Diaspora in England: Pray for a new S contact, A, who we met online and is now willing to meet in person. Pray the Lord will open his heart and bless our relationship.
scripture apps
The translation team is working to get some social media advertising going again for the local Scripture Apps. Pray for success in this endeavor and pray for engagement with the Scripture Apps. May His Word not return void. May it pierce hearts and bring conviction and an awareness of the need for a Savior.
Partnership
We thank God for a partnership with a S* organisation whose vision is to promote co-existence among societies regardless of religion, ethnicity, race or colour, and its mission is to provide a platform for peace in which people’s differences and misunderstanding can be dealt with non-violently through dialogue and meaningful discussions. We will get an opportunity to share our faith in their meetings and promote peaceful dialogue.
Pray for God to open doors for us to do greater things with our presence and through His power and in His Name to these people.
Touched by the Gospel
Diaspora in France: Praise God for the Easter camp in the Alps. God was present. Praise for the 4 non-Christian students and 1 Indian family with their 2 children who opened their hearts to the Gospel. Praise for their desire to continue relationships with team members. Praise for S, a Muslim student from an island in the Indian Ocean and S, an Indian (Hindu) who were particularly touched by the Gospel and plan to go to the ‘camp of the Ascension’ to learn more.
Praise for M, a North African student from last year who has shown a real desire to understand the Gospel and wants to attend the ‘camp of the Ascension’ in Switzerland, 25 May – 1 June.
Pray for the salvation of the other 3 students, especially at the Ascension camp.
Partnership
Please pray that new partnership being developed between our office and a Nairobi Church would be fruitful in reaching the Digo in Dima, Kwale County. The church has had a station at Dima since 2014. Their clinic offers medical services to the community and the centre built around the clinic engages children and youth in schools and the community. They also have engagement with pastors in many churches in the area. Pray for God to send workers, and for spiritual fruit among the Digo people.
Love your enemy
Pray for Bibi O. a neighborly grandma who has heard the Gospel several times. Recently, we had a conversation with her about what it means to love your neighbor and to love your enemy, to love those who do not return that friendship. In astonishment, she said it would be impossible to love a neighbor who didn’t return that love. The conversation turned to Jesus’ teachings about loving others and how we can’t love anyone without Christ working in us. Pray for Bibi O. that she would come to know Christ’s eternal and steadfast love, letting it change her hard heart and transform her into a daughter of the King!
Elders and women
Pray for elders taking BTCP classes. That they would study hard and understand all they are learning.
Pray for Village of Hope and the women hearing Bible stories for the first time as well as learning to read and crochet.
Pray as ongoing outreaches continue with one area building a small structure for Bible study meetings.
Deported
Diaspora in Germany: Pray for Farshad, who has been deported back to Iran after 6 years with us in the Injil ministry serving together. Pray for protection, encouragement, and God’s presence with him.
Pray also for our outreach program which is happening 14-16 May. Ask for open hearts and divine encounters.
Weekend gatherings
The raffia project is going well with the third group of students and two getting baptised. A shop in town is now prepared to sell the goods. We need someone to manage it. May the women grow in understanding of their faith.
Village churches are about to start having their monthly weekend gatherings. May they be encouraged and grow. Some are divided by the problems in the mother church. May they have wisdom and clarity and unity.
Outreach
Pray for a fellowship in a Spanish city that is seeking to reach out to the Saharawi people in their community. Their desire is to see an Arabic-speaking church worshipping the One True God! Pray for that!
Spirit, give freedom
We ask for the families of believers to see the reflection of Jesus’ glory in the face of His children. May believers always turn to look at Jesus, and be made more like him with ever increasing glory. As not-yet-believing family members see this glory, may they also turn to Jesus and the veil be taken away. May the Spirit of the Lord give freedom.
Parenting class
Diaspora in England: Our new parenting class started on May 1st. We have 6 mums signed up but have space for 2 more. Pray that all 8 spots would be filled and that we’d be able to build relationships with these women over the next 7 weeks of the course.
Praise God for a particularly open group of M women in the English conversation class. They’re very interested in Bible stories and ask lots of questions. Pray for more opportunities to visit women in their homes.
New sister!
Praise God for a new sister in the capital, ‘Naamah’! She started exploring truth after watching videos online, and was put in contact with another ex-pat team we partner with in the capital. After meeting with them a few times she says she wants to follow Jesus for the rest of her life! Ask for protection from the ploys of the evil one to distract and dissuade her. Ask for her to grow in knowledge and love of Jesus and find new family among the local believers in the city who will support her well.
Growing numbers
I recently met a lady who is not only a fervent Karana believer, but she’s also half Antankarana, and has a deep burden to reach the Antakarana in the North of Madagascar as well as her Karana relatives. Pray for her witness.
Another small family of Karana believers are joining a church in Ambilobe. Pray that our Karana friends might be encouraged and edified by each other in the possibilities of their linking to see a growing number of believers.
Lord, send harvesters
May the church of God arise and tell the good news to the Amazigh who have never heard of the cross and resurrection. One woman when she heard about the Messiah dying to pay the price of our sin, asked, ‘What is this Messiah? Is it an animal that dies?’ Another woman, hearing of the cross for the first time, was in tears as she held out her own wrists touching the places where the nails were fastened… Lord, send harvesters to speak to these tender hearts you are preparing.
Took her charm off
Pray for A., a young lady who works for some of the team. She recently agreed to read the Word together on a weekly basis. A. is also pregnant and per local customs was originally wearing a charm for protection over her and her baby, but last week she showed up to work with no charm, and when asked about it, she said she took it off- an incredible act! Pray that A. would continue to soften to the Gospel, that she would see Christ’s love for her and her need for redemption. Pray for her pregnancy and the baby’s health and that this would continue to bring opportunities to share the Gospel and display God’s power and grace!
Keep going
Praise the Lord for recent baptized believers – pray for their continued growth.
Pray for our discipleship program – that God will transform lives.
Pray for the women- for strength to overcome difficult situations and keep going in faith.
Pray for families- for protection against attacks from the evil one.
Gospel conversations
Praise that S mom and daughter are back in Spain after an extended time in North Africa. Pray for fruitful gospel conversations with them.
Opening to the gospel
Thank God more villages are opening to the gospel and asking for Bible studies to start. Pray for many to respond to the Gospel! Also, praise God for good rains this year which has lifted hearts, after several years of failed rains lead to many livestock deaths.
Needing help
Pray for Frieda. She is trying to find enough work to cover rent and food for her and her family, while her husband is in a psychiatric hospital. Pray for the Lord to provide for her and to open her heart to spiritual conversations.
Meeting together
Pray for direction and wisdom in how best to move forward with local body meetings. There isn’t a lot of interest for the majority of followers in meeting together. The team plans on engaging more with islanders who have been seeking out our island sister, Rachel. She says there are islanders interested in studying, but she has been reluctant to invite them to the bi-monthly believers’ meetings because of the fear of new people among the longstanding believers. However, the older believers aren’t coming, so maybe it’s time to invite new people. We ask for wisdom in moving forward.
Wives of new believers
Our worker team and the lead O shepherd, Timothy, realize the truth more and more of the four soils parable. Pray with us for God‘s provision of more O hearts who will be good soil and produce that 30, 60 and 100 fold harvest!
Specifically pray for the wives of these NBs! Pray for wisdom and courage in how to gather all the NBs for teaching, worship and fellowship. Pray for much growth!
Bible stories
Diaspora in England: Give thanks for a lady who now helps me share Bible stories at a local English school on Mondays. Pray for wisdom for us as we choose stories for the summer term. Pray for open ears and hearts to listen well and believe the stories.
Wind of the Spirit
Pray for the established Karana families of Toliara (city in the Southwest) that God will move in their lives that they will begin to seek Him and seek Him with their whole heart. Pray for their relationships with believers in Toliara to begin to bear fruit.
Pray that as the south wind sweeps through the town, the wind of the Holy Spirit will capture and captivate hearts and lives of the Karana and all the inhabitants of Toliara.
Pray life and blessing over the town of Toliara.
New legal attack
Please continue to pray for the Lord’s protection over the Bible translation work. The translator who has been causing so many issues for us launched a new legal attack this week. Although it seems that her case has died before it even really got started due to lack of any legitimate grounds, it reminds us that this battle and opposition are still not over.
Spiritual conversations
Diaspora in Scotland: Praise God for good connections and conversations with many refugees in my Parish Nursing role and as I volunteer at the English Conversation Cafe. Please pray for E, S and for A as I spend time with them. Please pray for spiritual conversations and open hearts.
Oral Bible project
We’re encouraged to report that the Oral Bible Translation project is progressing well. Pray for Amoni and his team as they diligently work to make God’s Word accessible in the local heart language.
New village
Alongside our team of pastor-evangelists, we visit at least two Bara villages every week. And yesterday, we went! It was a 4-hour motorcycle ride on dusty, rugged paths, crossing savannas and brush, all the way to a remote village called Atsely. When we arrived, only a few people were there. But as soon as the sound of the motorcycles echoed across the savanna… they came! Over 150 Bara people appeared from the bush, eyes wide, hearts open, ready to hear about Jesus.
They watched the testimonies of other Bara who have already surrendered their lives to Christ — stories recorded through our GNPI – Nomad Madagascar project. To see the Word touching hearts… there are no words to describe the joy. Pray for the new believers and others who are close to the kingdom to continue their faith journey.
Teacher
Pray for M., an elementary school teacher here who started having strange and severe health issues which caused him to stop teaching . Pray for his healing and also for wisdom for the school administrators, who are looking for another teacher to replace him.
Senegalese friends
Diaspora in Brazil: Praise God for the Senegalese people I have contact with playing soccer. Ask that God will continue to grow these relationships and open up spiritual conversations.
My wife requests prayer for Marie, a Senegalese woman she has recently become friends with. Pray for opportunities to be a blessing.
Very kind to me
Diaspora in Texas: When I was visiting folks at an immigrant/refugee apartment complex, I met a Som man named H. and his family of 10. They invited me and some world relief volunteers in and were very kind. The adults in the family need jobs. Pray for wisdom on how to develop an authentic relationship with this family. And pray they can get jobs.
Unity
Lord, we cry out to you for unity in your body. Bring about reconciliation, forgiveness, healing, trust and love in the longstanding rift we see in your church here. Bring your unity into families too, we ask that struggling husbands and wives would, in your strength and power, forgive and learn to trust one another, to love each other as you love us. We pray for this unity in strained parent-child relationships and among siblings also. Jesus, unity was on your heart when you prayed for us on the night you were betrayed, and we pray that you would bring the unity you asked the Father for to our Plateau and across these islands.
Church meeting
Pray for the Fulani fellowship of believers that is meeting together every Sunday in D-town. Praise God for the unity of this group – pray that they would be faithful in meeting and that they would truly be the Body of Christ to one another. Pray that this fellowship would be a blessing and encouragement to the other MBB’s in D-town who still feel isolated. Pray that, if the Lord would so desire, this group becomes the foundation for a MBB church.
Local testimonies
We have started a new project this year, in partnership with GNPI (Good News Production International). A new tool to proclaim the Gospel. We are producing local testimonies, stories of faith, redemption, and transformation told by those local believers.
These testimonies have been broadcast in villages, followed by the Jesus Film. What a great strategy to reach the people. When locals stand up to testify about Christ, there is power, identification, and response.
We don’t trust in the strategy, but our hope is that God, will change hearts in listening to the Bara people testifying to the Bara about Christ.
Seeking advice
Diaspora in Brazil: We thank God for the students we have contact with, who seek us for advice and mentoring, please pray for their growth and for God’s provision for their needs.
Pray for new Muslim students to come and be open to talk with us.
Bible MP3
We are walking the villages, meeting with Muslims and giving them MP3 Bible recordings. Instead of just handing them out, we want to initiate more conversation. Like this: “Do you not find that no matter how much you go to Mosque, fast, and pray, you still do that which you know Allah has forbidden you?” They all say, “Yes that is so!” The Christian will often answer in the same way BUT will often also say, “but it is not as bad as it used to be.” Prov. 4:18 says, “But the path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” The difference between the Muslim and Christian is there is the daily renewing hope of the cross. So the trajectory of the Christian is different to that of the world, slowly but surely the body of death is losing the battle. Interesting that the people here say, Muslims and Christians both sin but the Christians less so. Pray for our conversations to bring light.
Stateless
Pray for the Karana across Madagascar who are stateless because their forefathers
came from different parts of the world without the correct documents.
There are about 10 million people in the world who do not possess citizenship of
any country. Pray that this group will become citizens of the Kingdom of
Heaven.
Pray that God will open doors for the church to share the Gospel and their lives with
the small Karana community in Fianarantsoa.
Sharing about our hope
Diaspora in Wales: Pray for opportunities to share about our Hope in Jesus and for receptive hearts (especially during Coffee/Tea time, Conversation Class, Sewing Class Devotional followed by Snack Time). Pray for curious and open hearts to respond well.
Experience God
Pray for the Ndengereko people to experience God powerfully at work in their lives that they would not fear rejection from their community and that they would come under His Lordship. Ask for God to raise up bold Christian witnesses among the Ndengereko so that many would know His love for them and that He is the true Way. Pray for an AIM outreach team slated to begin among them this spring.
Easter Sunday
Tomorrow the International Church is planning an Easter celebration for all believers on i1, locals and expats. There is history and division between fellowship groups. We pray that this may be an opportunity for all of us to come together as one body and set aside past disagreements. We ask for humble hearts and a spirit of forgiveness that will lead us to unity and bring glory to our Lord, and a joyful celebration of our risen Lord!
