Message of Christmas story presentations at each ministry activity (Sewing, English classes, international students). Pray for the blessing of tender hearts to hear and accept the Gospel message.
Pray for provision of Christian volunteers with secondary school immigrant area homework clubs.
Pray for spiritual harvest from the seeds sown.
Pray for healing
An O believing family had a miscarriage this week. Pray for God’s healing physically and emotionally, and that spiritually they will grow in their faith and relationship with God as He holds them close in this hard time. Pray for the O communities around them who have such deep needs for healing from Jesus: “Oh Lord, stretch out your hand to heal where there is need among the O, physically, emotionally and most of all spiritually to come to know Jesus as their Savior, Healer and Deliverer!”
Diaspora in France
Pray that the truth of Christmas presented clearly at the kids club Christmas party on the 11th and the team outreach the 14th would be received and believed.
Praise for renewed contact with some of my island friends; pray for clear opportunities to share again the hope of Christmas and the Spirit to open hearts to Himself.
Jesus the Savior
Please pray that the Holy Spirit will reveal to the Ndengereko at Christmas time that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the World, sent to liberate the captives and give sight to the blind.
Diaspora in Europe
Pray for Pedro’s short-term outreach trips into Morocco. He and David are there now. They just reported that one person in a new region received Christ today.
Pray for the finances needed for two building projects here in Jerez. This week papers are being signed to purchase a building in the town center that would become a center for all of the refugee ministries through Tharsis Betel. Ask the Lord to bless this ministry.
Pray also for the new people of peace identified in Strasbourg, Antwerp, Turnhout and Marseille to begin Discovery Bible Studies.
Assessment today and tomorrow!
Please be praying for “A” as he goes with Sadi from the Catalyst team to assess two more discipleship groups today and tomorrow. We want to see and better understand what the Lord is doing among the M! We have assessed 4 groups so far and have 5 more to go. Over the last two months we have had to postpone the assessment many times due to unusual frequent rain.
Please also pray for wisdom as we seek to add a few more key people to the Catalyst team to train up as movement catalyzers in other key areas. This will be a huge step towards seeing Gospel impact throughout this people group and beyond. Thank you!
Diaspora in USA
Pray for the International student ministry at CSUN to connect with more international students and for gospel conversations.
Please pray also for all the other international students from all over the Diaspora Region who have heard the gospel the past few months, that they would yearn to know Jesus as their Savior.
Zeal for Jesus
Praise the Lord for outreaches that are continuing among the Digo and that a small Digo church continues to meet even though the missionaries have left. Pray for the Digo to turn to Jesus, that as they have been known for their zeal for Islam, they will become known for their zeal for Jesus Christ.
Diaspora in Portland
Pray for the December 1, 8, 15, 22 “Storying” of God’s Story of coming to earth at Salem’s International Prayer Gathering. For these 4 weeks, RH teams up with a young man from Sudan (Arabic), and a gal from Rwanda (Swahili) to share God’s gift of Jesus for the “nations”.
Pray for those who come to the Salem prayer gathering who do not have a personal faith in Jesus the Messiah. Pray that we will share clearly and that those who hear will find life.
Jesus Film in New Village!
Pray for the village of Kisangasa where we will be showing the Jesus Film for the first time. As we went out to invite people today, they seemed excited and ready to come on Friday night. Pray that hearts are prepared before hand. Pray the Holy Spirit falls and moves in the hearts of our friends and neighbors. This is a village that is devout in their Islamic beliefs and almost the entire village attends Islamic class everyday. Please pray for freedom from bondage and that where the movie is shown would be holy ground.
Diaspora in Europe
Could you pray for follow- up with 9 teenagers here in Malta who have made a decision to follow Jesus! and for their baptisms? Also please pray for the right people to do the renovation on our ministry center we will be using here in Malta. We want to have a place where diaspora peoples can feel welcomed.
Shepherds Know the Good Shepherd
For the last year, the Datooga churches have grown and new ones have been planted, thanks to pastors and evangelists carrying the Word of God to settlements of shepherds and villages that are interested in knowing Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Please pray that more and more churches will be planted among the Datooga and that the pastors of those congregations will resemble their Chief Shepherd as they care for their flocks.
Diaspora in Philadelphia
Pray for opportunities to share the Gospel during Christmas. Pray for clarity and a deeper understanding of the story of Jesus, His death & His ressurection to defeat death. Many only know tidbits of information, but not the story of who Jesus really is and why He came down to earth. Pray for many to want to hear the whole story!
With Greater Impact
As we head toward Christmas, we remember that last year our big community celebration was met with some opposition for the first time ever. Pray that the opposition last year would actually lead to even more people joining us this year. Pray that the story of Christmas would go out even more boldly and with greater impact than it ever has before. Pray that hearts would be softened to joyfully receive their King.
Diaspora in USA
The Lord has connected me with two ladies who would like to facilitate a trauma healing group in Noel, MO. Please pray for the collaboration and preparation for this group and that that our Father will bring together exactly those who need to find hope and healing through His Son.
I have begun to meet and get to know some of the members of the African community and other diaspora communities through the ESL program in town. I would love to have some ladies come to the apartment. Would you pray that they would be interested in meeting and talking outside of class and that our schedules will allow for this to happen.
Needing help
Pray for a S. lady who has been divorced and doesn’t have an income. She is in debt for the house, so she needs to move immediately to a smaller house. Pray for an opportunity for her to work so she can support herself. Ask for the Lord to bless, encourage, and provide for her. May she look to You and put her trust in You.
Diaspora in Wisconsin
The visit of the team from NW Ohio went very well and they were a blessing to our team here. They were able to share the good news on an individual basis with our neighbors. Pray for those seeds to find good soil and sprout!
Praise the Lord for the ESL classes and tutoring that continue to provide opportunities to share the good news. May many believe in the One who was sent!
Sharing the Word of God
Borana Christians have found that sharing the Word of God, whether read or heard, is bringing people to faith in Christ, and helping believers grow strong in their faith. Please pray that December will be a season when the Scriptures are widely read, heard, believed and followed, resulting in great growth and new congregations being established.
Diaspora in Canada
Please pray for open hearts for our Muslim friends and loving bold gentleness in our connections with them. Please pray for wisdom to know how and if to navigate through partnerships with the city and Somalis.
Studying & Seeking
Mama and Papa Pepe have a lot of knowledge of the Bible. But they still think people need to pray hard and do good things to get into heaven. Mama Pepe told me she reads her Bible in official Malagasy and when there’s something she doesn’t understand, she listens to the Sakalava Matthew on her memory card and then writes in what it means. Praise God that she is reading and thinking about the Bible. Please pray that they would come to know that only trusting in Jesus will save them.
Diaspora in Detroit
Tomorrow, December 7, we have invited around 25 Arab families to join us, and many volunteers from area churches are working hard to prepare for a really great afternoon. Please pray that the invited families will be able to come and hear the Good News of Christmas and enjoy a wonderful time of fellowship with believers. Details are still coming together for the various kids programs for this event and many volunteers are still needed to accommodate all the children we are expecting. Please pray that the Lord will provide and that He will meet with us and reveal Himself to these families.
Training and Christmas party
We have a training for the S. Fellowship here from 10th to 12th Dec. On that final day, we have a Christmas party for all of us. Pray for provision to cover the budget and that people will get to know Christ better.
Start the Wheel- March 29, 2019 update
In March we asked the Lord for 3 different Discovery Bible Study groups to start, with each group having 4 local people studying by the end of the year. At that point we had no one. We asked for at least 3 people who would fearlessly “start the wheel” of pursuing Jesus in our community. While our numbers were not as neat and tidy as we had prayed for, what did miraculously happen was that we had 4 groups running consistently, and at least 10 people truly and intentionally encountered the Word of God with us. Some came in and out because they traveled. Others came and went for reasons unknown. But all of them left with a better understanding of the Scriptures and having been prayed for by us and with us. There are 3 people who have started the wheel, 1 having been baptized, and 2 not believing yet but continuing to move toward Jesus. We praise Him for this supernatural response to our prayers!
Radio ministry update
Pray for the second transmission tower we want to put up to reach even more peoples in Northern Kenya. We’ve run into some snags. Please ask God to help us resolve the issues and move forward. The call- in program is a huge success. Every day 1000 people call in with a wide range of questions. Pray for stamina and wisdom for the 2 men answering the phones!
Wife in Troubled Marriage Given Encouragement
Praise the Lord our neighbor’s husband has agreed to allow one of our female Tanzanian teammates to come regularly to study in their home with his wife about what God teaches for being a good wife & mother and follower of God, though she is still not allowed to worship with the church. What an awesome Redeemer God we serve! Pray this time will be used faithfully to build our sisters in the Lord and our neighbors’ marriage and be a beautiful witness of Christ to lead this whole family to salvation!
Emmanuel
Pray for a young man named Emmanuel. He is the only believer in his clan and often persecuted because of having gone to school. He wants his clan to know Jesus. They are called the Ngiyowi and they live in a village called Loputuk. Pray for Jesus to work in their hearts! Pray specifically for his dad, Louse, who is a fierce warrior but recently has gotten sick, pray that he will repent and turn to Christ for true life.
Now They Are Making Disciples
Pray for pastor Ndaki as he continues to teach 70+ new believers who have gathered since the outreach in Handa finished last month. He’s using the MSINGI (“foundation”) Bible study book to teach them. Pray for their rapid growth in the Lord. Praise the Lord again for the Sandawe beginning to reach out with the gospel beyond their own tribe.
Grieving Mother
This past week, a few of us visited an Indian Muslim family. The mother is still grieving the husband who passed away on the day of Eid this year. One of the daughter in laws just recently received radiation for a cancerous growth in her back which caused paralysis in her legs. That’s the reason why we visited them, to see and pray for her. The other daughter suffers from breast cancer and is on treatment at the moment. This family has suffered much and the mother is not coping well. I tried to share Jesus with her. Please pray for this family that they will find the truth and the truth will set them free. We pray that God will bring healing to this family and we ask for miracles to take place so that they will see God’s power and glory.
