Chief Marko was shot and killed by cattle rustlers recently. His wives and village continue to grieve. Pray for the believers there to stand firm in their faith and persevere in sharing the Word. Ask the Lord to raise up another godly chief to take Marko’s place.
One of the believers says, “There is much death here. Pray the Laarim will leave cattle rustling and follow Jesus.”
Young leaders
Continue to pray for leadership and discipleship among the Sandawe churches. There have been several opportunities recently for further training for Believers in sharing their faith. Ask that they will not merely listen but that they will take what they learn and apply it. There are a handful of new church plants with young leaders. Please pray for wisdom for these men and women, that they will be resolute in challenging situations and that they will shine like stars in the darkness.
Approaching Jesus’ Death and Resurrection
A few months ago we started studying with a young man who seemed to be craving access to the Scriptures despite his devotion to Islam. We started our Scripture study in Genesis and 14 weeks later, we are fast approaching the stories of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Please pray with us that as he encounters these stories in the next few weeks his heart would be deeply moved and stirred by the Spirit. Pray that he would understand this Good News is given for him and that he would receive it with great joy!
Open Villages! Correction
This post was originally posted in error under Antakarana, please pray for these open Sakalava villages!
Surveys here on the island these last few weeks have revealed three other villages open to hearing the gospel. The first village has offered to give a plot for missionaries to build their house on. The second village has offered a house for the missionaries to stay. The third village has openly expressed their desire to have a service held in their village every Sunday. We praise the Lord for these opportunities and need wisdom in organizing our time well. Praise the Lord for these new opportunities of ministry and pray for wisdom for our Malagasy missionaries (Melias, Lebaba, Noel and Jean) as they organize outreach to these villages.
Diaspora in Europe
The Alma de Africa football team has asked J. to be their goalkeeper for the upcoming season. This is the largest concentration of Africans found in Jerez, Spain and J has already had numerous Jesus conversations with several of the players. The team is also becoming quite well known throughout the country for their stand against racism. This is definitely a very public place where J. can let the light of Christ shine before the African diaspora. Ask the Lord to open many of the players’ hearts!
Sofi visiting her sisters
Please pray for *Sofi, a local believer, as she is on the third island, Clove Island, this week to meet with other believers for a time of meeting, fellowship and worship. Pray for the meeting to be fully based in the Truth of Jesus and for it to be an encouraging time for all. Also pay for safe travels for *Sofi as she returns to Vanilla Island via small fishing boat next week.
Diaspora in UK
Two Muslim men who S. has gotten to know at a local refugee centre have recently been talking to S. a lot about their faith. S. has been able to share the Gospel with them as he responds to what they are saying. Recently they gave S. the details of a couple of Muslim websites to look at over August when the Refugee centre is closed for summer break with a view for them talking more when the Centre re-opens in September. Please give thanks for their willingness to listen to S. responses and pray that through their discussions they may come to an understanding of who Jesus really is.
Fire churches
The ‘fire churches’ (groups meeting around the fire) are doing well under the care of the disciples. We thank God because they are growing spiritually too. We have two new churches planted in Kaldo area. Some have put a temporary shed to enable them to pray under it especially during this raining season and also to have a shelter during the day heat when they do their discipleship meeting. Lucino is meeting his group every Thursday. Also other disciples have their meeting days and all gather on Sunday morning at their various churches. Pray the disciples would grow strong and many would be added to their number as Christ builds His church among the Toposa!
Reject old lies
Pray for believers to stand strong in the freedom of the truth of the gospel of grace. May the old lies of the spirit of Islam have no hold over them. When they doubt the truth of Scripture, pray that they will recognize it is the voice of the enemy whispering old chants that the Bible has been changed. May each one learn to battle in the Spirit and declare the truths denied by Islam: Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus died on the cross and rose again. The Word of God is true.
Need fertilizer
If Karimojong hearts were likened to soil, we could say that the soil has been depleted of nutrients due to poor farming habits over the last decades (aka false teachers). Even when they hear God’s Word now, the soil is not fertile enough for that seed to grow well and bear good fruit. Please pray for the soil of hearts in Karamoja – that God would use His Spirit and His people to bring life back into this depleted soil so that the seed of God’s Word could take root and bear fruit to eternal life!
Diaspora in Detroit
Pray for the members of our church team to be bold in sharing the story of Noah this month with their families. Ask the Lord to open conversations about salvation.
Also pray for our ESL classes to come together at our church, which start in September
Couple sharing with family
Praise God for a couple who are continuing to follow God together, and are getting to grips with what it means to be Alagwa and follow Jesus. After a few visits to some of their wider family a few hours away, they are excited to disciple the ones amongst them who are now seeking. Please pray for this couple for continued boldness and perseverance to travel the three hours to disciple these family members and also for their protection as a couple. Please pray for their marriage and their relationships with others in their community.
Repentance
Pray that new believers would learn true repentance. May each one increasingly see the holy beauty of Jesus, and increasingly mourn over sin and recognize that it is not simply a failure to ‘preform well’ but a breach of the intimate relationship between Christ and His bride.
Open villages!
Surveys here on the island these last few weeks have revealed three other villages open to hearing the gospel. The first village has offered to give a plot for missionaries to build their house on. The second village has offered a house for the missionaries to stay. The third village has openly expressed their desire to have a service held in their village every Sunday. We praise the Lord for these opportunities and need wisdom in organizing our time well. Praise the Lord for these new opportunities of ministry and pray for wisdom for our Malagasy missionaries (Melias, Lebaba, Noel and Jean) as they organize outreach to these villages.
Tammy
Continue lifting up Tammy that the truth she has heard for so long and again last week, will work in her heart and mind. Ask the Spirit to woo her to Himself, flooding her heart with the love she has seen in workers and answered prayer in her life. Lift up her daughter who still has eating problems, but doing well in school academically.
Reading the Book
Pray for a friend that is in P’s English class and is her neighbor as well. This person said he was interested in studying the Book and asked for P to give him one in French. Since she did, he has been reading and studying it on his own. She is also now sharing audio files of the Book in his local language. Pray for P’s interaction with this friend and for his exposure to the Good News to change his heart.
Jesus Film follow-up
We have been invited to broadcast the Jesus film in many Bara villages. Pray that God will use the simplicity of the Jesus film to attract many Bara to Himself. We have shown the Jesus film together with Pastor Emanoel Blandino to more the 50 villages! Pray the people would think about Jesus, and his Salvation. We hope that the Jesus film opens doors to the Evangelists as they come and preach, and also to make people think about their own beliefs.
Lahoda outreach
Give thanks for a recent outreach in the village of Lahoda. People visited homes and shared the gospel with many families. They were warmly received by some, but not all. Most were eager to attend the evening meetings in which Christian films were shown. The population in this area is growing rapidly. Please pray the church will grow in numbers and in maturity.
Outreach
The Outreach Team went to one of the remote Toposa villages where the persecution of new believers has been intense. The new believers gathered 500 Toposa to come for worship, singing and dancing. One of the new believers challenged the group to come forward with any information for WHY the Outreach Team should not be sharing Jesus in their villages. She spoke for 20 minutes and no one came forward. As a result, they all agreed that the “sharing of Jesus” would go forward without interruption. Pray for much fruit!
Lighthouse Keepers
Off the coast several kilometers, there is a lighthouse which can only be accessed during a specific time of the month when the tide is so low that there is enough open ground to walk out to it. There is a small group of local men who live there that we have been trying to make contact with. Recently, some Christians were able to walk out during low tide and briefly meet the 4 men who live out there and give them audio Bibles. They were not able to stay long as the tide was quickly coming back in and they needed to walk back to shore. Praise God that the group was able to meet the men from the lighthouse! Pray with us that they would listen to God’s word, that the Holy Spirit would help them understand and believe, and that God would open the door for future opportunities to meet and share with these men from the lighthouse. They live at a lighthouse, may their eyes be opened to their own need for the Light only Jesus can give!
Diaspora in Portland
Continue to pray for Mr. N., an Iraqi professor returning to teach in his homeland after a doctorate here in Portland. I gave him a Bible a few days ago, and he immediately began to read it there in Starbucks. We talked about how the Bible was arranged, and he intends to start with Genesis and Exodus and then go to Matthew. He was so open; I understand his wife is also. But… they leave in a few days. Some of us will have one or two chances to briefly see him again before his family leaves. Pray that Mr. N. will grow in understanding God’s Word, and be set free to follow Jesus, along with his whole family!
Outreach
We have a team of seven AIC evangelists trained in reaching Muslims arriving on Monday for one week. We find this hugely exciting that our local brothers and sisters from Mwanza want to reach out to people in our area!! We are also praying that their work will be accompanied by a move of the Holy Spirit in the lives of people here, bringing many to Christ!! Please pray with us.
A Grandma brought into the Kingdom!
Praise Jesus for the work He is doing in one of the grandmas in our village. This past Sunday, she decided to make Jesus her personal Savior! Please pray she grows in understanding fully the Gospel of Christ. Pray that she will be rooted in truth and grace and will be a light in her household and community. Pray the Lord helps us disciple her in her new walk with Jesus.
Continuing to live for Jesus
Praise God for a baptised Alagwa believer who has featured a few times in PA. She has continued to live for Jesus in her community and people are asking why she is different. Recently, after teaching about discipleship, she was so encouraged that she also could be the one to encourage and teach others. Pray that she will find people to regularly disciple in her neighbourhood.
Mark
Pray that God would lead us to people who we can test the newly translated book of Mark with. Pray for boldness amongst all workers to ask people to read/listen to passages from the book, pray that we might get helpful feedback and that people would ask to hear more.
Children watching JF
Update from Rangi Evangelist: I thank the Lord that today many Muslim children came to my place to see the Jesus video. Please pray that these children will meet Jesus.
11 delivered!
Thanks for praying for our Dorobo prayer conference to break the stronghold of alcoholism among the older generation. We had three days of teaching and prayer and singing and evening films. We had times of confession and special prayer to break what they called “the curse” of alcoholism. At the end 11 men prayed to receive Christ and for deliverance from their dependence on alcohol. There were over 300 people attending. The pastors from the Omerae family (their family name actually means drunkard) were very encouraged. They continue to pray that their family would no longer be slaves to drunkenness, but that they would be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Kids Camps
Pray for the kids camps starting this week in Canada and running through the month. Kids originally from North Africa, other parts of Africa, and around the world are coming to camp and will hear the gospel! Pray for open hearts, for more kids to enroll, and for safety at camp.
Missionary training
A missionary training for young Malagasy men has just finished in Nosy Be. Several of the participants are from cities like Diego Suarez and Ambilobe, which have large Antakarana populations. Pray that these young men would continue to follow God’s calling on their lives to full time missions. Also pray for provision for the many Malagasy missionaries who need financial support in their calling to unreached people groups like the Antakarana.
May blind eyes be opened!
False teaching has been sown and rooted into Karamoja ahead of the true gospel, keeping people’s hearts dull to the good news! Please pray for the strongholds of deception to be broken, that the eyes of the blind would be opened to the marvelous light of Christ. Please pray that each Karimojong has an opportunity to hear the true gospel.
Still suffering
People are still suffering from the devastation of the cyclone. Please continue to pray for the food distribution. The folks are still going to need help until early next year when they harvest. We praise the Lord for all the help that has come in enabling us to buy the food.
Assessment
This month we are doing an assessment of the movement. Our teammate A along with 3 local leaders are visiting the remote groups and interviewing leaders and members to get an accurate picture of the movement. Pray that the believers would be encouraged by the visit and we would gain insight into how the new believers are growing and what their needs may be.
Freedom in Christ
From a Rangi evangelist: “There was a young woman named Haulatu who was tormented by evil spirits. I prayed for her and she was released, and continues to walk in freedom. I shared about Jesus with her and she received Him as her Savior. Pray for her. Please also pray for a lady named Zuhura. I have started visiting with her to teach her the good news of Jesus, and she is welcoming this news.” Pray for this evangelist to lead many to Christ. Pray for a strong church to grow among the Rangi people.
God’s Word on phones
We are so delighted to see many people in our village listening to the gospel of Matthew and songs in Sakalava on their phones. We have given out a few phone cards to villagers and there are still others asking to have it as well. Thank the Lord for this way of getting the gospel into the homes of the Sakalava people. Please pray that many Sakalava will come to faith in Christ through this outreach ministry. People here like playing music loud! May the whole village be filled with the gospel of Matthew and Sakalava songs.
Bible story booklet
Jurgen, Katja, and Menja have finished translating a set of Bible stories in the Antanala language and have put them into booklet form. These booklets will be used by the nearby church leaders, and hopefully by others in the Antanala area. Jean Baptiste, and his colleague Aime just finished their one year training at a Bible School in Tana and are serving as missionaries in Ikongo, a part of Antanala land. I just got a phone call from Jean Baptiste and he reports that a new village is open for outreach, and many people are gathering together to hear the Word of God. These new booklets can be used to teach them also. Pray for many to believe!
Kids’ club
Grand finale Kids’ Club final day in O-land coming up! Around 180 in attendance. Our theme of ‘Sacrifices ‘ topped off today, with the other sacrifices all pointing to Jesus and The cross. Jesus as the Lamb of God being offered INSTEAD OF us paying our own punishment for sin (just like Abraham’s story with the ram). Pray for open, receptive and responsive hearts for the kids and their families. Praise the Lord for a wonderful team of helpers!
Baptism
Please pray for two new Zigua believers. We built a baptismal after their interest in being baptized. However, when the day came for them to be baptized, neither one showed up and we haven’t heard from them since. Pray that they would fear God more than man! Pray that Jesus would make clear to them the meaning of baptism and would increased their desire to be part of it.
Clean!
Pray for R. who, until recently, was hooked on tramadol. With some help from medications he has been able to leave it and now isn’t taking anything. He has decided to follow JC and has been coming to church for the last 3 weeks. His parents died several years ago and he is currently living with a Neem believer who helped him through withdrawal. He left his old religion 6 yrs ago but was frightened away from church by relatives after attending only twice. Pray that he will remain firm in his new-found faith and that he could find a means to support himself. Pray for others who want to know more but are frightened of their relatives’ reaction.
Bible Pictures and Stories
One of our Evangelists came to us and reported that in one Bara village, he has started sharing the Pictures of Bible Stories that we offered to him in the training last month. He told us that many people came to see the pictures and to listen to the stories of God. The people have started to ask questions and say: “Oh! This is Adam and Eve? Ow! What happened next?
Please pray that our team of 80 Evangelists and local pastors, trained in Bible Story Tellers will be bold to go into the bush and tell people about Christ using the book of pictures they received.
Pray also that God will work throughout this very simple way of evangelism, and bring Bara people to Himself.
Meeting again!
I thank God that the group of ladies met with me again and are happy to continue meeting. Pray that they will hunger and thirst for the truth and that there will be consistency in meeting together. We are now doing DBS and there is the obedience part whereby one is supposed to share the story with a friend. Pray that God will give them wisdom and courage and they share and that the movement will continue among the Somali.
