Pray for enough volunteers to share the load and cover the teaching needs: specifically pray for volunteers who are capable, Christ-like, and relational. Ask the Lord to bring us seeking Muslim students whose hearts the Lord has opened to hear and respond to the Gospel.
Diaspora in Philadelphia
Please pray that we would be able to continue/increase our interactions with several Algerian believers we are connected with. We would love to find ways to encourage them in their faith.
Song writing workshop
Please pray for a song writing workshop over the next 4 days, amongst the Karimojong in Kotido, Uganda, that many come and those who come really engage with scripture. Pray we can create songs that speak of the gospel in truly local styles that engage and speak to the heart of the Karimojong. Pray for wisdom for Wendy Atkins who is leading it. Pray it would have an impact on the local church, particularly men who love to sing and dance but are almost completely absent from our small rural congregations.
Diaspora in UK
The Women’s English classes at 2 churches needed helpers for their crèche (ages 0-3) in Cardiff. These classes are attended by 50-100 ladies from places like N. Sudan, the Horn of Africa, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Albania, Pakistan, Ghana, China, Japan, etc. We agreed to help knowing that crèche is an integral part of these ministries. In December, we were also asked to help in the crèche at a 3rd church location and at a Bible study for immigrant inquirers. Join us in praying that these women will not only learn English but will also come to know Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
Praying for believing husbands
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.
Needing protection and courage
Pray for Am, another daughter of Ab and Ci. She is the only believer in her community. She has withstood ridicule and hardship. Pray that God will continue to protect her and her daughter Ai and make His light shine through her.
May they be granted faith
Ask that the women who have been reading Scripture will believe. Pray for clear understanding of the truth and a willingness to surrender to the Lord.
Diaspora in SA
Jibrill converted from Islam and is living with us now. We are doing discipleship with him and helping him to start his new life in Christ. He is a Brazilian who was taken by an Imam when he was 6 years old. When he was discovered with the bible, he was persecuted and ended up in a refugee shelter. Our team in São Paulo met him and did not know what to do, so when we saw the situation, we brought him to Londrina. Please pray for wisdom and guidance for this whole situation.
Troubled by demons
Please pray for a woman called Mama Ntoki. She is troubled by demons, and she has now become willing to seek the help of Jesus Christ. I prayed for her, please pray that she will be healed and that she will make the decision to follow Jesus completely. Also please pray for Joria to walk worthy of the Lord and give his life completely to Jesus Christ.
A changed life
An islander called “Farrell” has been asking for just one other person from his village to decide to follow Jesus so he won’t be alone. He attended a CP training recently and tried out some of the fruitful practices he learned. He shared with a young man in his village who struggles with a drug addiction. This young man decided to follow Jesus and Farrell reported that this man’s wife has noticed a difference in him. Recently, after they had an argument, when his old self would have gone off to get high, he instead went to their bedroom to pray. His wife was surprised… And even more so when he told her what he was doing! Ask for this wife and many others in this village to turn to Jesus. Ask that the Lord would send Farrell and this new brother out as a “two by two” pair in their village.
More believers
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!
Justice and Mercy
Pray the Kachipo would one day have a culture that administers true justice and shows mercy and compassion to others (Zechariah 7:9-10) because their hearts have been change by the Gospel.
Faith to face the cost
Pray for protection and perseverance for the new believers and leaders of the groups. We know from early church history as well as current movements around the world that persecution and suffering are a reality as Christ is building His church. The believers here face a great cost of causing division in their families and in their communities. Pray that whole families would come to faith together! Pray that these believers would be able to say, “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.” (Heb. 10:39)
Rains have come
The rains have started again after a short dry season. Pray that God blesses the gardens and that people will have enough food for the rest of this year. Pray that they would know God provides all their needs and that they would give their thankfulness to him for the rains.
Diaspora in Minnesota
The Minnesota Vikings’ Stadium seats 65,000 people and the state’s imams were hoping to fill those seats with 50,000-plus Muslims chanting “Allahu Akbar!” yesterday, in celebration of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Ahda.
Dr Waleed Idris al-Maneese, who invited all the imams and Muslims, says it’s an effort to unite all the Muslims that live in Minnesota and the United States, and is going to be an amazing outlet for dawah- an amazing way to spread the word of Allah in the United States.
Pray that God’s will be done and the church awaken to the opportunities around them!
needing unity
There have been some major divisions among the brothers. Please ask for a spirit of unity and trust.
The beauty of Jesus’ sacrifice.
A new sister just asked if the Eid l-Adha (celebration where Muslims sacrifice a sheep to remember the ram provided for Abraham’s almost-sacrifice of ‘Ishmael’) was wrong to celebrate. Please pray for new believers as family members sacrifice. Ask that they know the beauty of Jesus’ final sacrifice and have opportunities to share the truth of Heb 10.
Training update
The two weeks of training for village church leaders went very well with 113 leaders attending the first week! We were particularly encouraged to see many of those who have been involved in the training for the last 7 years, bringing other potential leaders from their churches. 45 of the 113 attending have signed up for the next 6-year round of residential training due to start in October this year. Pray for these leaders as they return home and serve their churches.
God is moving many hearts
Praise God that He is moving in the hearts and lives of the Didinga around Nagishot, and that He is calling missionaries to serve there even as He is preparing people to hear the Gospel.
Engaging the Word
Please pray for Odilo and his wife as they lead listening group seminars in which they are training people to ask specific questions when they listen to the solar players with scripture. The idea is for people to engage with God’s word, not merely listen to it. It is essentially training people in inductive Bible Study but the interesting thing is that most of the people who have the players are not Christians. Please ask the Lord to keep Odilo and Mama Happy safe as they travel long distances on a motorcycle and for these seminars to have a far reaching impact for the Kingdom.
May ones and twos become 100s!
We have seen a scattered number of Nyamwezi come to Christ and are excited that God is doing something amongst them. Pray that these believers will meet together and encourage one another. Pray many more will be saved!
Pilgrimage
Pray for islanders making the pilgrimage to Mecca this week. Ask that they would see the underside of Islam there and would be filled with questions that Islam can’t answer. May they have courage to seek Truth, wherever it is found.
Worshiping God not man
In Sakalava culture, having a funeral or building a grave always involves ancestral worship. This weekend a Christian family, having finished the grave of their mum, will have a party, inviting all their families and friends to worship God. Please pray that it would have a great impact on the attendees, helping them to see who should be worshipped!
Pray against resistance
This week two O neighbor ladies listened eagerly to the Gospel and responded by praying to receive Jesus as their Savior. We arranged for them to meet for discipleship training. Before the follow up could happen, they both announced that they had gone home and eagerly shared with their families. Their husbands and extended families refused them to become followers of Jesus or to come for any more teaching. They told us they were sorry, but they would have to obey their families. Pray against this resistance and that people would choose to do what God wants rather than what man wants!
Soccer and friends
Praise God for the great soccer tournament outcome in Wisconsin. There were 5 teams that signed up with 3 of those being Somali teams. Pray that our Somali friends will respond to the love of Christ and will be open to friendship with us.
Harmony to create opportunity
Pray that the harmony between the Nyang’atom and many of their neighbouring tribes will be used to share the Gospel from one unreached people group to another.
Great Commission vision
Being a place held by racial/tribal/clan tensions, the increasing number of Arab refugees has not been welcomed by most of the local community. Yet it’s been beautiful to see some sweet opportunities for the brothers to tear down those walls and create bridges as they seek to serve and reach out to the Arab community, and in doing so, catching some of the vision of Matt 28 as well! Pray for a great harvest.
Strong church to offer growth
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.
Bible!
Praise God with us, this coming Saturday the Rendille will receive their New Testament. We will also give out 500 audio Bibles for the majority of the people who do not know how to read and write. The Rendille will hear God speaking their desert heart language! Pray with us that the Word will transform the Rendille people.
Baby born to young believers
Praise the Lord for the safe arrival of Ihisa, daughter to young believers Ediofo and Apuke. Give thanks for God’s answer to prayer in providing a daughter, after 4 sons! Pray for the Lord’s protection over this child and her parents’ young faith. Pray that as they grown in faith they may lead their children in the ways of the Lord.
New outreach
Tana is a city where many islanders go for university studies or health care and then return to the islands. There is a group of believers in the city who meet regularly to pray for the islanders, and have arranged their lives to be able to meet islander students and share the good news with them. Pray for wisdom in meeting with islander patients. Ask the Lord to bless this group with wisdom, unity, and favor, and to open a door for fruitful ministry among students and patients.
Needing freedom from fear
Pray for Al, he is from the community south of us. He has been meeting fairly regularly with the believers for almost a year now. Pray that he will not be afraid to follow Jesus. There are many others who have also expressed interest and even belief, but who have as yet had the boldness to identify themselves as followers of Jesus. Pray with us that God will continue to work in this community to break down Satan’s hold on people through fear.
battle for a soul
An Alagwa friend called to say she would be unable to visit our village, because she was sick. When we discussed rescheduling she told me, “tomorrow I have church.” Praise Jesus! This friend is fighting a hard battle right now against the evil of this world. Please pray for her to have continued encounters with Christ. Even if we are unable to meet face to face, may she be able to feel and experience the presence of Jesus daily.
Film Translation
The translation of the Jesus Film into the local language of Icetod is nearing completion. Please pray that this project can be completed soon and translated in a way that the Ik can fully understand the gospel. Pray that in the future, as the Ik watch this video, that they will desire to turn from their sin and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ who loves them so much.
Needing someone to go
Pray that the remoteness of the Kachipo’s homeland will not deter believers from going to live among them and proclaim the Gospel to those living in darkness.
Still needing to see
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.
Learning to trust
In the past, the local brothers have struggled with unity because of distrust. But many are coming together weekly now and learning to operate more and more as the body and wanting to grow together. And the sisters who were never meeting are now doing the same! We rejoice in this and ask for continued unity, trust, and growth among the body.
Hope across the country
Many are celebrating as South Sudan leaders signed an agreement over the weekend that promises to take steps to bring peace, unity, and stability to the country. Please pray that all leaders involved will do their part to uphold the agreement, and that peace will ultimately come via the Gospel spreading throughout South Sudan.
Love in supplies
Pray that the Mbororo who were given some of the relief supplies sent up to Obo, CAR, will see the love of Christ in those who gave them and be drawn to Him.
Needing to hear
Many of the Nyang’atom have never heard the Gospel; pray that as God is softening their hearts and drawing them to Him, someone will be sent to the Nyang’atom to share the Gospel with them.
