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.
Lord, intervene
Lord Jesus open the eyes of Joseph. Joseph is a man with four wives in Likawage community but every time he prohibits his wives to continue with their faith in Christ. Two weeks a go, he made the decision to divorce anyone who continues coming to the church. Ask God to intervene!
Also pray for two believers (Halid and Eric) facing difficulties with their relatives. Pray for wisdom and favor.
Encouraging
I have been meeting with a young BMB (Believer of Muslim background) who has been so encouraging in his grasp of the meaning of Scriptures, despite no formal education. Pray that He will be bold and winsome in his witness, and many others will also respond and receive God’s Gift of grace through Jesus!
Gabbra workers
After so many years of work and prayers, we are excited to see God raising local workers among the Gabbra community in the Hills.
There are two youths that have been doing evangelism and teaching at the current churches and recently a young lady has joined us for women’s ministry.
Please pray for these three local workers and for their financial support. May they persevere and grow in wisdom to reach their own people.
1 Peter 2:15 & 17
“For it is God’s will that by doing good, you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people…Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.”
Ask that the believers in D-town would have what they need from God’s Spirit and word, to live good lives among people who persecute them. Ask that they would have unity among themselves and that the enemy would not be able to divide them through fear or jealousy.
3 new villages
Together with our partners and myself, this last week we visited 3 new villages with the Jesus Film:
Pastor Tomoeira went to Atanambao
Pastor Haja to Sakamahily
Me and Pastor Emanoel to Besakoa.
All Bara villages. Pray that many will respond to the gospel message.
From Isaiah 56
Lord, please gather the Neem to you. This is a difficult part of the world to live in, and workers say there is “much sadness” encountered in the health care work there. Please give Neem people joy in your house of prayer. Please help them know how to bind themselves to you, to love your name and be your servants.
Compassion
One of our team went to visit a older lady from the local church who lives over an hour’s walk from the village where the church is. She took two other believers with her. One was the lady’s son, and the other a church elder. On their way home, both were excited: we should do this EVERY week! She really needs to be visited and encouraged regularly!
Praise God for this realisation and the stirring of passion in these believers to serve others in the body of Christ. Pray for them as they think about their need to take initiative. May this conviction become action and may the Holy Spirit continue to stir up within them the compassion to reach out.
Influential people
The Kanembu people are known in Chad as business-people, with influence and power. Please ask that the team there will meet the “Lydias” and “Priscas and Aquillas,” – influential people who will accept the message of Jesus and open their homes to the church. Each team member (soon to be 5 adults) would like to make 2 -3 friends in M-town, with whom they can share the message of Jesus.
Discipling an MBB
One of our colleagues in Church Som** ministry is an MBB. He told me today that he feels overloaded and wondered if I could disciple and walk with a new MBB who lives close to our ministry Centre.
Please pray that M* (assumed name) will agree and that the Holy Spirit will work in our hearts as we walk the journey of faith together. Pray that as we study the Scriptures through materials like ‘Come follow me’, that we will both have our hearts renewed and transformed for God’s glory.
TD seminar
Praise God for a transformational development seminar held for two days at Eburru on July 5-6. Five Dorobo church leaders attended. Pray that they will take what they’ve learned and bring it back to their churches and that they could develop practical projects in their communities to allow the church to have more opportunities to share the truth about Jesus.
Heart’s desire
Our hearts’ desire and prayer to God for the O is that they will be saved! We testify about the O that many of them are zealous for God – but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they do not know the righteousness of God (through Jesus), they seek to establish their own, and so they do not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ (the Messiah) is the fulfillment of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Pray that many O will submit to their need for God’s Gift of Salvation and Righteousness through Jesus the Messiah! (Paraphrased from Rom. 10:1-4)
Bind the strongman
Pray the Lord would ‘bind the strongman and plunder the house’ of Islam and free many Tuareg from bondage and darkness. (Mark 3:27)
New workers for the Gabbra community
Currently, Hurri Hills is hosting two appointees for a site visit, and they are willing to return to the field as full term workers.
Pray that God continues opening doors for their support, language learning and they will be able to return early the next year.
Unity
Pray for unity of heart and vision among pastors to reach the Bara. Praise God for a recent breakthrough in healing of relationships and pray for a fruitful season of outreach together.
Healing and Hope
Please lift up our friend Jan, whose husband was recently diagnosed with liver cancer. Please pray for healing of his body. This family has heard the good news many times. Ask that they will turn to Jesus as their true hope.
Man of peace
Please pray for the village where missionaries Ambrose and Esther have been going to regularly to share stories from the Bible. Praise God for one of the leaders in the village who has been a man of peace- showing receptivity to the gospel message, and mobilising village members to come and listen too. Please pray that God will bless this man and his family, that God will clearly reveal himself to them, and also that this leader will continue to draw men and women to hearing the gospel story.
Diaspora in UK
Pray for our outreach week at the end of July. We have a team of 12 coming from AIM short term and we hope to have many volunteers from the local church and other surrounding churches. Please pray for the ongoing preparation and for fruitful opportunities to share the gospel. Please pray for the follow up to this week, including gathering contacts, making friendships and possibly inviting people to an Al Massira course.
Update
On July 7th we prayed for Angelo caring for his ill brother Lobom. Lobom passed away a few days ago. Pray for Angelo and his family and our team as they grieve this loss.
Bible songs
Pray for Joseph, working among the Nyang’atom in a remote and difficult area. He has written 300 Bible songs. Pray people would listen to these songs and believe the message.
Sharing the Bible
Praise God for the secret believer who received an audio Bible last month. She travelled to see her extended family and whilst there, played Alagwaisa Bible portions for them every day. She also asked them good questions to help them understand the passages.
Please keep praying for her, that she continue to share and teach especially the ladies in her neighbourhood.
