Lesson Learned
Prayer is everything (both corporate and personal).
Jesus modelled and taught that the advance of God’s kingdom throughout the world is dependent on what/how/if we pray.
Matthew 9:38 says, “So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.” Jesus modelled a life of prayer and taught his disciples to pray as if the growth of the Church would not happen without it. Jesus, after clearing out the temple made the key purpose of the assembly known as “a place where all people groups gather to pray.” (Mark 11:17)
Updates
Alex visited one of the more conservative cities in the country (currently, this city has approx. 100 people requesting bibles every month). The plan was for him and our coworker to meet up with people who had ordered bibles and wanted to know more about Jesus. A local believer also came on the trip. This new believer recently got out of prison and is being discipled by our co-worker.
In a city of 1.5 million people, there are only a handful of believers—so they were able to meet with a couple of workers/believers there, encouraging them.
However, when trying to meet up with those who had ordered bibles things got side-lined. One contact brought along a friend, who wasn’t interested in Jesus, so the conversation was interrupted and didn’t go as planned. The other contact had a motorcycle accident less than 24 hours before we were supposed to meet with him. This is the second time these important conversations were cancelled with both these contacts.
We are continually growing in our language use, and have begun to know others in our apartment block. Sarah has connected with one family and is helping one of their children with English homework. This has opened more opportunities to get to know the family and learn more about language and culture.
Things to Pray For
Pray for a deep spiritual hunger and conviction across this country. There’s hunger, even in the most conservative areas, but people are still very fearful of following Jesus. Pray that believers (us included) throughout this country would boldly take every opportunity to talk about and show the love of Jesus.
Pray that those who have shown interest in following Jesus wouldn’t be prevented by the enemy from hearing more about him. Jesus frequently said that there would be many who hear the message but are just too busy or distracted with “life” to care. However, in Acts 13, 14, 16, and 19 we also see specific examples of the enemy trying to prevent those who are interested—from hearing more. This is certainly what we experienced when both our meetings with non-believers were cancelled.
Pray for supernatural wisdom for the church and workers in this country to know how to help, and how to disciple new believers who are coming out of jail.
It’s hard enough in North America for ex-convicts to find stable work, to learn healthy life patterns, and to be part of a community of believers. It’s probably even harder here—especially to find work. There is currently a mini-movement of guys becoming followers of Jesus in prisons right now, but it’s incredibly difficult for these guys when they get out. The local believer I was with spent 15 years in jail and stepped into a new world he knew nothing about—he didn’t even know how to use a cellphone!
Our Prayer Vision
Sarah and I have been praying for people who will be specifically DEVOTED to pray for Muslims to come to Christ, as well as for God to use us effectively while we live among them.
In his letter to the Colossian church, Paul said: “Be devoted to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. At the same time pray for us too, that God may open a door for the message so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ […]. Pray that I may make it known as I should.”
The Invitation
As you may know, Ramadan starts soon—Apr 2-May 2. We are asking for a pretty high level of commitment during these few weeks and are asking anyone who is willing to do this to let us know. We are believing that God will move in answer as we align our hearts with his for these people.
We are asking for the following: 15 minutes of private prayer each day; 1 hour of corporate prayer (online with us) each week. The first 30 minutes of the corporate prayer time will be spent in private worship before joining an online prayer call for the last 30 minutes—we will keep sharing down to a bare minimum so that the bulk of that time can be spent in prayer.
I will be sending out prayer points each day or can provide you with a prayer resource ahead of time that you can reference each day (depending on your preference).
If you are interested in being a part of this, please click on our names below and use the “Contact Us” form to let us know of your interest. We’ll email you back with the details! And, if you know of other people who would be interested please share this with them.
Let’s Have Faith
This is as much a challenge for us as for you. But we believe that there is power in individual AND corporate prayer. Jesus made it clear that when we pray for His will and kingdom to come we are to expect that it WILL happen. Throughout the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah, God makes it clear that He WANTS to and WILL bring all nations to Himself, so pray confidently with us, join us in delighting God’s heart and together let’s see what He does!
Once again, we are grateful for your continued support and prayers!
Until All Know Him,
