Distribution of a partial audio Bible in the local dialect has started. SD memory cards are loaded with that and some Malagasy worship music and the Jesus film. Pray that those who received it will listen regularly and that true word of God will take hold in their hearts.
Studying together
Pray for an Alagwa secret believer who is beginning to study the Word together with some of his relatives and friends. Pray for him to facilitate a group coming to Christ together.
TEE
Robert is now leading eight Lopit men in four different villages in TEE (Theological Education by Extension). Remember these men in your prayers, “asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give [them] the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that [they] may know him better” (Ephesians 1:17). Pray for Clement, a Lopit believer, who has agreed to lead two young men through the TEE classes in his village of Ibahore. Pray that God will continue to raise up Lopit believers to lead His church amongst their own people!
Ramadan
Pray for the women I meet with, some won’t want to study the Bible until Ramadan is over. Pray that God may reveal himself to them.
Seek and find
Pray for the Muslim community here as Ramadan has started this week. Pray that many Muslims, as they fast and pray for the forgiveness of their sins, would seek and find the True God.
Be awakened to God
Dry season in Kimatong means village life has quieted down. Many have migrated with their cattle to a more viable source of water and grazeable land. Other Laarim have gone to the trading center of Loryok, a four-hour walk from the village. Due to the poor harvest, food is not always easy to find. Life is hard for these people! Please pray for the needs of the Laarim to be met. And pray that such need would awaken many to turn to God and recognize their deeper needs, so that they come to know what they were truly created for.
St Patrick’s Day
Diaspora in California: Pray for the St Patrick’s day dinner (March 15) and the Easter picnic (March 30) with the International students. Pray for students to come and for the gospel to be clearly presented and received.
Quiet them with His love
‘He will quiet you with his love’. This is a particularly testing month for local believers as they come under extra scrutiny and pressure to conform. Many are isolated from one another and walk a lonely path. Pray that the additional pressure would only serve to press them ever closer to Jesus, and that He would quiet them with his love.
Bible study
Diaspora in France: Pray for a Bible study we have started with 3 students. Praise for the encouragement of how the Lord is working in their lives. Pray nothing will interfere with meeting regularly.
School for children
We have started a school and children’s ministry in the ‘forest village’. I want to see a new generation from this village—a generation who knows the true God in their heart language, a generation educated from an early age that we hope, in God’s providence, will help them in their future lives.
Last Christmas, before the school break, we organized a small party for the kids. I was so moved to see one little boy volunteering to pray. He prays to the true God in his own language. I trust God is in all of this. Please pray for these children and their school.
Gabbra pastors
Please pray for 3 Gabbra men who are serving as pastors in different villages. Each of these men have been discipled by missionaries and have completed formal Bible training. Requests have been submitted for each of them to receive a pastor’s license, but the process is being delayed. Pray that these three men would continue to grow in their faith as they teach others, and that they would all be granted licenses to be formal pastors.
Mr. M.
Pray for Mr M, may God open his heart. Pray for him to trust God with his financial problems.
Pray for the salvation of all Karana people of Madagascar, may the Lord help them to seek Him.
Publicly identified with Jesus
Pray for many of the secret believers and seekers who are trying to decide if they should fast Ramadan or not this year. Pray for courage to be publicly identified with Jesus.
Need a savior
For those who have been seeking and reading Truth, the month of Ramadan is often a time of renewed fervor for Islam. We pray for dreams and visions to disrupt their confidence. We pray that all the rituals and practices of this month will give them no assurances, no satisfaction, no hope. We pray for the hearts and minds of seekers to ultimately recognize how empty and powerless they are and how much they need a Savior.
Severe drought
Please pray for the drought affecting all our districts. The Ndau are subsistence farmers, and we are in a very severe drought. Beloved brothers and sisters in 5 areas have lost all their crops due to no rain! Please pray with us in faith for God’s provision in this new year- everything from last year is gone.
Bread
Since our school began in 2019, the World Food Program have been promising a feeding program for the students. We praise God that they have responded and now provide a meal for our children in school among the Toposa. Pray these children will also feast on the Bread of Life and share Him with their families.
Demonstrate compassion
Pray for the local believers in Nuba Mountains to respond to the needs of the communities and demonstrate compassion.
Pray for our partners on the ground in developing a strategy plan and be equipped to serve the affected communities.
Pray that these internally displaced persons (IDPs) will be catered to and ministered to according to their needs.
Healed in Jesus’ name
Praise the Lord for some wonderful opportunities to share Truth with people in the community. We have an initiative of going out three times a week in pairs and looking for opportunities to share Truth with people. We’ve had some encouraging conversations and prayed for people in the name of Jesus. We had one particularly exciting incident in which a young woman was healed, and she later was quick to attribute it to the prayer in Jesus’ name. Pray for her and many others to follow Jesus.
Resources in local languages
Pray for the social media accounts that have been created to share verses and songs in the local language. Let’s pray that God uses this channel to reach many people. Pray for all the resources in local languages to be widely shared and thoughtfully read.
Musa
Earlier this month, Musa was on a trip to the city where he was in the final stages of planning to move there to serve on a team sharing the gospel with Somali people. He was killed in a tragic car accident on the road along the way. He leaves a wife and family mourning his death, along with many others whom he has influenced and impacted through years of ministry.
My cry is this: that in Musa’s place, God would raise up 10, 20, or 100 more men and women who would follow in Musa’s footsteps, to go to places where unless someone goes, lost people will continue to live and die without hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pray the Lord comforts Musa’s family and at the same time raises up a harvest of passionate, compassionate, and transformed workers who will go and share the love of Christ and the power of the gospel among those who are living and dying without knowing Jesus.
Want to spend time together
Diaspora in Georgia: Pray for two Muslim ladies who I’ve begun developing friendships with. Pray that they would be tender and open to the Gospel while seeing God’s love shining through interactions they have with Christians. Pray that they would reach out and want to spend time together. Also, one of them, Z, is recovering from a herniated disc, so also pray for her healing.
Aslan
Diaspora in Canada: Pray for two dear cousins who are struggling academically, firmly committed to their Muslim faith, to be open to stories of God’s love and grace in Jesus. One is reading and watching the Narnia Chronicles and has been very interested in the role of Aslan, especially at the stone table. Pray that our discussion of the sacrifice of Aslan and the sacrifice of Jesus may bear fruit.
Oral Bible Translation
It is one year now since we started the Oral Bible Translation (with Spoken Worldwide) into the Northern Sakalava language. We have finished the books of Ruth and Mark and they have been released to the public through radio broadcasting, and to individuals’ phones. We are about to finish the book of Genesis—God willing this will be released this month.
The impact of the translation is great as people come to understand the word of God in their heart language. One of my friends in Ambilobe wrote to me: “So we went and taught using the audio of Ruth. They enjoyed listening and were very interested in discussing the meaning. After that two people decided to follow Jesus even before we asked anything! They said the story showed them they want to follow Him. I don’t know how God does it, but He did! Praise Jesus!”
Traveling
Wanyonyi, Claudio, and Nelson plan to go to Boma on Wednesday and travel for 10 days with Benjamin Challo and other Jie leaders. Getting Petrol for motorcycles has
been challenging. Pray for safe travels and fruitful ministry.
It’s a pretty dangerous time to travel in SS. The Lango are really causing trouble. Pray that this team remains safe.
Exploring reason for Easter
Diaspora in Wales: Pray for the women’s literacy and sewing classes. In the weeks leading up to Easter:
Pray for the teachers and students as we explore the reason for Easter.
Ramadan starts Mar 10th which brings a heightened spiritual awareness but class attendance tends to decline.
Need more teachers
Pray for 4 teachers that a local elementary school is looking to hire to help with the overwhelming student to teacher ratio (800 students:8 teachers). Pray the Lord would bring Christian teachers that would be strong in their faith and a light to the community!
Pursue truth
Pray for progress in evangelism: that those whom team members are regularly sharing with would join Bible studies and seriously pursue truth and understanding.
Innovation
Throughout these years, the Lord has provided us with various strategies to reach the Bara people and, more recently, the Mahafaly people.
However, we realize the need to INNOVATE our approach, as Technology has finally reached Betroka. Yes, Facebook and all media have reached us.
Last week, in partnership with GNPI (Good News Productions International), the NOMAD Academy (National Outreach using Media And Discipleship) offered us valuable training on producing biblical stories, short films, testimonies, as well as media editing and assembly.
Our primary goal is to create material for projectors that weekly proclaim the message of Jesus in various places in southern Madagascar. Additionally, we aim to develop contextualized content for discipleship and missionary mobilization among local churches, using videos, interviews, and other resources.
By all possible means, we want the Name of Jesus to be known, as we truly are co-workers with Him.
Evangelists
The missionaries in Hurri Hills are starting to prepare for a home assignment, which will leave the local evangelists working on their own. Please pray for all of the details to be sorted out so that the evangelists can continue on well during the missionaries’ absence. Pray for provision and fruitful ministry for the evangelists.
Grow and stand firm.
Jacob was recently encouraged by a youth, Lokwan, who came to faith through the witness of Nyao, one of the young men he regularly spends time with in the Word and prayer. Praise God for Laarim who are coming to faith through the witness of other Laarim believers! Please pray for Lokwam to grow in his faith and to stand firm against the pulls of the world. And pray for Nyao to continue to grow in love and boldness for Jesus.
God is love
Praise for a successful Valentines event with rich conversations. Pray they would feel and believe that God is love!
Meaningful outreach
Pray that the Church will minister in meaningful ways to the Karana during the two important dates on the spiritual calendar – Easter for the Christians and Ramadan for the Muslims. Pray for a meaningful Easter Outreach to the Karana during Ramadan.
And yet…
Right now we are getting good responses from our radio outreach. But on the ground people are hungry for food and drought is always at the door. Yet, on a very happy note our Radio Station and Church hosted a large soccer tournament where thousands of people came and the Gospel was clearly shared. God is at work! Yet it is still hard for many to come forward due to family opposition. Despite the opposition our Baptism classes are full in each of our outreach Churches.
Praise God for all those who have heard the Gospel! Pray for courage to believe despite opposition. And pray for rain and God’s provision for hungry people.
OBT!
Finally we have launched the Jiye oral Bible translation! Pray for this people group that finally they will hear the word of God in their own language, and hearing they may believe.
Two Digo men
Two Digo men, one is named Juma, the other Ali. Juma stated that, having embraced Jesus as his Savior, he believes his faith will empower him to stand firm even if facing persecution from his Islamic neighbors. When Ali heard the Gospel, he accepted Jesus into his heart and openly confessed Him as his Savior, unaffected by the presence of his friends. Let’s pray for Juma and Ali to thrive in their faith, and encounter Christians who can support their growth in the Word of God.
New brother
We have a new brother! He’s been having dreams about JC for about 5 years, has been reading the Word and sharing with his sister. And he has decided to follow Jesus!
Since he chose to follow JC on Sunday, Sam’s family kicked him out of the home and he wasn’t able to get any of his belongings. He said beforehand that he knew his family would persecute him, and that JC is worth it, but now he is actually experiencing it. Please lift this new brother up. Ask for the Father to miraculously provide for his needs, and to fill him with joy and strength. Ask for wisdom and discernment for the team as they walk this journey with him. Pray for his family to soften and his sister to continue seeking Truth.
Struggling and alone
Pray for one of the believers (A) who is struggling with mental illness as well as demonic oppression, and currently has little to no Christian support. Pray that the few believers currently in the village will reach out to her. Pray the Lord will stretch out His hand and deliver her.
Run to Jesus
The month of fasting will begin very soon (March 10th). Ask that our Brothers and Sisters will run to Jesus daily for refuge. Ask that they will hold fast to their shields of faith so they can withstand all the flaming darts of the enemy. May they be full of His light even in the darkest nights.
Theological training
One weekend every month for the next 10 months we are having theological training for our leaders. We have 18 students, and our first sessions were last Friday and Saturday! Please pray for open hearts, minds, and growth and maturing in the Word. We are praising the Lord for this opportunity and His provision!
Expand to all 56 villages!
The church is growing among the Lopit! Robert is traveling to Imuluha from Iboni every Sunday to lead believers in a church service there. There is a man who attends this service who has had exposure to Christianity but needs to be discipled. Pray that he would faithfully attend the services, and grow in his love for Jesus and his knowledge of the Word. Please keep praying for God’s kingdom to expand to all 56 Lopit villages!
