The Jesus film was shown in a new Gabbra settlement where the majority of people worship Ayana (a god of darkness).
As we were visiting and getting prepared to start the film, a group of Ayana believers started playing their drums and worshiping evil spirits. We stayed in prayer and played Gospel songs that declare God’s salvation. After starting the film, the loud drums stopped and we had a great number of people coming to watch the Life of Jesus. Afterwards we asked for questions or comments and an elder said: “We had heard about the name of Jesus, but now that we’ve seen Him, can start to believe in Him”.
Pray that Jesus’ power be manifested in this village, that the light of Jesus shine and darkness flees. And that as they remember the story of Jesus and His sacrifice, they turn their lives to our Savior Jesus Christ.
Seeking God
I have heard from Petera, (Malagasy team mates), and he said they praise the Lord that the many cyclones this season have not effected the rice harvest. He asked for prayer as they engage with the community during ramadan. Pray for the Holy Spirit to change hearts as people seek God during the upcoming month.
Enthusiastic
Pray for a family who was visited by a team member and a local believer and shared Truth with the family. The little 8 year old girl excitedly stated that she would share this story with her dad when he got home. Please keep praying for more and more opportunities to share with this family and for all of them to share in this little girl’s enthusiasm about sharing the Truth about Jesus.
Reading the Bible
Mama S. has shown a willingness to read the Bible with Shara. Pray that God would continue to draw her closer to Him and that they would have deep and intentional times of Scripture studying.
Pray for the Christian women of our street, that we would continue to build each other up and pray together for a breakthrough of the Gospel amongst our neighbors.
Needing rescue
May those who are prideful in their education and wealth be humbled and recognize their need to be rescued by Jesus the Lamb of God. May those studying Scripture believe that the Word from God is true; Jesus is the Son of God, perfect and holy; He did die, his substitutionary death satisfies the wrath of God; He did rise and overcome death and sin.
Pray for the Jesus Film project.
About 232 villages have already watched the Jesus Film, but we are starting to have some kind of demonic resistance to visit villages.
Please pray that we will find a “highway” for the Jesus Film to be broadcast in Bara villages.
Pray for fruit among the villagers and that the name of Christ grow glorious among them.
Diaspora in Canada
* We work with North Africans (Arabs and Berbers from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria). Please pray for the Holy Spirit to convict unbelievers of their need of a Saviour, and to thirst for Jesus. Please pray for the believers to become more involved in church and ministry.
* We launched a new ESL Course based on the TV series The Chosen. We have approximately 10 students who have joined us over the last 3 weeks- 8 across North Africa, with an Iranian woman and a woman from Russia. Please pray for the Lord to use this course, this TV series to draw them to Jesus and that in our discussions and scripture reading, that they would come to know Jesus. Please pray for many to join a subsequent Bible study.
Equip and strengthen
“Look, there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace” (Nahum 1:15). Jordan was very encouraged by his time with Lukolong in Nagishot. He was able to join in the Sunday morning service that includes Lukolong’s wife, one elderly man from the community, and many children and youth (overflowing the small church building!). While Lukolong would love to pursue finishing his primary education (equivalent to grade 8), he feels compelled to remain in Nagishot and continue to lead this young church. Pray that he will be equipped and strengthened to do so.
Child of God
We studied John 1 with Missy today. The Holy Spirit helped her understand the passage especially confirming her “right to be called a child of God” as Jesus had called her “His daughter” in her dream.
Amazingly, her housemates noticed such a change in her that they guessed she’s a Follower!! When they confronted her about it this week, she knew she couldn’t hide the Truth so she spoke plainly and openly… and rather than being aggressive as she’d feared, they were peaceful and asked questions. Pray the Lord would open their hearts to the Truth.
Reconnect
Please pray with us for Is** who is a MBB but says he is now not religious and does not like his background people. We pray God will touch his heart and create time so that we can walk this journey together and disciple him. There is also another brother, (call him E**), also a MBB but who always appears to be busy each time we connect on the phone. He will either not answer the phone or answer to say he is busy. God, you alone, know what E** is going through. Please reconnect us so that we can walk together for the extension of your Kingdom.
New believers
We are praising the Lord. Three Swahili ladies came to Jesus! Pray for them to grow in knowing Jesus Christ and trusting in Him. Also keep praying for a boy who confessed Jesus as his personal savior.
Access to the Word
Pray for a great movement among the Body here on Vanilla Island. Pray that the Lord will continue to strengthen the believers through His Word and presence. Many are being encouraged as they get access to more and more scripture in their language. Pray the Lord will use this to grow His small gathering here on the island.
Diaspora in Philadelphia
* We find that the ESL students (including our Sudanese friends) have meaningful things to say or ask during and after holiday events. Pray for the impact on their minds and hearts this Easter.
* Please pray for the English ministry that students will continue to grow in knowledge of our God during the Bible portion of each lesson.
* Pray for the K family and their daughter who was in crisis. She has come home from the hospital, and we are thankful that she is able to function and hold a conversation. Nevertheless, it is still a long road of healing and trying to find help for her to be able to move forward. Please pray for wisdom as we navigate all the mental and spiritual dynamics and please pray that, amidst all of the difficulties, Christ would be made known to their family.
Discipling
It has been good to have Chuck and Shelley, former Pioneer missionaries among the Lopit, back in Lohutok for a couple of months. They have spent quite a lot of time with Paulo going through several TEE (Theological Education) books, as well as time with Thomas and Clement encouraging and teaching them. We thank God that despite several years away, their passion for discipling the Lopit has remained. Pray that those they have discipled in the past and during this stay will continue as faithful followers of Jesus.
Diaspora in Canada
* For peace and reconciliation, and a longing for our Christian brothers and sisters here to seek unity.
* For healing for the wounds of addiction and mental illness among our friends.
* For me to engage and bless the young men in our area who are failing in school and have been involved with gangs. Our friend M in particular is having a tough time finding work with his police record.
* For wounded kids of believing families who are drifting/running from Jesus, to come back.
* For increased openness among our Muslim friends in our neighboring apartments, and for the time spent there in tutoring, befriending, and teaching ESL, to bear Gospel fruit.
Bible translation
Pray that Bible translation work will be blessed and empowered by God, with accuracy and good natural flow in the O language. Pray for O and J, the main translators, that they and their wives will be strong in the Lord. The Jesus film in O has been delayed over and over- pray against the powers of this dark world that work and scheme to keep the O in bondage and darkness! May God’s Word go forward with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction!
Do not fear, I am with you
Last month Jordan traveled to Chukudum and Nagishot with Eunice of the Evangelical Free Church and Bishop Lagos of the AIC Church. One of the purposes of the trip was for the bishop to spend time with the local church in Chukudum and its pastor, Jacob Lodio. This was an encouraging time for all! Jacob has been discipling a number of youths who are now leading services at prayer centers in Didinga villages outside of Chukudum. As the believers continue to reach out with the gospel despite challenges and opposition, pray for them: “’Be strong, all you people of the land…and work. For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty…’And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear’” (Haggai 2:4).
Biblical Foundations
Praise God for land and building permissions for a Bible school at the center of Nyamwezi land! May the Lord bless this training center. Pray for new students to enroll who will have a heart to take the Gospel to every village where the Gospel has not yet been preached. As the classroom foundation is laid brick by brick, pray the same kind of spiritually solid Biblical foundation will be built in the lives of emerging church leaders trained at this site. Pray God’s blessing and protection over the teaching staff. Pray for fifty students already trained and sent out for their ministries to bear much fruit.
Sharpen each other in faith
Lolimo is a young man in the village of Yei where Jacob lives. He is one of Jacob’s regular visitors. Even though Lolimo is only in second grade, he is able to read Laarim. This is truly good news for a mostly illiterate community! Pray this young man will read the Scriptures that have been translated into Laarim and share what he is learning with others. Jacob is encouraged by Lolimo’s growing faith and love for Jesus. Pray that he and his brother, Logwe, would sharpen each other in their faith.
Breakthrough
Pray for the Vijana choir that Shara is a part of. Pray they would become passionate about sharing the Gospel with their unreached neighbors.
Jared is seeing relationships with Pastors develop. Pray for unity across different denominations. Pray for a breakthrough in the disunity, judgements, and hurts of Kondoa Pastors and healing of relationships.
Faithful witnesses
Thomas and Clement are two believers in a Lopit village that is a 1-2 hour walk from Iboni. Since Luka died and Umjuma has moved back to Torit, they have committed to taking turns walking to Iboni to lead Sunday morning services for the believers there. This is such encouraging news! These men have faced persecution in their own village, and yet, like the faithful who defied kings and cultures before them, they have trusted in God, “…willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God” (Daniel 3:28). Pray that their witness and testimony would encourage the believers in Iboni, Ohilang, and elsewhere, to do the same.
Missy believes!
Missy is a student who has been in correspondence with someone online for a few months about heavenly things and has expressed a desire to follow and be dunked! She’s agreed to meet ‘in person’ so a teammate and I met her today.
We asked: “Who is Jesus to you?”
She replied, “He’s God [that’s so important here!], my protector, the One I run to whether I’m happy or sad to tell everything to. He’s Lord, who we must give authority to in all parts of our life.”
We also asked, “What does it mean to be a disciple?”
She replied, “Someone who follows the way of Jesus, who learns more about Him and tells other people too.”
Pray that she would continue to thirst after Him and grow.
She also willingly agreed to meet Joy so please pray for wisdom and protection as we try to set that up.
Diaspora in Canada
The driving school that I started has refugee teens clamoring to get in. Young men, mostly from Africa, would never open up with me about their needs. But get them behind a steering wheel and they talk straight from their hearts. Who knew that sitting in traffic would be the perfect place to share the love of Christ!
Opportunities
New opportunities
Please pray for over 10 villages near Kaabong, where Ugandan missionaries Timothy, Mark and Ian are prayer walking and hoping to start church plants. Pray for God to lead clearly and to open doors.
Pastors
Please pray that God will raise up leaders for rural church plants, who have a passion for the gospel and for shepherding the churches.
Dormitory
Frontier Missions Team (a Ugandan mission organisation) runs a 6 month residential missionary internship programme near Kaabong. They are hoping to construct a dormitory that will enable them to host more interns, and also run residential training and equipping programmes for local pastors. Please pray that God will provide the resources needed for this, and that their internship programme and residential trainings will be a blessing to many.
Diaspora in France
* Pray for the current situation in Europe and how it affects some of the international students.
* Pray for guidance and a special attentiveness to the Spirit during these times.
* The ministry in France is continuing, with a group of Afghan refugees meeting at the café for French conversation and fellowship with a few people from our church. Please pray for deep relationships to develop here.
Kids club
We have Kids Club plans for 5 days out of the next two weeks. It’s the first time since corona. Pray that the kids (possibly up to 200) may hear and understand the good news and that many will come into God’s kingdom of light. And that they will experience God’s love in the process, and have a lot of fun!!!
Diaspora in UK
* Pray for the refugees in Croydon, a mixture of UPG’s including people from Sudan, the Horn, Afghanistan, Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Iraq.
* Two of the Muslim language students with whom I am doing Chronological storying have reached the New Testament and we are looking at the life of Jesus together. Please pray that they will be able to see Jesus as more than just a good person and an important prophet.
*I have the capacity to start storying with one or two more students. However, finding potential students with a suitable level of English is proving difficult. Please pray that the Lord will lead me to people who would enjoy this type of study.
Spouses and Translators
Pray for the spouses of secret believers that they too might surrender their lives to Jesus. Pray for couples and families coming to Jesus together.
Pray for the translators: one particularly who was antagonistic towards Christians, but now his heart has been softening for quite a few months now. May the Holy Spirit draw him to fully surrender his life to God.
Diaspora in Minnesota
* One Somali man has heard the gospel from a variety of people over the last month and God seems to be working on numerous levels with him. Pray that God will open his eyes to the truth.
* Many Afghan men and women have asked for ESL support. We have a team of people gathering to start a class for them. Pray this will be a fruitful endeavor.
Love as Jesus would
In Kotido, among the Karimojong, we meet twice a month with some of the church leaders. It is a time of fellowship, prayer, mutual encouragement, and training. Thank God for these meetings, and pray for His guidance in this time together and that He would raise up people from the church we are partnering with (COU) to walk alongside and help in these meetings.
We work in the health field in Kotido, and the need is big. Pray that God may help us to make a difference to the people we treat, and also to influence our co-workers, so they provide good service, that their heart may go out to the marginalized Karimojong, and they may care and love them the way Jesus would.
Diaspora in Georgia
* Please pray that I will continue to grow in friendship with two ladies from the local mosque and that through them I will meet others, including African immigrants.
* Praise the Lord for stirring the hearts of His people. Praise the Lord for local believers and churches that are beginning to pray together with me for God to open doors for ministry to UPG Africans in the area. Pray that at the right time I can host a gathering of various people who are interested and want to participate in outreach, so they can meet and encourage one another.
An update from Kilo
I shared the gospel with Kiwope and he was born again! Let’s pray for his faith to grow and boldness in sharing the good things God has done for him.
Identity Struggles
Pray for a new believer, Chacha, who struggles daily with putting off the old nature and putting on the new one. He is despondent over the difficulties in his life and recently his home and all he owned was burnt to the ground, leaving him homeless. Pray that he will put on his new identity in Christ as he wars against his old nature – pray for renewing of his mind, discerning truth, knowing God’s power and presence, and knowing God’s peace that passes understanding. “Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.” (Colossians 3:10)
Diaspora in Missouri
* Pray for MH our truck driver friend from Somalia. He has a citizenship interview on March 24. We’ve been encouraging him and helping him to prepare. He drives 45 minutes to visit us and we are praying that he will have a deeper hunger for the Truth. Pray that his heart would be softened to be receptive, that his ears will listen, and his eyes see.
International students
* Please pray for the International Students who have heard the gospel recently. May they believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing they would have life in His name (John 20:31). Pray that these conversations would not be forgotten and that seeds of the Gospel truth would germinate in their hearts.
Secret believers
Pray for a neighbourhood where some of the team live. There are a few hidden disciples and many more asking questions, along with a strong attraction amongst many to listen to God’s word. Please pray for a community of believers to start meeting regularly this year. It’s a big prayer but nothing is impossible for God! May the fear of consequences be overwhelmed by knowing the love of God in their lives. Please pray Ephesians 1 v 18-20 for the secret believers and those who are drawn but too scared to commit themselves to Jesus.
Stepping out in faith
Pray for Kileng, Lowuyo, Kato, and Locii all stepping out in faith in one way or another to lead fellowships and serve their neighbors. At the end of December, Dan and Joel cooked a meal for these guys to celebrate finishing the 10-weeks of curriculum and to encourage them to continue growing and standing firm in the faith. Pray that even though the missionaries are gone, the Spirit who is with the Laarim believers will make them strong.
Diaspora in France
* Pray for the islander families affected in the commuter plane crash on Feb 26 near the smallest island, 14 people were lost. This affects all of the islands, including the diaspora. Pray for the few believers to be godly comforters in this tragedy, for our teammates as they walk with these grieving families and wisdom for the airline company and the country.
* Continue praying for ‘salty’ texts/conversations with island friends on WhatsApp.
Follow together
Please pray for a couple who have had a consistent gospel witness for many years. Praise God the husband is now opening his heart more to Jesus and thinking about the possibility of following him. Pray that this couple would make a decision to follow Jesus together.
Diaspora in Portland
* Pray for Mr. A from Algeria. Praise the Lord he returned safely from Algeria. Pray for his spiritual growth. Pray that God will provide him a job, and a Christian wife.
* Pray that we can be a blessing and encouragement to our churches. Pray that we can challenge these churches to engage the unreached diaspora in their own backyards.
* Pray that God will open up the eyes and hearts of those who are coming to our DBS on Sunday evenings.
