While visiting my neighbour the other day, I was asking questions about her family and upbringing. More than once she used the word “normal” in her answer and I had to laugh to myself. I am certain that a Muslim woman who studied law in Aleppo has a very different idea of “normal” than a Biblical Studies graduate who grew up on the Canadian prairies!

If you’re anything like me, it can be overwhelming to look at the statistics about millions of unreached people living in cultures so different from your own that you’d have to study for years to understand them. Their “normal” is so foreign to ours that it’s hard to know where to start and what to pray for.

Of course, it’s always good to pray Scripture over people. We have talked to so many people to whom “the message of the cross is foolishness.” 1 Cor 1:18a. Please “keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give [them] the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that [they] may know him better. I pray that the eyes of [their] heart may be enlightened in order that [they] may know the hope to which he has called [them].” Eph 1:17-18a.

But if you’re looking for specific things you can pray for, here are a few things:

• for the nearly 22% unemployed
• for young mothers who are overwhelmed with housework and taking care of children (gender roles are more traditional here and women often don’t get any help around the house from their husbands, and men often work 12 hour days)
• for  minorities who do not fit the extremely nationalistic ideology promoted here
• for students studying for grueling end of year exams that (somewhat arbitrarily) dictate which university/career they get into
• for righteousness to prevail in government (though this is a democratic nation there are clear abuses of power and not everyone is free to vote as they wish due to societal and military pressure)

Please Note: For the sake of security the identity of the Global Worker(s) and exact geological locations have been omitted from the article.