Recently we had the privilege to meet a new believer from one of the villages within our ward. She is under the guidance and leadership of a few believers in that community. Praise God people are reaching out to their own, and please pray that she will continue to grow stronger in her faith.
Diaspora in Atlanta
* Please pray for a gathering for African clients of the Pregnancy resource Center and the local prayer team on August 26 at my house. Pray that many Africans come and enjoy the time together. Pray that the first gathering opens doors for further gatherings like it. Pray for friendships to begin that afternoon.
* Please pray for each member of the prayer team to meet Africans as we go about our days in the south Atlanta area, that the Lord would bring them across our paths and into our lives. Pray for us to cultivate friendships with them, and that our lives will be woven together.
* Please pray that many Africans will sign up to attend ESL classes this fall.
* Please pray for the Holy Spirit to open doors and give us conversations with people about the Bible, about Jesus and the gospel. Pray that through these friendships people will begin to meet to read the Word of God together on a regular basis.
Cattle raiding
Cattle raiding has also been on the increase. Last month several tribes (including the Laarim) joined together to make raids on Toposa cattle. This has resulted in many deaths, possibly up to two hundred. Pray for an end to the cycle of revenge among these tribes! Pray that these cattle-keeping people would come to a knowledge of the Truth, and trust in Jesus for salvation, that they “may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness” (1 Timothy 2:2-4), for “godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Timothy 4:6) – far greater than all the cattle in the world!
One mind
The Fongoro community is open to gospel. The team is building new members to plant more home churches. Please continue to pray for the team and the Fongoro community members.
Pray that their cultural and tribal differences will not hinder their working together, but that the Lord will draw them together in faith, in love, and in the Holy Spirit to stand firm and to have one mind to bring the Gospel to those who are in spiritual need.
We are not saved.
“The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.”
Jeremiah 8:20
This is the reality of millions of people and many UPGs.
The Bara are still one of these UPGs and maybe this is the cry of their soul, surrounded by the darkness of animism.
For this reason, we make every effort to bring Christ to them.
Maybe we can say with Paul, “I will spend for you everything I have and even my life”, till the Bara , instead of saying, “ We are still not saved”, say, “ Worthy is the Lamb!”
We keep announcing Christ from village to village; from mountains to mountains, until the last village is reached with the Good News of Christ.
Diaspora in Missouri
Pray for many new students to enroll in Noel for the Fall semester ESL classes. Pray for the ESL staff working together in Noel. All of us have a Kingdom focus for the community.
Our Truck Driver friend from Noel has moved to Louisville, KY. We are trying to connect him to friends in Louisville. Pray that his transition to Louisville will present more opportunities for him to hear the Gospel.
Pastors
Praise the Lord for 15 Dorobo church leaders who came to Malewa for a three day seminar on preparing for the end times based on the book of Revelation. Pray for these pastors as they continue to lead and teach in their communities.
Praise the Lord for three men who completed their Bible School training in April and are now serving as pastors in their churches. Pray that they will have strength and energy in their new roles.
Diaspora in France
Praise for occasional WhatsApp connections with island friends in Marseille. Pray for B, currently in the islands until September to meet bold sisters/brothers who will proclaim truth to her and other islanders on vacation. Pray for a receptive and soft heart.
Using translation
Different Malagasy missionaries are planning to use our translations of the Gospel of Luke and the story set to evangelize the people groups in the south-east. Several other people groups (besides the Antanala) prefer the Antanala language above the official Malagasy. Pray for many to believe the message!
Joy in serving
The Kairos graduates in Kondoa have continued meeting together and have come up (all on their own) with doing two acts of kindness each month. Last month they visited Muslim homes, brought smalls gifts and prayed for them. Pray this fire in them will continue and that they will see fruit from their efforts and be encouraged. Pray for joy in serving their Rangi neighbors.
Church
We are in the process of building a church building! Please pray for unity among the believers as they plan, and as they seek to raise the funds through various means. May God be glorified in this new step towards seeing a Christ-centred church among the people of Likawage!
Pursue truth
Our friend Jonah said something like, “Everyone should pursue and be free to seek & know truth.” We were sitting with Jonah and Sandy in their apartment, Julia holding their new baby, John. Sandy said “I know that God loves me”. Our conversation turned to “truth”, providing the opportunity to clearly explain the forgiveness of our sin through the Son’s sacrifice. We had quite a conversation on the topic. Please pray that they will really pursue knowing “the truth”!
Diaspora in UK
* Praise God for the international ladies and families (60+) who have participated in activities we have organized this past year. Pray the Holy Spirit will testify to their hearts to the truth of the gospel message they have heard.
* Join us in asking God to provide His direction for English classes, Sewing, and Homework club activities in the new academic year starting in September. Currently we have no volunteers to help with pre-schoolers who know no English and have experienced trauma.
* We also need more volunteers before we can restart Homework club for international students (ages 11-18) in the Som neighborhood. Pray for students to be able to hear the gospel!
Accountable
Pray for the house church leaders to be accountable to each other and to be under spiritual authority that will hold them accountable and keep close to the Lord in all that they do.
Needing healing
We prayed for Maria (from Kimatong) a couple of months ago after she had received injuries to her head when she tried to break up a fight. There seems to be lingering effects from the blow to her head, and she has been experiencing bad headaches and problems with her vision. The team was able to send her to Juba where she is staying with a Laarim family while she gets checked by a doctor. Please pray for wisdom and good, effective treatment, and a quick return to her home in Kimatong.
Diaspora in Canada
* Please pray for R., A., and K. who have shown great interest in Jesus through our Bible studies, but who are still holding on to Islam. Please pray that all they have learned through the gospels would penetrate their hearts and that the HS would convict them and bring them to repentance.
* Please pray for L. and M. (an Algerian mother and daughter), and their whole family. The kids come to our Impact Kids program, and recently the two of them took home French New Testaments. Please pray that they would begin to read, and that we would be able to follow up soon.
* Please pray for the North African believers at our church that they would continue to grow in their love of Jesus and their love of his church- particularly that they would become more involved!
God is the solution
Pray that locals will see God, and not missionaries, as the solution to their physical and financial needs.
Pray God will provide us with new people to engage with during this farming season. Pray for opportunities to teach about good farming practices and the Good News.
Diaspora in UK
Our main prayer request is for the fruitful success of our outreach week on the estate in the East Midlands. We have an AIM short term team of 9 combined with over 20 volunteers from the church and the surrounding area. We are running a holiday club in the afternoons, followed by outreach in the late afternoon/evenings. Please pray for good conversations and gospel opportunities.
One in Christ
Praise God for a new outreach area where a person of influence has offered a plot of land to the church. A small group of believers have joined together to clear the plot. But further development has come to a standstill due to disunity among the few believers. Please pray that God would unite the body of Christ. Pray that they work together to have a place to worship and in their love for one another others will see God’s love. Ask the Lord of the Harvest for more to come into fellowship in the body of Christ. Remembering Christ’s prayer in John 17, “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (John 17:23)
Diaspora in Calif, USA
* The annual International Student camping trip starts today thru the 9th. Pray for the students and Americans who will be hiking and enjoying God’s creation together. Pray the students hear and receive the gospel message as it is shared through evening storytelling.
* Pray for the new students arriving on campus. New student orientation is August 15. Pray for connections for our team as they reach out to help the new international students get settled.
Sharing the gospel and food
With hearts that love Jesus and want to make His name known among all the people groups of the earth, we keep sharing Christ with our dear Bara people, and also blessing them with food. We have done two rice distributions to people here in the village. The famine is still on going. Pray many would respond to the gospel.
Diaspora in Canada
I teach a Christianity Explored class to newer MBB from Iran. Recently, a married couple that just arrived to Canada less than a month ago from Iran, Med* & Mel* have been receptive to the Gospel and have attended 2 classes so far. Please pray for Med & Mel’s salvation, as well as wisdom in sharing, and discipleship growth in the other students to reach to their families and friends.
Forcibly moved
Pray for a group of Dorobo who moved into northern Tanzania from Kenya over 40 years ago. They are often called the Akie. In May they were moved by force (along with many Maasai) by Tanzania government forces from their traditional hunting and grazing areas north of the Serengeti. The government has signed an agreement giving their land to a group from the United Arab Emirates as a private hunting reserve. Pray for the Akie and their Maasai neighbors. They are still protesting the move. Pray that even in the turmoil of moving that the Akie would be open to hearing the Gospel. Pray for wisdom in reaching out to them through village visitation and showing the Jesus film.
Diaspora in Canada
Pray for our Muslim pharmacist. He gave me his email to get together outside of work to discuss spiritual things and to spend time as friends! Praise God! Please pray that I would be bold and compassionate and the Lord would open his heart.
Diaspora in Washington
* Continue to pray for my friend from West Africa. She likes to visit in our home and ask great questions about life and what we believe as Christians. She is also worshiping with our local multi-lingual church which her young son thoroughly enjoys.
* Pray for our Moroccan and Afghan students who took Bibles and Biblical literature from our Bible boxes this past term. Pray for them to see the truth of the Jesus from Genesis to Revelation. Pray as English Lessons using the New Testament are developed and finalized for this next year. Pray that our students would continue to engage with the Bible stories from the New Testament with the same interest as they did this past year with the Old Testament.
Be strengthen in faith
I would like to ask for prayer for the regional women’s conference, followed by a conference for everybody, coming up this month. Pray that these conferences might strengthen the women and men in their faith and give them tools for living Christian lives in an animistic environment.
Pray that the believers may be a witness of God’s love in their community. Social and family pressure are very strong in the rural communities. When people become Christians, they have to stop with certain rituals related to ancestor worship. That brings strife, especially in the villages. Pray believers would be strong and winsome.
Former witch doctor
Suzanna is a former Laarim witch doctor who has become a follower of Jesus! Praise God for calling her “out of darkness into His wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9)! Love and Lisa have been meeting at her compound every Saturday (at Suzanna’s request) for Bible study and prayer. Pray for Suzanna to grow in love and knowledge of God, and for the children and young women who gather on Saturdays to see the light of God shining through Suzanna’s transformed life.
Reading through the Bible
There are two local pastors (including a Digo pastor) starting their monthly plan to read through the whole Bible starting August 1st. They do not have much knowledge on the Bible. Please pray that they will be able to complete reading through the Bible by the end of August and, most importantly, know more about God and grow closer to Him during this time. (They are reading around 70 chapters a day!)
Too busy
Pray for another friend, Mo*, who has a Bible and some Bible study material but appears be too busy for us to sit and study. Pray for Holy Spirit’s guidance and intervention in this.
Isaiah 55:2b-3a
“Listen, listen to me and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; listen that you may live.”
Ask that the Lord would continue to call the Neem people, and that they would not fear to listen to the message the workers there are bringing.
John 17:20
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.”
When moving day to M-town finally came for the new team leaders, they came to an isolated part of the road. B says they were struck with loneliness, as they drove farther than they’d ever been, alone on that road, and contemplated the work they were going to start. But before that moment had passed, the Lord helped B realize that the road he was driving on had been “paved” with the prayers of many people and they were not alone! Even Jesus has prayed for the K people who will believe in Him, as B and C go in His name and with His message.
Follow up
Praise God for a trip to show the Jesus film at Esoit Boarding Primary School in the Olpusimoru area near the Tanzania border on May 27, 2022. Pastor Josphat Musanga and Shel Arensen showed the film two times to over 700 students and over 100 students indicated their desire to follow Jesus. Pray for follow up from Christian teachers in this area.
Growth
Pray for those who have believed this year and have been baptized. Ask that they would have a hunger for the Word and for spiritual growth, that they would mature and that their transformation would be a testimony to their community.
New outreach
We are going to start something new on our street to bring the Muslims and Christians together. We are partnering with two wise Christian neighbors who will start teaching Muslim neighbors practical skills to learn how to make things in order to sell for profit. We will take advantage of this time to tie in the Gospel. Please pray for women to join and for their hearts to be ready to receive and respond to the Gospel.
Looking to train
We are looking to train young Malagasy Christians to become evangelists and/or missionaries. We want to use our house in Maroamboka as place to do the practical teaching. Ask the Lord to call people to be trained.
We are going to get a young man (Sambivelo 19yrs old) from our village to Tana to be trained as a healthworker. When his training is over he will return to Maroamboka to help the people in the same way we did (Malaria, worms, infections, wound treatment). Pray for Sambivelo.
Mother tongue project
There is a new translation project led by the Namibia Bible Society. Pray for the team that is being assembled and will start soon. Pray for hearts to respond to God’s word in the mother tongue as missionaries and disciples take newly translated scripture and stories to the villages.
Work together
Pray that the Body of Believers will stand firm in their faith in God; that they will seek to work together for the sake of the Gospel.
Partners
As we seek to partner with local churches, pray that they will understand missions better and desire to be involved in it. Ask God to give us the right people in the churches to engage with. We need more people on our team to help with the ministry.
Reading the Scriptures
My friend F* returned to his country this month and I gave him a Som* Bible as a gift. He has been calling me often to update me on his progress in resettling. I have already asked him to read the gospel of John. Please pray with us that God will give him the time to read it as the Scriptures are in his language. He has written two books in his language, so this should be quite interesting for him.
Diaspora in France
It is some time since we saw our young friends Emile and Emily. He is returning to the islands during the summer break – pray that they will remain faithful to one another during the time apart. Pray for their son, Lee, who is headstrong and difficult. It will not be easy for Emily to care for him during Emile’s absence. Most of her family are also away in the coming weeks. We hope to see her – pray that she will be willing to discuss spiritual things with us.
