A South Asian family is increasingly eager to spend time reading the Bible and praying with missionaries. Yet they also talk excitedly about their upcoming Ramadan fast. Please pray that during the month of fasting, they will spend the long hungry hours thinking of all they have learned about the Word of God.

A young South Asian woman came to decorate two Christian women’s hands with henna for a wedding, someone they had never met. During the course of the conversation it became evident she would like to have ongoing contact, and she listened to one believer’s testimony of trusting God during trials. Pray for the friendship to grow, and for her salvation and that of her family.

Praise God for two young women who heard an explanation of how the Bible speaks to the problem of anger. One of them said she would send Psalm 37 to her school friends who were involved in fighting. Pray for them to see that only the Bible has answers to life’s problems. May they have a hunger to know what other issues it addresses.

The grown son in a S. Asian Hindu family has lost his business and his reputation, his wife and children, his friends. But his mother and older brother and family have become believers in Christ. Pray that he also will come to know Christ through their witness, and that his wife and family will be restored to him.

Praise the Lord that a woman who received a book about what the Bible says about heaven has been reading it. She says, however, that she can’t read more than a couple of pages at a time because “a mist comes over my eyes and I can’t go on.” Please pray for the veil of blindness to be removed from her eyes and her heart and that the light of Christ will shine through for her salvation.

Pray for the salvation of the grandfather in a large South Asian family. He is the one who has eagerly pursued Islam, and has made sure all his five children and many grandchildren follow in that religion. He has been influential in the mosque. But now his family are beginning to read the Bible and to seek peace. Pray that God will also cause this old man to seek peace through knowing Christ, and that he will realise he is “judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Pray that he, with the rest of his family, will come to faith in the Saviour and be set free from their bondage and slavery.

Praise God for a great visit with our friend Y. We ended the visit by holding hands and praying together. Pray that the presence of Christ in us will increase her appetite to be delivered from all her fears, anxieties, and distresses, and to have Jesus’ peace. Pray for the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus Christ to her in all His glory.

Pray for a large Muslim wedding celebration on Sunday April 23rd. Over 1000 guests have been invited. Three Christian women will attend as guests of the family. Pray for open doors to share the gospel, and for future contact with those who are interested in knowing more.

Praise God for another visit with Yas. As with so many of our other Muslim friends, she wants to promote and explain many things about her religion. We listened attentively and asked questions to learn more. Then, as we talked about other topics, her anxieties and troubles emerged, especially in relation to her adult children. This gave us an opportunity to offer to pray with her just before we left. “Oh, that would be wonderful!” We sat on the couch together and prayed aloud for the children. “I hope I can learn to pray like that. That was wonderful. I feel…so happy and good right now!” she exclaimed as we went. Please pray for Yas, that the Lord will open her eyes to the Saviour and teach her to pray in spirit and in truth, through Him. Pray that we can have many more visits, and that she will accept an invitation to read the Bible together in order to have peace of heart and mind.

On Good Friday, a young Muslim woman will be spending the whole day with a missionary. She has already asked to hear why this day is so “good.” Pray for her heart to be ready to receive the truth without any reservation. Pray for all obstacles to be removed and the veil of darkness to be lifted from her eyes, that God would shine His light into her heart, giving her “the knowledge of the glory of God displayed in the face of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6)

Pray for a Hindu South Asian woman who runs a hardware shop. She has had contact with Christian people in the past and received a gospel of John to read. Pray that she will want to discuss the Scripture and that the Lord will open the eyes of her understanding so she can be saved.

Praise the Lord for a visit with a S Asian family that led into a long discussion of the dysfunctional family dynamics. Pray that each individual will realise the utter uselessness of Islam to bring health and unity to their family, and will embrace the hope and love Christ offers instead.

Please continue to pray for the D family’s salvation. They have several Bible story books, verse cards, several tracts, and a Bible at their house now. Please pray that they read the Word and talk together about it. Pray for the family as a whole to come to a decision to follow Christ. Pray especially for those who are most influential in the family to decide first.

Two young women from a South Asian family will be meeting with a Christian woman to hear the Bible story of the Ten Commandments, and the requirements of God’s holiness. Pray for the revelation of the Law to bring the conviction of sin, and pray for them to be led to faith in the Saviour.

Two young Muslim women have an appointment to meet with a missionary to hear what God’s solution to our sinfulness is. This is the meeting where they will hear for the first time that the Messiah the Old Testament predicted, who would save His people from their sins, was Jesus. Please pray they keep the appointment and are ready to cast their burden of sin on the Saviour. Pray for their whole extended family to come to faith in Christ.

A South Asian Muslim woman- educated, responsible, very entrenched in her family- has accepted a Christian book about heaven. Please pray that she reads it, understands who Christ is and the salvation He offers, and that at the right time she takes the initiative to discuss it with the Christian who gave it to her.

Another visit with the D family brought conversation about how long it’s been since we had Bible stories together, and an obvious yearning to begin again. Pray for God to work the logistics of this out, as people’s schedules don’t always mesh. Pray also that the women will begin reading the Bible on their own.

The Muslim South Asian family we’ve been ministering to seem sometimes to be taking steps toward Christ, and sometimes back. One day recently I had a chance to spend time with one of the mothers in the large extended family. She shared that she is still very sad that her brother back in India died and they could not afford for her to go back for his funeral. She can’t get over her guilt for that. Nor her guilt that she is still having waves of sadness about his death. According to her religion, she should simply submit stoically to the will of God. That day we read about Jesus’ sadness over His friend Lazarus’ death, and how each of the sisters had an “if only” comment. This is a normal feeling, a normal reaction. Then we read that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. We read the testimony of Martha, who said, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” The woman listened without arguing. She also received a small book of Swahili Bible stories, and said she would read them. Please continue to pray for the salvation of the whole family.

Praise God that a S. Asian young woman from Kenya who became a believer three years ago out of Hinduism is now attending a 6 month Bible school/missionary training program in Australia. She is concerned for the salvation of her relatives living in Australia, who are still Hindu. Some of them she is seeing for the first time in years. As they reconnect and visit, please pray for her boldness and courage, and that they may come to Christ.

Praise the Lord that the South Asian family has invited their Christian neighbours to a barbecue Saturday night, where the men will have more contact. And praise the Lord that the women in the family want to continue meeting to hear Bible stories, and that one of the women is reading a Christian book about heaven. Please pray for the salvation of each person in the family, and for a spiritually profitable evening this Saturday night.

Praise God that the missionaries’ time with the South Asian family on New Year’s Eve was a time of fun and some significant introductions for the men of four families to meet one another. Pray that now the Spirit of God will prompt some of the Indian men to take initiative to connect with the missionary men again. Pray for the salvation of the entire family: men, women, and children in 2017.

Christmas Day a S. Asian family came to eat dinner, hear the account from Matthew and Luke of Jesus’ birth, and learn to sing together “Joy to the World, the Lord is Come.” One teenage girl said rapturously, “This is my first time to be invited to a Christmas party. I hope I get invited again next year!” At the end of the Christmas story they tried to articulate our differences. “You say Jesus is the Son of God, but we say He’s a prophet. And we believe Mohammed came afterwards and was the next prophet. Each of us tries to follow the teachings of our prophet and teach others to do so, too.” How to respond? We said, “There is something unique about Jesus that this account of His birth tells us. He was to be called Jesus because He would save His people from their sins. He was the Saviour, Christ, the Lord. When Elizabeth heard Mary coming to her she asked how it could be that the mother of her Lord would come visit her?” They listened, pondered, did not argue. We heard from a friend that later, after the dishes were washed and the cookies distributed and goodbye kisses given, they sang Joy to the World as they drove home. Please keep praying for the salvation of the entire family. Although no men came to the party, the extended family have invited us to come to their home for a New Year’s Eve party. The men will definitely be there, and perhaps our men will be able to make friends with them.

Missionaries have invited a S. Asian family to join them on Christmas night for food, a reading of the Christmas Story, and caroling. Please pray that the family will come, including men. Pray for the Holy Spirit to convict them of the truth of the gospel, the trustworthiness of the Saviour, and the ineffectiveness of Islam to bring them salvation.

Continue to pray for the S. Asian Muslim family who are listening to Bible stories. This week four single girls came asking to hear Bible stories from a Christian neighbour. First they saw her nativity set, and asked to hear the story of Christmas. They listened intently. Then she shared the stories from Creation to the Fall and God’s promise to Eve that her descendant would crush the serpent’s head, then ending with Isaiah’s prediction that a virgin would conceive and bear a child whose name would be Immanuel, “God with us.” Thursday the whole family group meets again together, mothers and children as well as the single girls. Pray for nothing to interrupt or prevent these weekly “Bible Classes” from happening, and pray that the whole family will put their faith in Christ.

After a second session in which they heard the story of creation, the women in a Muslim family asked for another story sooner than planned. They find it difficult to wait a whole week for the next episode. Please pray that as their appetite for God’s Word increases, their spiritual understanding will also widen and deepen, and that when they hear how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies and was our perfect sacrifice, they will take courage and put their faith in Him. Praise God for the openness the women and children exhibit. Pray for the spiritual progress of the men in the family, too.

A team of Christians meets twice a month to pray for opportunities to share the gospel in conversations with South Asians who need Christ. So far only two of the team have had those opportunities. Please pray for each person on the team to have at least one conversation about salvation in Christ with a South Asian person in the next few weeks.

The young South Asian girl who hopes to attend Bible school was very encouraged last week when a group of short-term Australian missionaries came to her church in Kenya. They gave her a donation and encouraged her not to give up hope. Please pray for the Lord to encourage this young believer that her prayers are being answered by a loving Father who is generous and kind. Pray that as she walks through the process of being called into ministry, she will learn how to ask people for prayer and declare her faith in Jesus boldly to those extended family members who she thinks will be shocked by her desire to study the Bible. Praise the Lord that her immediate family are all believers and strongly supported by their new church family.

Pray for a young woman who hopes to attend Bible school. Two years ago her family came to Christ out of Islam. No longer does she study the Koran. Pray for the Lord to encourage her faith by providing what she needs and opening the doors for her to study God’s Word.

The D family listened eagerly to the overview account of the Bible and the first day of creation. It was obvious that the snacks and conversation in the first half hour were simply preliminary to this “main event.” They made a few comments, asked a couple of questions, observed a point or two that was similar to the Koran. At the end they were eager for prayer for the needs of various members of the family. This week they are expecting lesson 2 on Thursday, and it’s obvious they plan for the Bible study to be an ongoing event. Praise God for the opportunity to meet with the whole family in their home. Praise God for their openness and interest. Please pray for the Spirit to enlighten their eyes and take away any fears, so the light of the gospel can shine in their hearts and the whole family will be saved.

Pray for a South Asian family who are becoming more and more open to the gospel. Visits with their neighbours, missionaries, are frequent and loving. God is opening new opportunities to pray with and for them in their trials. He is healing family members who have serious illnesses. They are listening to the stories of the Bible. Now the whole extended group have requested to hear the Bible stories together at their house. Please pray for the Lord to work mightily through His word and bring the whole family to faith in Christ.

A young South Asian woman and her whole immediate Muslim family became believers in Christ two years ago. She would like to attend discipleship school, but needs funds and a visa to go to Australia for the course. Her family has been ostracised by their relatives and are suffering difficulties in business and relationships. Please pray that in a variety of ways the Lord will encourage these new believers to rely on Him and seek Him for deliverance, and that they will receive some signs of encouragement that He sees and knows their needs.

The women in a South Asian family have been hearing the gospel repeatedly from two missionaries, and are making progress in their understanding of Jesus. Recently one woman who had a diagnosis of MS went to India to have a medical checkup. Before she left, a missionary prayed for her healing in Jesus’ name. All her tests came back completely clear. Her sight, which had deteriorated, has also been restored to normal. Although she is not yet ready to conclude that Jesus has healed her, there is much rejoicing. Please pray for further progress in sharing the gospel with the family, and that as the women are growing in their understanding of who Jesus is, that the Lord would also be sending emissaries to the men, so that the whole extended family will be saved.

A missionary has been able to make contact with an old acquaintance after more than a half year. Pray that this opportunity can be used to explain the truth of the Gospel to him.

A South Asian Muslim family has been shocked and grieved by the drowning of a 4 year old nephew and the heart attack of an uncle. They are beginning to listen to Bible stories and they have received a book that shares Creation to Christ. Little by little they are beginning to hear about God’s great love for sinners and the uniqueness and sacrifice of Jesus for our sins. Please pray that the whole family will come to faith in Christ…men, women and children.

My young neighbour texted me, “Can you come today instead of tomorrow? I’m leaving for Tanzania tomorrow.” She and her brother are going to live with their father, since their mother, here in Kenya, has been diagnosed with MS. Her parents divorced years ago, and she’s lived with her mom until now. This will mean a huge change for her, possible further indoctrination in their Islamic faith. Please pray that this afternoon’s visit with her will allow me to share again with her how much Jesus loves her, that He died for her sins and rose again, and that it is His righteousness alone that can make us fit for heaven. Pray for wisdom about whether to give her some Christian literature to take with her, along with another small gift to please a teenage girl’s heart. Please pray for the Lord to craft the visit in such a way that only those family members who are open to the gospel will be with us, and for great freedom both for me and for them to share what’s in our hearts. Thank you for your prayers!

Please pray that the Kenyan South Asians that are Hindu would come to understand Christ’s captivating holiness and that He is not “one among many” but unique in His Divinity.

For the Kenyan South Asians of a MusIim faith, please pray that they would see Christ as not just an upstanding Prophet, but as he truly is, the divine Son of God.

Ask God to remove the veil that covers the hearts of South Asians, that they might believe in the One whom He has sent to save them.

Please pray that the Kenyan South Asians that are Hindu would come to understand Christ’s captivating holiness and that He is not “one among many” but unique in His Divinity.

For the Kenyan South Asians of a MusIim faith, please pray that they would see Christ as not just an upstanding Prophet, but as he truly is, the divine Son of God.

Ask God to remove the veil that covers the hearts of South Asians, that they might believe in the One whom He has sent to save them.

Ramadan Day 29
South Asians have been Mu$lim for hundreds of years. North African Arabs have been as well. Pray that this Ramadan, God would appear to North Africans and South Asians in dreams and visions and call many of them to Himself. After so many years bound by the Evil One, ask Jesus to bind the strong man and plunder his house! (Matt 12:29)