A couple of women who work with local brother ‘Harvey’ are very close to accepting Jesus as Lord, or may already have done so. But they are isolated out on the south coast, not near either of our teams. Ask for wisdom in how to support them best. Praise the Lord He is the Good Shepherd and cares for His sheep.
Children’s program
While in Brazil for HA, we left the Evangelism Program for the Children and the BeFitia literacy program under the leadership of our local Malagasy partners ( Pr. Erik and Mana). Things are going great and they are doing amazingly. Pray for God’s hand to be upon them and the children.
Praise God another church has been planted among the Bara! It is a total of 15. Pray for the new believers to grow in faith and share with it others.
Gospel seeds
Our friend Mr M is leaving Madagascar, moving back to Tanzania with his family. Please pray for them as they go. Pray that the Gospel seeds planted may not be lost, and pray for the time we still have together in Madagascar will be fruitful.
Pray for new contacts in the Karana community of Fianar-tsoa.
Pray for a couple who have shown interest but never call me back. Pray that they will have the courage to do that.
Tender
Recently one of our local friends joined some of our sisters for a ladies weekend. They spent extensive time in the word. She seems tender to the good news but hesitant to ask questions in a group. Pray for her heart to open and her eyes to see the truth.
Pray for a breakthrough
Pray for spiritual breakthroughs and fruitful outreach by local believers and others in the community. Pray for people to read the scriptures and believe the message.
Traditional practices
Pray for disciple Mama H, who, while I was away, returned to traditional ancestor practices to deal with her condition of epileptic fits. Please pray for her to come back to Jesus and put her faith in him even when he’s not healing her in the way and timeframe that she wants.
JF and evangelism projects
The Jesus Film and evangelism program among the Bara, Mahafaly and Antandroy are under the supervision of our local partners (Pr. Rakoto, Pr Soja, Pr Tomoeira, Pr Erik, Pr. Mandimby, Pr Haza, Pr Fabrice, Pr Fabien, Pr Tafita, Pr Moises, and Pr Menza). Ask God to make them very fruitful!
Outreach
Pray for our open air evangelism, prayer, and showing the Jesus Film in Uru area today. Pray God to be with us and for fertile ground that many will give their lives to Christ.
Community needs
Praise that 15 Saharawi ladies came to the gathering last week to share about the needs of the community! They were able to share things that weigh on their hearts and minds. By God’s grace, they seemed to feel loved and valued. Please pray we have wisdom in discerning how the Lord wants to use us to meet some of the needs they expressed.
Good Shepherd
We PTL that young shepherd families are coming to Jesus! Two of the believers came together for some study time. Usually it’s 1 on 1, but we pray they will come to trust each other more, and have freedom and courage to gather together! We pray they will each grow strong and lead and keep sharing with more! One is a natural leader, and he is working at learning to read! May God bless those efforts. May they all come to love the Good Shepherd and have deep relationship with him!
Word apps
Pray for the Word apps to continue to be shared, especially the books of John and Mark. Pray people would be excited to read the Word in their heart language and that their hearts would be open to the Truth.
Breakthroughs
Pray for breakthroughs among the Sandawe through Tanzanian pastors and evangelists. Pray God would build His church in Sandawe-land.
Translation work
Please pray for the draft translation of Galatians. Pray for wisdom and discernment as we continue to work on it. Please also pray for us getting feedback on the book of Luke in the month of July. Pray for constructive feedback.
Vacation time!
Please pray for safety and blessing for the children during the big vacation season. Pray that the holiday programs run by the church in the Tsimihety villages would go well, and that many children would accept Jesus as Lord.
Focused engagement
We recently carried out a focused engagement time in our community with the aim of sharing the Good News. It was such a joy to work alongside other workers from our city and surrounding area including three local believers! Pray for those who heard the Good News for the first time, that the Father will continue to draw them to Himself and that they will bow their knees to Him.
Pray again for the young man who was kicked out of his home because of his faith in Jesus; ask God to work in the hearts of his family and to provide for his needs.
Threatening divorce
Pray for sister M. whose Muslim husband is threatening to divorce her after realizing she is a believer. Pray for grace and peace of mind and heart for her and conviction of sin for her husband.
Kidnapped!
We’ve received news of the kidnapping of an MBB who was taken back to Som**. The kidnapers have contacted the wife who is also an MBB and told her that they want him to denounce his faith in Christ. The persecution is painful. Please pray for God’s strength as A** goes through this pain. Pray that he is able to stand strong. May God also reveal Himself to these persecutors.
School reconciling enemies
Here’s an update from our School in Naliel. Today we have 205 students and the number keeps increasing daily. Pupils are arriving from different areas, some from far away. This started after WFP started supporting the feeding of students with 2 meals a day, and news spread all over that our school teachers are committed. What amazes us is seeing kids from Laarim, Didinga, and Jiye people, who are enemies to Toposa. Seeing their children sitting in one class, sharing a room and food is such a great picture of peace reconciliation that we want to see them become heralds of peace to their parents. Pray with us for that! Pray also for God’s provision for dormitories, mattresses and blankets to house all the students.
Pastors and elders meeting together
Pastors and elders of multiple local churches among the Rendille and Samburu continue to meet to read and study God’s Word and how it practically lives out in the church. This past week, 5 of those men gathered to learn how to study the Bible (hermeneutics) and are moving on to expository preaching through a curriculum called SOMA. Pray for these men as they sharpen each other. Pray for their spiritual growth, the growth of their families, and the growth of healthy churches in Northern Kenya.
1 Corinthians 3:6–7 (ESV): 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
Independence Day
This Wednesday the people of Madagascar celebrate Independence from France. Please pray that during this time of celebration as families return to their village or come into towns to celebrate, that Christians would carry the light of the gospel with them and have opportunities to share the hope and joy that they have in Christ who has truly set them free.
Feast of Sacrifice
The Eid al-Adha (the ‘feast of sacrifice’, when Muslims remember Abraham sacrificing a ram in place of his son) was celebrated last weekend. Many meaningful conversations were had around the subject of sacrifice. Pray that as these seeds were planted, they would find good soil and many follow up conversations would take place.
Literacy program graduation
This marks the end of our 2023/2024 literacy program. Yesterday, we celebrated the conclusion of a year of study. Two hundred children were taught about Christ, learned to read and write in their own language, and were fed daily!
Pray with us that the knowledge of Christ will transform their hearts and that literacy will change their futures.
The next 200 children start studying in September 2024!
Pray for grace to believe
We thank the Lord for home fellowships and that more Muslim youths are attending. Pray that the Lord will draw them to Himself as they listen to Word.
Pray for grace as we do home visitations. Pray that people will come to know Him.
Convinced to return
We’d appreciate prayer for Asha, one of only a handful of baptized Alagwa believers, who has now returned to Islam. She comes from a background of a lot of demonization and occult involvement as well as mental illness. While I was on home assignment, her condition worsened, and her family convinced her to return to Islam. Please pray that this is not the end of her story! Pray for her to remember Jesus and hunger afresh for him.
Solar system hit
One month ago the solar system of our office, the controller, and inverter were damaged and burned by a lightning strike. Please pray we can get it repaired or replaced. This equipment is very important to our translation work.
Plans to reach more
Pray for Mrs F’s spiritual growth and for her family to receive Christ. Pray for her growing awareness of her faith, people in her community know she is a believer which causes mixed reactions. Please pray for the plans to meet with her this week to encourage her and discuss reaching more K people with the Gospel.
Believing Families
I had one of the believing wives come and spend the day with me on Friday and had some great study, worship and scripture memory time together. Pray that the believing family units may grow together!
It’s all so fragile, but so exciting to finally see these signs of growth in the body of Christ here in O-land! Keep praying! And don’t forget about good Security – every day is a day of God‘s grace here – we praise Him for it and pray for more!
Free printing!
I am in contact with a printer who offered to print the translated Gospel of Luke, Acts, and the Bible stories, free of charge. They also want to ship it to Madagascar for us. Praise God for this provision! However, it is a challenge to figure out how to ship them without having to pay bribes at customs. Pray for wisdom and favor.
Prisoners
Pray the God of hope will fill the prisoners and their families with all joy and peace as they trust in Him, so that they would overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Rom 15:13)
Pray the judge and other officials would have no peace and would be troubled by the Holy Spirit until they repent and free the Lord’s loved ones.
Loved and Valued
Pray for an upcoming gathering to hear about needs of the Saharawi community so we can consider if/how we can meet them. Please pray for clear communication, appropriate expectations and that the Saharawii people in the city would feel loved and valued.
In jail
Recently one of our brothers was put in jail. The way forward is controversial. Wisdom, courage, and rescue are needed. Pray for him to remain steadfast and ask Father to comfort his wife and kids.
Revival
Pray for community transformation amongst the Toposa. We have seen revival again among the believers despite their hard time during this hunger season. (Some of the areas haven’t received rains and they have not planted.) We praise God for the training centre that is ongoing in Nawyapak region. Pray for the construction team and the ownership of the centre by believers.
Youth discipleship
Please pray for some new initiatives for discipleship among the youth at church. Pray that the ideas will be well received and that God may give all of us a hunger to grow in our relationship with him. Pray that the youth of the church may be an “example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” 1 Timothy 4:12
Obeying and teaching others
Pray for Nyang’atom South Sudan believers. They are obeying and even teaching their neigbouring community the Gospel. Pray for provision of water in this area.
Conference
Nine Fulani believers and I attended a Fulani conference recently. We were encouraged to be strong and grow in faith despite persecutions. Pray for the local church to grow in love, unity, and forgiveness.
Teachers
Sister Theresa was able to mobilize the community to make 10,000 bricks for the school building. Seven teachers from Shuwaia just graduated from our Education Teach to Reach program April 19. Pray for the school building project and these newly trained teachers to be a blessing to the community and a light set on a hill.
Heartbroken
Diaspora in Ontario: Pray for our local Christian friends from the Horn. Particularly for H who has been attending church faithfully with us for a long time. Our church is disbanding due to declining membership, and H is heartbroken at losing that fellowship. Pray that we and he will find another church soon where he can grow and be blessed. Please pray for his siblings who were raised in a Christian home but have left their former love.
Pray also for one family whose daughter married a Muslim and who have refused all contact with her since. Pray that she’ll be restored to Jesus and her family.
Alpha course
We are doing a version of the Alpha course with some interested islanders. So far 8 islanders (both men and women) have been faithfully coming. Pray that this course would bear fruit in their lives and that they would share what they are learning with others.
Truth
Diaspora in Ontario: I met Omar, a Muslim high schooler originally from Pakistan/India, during street evangelism. Coincidentally we met twice at different street intersections over the last 3 months. Omar questions why we don’t believe Islam is the truth. Pray that Omar will be open to reading the true word of God, the Bible.
Translation team needed
We thank God for what’s happening in Jiye-land. Pray for Simon Amoni and Loumwa, the Jiye leaders, sharing the gospel in the community. Pray for an Oral Bible translation team that is needed to have the gospel in their heart language. Ask the Lord to call people to this task. Keep praying for the salvation of many in this community.
