Wednesday, June 29, 2016
“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded.” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4a, NKJV) Hi, this is Eleanor Witcher of IMB’s prayer team, joining you in prayer for the Holy Spirit to work in many lives during the Night of Power. Manufacturers produce colorful cloth used to create banners, canopies for restaurant fronts, and seat cushions. Some wrap this special Ramadan cloth around trees lining city streets. Large and small lanterns, hung both inside and out, add to the festive air. Employers give bonuses and reduce work hours. People give generously to the poor and practice hospitality with friends and neighbors. By this point in the month, however, many have grown increasingly weary of the fast, which forbids eating or drinking from daybreak until sunset. After breaking the fast at sundown, people stay up late. Then they get up before dawn, around four a.m., to eat before the sun rises. Everyone participating in the fast becomes sleep deprived as well as dehydrated during the hot summer days. Women with children and those who prepare the meals suffer the most, because they are unable to nap during the daytime like most others do. Despite the hardship, Ramadan begins and ends on a celebratory note for Muslims, because this is considered a special time to gain blessings toward the Day of Judgment when fates will be determined: Paradise or fire. On the night of July 1 and into the morning of July 2, Muslims around the world will be spending the night reciting prayers and words from the Quran. This particular night in the Islamic month of Ramadan is considered to be a Night of Power, and it is believed that worship and good works done on this night have extra power to lead to forgiveness for sins. * Please pray that people of this faith will recognize the weight of their sin, which no volume of good works can eradicate. * Ask the Lord to reveal Himself so that they realize their only hope of forgiveness is through Christ. * Seek out opportunities to share Jesus with Muslims you may encounter this week.
0 Comments
Monday, June 13,
“The one who despises the word will be in debt to it, But the one who fears the commandment will be rewarded.” (Proverbs 13:13, NASB) Hi, this is Eleanor Witcher of IMB’s prayer team, asking you to pray for unreached people groups. In 2015, you were asked to pray that God would raise up Christian leaders among the Vai people of Liberia. During the past year, God has been answering those prayers in an amazing way. Several Christian leaders are reaching out to take the gospel to the Vai. Training is being held for leaders who are now coming together to learn, to encourage each other, and to go where the Good News has not reached. Living conditions are difficult though, and there are very few Vai believers. In the Bible, adoption is an act of God’s grace by which He brings people into His redeemed family and makes them partakers of all the blessings He has provided for them through Jesus Christ. Adoption can also mean “to take or choose as one’s own.” There is a church in Southeast Texas that is praying about adopting the Kwandi and Kwanga of the Western Province of Zambia. They are praying about the possibility of taking the Kwandi and Kwanga as their own so that they can do everything possible to share with them that the Lord will adopt them into His family through salvation in Jesus Christ. To do this, they would commit to sending several teams each year for five years to share the gospel with this unengaged, unreached people group (UUPG). * Please pray that the Lord will lead this church or another church to commit to this new adoption of the Kwandi and Kwanga so that these people groups may be reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ. * Ask God to provide encouragement and meet the needs of the leaders and their families as they branch out to reach the Vai people of Liberia. * Pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out limitless teams of laborers to reach the unreached of the world. VI |
|