Download a special edition of our monthly prayer guide, PrayerPoints, and join us as we pray for the people affected by the war in Ukraine.
The new semester is underway at Cape Town Baptist Seminary. South African Baptists and Southern Baptists founded this seminary in the 1970s during apartheid to train men and women from the Coloured (multiracial ethnic group) community for ministry. It has current students and graduates who come from countries throughout the African continent, as well as Europe, North America, South America, and the Far East. For this semester, pray especially for students in the class entitled Evangelism in an Urban Context. Their lecturer, missionary Ronnie Davis, will challenge them to map and analyze a community within Cape Town to identify where to start a new Bible study. The students will also develop an outreach plan to implement in their local church. Pray for God's direction and guidance for each student as they look to take the gospel to the lost in this city of 5 million people. Pray for the people whom the students will meet, asking that God will be working in their hearts and that they will come to believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
(soo-MAH-trah) - Some believers are planning on opening up a language center where they will teach a foreign language to the local people. The early stages of this project will require a lot of hiring. Please pray that the Lord will send them the perfect people with the same vision to fill the jobs that need to be filled.
Today, the Baygo population is only 2,800 in number. They are one of seven ethnic groups in the larger Daju group, which live in western Sudan. Their original language is now extinct, so they speak Sudanese Arabic. The Baygo are small in number but significant in the Lord's eyes. In that great multitude that no one can count from every nation, tribe, people, and language, there will be Baygo believers praising and worshiping the Lamb. Currently, there are few Baygo believers. Ask God to call out Sudanese Arabic speakers to reach the Baygo with the good news. Pray for the Holy Spirit to move in the hearts of Baygo men and women. Pray for them to see dreams and visions of the Savior and be directed to believers who can answer their questions and lead them to faith. Pray for the church to be built among the Baygo.
Thank you for your prayers! Praise the Lord that the visit to the mountains for follow-up with nomadic Bakkerwal families went incredibly well. It went so well, in fact, that an entire area is now open to the gospel! Plans for a second and third Bakkerwal visit are in the works. Please pray for the trip in August.
Mark, a local leader, is a caring husband and a father with one child. He is praying especially for a second child. Recently, there have been a lot of financial difficulties in the church along with the government's oppression, but he is still working hard for families and taking good care of the ministry with joy. Please pray for Mark, who is enjoying the expansion of the kingdom of God even in difficulties. Pray that his family will grow as well, and also pray that he will gain the strength and courage needed to live every day with the joy of heaven and become a spiritual leader who leads more lost souls to God.
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14:6 ESV). In one Forgotten People village, a local official recently heard the good news. The Father had obviously been at work in this middle-aged single woman, as she seemed restless, unfulfilled, and dissatisfied in her Orthodox beliefs but very open to what was being shared. After hearing the stories of the Prodigal Son and a Savior who came to pay for her sins at Calvary, and learning that only by His blood could she know redemption, she had more questions and was very curious. She was given a memory card containing a story set spanning from creation to Jesus that she can put into her cell phone and listen to. Pray that she will listen to these stories and that God's Word will go out and not come back void! Ask that she will know hope, satisfaction, peace, and fulfillment in Jesus. Pray that she will use her influence in this village for His glory and that more people will come to know Him. Pray that His name will be high and lifted up among the Forgotten People of the Horn.
The Deaf team in a Southeast Asian country recently welcomed Carter into the family! Worker Bethany Forrester shares: "God is so good! Our church is looking forward to continuing to pour into his life as he grows, matures, and plants seeds in the Father's kingdom. My teammate, Alice, and I celebrated our one-year anniversary of serving in this country. I will soon celebrate 12 years on the field. Seeing new life never gets old. God has shown me over and over that He is faithful." Praise the Lord for this new believer and for God's faithfulness!
More Chinese speakers in the region are enrolling in Bible studies as a source of community and belonging while they live far from home. Some then choose to become Christ followers. Praise the Lord! Now local churches need to train more leaders for Bible studies and more pastors to lead new church groups. There is an acute need for believers to take on leadership roles. God is the one who gives "the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ." Thank God for the work that they do, and ask Him to raise up more such leaders among the Chinese of northern Africa and the Middle East. Pray that they will strengthen and equip believers "until [they] all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God" (Ephesians 4:11-13 ESV). Ask God to help the church to grow and flourish! Praise Him for all that He is doing, and wait for more evidence of His saving power.
(ar-WAH-coh) - In July, members of a foothills church were trained in how to use Bible stories in personal evangelism. Please pray that they will be bold and wise as they share these Bible stories cross-culturally with their neighbors from the mountains.