Please pray that the Lord will cause many Zaramo to be asking themselves what is the meaning of life, and that the Lord will raise up Christians to share that all things are from, through, and for Christ. May many Zaramo embrace Him as their joy and their salvation.
Dorobo Breakthrough Prayer
“Lord, please deliver the Dorobo from addiction to honey wine, and instead let them be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Drawn to the Son
Pray for whole families who are drawn to the Son, hearing chronological stories about God’s character and man’s need for a Savior. The Jesus Film has been shown to numerous groups in public places. The response is unclear except that the film is watched with attention to what is being spoken. Some are requesting to see the film again, and if it might be shown at their homes so their entire household and neighbors may see the film. Pray for those curious would know the Truth, and that the Truth will set them free.
M Breakthrough Prayer
“Father, we ask You to raise up M disciple makers who will catalyze a movement that will spread throughout the M hills and beyond.”
Churches in Toliara
In the city of Toliara in Southwest Madagascar, evangelical churches work to reach their families, friends, and new areas around them with the Gospel. One church has a vision for planting 40 new churches around the city. Pray for:
– each believer in this church to catch God’s vision for His name going forth.
– each believer to be equipped to share the Gospel and the grand narrative of Scripture.
– wisdom and sustenance for the leaders of this church.
– fellowship and cooperation between all the evangelical churches in Toliara.
Sandawe Breakthrough Prayer
“Father, may the believers be so united that the Sandawe see and become convinced that You sent Jesus Your Son into the world, and that You love them as You love Jesus.”
A United Church
We desire to see a united church amongst the Somali believers so that the church will grow in spirit and in truth. How my heart aches to worship with other Somali believers and to hear a Somali preacher in the pulpit. What a glorious day that shall be! Please pray it will come soon.
O. Breakthrough Prayer
“Please give the O eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to respond to the gospel of Christ.”
Radio and Stories of God in Bara
It has been 1 year now that we have been broadcasting the stories of God on the local radio. Bara people are used to listening to the radio, so it is a great strategy to reach out to the villages further away. Could you please pray that God uses these stories to speak to the hearts of Bara people? Please, cry out to God for their salvation. God bless you!
Bold and Passionate
Pray that Somali people will receive salvation, that God will remove the veil of misguided belief in Islam. Pray that we will be able to speak boldly to the Somali about the gospel and not be afraid. Lord, give us more bold and passionate witnesses.
A Deep and Lasting Faith
A Muslim family has received books, tracts, DVDs and links to Christian websites. They have also had many conversations with their Christian neighbours about the gospel. Please pray that they will all come to deep and lasting faith in Christ, and break entirely with their old religion in order to be publicly associated with Him. Pray for each person in the family…from the old grandfather down to the youngest grandchildren…to receive Jesus and embrace Him.
Marriages not made in heaven
Many islanders enter into marriage with low expectations- they don’t expect faithfulness, longevity or love. Husbands and wives first loyalty and connection usually remans tied to their families rather than creating a united bond with their spouse.
Pray for all those who are hurting and in pain from betrayal, for all those who live in loveless cold marriages, for all those who long for something more but don’t know how to go about building a marriage that will last. Pray for those who bear the shame of being unmarried or cast off for not producing children. Pray that men and women would meet One who sees their hearts and their burdens, pray that they would cry out to Him for comfort, pray that God would transform the culture of marriage here and it would become the gift he intended it to be.
Physically Attacked
Please pray for an Alagwa believer, who recently has come to visit family. They have put tremendous pressure on her to return to Islam. Yesterday she made a stand by joining the other believers for church. Later, she was physically attacked by a family member. Please pray for her! May she find her strength and comfort in Jesus. May her family see her witness and repent and turn to Jesus.
Digo Breakthrough Prayer
“As the Digo have been known for their zeal for Islam, may they become even more zealous for Jesus.”
Alagwa Breakthrough Prayer
“Father, by Your Spirit bring to the Alagwa freedom from fear, that many will come to know Your love and follow Jesus.”
Jesus film
Could you join us in prayer that the Film Jesus would awaken the interest in the Bara people to know more about ‘Zañahary’ (The Lord) and His son?
We have shown the film in more then 12 villages. Pray that the Holy Spirit keeps reminding them of the love of God in the cross.
Distractions and busyness of life
Pray for those who have expressed a desire to know more but then the busyness of life gets in the way. Ask that God would reignite a desire to know and learn, and that they would pursue Jesus just as he is pursuing them!
Praise God that he did just this in the life of a new believer on Vanilla Island. Life had become very busy for her and she had stopped meeting with workers to study and pray together. The other day however she appeared in a bit of a flurry and said they must start meeting again – when asked why she explained that Jesus had spoken to her in a dream and asked her why she had stopped!
Willing to Sell it all to Gain the Pearl
Please pray that a friend will desire to continue reading Scripture with me. She has lately been distracted, perhaps afraid of the direction she is being led as she reads the words of Jesus in Luke. Pray that the difficulties in her life will cause her to be willing to “sell everything in order to gain the pearl of great price.” Pray that she will discover she cannot simply go back to her former life and ways of thinking now that she has understood the gospel. Pray for her fears about leaving Islam to be conquered by the Lover of her soul.
Two Sad Funerals
We recently attended 2 funerals of ladies who had heard the gospel and unexpectedly died. One had accepted prayer for healing in Jesus, recovered, and then gone to Kilwa – an Islamic withchdoctor stronghold – where she died unexpectedly. The other was for Binti O who suddenly collapsed and died. A few days prior to Binti O’s death, I had been prompted by the Holy Spirit to again share the gospel of Jesus Christ and exhort her to respond because I loved her as my mother and no one knows the number of their days. She thanked me, but never personally responded. Pray that God would redeem the hopelessness and darkness of these 2 funerals to drive our dearly loved neighbors to light and hope in Jesus Christ!
A Prayer for Coastal Swahili of Tanzania
“Pray for whole Swahili families to turn to Jesus, with faith that endures and bears fruit.”
Break the Power
Please pray this for the Rendille: “Lord, break the power of Islam threatening to take over the Rendille hearts and minds. Open eyes to the truth of God’s Word.”
Friendship Through Basketball
Through our ministry with a local church we have engaged with some Somali people through basketball. The idea has been to build friendships. By the grace of God, in the last two weeks, we have organised two outings for lunch and a movie with them. They have heard our testimonies and heard the gospel. But please pray that God will intervene and allow us to have more personal conversations about Jesus with these two ladies again. They are very passionate to play basketball but let’s pray that they will become passionate for Jesus Christ before they leave here!
May the people here the true gospel
Pray for the people who call themselves Christian in Karamoja to preach the salvation message of Jesus Christ and not a message of good works to get into heaven. Please join us in interceding that this false gospel will lose power here and the true gospel of grace would be known and received.
Leader needed
Recently one of our leaders David went to be with the Lord. He was a wonderful Godly man serving in a very dark spiritual area. At his funeral we had several witchdoctors and prophets. David was a shining light in that darkness. Pray with us for a God chosen leader to take his place.
The Spirit’s Conviction
Please pray this prayer for the Rangi people: “And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgement” (John 16:8). Lord, may you reveal to the Rangi-Muslims of Kondoa that they are sinners in need of a Savior – Jesus Christ. May the Spirit of God speak with them in a way that they can understand and believe. Amen!
Pray for those translating the Word
Pray for the local translators on Clove Island. Both are believers married to unbelievers, and both of their spouses not only know what they’re doing but also add in their own ideas! Recently E’s husband said “If people actually believed all of this then the world would be totally different!” Pray that these translators would be living examples of God’s word, and that God would remove the stumbling blocks that are keeping their spouses from running to their Father.
Pray also for a local translator on Vanilla Island who has expressed a desire to find out things for herself – despite discouragement from family and a religious leader. She is recently married and her husband hasn’t discouraged her from working on translation. Her father also seems disillusioned with the majority faith and is talking to workers about what they believe. Pray that God would lead this whole family into his kingdom.
Tragic Rites
Little 11 year old A, who plays with our daughter after school from time to time, has her ‘ngoma’ this weekend – the coming of age 2-day ceremony which culminates in her being removed from the home where she has been sequestered for teaching in the feminine arts and paraded, on shoulders, naked with just a cloth draped over her waist. Then she must dance to display her comeliness for all eyes to see (threatened with shame & a beating if she doesn’t). After this her family is free to receive marriage proposals from the highest bidder. Ironically A will don her headscarf and go back to school on Monday. I weep for the children here that lose their childhood, their innocence far too young. Pray for them to know the Savior who said, “Let the little children come unto me…” Pray that when they come to know the Savior these rites of passage would be redeemed to glorify God in their celebration of Biblical manhood and womanhood!
Healing needs
A close friend is being brought to the mission hospital to try and diagnose why she is losing weight and having other dangerous looking symptoms. She knows the Gospel message well, but has so far chosen to reject it in order to keep her family and community happy. She has refused to come to Jesus for healing prayer. Pray that God will reveal Jesus to her and her family as Healer of her heart from the ‘sickness of sin’, and also her physical sickness to be Healed by Jesus power and grace!
Baptism!
Pray for the six believers who were baptized last week to stand strong despite the scorn of the majority. May they follow the example of the older traveling Fulani believer who faithfully disciples all he meets from village to village!
New Sunday School
A Sunday school program has begun in one of the churches on the Ik ridge. Praise God for this blessing for the Ik children! Pray that the program continues and that the children receive sound biblical doctrine beginning at a young age.
Portions of Scripture
A number of S. Asian friends have received portions of Scripture, devotionals or Bibles. Please pray that they and others in their homes will read and be drawn to Christ through the powerful Word of God. Pray that as they have questions, they will feel free to ask their Christian friends to explain and teach them more. Pray for a deep hunger for relationship with God and eternal life.
Prayer for unity
Please pray for unity among the Digo church in Kwale. We know that Satan will take advantage of any opportunity to sneak in and cause problems, but we also know that Jesus’s power is greater!
Excitement over learning to read
Praise God for the progress our literacy students are making. They are so excited about learning to read. Several of them are also excited to read God’s word. Pray God will open their hearts to believe the Bible stories are true and they would put their trust in Jesus.
Marriage
The past few months we have been focusing on what the Bible says about marriage. Pray that the husbands will love their wives as Jesus loves the Church, that the wives will submit to her husband as the Church submits to Christ. The Ndau are polygamists which leads to disharmony within the family. Our prayer is that they will make God their centre.
Keep Asking God for the Five Men
Please continue to pray with us that five Samburu men will decide to follow Jesus by the end of 2017. Pray for many opportunities to proclaim the gospel. Pray for conviction, that they will recognize their need for a Savior. Pray that they will seek after God.
Pray also for the women who attend church that they will understand the Word that they hear and the songs that they sing. Pray that they also will truly seek after God. Pray especially for the four women who try to meet on Friday afternoons for praise and prayer.
Jesus answered my prayer!
Mary, now a six month-old new believer, meets for prayers with some ladies whom she has led to the Lord. The DBS story this week was Jesus raising Jarius’s daughter. When the group was asked what they learned from the story, they spoke of the life-bringing power of Jesus in a hopeless situation. Laguwe shared that her 3 year old had gotten very sick, and “since you were not here, I decided not to go to the witchdoctor, but to do what I had seen and heard you do. I prayed like you do to Jesus to heal…and HE DID IT, even for me!” Praise God for maturing faith in new believers!
Women worshipping together
Praise God for a recent women’s retreat where nine local women gathered to worship and pray together. Some of these women came to faith through locals rather than workers and now some of these newer believers are sharing with others! Pray for strong third and fourth generation believers and that these women would continue to meet together and build one another up in unity.
Is there anyone alive in Betroka?
“Is there anyone still living in Betroka?” This was the question that Pastor Emanoela was asked last Friday while in a town far from Betroka.
The cattle thieves are continuing to steal. Could you please pray that the fear of ‘Zañahary’ ( the LORD) come over their hearts? Could you please pray for their conversion? May God have mercy on them! They are the very Bara people we want to reach out with the Gospel.
Healing For a Young Somali Woman of Influence
Please pray for a young Somali believer to be healed. The doctors have given up on her because she has a swelling on her leg that cannot be fixed…according to them. I can see how this has caused her to be discouraged with God. Let’s pray that God will heal this young lady’s leg so that she will continue to be strong in her faith and see God’s glory through this healing. I claim her healing in the name of Jesus. She is a woman of peace and has a huge influence to many Somali people.
People are seeing the Light
The communities that we live among only have a few believers, but we see that God is at work, and we are so encouraged by the believers’ joy and boldness. Last week S said that she wanted to be baptised like Jesus, because then, just as Jesus did, she would start her ministry! Yet, she has already begun it in the past months, sharing the good news boldly with many of her friends and neighbours. We are beginning to see ripples in the communities where we live and even in other communities as we see and hear of others who are drawn to the light. Pray for us and the believers in our community and for T (the Fulani elder), that God will sustain us in our faith in Him, that we will live wholeheartedly for Him, and that nothing will hinder us from being above reproach. Pray that our lives and witness will be such a bright light, such a sweet aroma, that others will be drawn to the truth. May we not seek the praise of men, but rather to be esteemed in God’s eyes.
