Destroy the charm!

Please pray for F who was prayed for and demons were cast out. Yesterday, she was prayed for again and there was still demonic activity, although less. A long time ago the lady’s husband had placed a Koranic charm at the door frame and is unwilling to get rid of it. It was expensive. Tomorrow, our teammate and some other believers are going back to talk to the husband about destroying the charm. Please pray for his eyes to be opened, that he will destroy the charm. Pray both he and his wife will commit their lives to Jesus.

Building on His Training in Preaching

Please pray for one of the church elders who is looking to grow in the area of preaching. Please pray for him as he looks to build on the training he has received.

Resolve

Please pray for a young man who declared his intention to get baptised. Please pray for God to strengthen this man’s resolve to follow Him with all that he is.

Three Disciples

Please pray for three disciples in one village. They have been studying and praying together with one of our team but that team member isn’t currently in that location. Please pray that this will be a great opportunity for these women to organise to meet together and encourage one another without outside impetus. They have also been more stirred recently with the need to tell others about Jesus. Please pray for the Holy Spirit to empower them to be bold and courageous.

Reaching out to a Neighbor

Please pray for a disciple who has started to reach out to his neighbour, serving him and sharing God’s love with him. May God’s Spirit give him wisdom and boldness. May his neighbour turn to Jesus.

Come to Jesus

Please pray for Alagwa women who feel that they cannot follow Jesus until their husbands or children do. May God raise up more women who come to Jesus and faithfully pray for the salvation of their husbands and children. Pray for one woman who has privately said “I am with Jesus” recently. May this be a significant step in her journey of faith, and in her family’s journey of faith.

Turn and Live

For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone,
declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live. Ezekiel 18:32
May many Alagwa turn and live! May God’s Spirit cause many Alagwa to turn towards His truth and love and be saved.

Complete Deliverance Needed

Please pray for one lady who has been suffering with many demons for a long time. She was in her field and felt a demonic attack, and for some reason unknown to her the words “Jesus help me” came out of her mouth. Later on, one of our team “got lost” on the way to pray for the lady’s neighbor, ended up at her house instead that evening, and prayed for her. She came to church and was prayed for again the next Sunday. Please keep praying for her as she seeks Jesus and the complete healing she now knows only Jesus can bring.

Clear Presentation

Please pray for the Holy Spirit to continue to work in many hearts in one village where the gospel was shared as part of a Christmas celebration. People were told that Jesus is God’s way for us to be restored to Him. Pray that more people will understand that there is only one path, and that they will choose to follow Christ. Pray for those who have already understood this with their minds, that they will surrender their lives to Jesus.

Seekers seeking

Please pray for some of the young men of one village who are meeting weekly for Bible study. They are mostly seekers. Pray that the Holy Spirit will be powerfully present and that these men would follow Jesus wholeheartedly.

Christmas celebrations

Please pray for the Christmas celebrations. May they be opportunities for Alagwa to hear the gospel clearly and respond.

Local church partnership

Please pray for the local church, that Jesus would strengthen and encourage his body. May there be unity in reaching out to the community with the love of Christ.

Man of peace

Please pray for a prominent religious leader in one area who for many years has been a “man of peace” and encouraged many to hear God’s word although he has not yet become a believer. Recently he again was excited to study God’s word and agreed with what he read. He was hungry to study more and more. He himself pinpointed the barrier within himself which is stopping him come to Christ. May God break down all barriers! May this man meet God, who is worth everything, and worth losing everything for.

Mid-week group

Please pray for a mid week group we are praying and planning will start in one village. We hope it will be the first time various secret believers and seekers will be meeting together to pray and study God’s word. Pray that God will establish this group, despite many potential challenges.

Luke recording

Praise God for a great week with 2 Alagwa speakers recording the first lot of passages from the translation of Luke in Alagwaisa. Pray for these portions of God’s word as they are listened to and studied over the next few weeks. May there be much fruit!

Completely On Her Own Initiative

Praise God for two “secret” believers in one village, both of whom have recently called their friends to join them in studying God word. One did this completely on her own initiative. May they all continue to hear God’s truth together and apply it to their lives.

All Follow Together

Please join an Alagwa believer who is praying for her husband and children to know Jesus too. They all listen to God’s word on audio players and some are really drawn by the beauty of God’s word. May the family all follow God together.

A Bold and Vocal Man

Praise God for an Alagwa man who wants to study the Bible with some of the team weekly, and is planning to bring his friends too. He has already been seeking Jesus and praying and reading the Bible for some time. He is a bold and vocal man. Please pray that he would continue to respond to Jesus and that the Holy Spirit would use him to draw others too. The first Bible study is tonight!

Chains Still Binding Them

Please pray with us for the Alagwa, that the chains that bind them and stop them making steps towards Jesus would be broken. Please also pray for a breakthrough, that the Holy Spirit would lead people to confess their sins to God and repent.

Training and outreach

Please pray for the Global Disciples evangelism training now being hosted by our local church. Believers have come from different people groups for training. There will be an outreach happening in an Alagwa village after the initial training. Please pray for the Holy Spirit to be working both in this village, and in the hearts of the believers as they receive their training.

looking for people to disciple

Please pray for the church amongst the Alagwa who have all been challenged to find at least one person to disciple from outside the church, whilst being accountable to a person from within the church. Some also attended the discipleship training seminar we ran. Please pray that each believer would be faithful and persevere in praying and seeking people to share their faith with and continue discipling them.

Needs to surrender

Pray for an Alagwa lady who has tasted and seen for many years that Jesus is good and is the way, but was not willing to leave her religion. She seems to be softening towards Jesus again; she is coming much more often to study the Bible and pray with another believing lady in the community. She loves listening to God’s word and thinking about how it applies to her. She is also happy to pray in the name of Jesus. Yesterday, she came for medicine for her daughter who was sick. We prayed for her and God brought healing that very evening. This lady said today that she thanked God for healing her daughter. May she at last bow her knee to King Jesus!

Couple sharing with family

Praise God for a couple who are continuing to follow God together, and are getting to grips with what it means to be Alagwa and follow Jesus. After a few visits to some of their wider family a few hours away, they are excited to disciple the ones amongst them who are now seeking. Please pray for this couple for continued boldness and perseverance to travel the three hours to disciple these family members and also for their protection as a couple. Please pray for their marriage and their relationships with others in their community.

Continuing to live for Jesus

Praise God for a baptised Alagwa believer who has featured a few times in PA. She has continued to live for Jesus in her community and people are asking why she is different. Recently, after teaching about discipleship, she was so encouraged that she also could be the one to encourage and teach others. Pray that she will find people to regularly disciple in her neighbourhood.

May the whole family come!

Praise God for a devout young Muslim man, and our dear friend, who has been listening to the Alagwaisa Bible stories and the Swahili Bible on an audio player. He came last night and said that he has been listening, and has questions. We encouraged him and his friend to come with their questions and we could talk together and he agreed. Earlier in the week, we asked his father, who also has scriptures on an audio player, whether he was ready to follow Jesus. He said he needed to ask his children so they could all decide together. Please pray for this extended family, where the mother/wife is already following Jesus, for all of them to decide to follow Jesus together. They are a key respected family in the area and the impact of a family decision would not only be huge for them, but for the wider community too.

Resisting the devil

Praise God for one Alagwa old lady who has been opening up her heart to Jesus for some time. She has struggled with demons for a long time, and is now clear and agrees that Jesus is the one who can help her. A team mate who has been talking and praying with her for a long time came to church with her last week. She was prayed for and one of the demons left. Later in the week she said the demons came and strongly said to her: “We don’t like that Jesus!” and she told them that she was with Jesus now. Please pray for her; there is a battle. May she continue to resist the devil, and see him flee. May she be completely released of all demonic holds on her life. May she come to know the love of Jesus more and more.

Boldness in Christ

More and more Alagwa are meeting to read and discuss Scripture, and a team is doing an oral translation of the book of Luke. Pray for a breakthrough among the Alagwa people that would result in courageous bold faith in Christ. Pray that the Christians will know and love one another, and form new loyalties and alliances in Christ as part of His Body. Pray that the Spirit will work mightily among the Alagwa people.

Confessing Jesus

Please pray for an Alagwa couple who are being discipled. They have decided to talk to their wider family and tell them they are following Jesus. This is a huge step. Please pray for them as they go (hopefully today), for courage and Holy Spirit boldness. Please pray for their family too, for open hearts to hear the good news of Jesus.

May friends follow too

Praise God for one young man who is following Jesus and now listening to Bible stories a lot in Alagwaisa. He has been encouraging a few of his friends to study God’s word with him and the pastor. Pray that they would meet regularly to study and that the Holy Spirit would cause his friends to follow Jesus too.

Needing Jesus

Praise God for a man in one neighborhood who has decided to follow Jesus. He has for some time been struggling with addictions and he was recently witnessed to by an Alagwa believer who told him that he needed to follow Jesus and that he should speak to the pastor. He did! Please pray for him, that he would continue to surrender his life to God. Please also pray for his wife, that the Holy Spirit would move her too to seek Jesus herself.

Fasting

Praise God for a new believer who got really excited when he studied about why Christians fast: I’ve never heard this before! Pray for him and other seekers and believers who are under pressure to fast for Ramadan. May they draw close to Jesus and know their salvation is only in Him.

The Word of God on Audio Players

Praise God for the many Alagwa who are excited to get the word of God on audio players. In one extended family now has the word of God playing in the 2 married sons’ houses as well as the parents. Praise God a believing wife is now listening with her husband who isn’t following Jesus yet.

Praise God too for an old man who has been quite firm in his Muslim beliefs. He heard the gospel recently and today came for an audio player. He said that he really wants to get back to God. When someone said they knew he would find God because the Bible says those who seek will find, he said wistfully if I could find God, that would be so good. Please pray for this man, that he would know the God who loves him and gave everything to save him.

Under Stress

Please pray for a number of seekers whose family units and also relationships within the family are under attack. Pray for protection for the families and for God’s spirit to bring peace. Please also pray that those seeking Jesus would not be distracted but continue to seek him and give him their whole lives.

Under Stress

Please pray for a number of seekers whose family units and also relationships within the family are under attack. Pray for protection for the families and for God’s spirit to bring peace. Please also pray that those seeking Jesus would not be distracted but continue to seek him and give him their whole lives.

God, Speak!

Please pray for the church amongst the Alagwa that is meeting regularly for the now monthly night of prayer and fasting. Pray that God would speak to them and draw others from the community in. Last month, a man who had previously beat his daughter for following Jesus visited the prayer night.

Meet Openly

Praise God for the Thursday group studying the Bible and praying together in one Alagwa village. Please pray for another village, where there are a few “secret” believers and some seekers, that they would also start to meet altogether regularly for fellowship and Bible study and prayer. May they gather and be able to encourage one another and spur one another on to love and witness.

Brokenness

Pray for one village area where there is a lot of brokenness. Praise God that some people are beginning to recognize that brokenness and that they cannot fix themselves. May the Holy Spirit bring about godly repentance in hearts and a turning to Jesus. (2 Cor 7:10).
Please pray specifically for one man of peace in the community who is already taking steps to bring reconciliation and seek Jesus as the only one who can heal brokenness.

Press on

Please continue to pray for the church in Kwa Madebe, those who were trained in discipleship, and also for the more secret believers, that they would all continue to press on to know Christ (Phil 3: 10). May they share the good news of reconciliation with many in their communities.

No Longer Afraid

We praise Jesus that S, a fearful neighbor we told you about in July, is continuing to visit with us in our home and has begun hosting us in his home as well. He is no longer fearful of visiting! Recently he was talking about Jesus and the prophet of Islam in our home with some other neighbors. He was accused of “haram” (sin) repeatedly by one of the neighbors. S continued to adamantly defend his beliefs of mixing the two religions, which includes Jesus as the Savior. We praise Jesus for the boldness of S and the deep hunger he has for God’s Word. We pray that he would choose Jesus completely and boldly proclaim that Jesus is the only Savior!