The translator who has been causing a lot of trouble for us has started a new volley of attacks this month. She continues to do everything in her power to get Pastor Petro and me out of the Alagwa area. Please pray against these concerted efforts to stop the translation work.

Many of our Alagwa disciples continue to mix traditional faith practices when in crisis or under pressure. Pray for them that they would really believe that “They have been given FULLNESS in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority” (Colossians 2:10). Pray for them to grow in actual loyalty, love, and trust in Jesus, even when he’s not working in the tangible, immediate ways they are used to in traditional religion. Pray they would taste of Jesus’ sweetness and never want to turn away from him again.

Join us in praying for an Alagwa Pentecost- that the Holy Spirit would be poured out and many would be saved!

Pray for H, a MBB from our community who is growing in his passion to share his faith and disciple others.

We would appreciate continued prayers for Asha and Mama H to see their lostness and run back to the Father’s arms. Pray against their loyalty to traditional practices/medicines and family pressures, and pray for loyalty to the actual person of Jesus himself.

The word I’m getting today for prayer for the Alagwa is that the Alagwa bride of Jesus would STAND UP. She’s held by so much fear and self pity and demonic baggage and inertia and passivity, but if she would just stand up, all the power needed for breaking these bonds is available to her.

Pray for Mama S, with whom I have been studying the Word for years. She seems more spiritually hungry than ever before, expressing her felt need for reconciliation with God. Pray for courage for her to lay hold of the one she knows can save her. And for her husband to get the same hunger.

Continue to pray for unity and wisdom for the translators as they tackle difficult concepts in Galatians which challenge their beliefs. May the Lord grant them understanding and faith.

Please continue to pray for Mama H, who has gotten epilepsy medicine now, but still has a foot in the camp of traditional medicines. Pray that she would come fully and irreversibly to Jesus. Continue praying for Asha, who has improved a bit in her mental illness, that she would remember and return to the sweetness of Jesus she once knew.

This week some Christians from another part of the country came through our area and were preaching the prosperity gospel and being really divisive among the believers here. Please pray for reconciliation and good conversations to come in the wake of this, and for our believers to understand and reject the dangers and lies of the prosperity gospel and cling to the Truth.

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.

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.

We’d really appreciate prayer for the Bible translation work, which is currently under spiritual attack. Some issues have arisen among the translators, who are largely non-believers, which could result in them no longer being willing to do the work. We would appreciate prayer for these translators to get a restored desire for the work, and for the work to be able to move forward.

Praise God that AICT leadership is coming to Kwa Madebe to ordain Pastor Petro today!

Please pray that this will be a witness in Kwa Madebe and beyond. Pray for Petro and his wife Lucy as they continue to lead the church there. Please also pray that the church would grow in their love for Jesus and boldness in sharing.

Last week one of the well-loved young men of our village died in a tragic motorcycle accident. The whole village is shocked and devastated.
Please pray for the Alagwa, who are very pluralistic and passive about spiritual matters, to actually feel their desperate need for salvation and hope in the face of such tragedy and death.

Pray for the Alagwa, as they’re finishing up the Ramadan fast, to know their spiritual need and inability to save themselves.
Pray for the young believers to keep listening to their Audio-Bibles, sharing their faith, and growing in relationship with Jesus.

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.

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.

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.

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings…” Phil 3, 10
Please pray for the Alagwa seekers and believers; may this be the cry of their hearts! May they hunger to know Jesus more and be willing also to share in his sufferings. Praise God for the ways they are beginning in small ways to share scripture and testimony with others. May this increase!

Please pray for the local church as there are many transitions happening at the moment. Please pray especially for Petro and Mama Grace as they take on the leadership. Praise God for the passion God has given them both to minister amongst the Alagwa.

Please pray that God would break down the spiritual strongholds which continue to hold Alagwa hearts captive. May they be free to know and follow the One who gave himself fully to bring them fullness of life.

Please pray for one Alagwa believer currently considering baptism. May she have the courage to do this, knowing Jesus is worth any opposition she might face because of this step.

“Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit.” From Psalm 32

Repentance is such a restorative gift from God which many Alagwa seem blinded to. It is common for people to feel that they don’t sin or if they do, it is not a problem between them and God. Pray for this spiritual blindness to be lifted so that they may come to Jesus! Please pray for the believers to really lay hold of lives which are open and honest before God, confessing their sins and joyfully finding forgiveness.

Please pray for all the believers to resist the pressures of the cultures around them to see Jesus as simply one source of power and instead to surrender to Him as the Lord of their lives. May they have joy in worshipping and seeking His face. Please pray for them to have the longing Paul expressed in Philippians 3:
“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”

“Praise the LORD, my soul…He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free, the LORD gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves the righteous.” from Psalm 146.
Praise the LORD who can and is setting Alagwa free. There are so may spiritual prisoners- bound with fear and occult power they think is from God. Many are oppressed and possessed- may they be set free.
Praise the LORD who is giving sight to the blind. May more spiritual eyes be opened to see the rich truth of unconditional love and salvation in Jesus. May they see their bondage for what it is and have the courage to step away and follow Jesus.
There are many who are bowed down- with all sorts of burdens. May they hear Jesus’ invitation, and come to him whose yolk is easy and burden light.
Thank you Jesus that in you we have a righteousness that comes by faith- please draw many Alagwa to yourself that they might experience your true love and full adoption.

“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us-
so that your ways may be known on the earth and your salvation among all nations.” Psalm 67:1-2
Please pray for the team and the other believers amongst the Alagwa. May God be gracious to them; may they know and enjoy His presence daily. May they be blessed to be a blessing so that HIS ways and HIS salvation may be known amongst the Alagwa and the peoples nearby. Raise up Alagwa and Rangi believers to share the blessings of His salvation and presence with those around them.

Join us in giving thanks for Matayo. He is a baptised believer, and we see evidence of the Holy Spirit working in his life. He has over the years suffered rejection from his family and being threatened and beaten by some his brothers. He also continues to struggle with epilepsy but his testimony is that he knows God loves him, with or without healing. He loves sharing his faith, often playing scripture on his porch- in Alagwaisa and Swahili. He particularly feels called to reach out to the Alagwa. Please do pray for his physical healing and for him to know Jesus more (Philippians 3 v 10). May God continue to envision Matayo to serve and disciple those in his community.

Please pray for Mama and Baba Jaki. They were already following Jesus when we arrived in 2010. Thank God for their perseverance, despite many challenges. They live in a village close to Madebe and desire to see a church planted in that village too. Please pray for them to abide in Jesus and know Him more and to have courage and wisdom as they witness in their community. Pray for Mama Jaki to have a hunger to draw closer to Jesus and for Baba Jaki as he prepares to preach tomorrow morning at the church gathering.

Please pray for Mama Zubeda and her family. Mama Zubeda is a believer and shares the recorded Bible passages in Alagwaisa with her family particularly. She loves Jesus and listening to the Bible too.
She asked her husband if she could get baptised, but he said not yet. (He is not a believer, and isn’t ok even to be prayed for, although he also really enjoys listening to scripture.)
Please pray for Mama Zubeda to grow in her understanding of God’s love for her and that she take time to listen to the Holy Spirit. Please pray for boldness and courage to obey him. Please also pray for her husband, Dosla, and their 12 children to surrender to Jesus.

Please pray for the Bible translation work, as the teams are drafting Ephesians and Philippians. Please pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the translation and also for the translators, especially those who are not believers. May they understand deeply what it means to be united with Christ!

Please pray for A, a baptised believer who has been in intense spiritual battle for a long time. May God give her the strength to trust all of her life to Jesus, and to repent in the areas where she has compromised. Please pray for healing for her.

Please continue to pray for one of the secret believers, who has recently been talking much more seriously about getting baptised. She knows that if she does, she will be the first in her community. Please pray with her for the courage to take this step of commitment. Please pray that God would give her a deeper understanding of his vast love for her, that she would sell everything for the pearl of great price.

Please pray for a hunger in the believers who belong to the church to know Christ (Philippians 3 v 10). As the pastor seeks new ways of getting them to apply God’s truth in their lives, may the Holy Spirit bring an awareness of compromise and repentance.

Please pray for solid foundations of strong relationships both between believers and between believers and Jesus.
One worker has been praying for two secret believers to commit to meeting regularly together to support one another. This morning, one of those secret Alagwa believers came, followed a bit later by a baptised Alagwa believer who just turned up. Next came a neighbour who is a seeker, and then the other secret believer originally prayed for. They were all listening to Luke 4 v 16-21 in Alagwaisa and studying it. The baptised believer gave a great testimony of how God has changed his heart and behaviour and this impacted the three women. They discussed together, asked questions, then all prayed together. Please pray for this excitement to continue and for these three women to have a desire to meet together again. Thank God for the witness of the baptised believer; may he grow in his faith and desire to share the gospel with others.

Please pray for the translation teams as they tackle Philippians and Ephesians. Pray for the Muslim as well as Christian translators, that all may understand more deeply what it means to be united with Christ.

Please pray for N, a baptised believer who had stepped away from Jesus and gotten involved in some dodgy things. Pastor Edward and I had the joy of spending time with him and seeing him repent and recommit himself to Jesus on Wednesday. Please pray for him to continue to fix his eyes on Jesus and know His love and grace (Phil 1:6).

Praise God for a local believer growing in his relationship with God and in faith. Praise God that he recently testified that he is utterly convinced of God’s love for him whether God heals him or not. This is a huge step in a culture where God is approached for healing and blessing but not just surrendered to or worshipped for who He is.

Please pray for the secret believers to commit to be baptised this year. May God by his Spirit continue to reveal to them the importance of this step and empower them to take it.

Praise God for the 12 training sessions our team mates (AICT Pastor and Evangelist) are planning to run over the next 6 months. These Global Disciples training sessions will help teach and equip church members to share their faith in their communities. Please pray for excitement among the believers, for full engagement and much fruit.