February 2001
I sat with a missionary friend today. We both knew as
we talked that, barring a miracle, he might not be here
by the time you read this. He is 33. And he's dying of
cancer.
You might think that our conversation was about
his illness, his three small children, the unfairness of his
distressing prognosis. It was not. Instead, we remem¬
bered together his Muslim people group and their in¬
tense resistance, just a few short years ago, to all efforts
to share the gospel. Now they are open and eager to
receive any material that tells them more about God's
love for them. One Muslim woman in his part of the
world had said, "I'll never leave Islam." Her friend had
become a Christian, but she was adamant that she never
would. Just two days later, after hearing the gospel
explained and viewing the JESUS film in her language,
she believed and was saved.
What brought the stunning turnaround? Prayer.
Christians began to pray for Muslims around the world
and this missionary's people group in particular. Now
he is facing eternity. Certainly he would welcome a mir¬
acle. He'd love to see his children grow up. What was
his prayer request? True to the spirit of our missionar¬
ies, "Pray for my people to be saved."
Can we do less than honor his request?
Randy Sprinkle, Director
International Prayer Strategy Office
DECCANI OF INDIA (deh-CAHN-nee).
Praise God for the newly opened "Chat and Chai
House," a literacy ministry for women. There are currently
seven women enrolled. A local rehgious leader, who fol¬
lows a world religion, told one of the instructors, "Thanks
be to God for you doing this for our women! I will be pray¬
ing for you." The instructors write: "Please pray for us, that
we would teach well and that the light of Jesus would
shine through us. Also ask that we would be bold and sen¬
sitive in our witness."
2 ANGOLA (southwestern Africa). Mission¬
aries serving in this war-torn nation write: "Thanks for
continuing to pray for peace for the people of Angola. In
some ways the situation seems to have improved. How¬
ever, there is still sporadic fighting in far too many areas of
the country."
KURUMBA OF BURKINA FASO (kuh-
ROOM-bah). Rejoice that there are now 29 Bible stories
translated into Koromfe, the language of the Kurumba peo¬
ple! They are in a rough-draft form and still require addi¬
tional editing and field testing, but for the first time Bible
portions in the Koromfe language are available. Continue
to pray for the translation work being done by missionaries
from another Great Commission Christian agency. Also,
remember in prayer two Kurumba Christians who will be
translating the text for the JESUS film. There is an urgent
need for these tools. (GPG 1 1
/2000)
3 PORTUGAL (southwestern Europe). Bap¬
tist representatives Norman and Gunita Harrell of the
Algarve subteam cannot stop praising the Lord for what
He is doing in their midst! Norman writes: "The Lord has
blessed again; and we baptized two more young people in
the ocean, with dozens of onlookers as well as about 30
church people present. The local Portuguese newspaper
reporters were there. An article appeared this week about
the baptism, including information about Baptists and
what we believe. God is also working among the BraziUans
living in the Algarve. During this past month, about 10
new Brazilians have attended our Portuguese service. If
God will provide us with the leaders needed, we can start
missions in German, Dutch and Russian tomorrow!" Will
you thank God for His mighty acts in the Algarve region of
Portugal and ask Him to provide leadership to carry on the
work that He has begun?
AYMARA OF BOLIVIA (eye-MAH-rah).
Please pray that God will call four more families to join
in His work among the Aymara people. Pray that these
families will be obedient to His call and have a passion to
share Jesus with the lost Aymara of the city of EL Alto, the
Altiplano (mountain plateau region of Bolivia) and Peru.
AZERBAIJAN (ah-ZAIR-bye-jon) (republic
of western Asia between the Black and
Caspian seas). One strategic area in the country has
just recently witnessed several scores of people become be¬
lievers! Please pray that a leader will now be found for
these new children in Christ.
HAKKA OF TAIWAN (HAHK-uh). Missionary
Danette Thrush shares this testimony of a young Hakka
woman: "When I was little, someone came to my school
and told me about Jesus, but I didn't believe. When I was
12, 1 went to church with other young people, but when I
graduated, I stopped. When I was 25, 1 became very sick. I
