Continue to pray for island brothers and sisters we have mentioned in the past, like Jonny whose wife died this fall leaving him as a single dad of 4 kids, and Dorcas who was kicked out of her family home because of her faith. Continue to pray for her relationship with her family. The crisis moments may have passed, but they continue to live in challenging situations in need of prayer.

Please pray for the disillusioned young people on the island who feel forced into gangs and violence, seeing no other option. Ask for believers to find them first and show them the better way!

Mama Fae is a seeker, who’s studied our first story set. She is not yet convinced that Jesus is the one way to the Father, but wants to keep studying. I’ve been trying to meet with her to study John, but many things get in the way – work, family illness, children’s behaviour. Please ask for protection over her family and work, wisdom to find a good time to study, and most importantly an open heart to receive Jesus as Lord.

The body of believers have had a rough couple of weeks. One had a young cousin who passed away suddenly. Another is facing a difficult situation with her children. One couple is struggling to have children. Please pray for these precious brothers and sisters as they walk through the trials of life. May they know that Jesus is with them in the grief and sorrow, know His love and comfort, and continue to trust Him even when things seem so broken. Pray for wisdom for us as a team to know how to encourage and support the local followers during these difficult times.

We plan to have the 4th training day for local followers on Thursday January 26th. So far, there are 4 who are committed to participating each month. We will be following up with them about daily abiding and prayer, and challenging them to ask the Lord to lead them to a small group of people in their neighborhood interested in doing a Bible study. Please pray for courage for the followers as they step out in faith and ask others to join them in studying God’s Word. Pray for new pockets of believers to grow in each neighborhood.

Praise God for opportunities to share the Christmas story. Particularly pray for four men who came with many questions to an English club, so many that they ended up staying an extra 30 minutes to ask them all. Pray that their curiosity would grow not lessen and they would find answers in Jesus Christ.

We have a new island brother! Our partners have been praying and sharing with this man for years. He recently had surgery and they went and prayed for him. During the night, he was awakened by a bright light. The next day, he was completely healed- body restored and even the incision marks were gone! He talked to brother D, who challenged him to give his life to Jesus. He did! But then he told D that he was worried what his family would think. Brother D told him, “Don’t worry. Your aunt [the new sister from last week] has also put her trust in Jesus. So you are together.”
How the Lord provides! May these two grow together and bring their whole family to the Lord.

Praise Jesus that in this new year we have a brand new island sister! She has been searching and has interacted with different believers over the years, but only fully understood and made a decision to follow last week. Pray for her that she would grow in understanding and see her heart and life changed by the Spirit. Pray also for her friends and family. We hear that she has others that she wants to hear the good news. May she be the first of a new group!

Pray for Z, a newer believer who came to faith through some fellow workers here. He has a few other friends he meets with and it seems that some of them have come to faith also! They have recently been learning about baptism, pray that the Spirit would give them the heart of the Ethiopian in Acts 8 when he said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?”

J and Z and their team walked around the university to share some sweets with the islanders for Christmas. They were able to share the good news with many and handed out gospel of  Luke booklets to 3 different students. Please pray for these students to engage with Scripture and be touched by the truth.

Pray for all who have had the opportunity and will continue to have the opportunity in the coming days to hear about Christmas and the One whose birth we celebrate. Pray for an understanding of the story and may it bring joy and an a desire to share the story with others. Pray for all the believers here on this little island (islanders, team, expats) to be continually emboldened to share about the hope we have in Jesus. May islanders’ hearts be softened toward the Lord and may His light shine into their lives this Christmas season.

December has been a month of evangelism! Various activities have been planned for some villages in the north of the island (that is a section of the island that has been allotted to our church). The other churches will be handling the other sections of the island. Please pray for these activities that they will have a mighty impact on our desperately needy island. Once again violence has broken out with school buses being stoned, houses and shops being burned. Pray the Lord will use the unrest and the frustration fueling it to show people another way.

Please pray for the outreach that J&Z continue to initiate weekly, that many doors continue to open as they try to find people of peace. Pray for the good news to be shared and for opportunities to love and serve islanders here in Madagascar.

There were over 50 people at the holiday gathering. It was a good time of fellowship and there was a mini tari (drumming & singing group), singing praise songs in traditional island rhythm. Pray that connections made there would continue to grow and deepen that the body might be strong and united. Pray for those that didn’t come, that if there is conflict that it would be resolved. Pray also for a number of smaller holiday gatherings happening this week, that good news would be proclaimed, heard and understood.

We have worked through the first story set (creation to new creation) with Ma Fae. She loves the stories, but still sees Jesus as just a prophet, given power for a time by God but not worthy of worship. She has asked God to show her the true way. Please pray that God would answer her prayer and show her the truth of who Jesus is, even that He would visit her in a dream or vision.

Pray for a large holiday gathering of local brothers and sisters and expats today. Pray that it would help strengthen the island body and encourage everyone who attends to share the story and good news of Jesus’s birth!

We are in the midst of our 9-month disciple-making trainings for local believers. Training day #3 is on December 15th. Pray for the Lord to clear the schedules of the believers so that they can attend. Pray for hearts that are ready and hungry to dive into His Word. Also, pray that they would make this training, as well as, regular fellowship with one another, a priority. We firmly believe that pray is the main ingredient in order for these trainings to have an impact on the local body. Thank you for standing with us and fighting for our island brothers and sisters!

Continue to pray with us for a growing desire among island brothers and sisters to meet regularly to study and grow together, and to make it a priority. One new brother has yet to find another islander willing to make the time to study with him, so he is only interacting regularly with expat workers. The i3 sisters weren’t been able to find a day and location to have their normal monthly gathering for November. Pray they meet in December!

Pray for scattered believers to gather together to form local churches.
I4: there are believers from different African countries here, a bunch from I3, but very very few from I4. Please pray that the Lord would add to their numbers.
I3: there are many believers here too, but relatively few meet regularly. The Church is here, but there are few churches. Ask that the believers would desire and act to meet together regularly.
I2: the leadership courses have started, attendance is inconsistent. Ask the Lord to give great hearts to the locals to come, and stop things from getting in the way of attending.
I1: pray for unity of the believers.

One of our team members is reading Scripture with some of the grandmothers in her neighborhood. One is a well-known local Islamic children’s teacher. Pray for open and receptive hearts. Pray too for regular opportunities for them to get together and read.

Pray for a local believing couple who have been struggling for a long time with issues in their marriage. Ask that God would remind them how much He has loved and forgiven them, and teach them how to love in the 1 Corinthians 13 way; that their love would bear all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things.

We hope to hold the 2nd meeting of the discple-making training this week. Please pray for the logistics to come together. Pray too for protection over both the presenters as well as the participants. May they be filled with joy as they look forward to this meeting and may the Lord stir in their hearts a deeper desire for prayer, which will be the focus of the 2nd meeting.

Pray for a newer brother in a village that just this past weekend has started facing a lot of pressure and threats. He is asking for prayer. Pray that he would be strengthened and encouraged in the Spirit and be a light to his persecutors.

We have begun having a Sunday meeting in the local language with some of the local believers. Our hope is to inspire the local believers to meet regularly for fellowship, singing, prayer, and study. But the believers struggle to come consistently. Pray for the Lord to encourage, inspire, and create excitement over regularly meeting together. Pray too for us to be willing to make changes to better adapt to our island setting.

Pray for ‘Uhaju’, a new brother who is desperate for fellowship with other islanders. Attempts to connect him with other island brothers have not led to him being able to study regularly with anyone yet, which is what he really wants and needs.

Things with the gangs are getting way worse. Someone was killed near our neighbourhood recently. We are waiting to hear what the prefecture will do about it. Things are escalating a lot quicker than people thought. Please pray for peace and for the government to be wise in knowing how to handle the situation and prevent any further increase in violence. Pray this crisis would lead people to call out to the Prince of Peace!

Pray for the many islanders who are currently applying for different university programs in Madagascar: for success and for opportunities to meet children of the light who will be testimonies to them. Pray particularly for JJ and Z who are focussed on reaching the Islander diaspora living in Madagascar.

Please pray for two local brothers Z and C who have had the police come looking for them at the house several times this week. Word got to the authorities that they (and others) are following Jesus, but each time they have come to the house a friend in the police has warned them. Pray that the Holy Spirit would enable these men to live free of fear and stay strong in their faith.

Pray for all those who are reading or have read God’s word in the past. In the last month many people downloaded a text and audio app of the book of Exodus, and just today a worker on another team told me about a student who (in the midst of the teacher’s explanation about baptism to an English class), quoted John the Baptist’s words about how the one who would come after him would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire! He must be reading from the app.  Pray that as seekers and believers read God’s word they would meet the Living Word and be transformed!

Pray for the monthly women’s gathering set to happen this week. Pray for open hearts to learn and increasing growth in understanding of the Word.

We are hoping to start up a church leadership training program. Please pray for discernment for us as we move forward with this new adventure. Pray for our hearts to be in tune with the Holy Spirit and may He raise up godly, committed leaders who will inspire their fellow brothers and sisters to grow deeper in their faith. Pray that the Spirit would provide lots of opportunities for those involved with the training to be bold and put into practice what they are learning.

Pray for a local believer who is struggling with her two teenage daughters. Pray that God would give her patience, wisdom and ability to forgive. Pray that the Spirit would draw these girls back to him and protect them from those who might do them harm.

Pra!se God for the news shared by a local brother about how he keeps hearing about islanders who are coming to faith overseas – but are too afraid to share their faith with others. The other day he was in a taxi with someone who was back from their studies in a nearby country where they study at a Catholic college – he was quick to assure others in the taxi that he was still a Muslim. However, he ended up getting out of the car at the same time as D and told him that he was actually a believer! Pray for courage for these new believers to meet with others and share the good things God has done for them with their family and friends.

Pray for the family of new believers (Ma ‘Aisha’ and daughters) as they learn what it means to follow Jesus. We recently studied the story of Mary and Martha and they were taken with the idea of what it means to spend time ‘at the feet of Jesus’. Pray that they would experience a growing relationship with Jesus as they spend time in the word and prayer.

Pray for those who have believed this year and have been baptized. Ask that they would have a hunger for the Word and for spiritual growth, that they would mature and that their transformation would be a testimony to their community.

We have printed the book of Jonah in the local language in Arabic script. This makes Scripture accessible to those who have never learned to read an alphabet other than the Arabic alphabet. When I gave the book of Jonah to Mama Levi, she absolutely loved it and we read the whole book in one sitting. Then I was completely surprised when she asked if I had any books about Jesus. Pray for Mama Levi’s heart to be open as she reads and re-reads the book of Jonah. May the Holy Spirit reveal truth to her through this story. Pray for the opportunity to give Mama Levi the book of Mark and pray for her to have eyes to see and ears to hear. Pray for the many islanders who have read Arabic words this Ramadan, and not understood what they read, to hunger for truth. Pray for our team as we continue to distribute Jonah and for the translation team as they continue to get more books ready to be printed.

“O mwezi uoneha!” The cry goes up as people pass the word onto their family and neighbors: “The moon has been sighted!” Ramadan has begun. For Islanders not a drop of water or a crumb of food will pass their lips from sunrise to sunset for 30 days. They will even endeavor to spit out rather than swallow their own saliva. It’s a long and strenuous month as Muslims all over the world seek to please God and earn points with their efforts. Please pray for the 700,000 people who hail from these Islands. Pray that their tomorrow will be different from today through coming to faith in Christ our Lord. Lift up the small but growing number of Island believers across the nation, that they would be protected by the Lord of Hosts as they boldly and courageously proclaim Christ as their Lord and Savior and share how he has transformed their lives.

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.

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.

Pray for a great harvest in Madagascar: for all those who are reaching out to islanders to see a great transformation in the hearts of the islanders they love. Pray for many islanders to come to know the Lord.