Brother A

Lift up our brother A and his family as they share the Good News and teach the believers. They are living in an area where a terrorist group is killing more and more people and many people have had to flee.
Ask for protection around our brothers and sisters, and peace in their hearts because they live in fear due to the unrest.

Needing a breakthrough

Please ask for specific revelations for the men from our two communities who are caught in fear, even though some of them recognize He is the Way. May they be delivered from fear!
I have a special burden for the religious leaders in our communities and the surrounding ones. Please pray for a breakthrough and that Father will open their eyes.
The end of May should be the beginning of the rainy season, please ask the Creator to give enough water and a good harvest.

Believers

Praise the Lord for His faithfulness and for the Fulani brothers and sisters who are growing in their faith and standing firm. Ask that they will continue to grow in their knowledge of JC and walk in obedience. Ask for wisdom for them and courage to share their faith during this month of fasting.
Pray for 5 new followers to come to Christ in a neighboring community where there is only one sister, who is alone to follow.

Woman believes

A lady was drawn to Jesus by the changed character of her brother who is a believer.
When she decided to follow Jesus, her husband threatened to divorce her and chase her off.
Though the family no longer wanted her, she continued to believe, and remained devoted to Jesus regardless of the challenges she faced.
Because of her love for prayer, one day the husband asked her to pray for him.
He then allowed believers to come fellowship in his home, welcoming us very warmly.
He also attended our fellowship meeting.

Pray this woman will remain strong in her faith, and her husband will come to follow Jesus.

Baptisms!

Recently we baptized some new believers. One is a young boy who read Bible stories and received discipling among us. When we gave him a bible to read at home, his mother warned him against reading it. But he continued reading.
She found it and took it away, which deeply saddened him, but he discovered where it was hidden. Instead of reading it at home, he took it back to the one who had given it to him. Thereafter, every morning he would climb a tree and wait for his mentor to wake and read it to him, and pray together.
His life began to be transformed, so we sought the permission of his parents to baptize him. Wonderfully, they agreed, having seen also that the boy’s character and behavior had changed.
The parents not only allowed for baptism, but let us share the Good news with their eldest son.
Pray for these baptized believers to grow firm in their new faith, and to become powerful witnesses among their people.

Baptism today!

Please pray for protection and blessings for 8 new baptisms today among the Fulani in Niger. Heavy spiritual challenges around this testimony!

Strength to overcome

Pray for the Fulani believers:
May they grow strong and be good ambassadors to their own people.
May God give them strength to overcome rejection within their own family unit.
Recently a woman believed, and decided to join our fellowship. The following day she was told to reject her new faith or else suffer a divorce. Ask God to help her overcome this challenge. Ask God to open her family members’ eyes to Truth.

Partnering

Pray for the partnering process with local churches:
We need wisdom on how to best partner with the local churches.
We desire to love well the different local church workers we invite to partner with us.
May those invited to participate with us, learn together with us – in order to reach out to their own people.

Farming project

Pray for the ongoing farming project:
Strength for trainers doing farming with believers in the bush.
Wisdom and capacity for the farmers in planning their farms, on their own, in the coming years.
The believers to learn to love and help one another.

Lost lamb

Pray for a young man who seems open to the Truth. He is disillusioned with his religion. He has come several times to discuss Bible stories. Pray the Good Shepherd will bring him into the Fold.

More deadly than Covid19

Pray for God’s mercy on the Fulani during the Covid pandemic. Pray they will follow health directives from the government and not believe superstitions. Pray we can have many conversations about ‘the most deadly disease known to man’ that no one but God can cure. It started in the Garden of Eden and we’re all infected. Pray many would joyfully accept God’s treatment!

May the good news spread

Pray for Fulani believers to be faithful and bold in sharing their faith with their neighbors. Pray some will desire to spread the gospel to new areas. Ask the Lord to build His church among all Fulani peoples!

Sharing great joy!

Ask that the Child given to mankind will be proclaimed!
Ask for his name to be called out and heard:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
Ask for his kingdom to be established, and
for justice and righteousness to be performed. (Isa 9)

May God go before

Pray that the power of God will change the hearts of people who are hard like a stone.
Pray for strength as we visit different homes. Pray that God will prepare the hearts of people before we meet with them.
Pray God’s direction for the best location for 3 new workers who also want to reach the Fulani.

New disciples

Pray for the family and 3 children we are now hosting. They are new believers and we are discipling and mentoring them. Pray they will grow to the full knowledge of God.
Pray also for S to be bold and not fear. He has come close to entering the Kingdom and we are sharing with him.

needing repentance

Pray for A, who claimed to be a believer but now we see only by mouth and not in heart.
He desires to cause fear among the believers, saying he will oppose anything to do with salvation. He discourages those who desire to follow in belief… claiming he will kill any new converts.
Pray against evil thoughts in his heart.
Pray that he will know that threat and intimidation is not the way of Jesus and will repent.

Needing a change of heart

Lift up Kad that God will change her heart and that she will hate lying and be free from the fear of spirits. Ask that she will love her father’s wife. Lift up her father who is sick and also losing his mind. May God work in his heart to help him understand what he is listening to.

Holy Spirit work

Please pray that the Holy Spirit would work in all the hearts of those we are spending time with and sharing the Good News with, and that the Father would grant them faith in Jesus. Lift us up (the team) as we disciple believers- that they will be true disciples of Jesus.

Pray for Kw

Please lift up D and Ab and Ar as they talk with Kw. Ask for light to shine in her heart, true repentance, truth and work of the Holy Spirit.  She took a megavoice recorder and asked what we had read in the morning.  We listened to the passage together and shared with her about what we had shared in our morning meeting. Despite many different things, she said she enjoyed it. I think she will continue to come and it is good to continue visiting and encouraging her.

May he accept the audio Bible

I would like to request your prayers for an old man of our community who has been sick many months. All through his time at the hospital, his health has not improved. The LORD put on my heart to give him an audio Bible, for him to listen to the good news. Please pray that the LORD prepares his heart to accept the radio, listen to the gospel and accept Christ. Pray for my visit to him this afternoon.

Sweetest time

News from our Fulani colleagues:
We have had very encouraging reports from A working in East Niger. He said that he is still seeing many come to faith in Jesus. Tam also reported that the Fulani Bible Teaching Week that he has held for the past ten years in the grazing lands was a very positive time again. He said that there were over 20 new believers and also over 30 who were baptised. He reported that many described this as the sweetest time that they had had yet.

Jesus’ people

We were thrilled to hear last week that some more of our friends in Yo were baptised. Three of the women that we mentioned in our last prayer letter, Hap, Kaa and Har, along with another of Ab’s daughters, Aa, made this bold statement that they are now “Jesus’ people”. Pray for them that God will strengthen their faith and help them to withstand possible opposition from their community. Give thanks that Hap’s husband was not ashamed that his wife has chosen to follow Jesus.

Needing protection and courage

Pray for Am, another daughter of Ab and Ci. She is the only believer in her community. She has withstood ridicule and hardship. Pray that God will continue to protect her and her daughter Ai and make His light shine through her.

Needing freedom from fear

Pray for Al, he is from the community south of us. He has been meeting fairly regularly with the believers for almost a year now. Pray that he will not be afraid to follow Jesus. There are many others who have also expressed interest and even belief, but who have as yet had the boldness to identify themselves as followers of Jesus. Pray with us that God will continue to work in this community to break down Satan’s hold on people through fear.

Needing courage to persevere

Pray for Sa and Ha (daughter of Ab and Ci) that together they will be able to follow Jesus. Ha is very keen, and it seems like Sa believes too, but he has grown up in a very dark home- there is a long history of fear and violence in his home. Pray for Ku, our deaf friend. He came to faith, pray that the seed will take root and not be taken away by his mother who is strongly opposed to it or by the young men who would turn him away.

May Ha’s family and neighbors come too.

Pray for Ha, our neighbour to the south, she has come to faith in the past six months! Since Easter time, I have regularly had time reading through the gospels with her. Pray for her husband Da, that he too will believe. He and his brother Ma have been eagerly listening to the Fulfulde audio recordings that we gave to Ha. Pray for Ka, a widow and Ha’s neighbour. Pray that she will not be afraid to call Jesus Lord, that she will not fear community ridicule.

Prayers for believers

Pray for Ar that God will help him to remain above reproach and walk in the light. Pray that his family will be drawn to the gospel through his life and witness. Pray for Ab and Ci and Am, that they will live in harmony with one another and with their community, and continue to witness boldly.

Walk worthy of the Lord

Pray that the elders who have believed will be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding so that they may walk worthy of the Lord, bear fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of God.

May the gospel grow

Ask that the growing church would have an increasing desire to declare the gospel with those who have not heard… that the gospel would bear fruit and grow.

Baptism!

Pray for the six believers who were baptized last week to stand strong despite the scorn of the majority. May they follow the example of the older traveling Fulani believer who faithfully disciples all he meets from village to village!

Excitement over learning to read

Praise God for the progress our literacy students are making. They are so excited about learning to read. Several of them are also excited to read God’s word. Pray God will open their hearts to believe the Bible stories are true and they would put their trust in Jesus.

People are seeing the Light

The communities that we live among only have a few believers, but we see that God is at work, and we are so encouraged by the believers’ joy and boldness. Last week S said that she wanted to be baptised like Jesus, because then, just as Jesus did, she would start her ministry! Yet, she has already begun it in the past months, sharing the good news boldly with many of her friends and neighbours. We are beginning to see ripples in the communities where we live and even in other communities as we see and hear of others who are drawn to the light. Pray for us and the believers in our community and for T (the Fulani elder), that God will sustain us in our faith in Him, that we will live wholeheartedly for Him, and that nothing will hinder us from being above reproach. Pray that our lives and witness will be such a bright light, such a sweet aroma, that others will be drawn to the truth. May we not seek the praise of men, but rather to be esteemed in God’s eyes.

350 gathered!

Praise Jesus for the gathering of over 350 Fulani believers and for the 3 who traveled far to join them and then returned to their own village changed. Continue to pray that these men would share what they are learning and faithfully disciple new believers.

Peace, Truth, and no more Fear

Last Sunday we met with the new believers and asked them what was so sweet to them about their new faith. One said now that he trusts in Jesus, he is at peace because he knows Jesus is sovereign over his life and so anything that happens to him is in Jesus’ control. Another shared that it is so good to be able to know and understand truth from God’s Word. His wives both expressed that now they are not afraid, before they lived in fear of spirits, of the dead, of ghosts, of going places, and of meeting new people. Now they have no fear because Jesus is with them. Now there is peace in their home, unlike their neighbors and relatives who are constantly in conflict with one another.
Praise God for these new believers and pray they will continue experience the sweetness of Jesus and share it with others.

May God open hearts

Pray for wisdom on how to engage the people with Christ during literacy lessons, farming together, and medical help. Ask the Lord to open hearts to hear and believe the gospel.

Grace to believe

Recently Maman asked for a mega voice recorder so he could listen to God’s word. We were glad that he wanted to hear about our God. We gave him one and since then he has been listening to it. Several times I have visited, and found him listening to it. During Easter I invited him to watch a video on the Old Testament prophecy of Jesus and New Testament life of Jesus. Pray he will believe what he is hearing.

Health related challenges

The Fulani face lots of health challenges related to their lifestyle. Pray that they will understand what new practices they need to adopt to be healthy. Pray that openness to new ways of living will include openness to new life in Jesus!

Plight of women

Girls are married when they are still very young, from the age of 12 years old. Pray that the light of God will shine and change people’s attitude and worldview. Women have long days. They work from 5 in the morning till late evening. Pray for them, like Hagar, to see the God who sees them.

for seeds to sprout!

A gifted Fulani teacher was asked to go to a nearby village to share of Jesus. Over 30 men and women and children gathered to listen for over an hour and then asked questions. Ask that these truth seeds would take root and grow to abundant fruitfulness!

Easter celebration

Sunday we will meet together with Fulani believers to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. Pray God’s incredible sacrifice will become more meaningful to all of us.