As followers of Jesus, the Christmas holiday offers many opportunities to point our dear cousins to the greatest gift ever! Whether it is some simple decorations, a nativity scene, a children’s story book about Christmas or having neighbors and friends for a holiday meal, each of these open doors for questions leading to answers that point to the beautiful Christmas story and true hope it offers. Please pray that we will take the opportunities and represent well His truth. Please pray the Holy Spirit will take those truths and draw our friends and neighbors to Himself.

Abigail has been hearing a lot of truth for a long time, as members from our group meet with her and walk life with her. Recently, she was invited to breakfast and time was spent talking about aspects of truth. Please ask that Father would open Abigail’s heart and mind to her specific need to know the peace and joy that only Jesus can bring.

Our colleagues again met with a local sister along with her friend and she brought a relative, to study the word. Our sister participated In leading the study and the friend actively engaged while her relative listened. At the end, they both want to meet again. Father is stirring in their hearts and our sister is taking an active part! Praise Him!

Laws are becoming increasing Islamic. One who had talked about leaving Islam to follow Jesus said yesterday, “it is impossible now”. Another who was reading Scripture said, “If one believes in Jesus, she just can’t tell anyone.” Pray that this thinking would be exposed as lies and as the spirit of fear so prevalent in Islam. May Jesus set Arabs free from fear.

A colleague and local sister met with another young lady interested in truth. Together, they looked at the word, with the local sister very involved. Praise God with us for our local family who are stepping up and reaching out! Pray for much fruit!

A young woman who does not yet follow Jesus has been gathering other women who are interested in Jesus and they come to study Scripture together! Pray for their salvation.

Update on older post:

Disappeared
by jennyio | Nov 21, 2021
A young believing girl has been trying to leave the country for a while… but from all we see, she has a loving family. She wants more freedom and says she is suffering. She disappeared yesterday and her mom has been frantically calling. (Over 15 times in 2 days.) We have talked to all our connections but can’t find her. Pray for her and her family.

Update:
She is back in contact with her mom and is in a neighboring country. Believers are helping her and actually her mom is sending her money and helping her from afar too. She has had a difficult time… and her mom now wants nothing to do with Christians bc they ‘took her daughter’. But she is being discipled and is being cared for.

In our country of North Africa, many of us have set the alarm on our phones to go off at 1:00 pm daily, for the purpose of stopping and praying for our dear cousins here.  Would you consider doing the same?  Please set your alarm for 1:00 pm. When the alarm goes off, pause for a moment and ask Father to transform the hearts of our cousins here and around the world and to open their minds and hearts to Jesus’ love for them. Pray John 15:7-8 “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” Based on this promise, ask that He would be glorified in bearing much and lasting fruit here!

Father is using the internet to draw people in North Africa to Himself. They google a question about Jesus and are led to a site where they ask questions. They are invited to study the Word and, if they complete the study, are invited to be connected with a believer in the area they live. However, taking that leap to meet face to face is frightening and often logistically hard for these seekers. Please ask that Father would give these seekers the courage to meet and talk with other believers, who can encourage and walk with them. Pray that gatherings of believers would result. He will build His Church!

Oh Lord, humble those who still believe self-righteousness saves. Please rescue these rebellious ones. Let them see they are helpless. Only God is righteous; only Jesus redeems and cleanses us. Silence the lies of the evil one and let the lost hear the truth through your children and through your Spirit.

Pray for opportunities to share the Truth declared at the Queen’s funeral with locals this week. Everyone knows about the funeral here so its an easy conversation starter.
Today I visited Abigail and we discussed how the Queen was a person of service… and how JC came to be a Servant in order to mend our relationship to the Father. Please ask that Abigail would think deeply about this important characteristic of JC.

Pray for our friend Adam who was recently diagnosed with cancer. Ask for healing in the name of Jesus. We have shared the good news many times with this family and they are open to prayer. They love the person of Jesus, but do not believe in His death and resurrection.

Joy’s father had taken a turn for the worse and he’s in hospital… maybe he won’t leave. Joy is desperate for him to meet Jesus before he passes. Would you pray with us for the Father’s mercy on Joy’s father? And comfort and peace for Joy.

Please pray for open doors to share with our friends and neighbours in NA2 capital. Pray for the local body as they develop leaders and shepherd new followers.

Mike is reading the Word. He has started in Genesis. Please ask that Father would open His heart and mind to truth. Ask that Mike would be overwhelmed by the magnitude of this revelation as he begins to see the big picture. Pray that he would ask questions.

Sovereign Lord, gather your children together. Give them hearts that are willing to risk meeting young believers, willing to use the gifts of the Spirit to encourage the church, willing to forgive, ready to be transformed.

This week, we will have a few days of traveling and visiting with Mike and Faith. Mike is asking good questions about truth. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will work in both of their hearts, drawing them to Himself.

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”!

Mike, our neighbor, has decided to download a copy of the Bible and wants to read it from start to finish. Please ask that God would reveal Himself in His Word and move in Mike’s  heart, drawing him to Himself.

The biggest holiday in Islam, Eid al-Adha is this weekend. 1.8 billion Muslims around the world will celebrate by sacrificing a sheep, goat, cow, buffalo or camel in remembrance of Abraham’s sacrifice of a ram in place of his son.
Pray that many will “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” has come and offers salvation to any who will believe.

More than 15,000 Moroccans arrived in Mecca Thursday to perform the annual Hajj pilgrimage. This annual event usually attracts 2 million Muslims as a required pillar of Islam. This year 1 million international pilgrims will be allowed after a two year restriction due to Covid.  Pray for Jesus to meet with these earnest yet lost worshippers. Pray many would be disillusioned with Islam and have courage to seek Truth.

Please pray for Roza. Her mother has kicked her out of the house. We’re thankful for another worker who has let her move in for a bit. Roza is trying to complete her training course, get a job and gain some independence from her family who have opposed her decision to follow Jesus.

After years of faithful witness and conversions, there is still no church. Believers are afraid to gather together. Pray for a breakthrough.

Pray for our neighbor Amy. She was over earlier this week with a heart load of issues… and I think she barely stopped talking for an hour. Ask that Father show this brilliant, professional, woman going through a divorce that Jesus is truly THE way.

Thank you Jesus that you have broken down the wall of hostility… that there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free. Break down the walls of unlove between Arabs and Berbers and Jews; between families, clans. May all believers be first of all the family of God, adopted, chosen, redeemed… one Lord, one faith. Would you, Holy Spirit, gather believers of different families to worship together.

Our friend Larry needs your prayer. He is an incredible, skilled, professional ‘soft skills management’ teacher. He has a lot of trauma in his background and often struggles with bouts of depression so severe he despairs of life itself. At our coffee time last week he was in tears. Pray he will cry out to Jesus.

Mighty Jesus, please help your children to love one another, to forgive one another. You say that if we say we love God but do not love our brothers and sisters we are liars. May your children abide in you and bear the fruit of the Spirit- love.

Mike and Faith are a retired couple. They moved from their home area looking for some freedom from the weight of the local practice of belief. Father brought us together, allowing for a growing friendship and the opportunity to discuss what true freedom really means. Mike has rejected all religious belief, trusting in science instead, while Faith is torn by her sense of loyalty and the evident hypocrisy. Please ask Father to open their hearts to truth and for seeds being planted to bring life!

The Father is growing the church in the capital city and we are hearing reports of a number of people following the Son or choosing to be ‘dunked’. Please ask that they would be rooted in the Word, in  prayer, and in a Believing Community.

Many of this generation are being taught that their feelings define truth and that if they follow their heart, they are being most true. Jesus, we pray that you would expose this lie, that instead of trusting their own deceitful hearts, (Jer 17:9,10), they would allow you to search their hearts and transform them. May they put their confidence and trust in you and be like trees that put out roots by the stream and bear fruit without fear. (Jer 17:7,8)

The end of Ramadan is in a few days. Ask that as we meet up friends and neighbours that the Father would open a door to speak of Him.

Tonight Muslims around the world will commemorate the night on which Allah first revealed the Qur’an to Mohammad. Many will spend the night in prayer expecting blessings and mercy. Pray that the Lord will bless them with a revelation of His Son.

Jesus, we ask for generations of believers where parents and grandparents share their faith with their children without a spirit of fear, but with power, love and self-discipline. May they be willing to join in the suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. May they remember that you have saved them and called them to a holy life—not because of anything they have done but because of your own purpose and grace. Jesus, may they be heralds and teachers of this gospel. (2 Tim 1)

Please lift up the local body and local leaders to be Spirit led, humble, obedient followers as they lead others.

We are getting to know a man in his 30’s named ‘L’. He has come to our house and heard the Word. Pray that the Father opens his heart to see the beauty of the Son and the Good News.

Ramadan starts April 2. Pray that many will find Jesus satisfies their deepest longings.
Also, ask that the devil will not discourage local followers during Ramadan.

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.

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.

The believers are meeting for Christmas this Saturday! How wonderful that three women who wouldn’t speak to each other before are now all going in one car to the meeting. And both men and women will be present. Pray that trust deepens and this church is bound together by the Holy Spirit.

Praise the Father for resources being developed in the local dialect. A recent video of the story of Jesus from birth to ascension is being sent to local contacts. Ask that they would forward it on and the Truth would go viral!