November 2004
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal
procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere
the fragrance of the knowledge of him (2 Cor. 2:14, NIV).
URBAN POOR OF SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN
REPUBLIC. God is working and opening doors in a bar¬
rio called Los Rios. Several have been saved and baptized.
Also, five home Bible studies have been started, with possi¬
bilities of more Bible studies. This is so exciting! However,
standing at the top of the hill and looking down into the
barrio, there are hundreds of people who still need to hear
the truth about Jesus. Please pray for these new believers to
be filled with power and boldness to share Christ with
their lost and dying world. Also, please pray now that God
would raise up leaders for the new churches.
SOFIA, BULGARIA (SOH-fee-uh). There are many young
people in their 20s living in Sofia. Many have gone there
’ooking for work or to attend the university. Some are mar¬
ried; some are single. Pray that the Lord will give the few
believers in this age group a passion and a vision for reach¬
ing Sofia with the gospel. Pray that they will continually
grow closer to Him and live out a strong witness before
their friends. Pray that He will give them boldness and wis¬
dom in sharing their faith with all those around them. Pray
that this group will be a key in beginning a church-planting
movement in Sofia. Pray especially for P, who has the gift
of evangelism and is very passionate about sharing and
starting new study groups.
ARABIAN PENINSULA (Middle East). Family units are
very important in Arabian Peninsula countries. Family is
where life is lived — holidays, marriages and most friend¬
ships occur in the family unit. It is very important that an
entire family come to Jesus Christ together. This has yet to
happen in this particular country; all the believers are scat¬
tered. Pray that an entire family unit would collectively
come and believe together. One specific family, including
extended members, has had many opportunities to hear the
truth of Jesus. Some are very resistant, while others seem
interested. Many have seen the movie The Passion of the
Christ, and one sister has read the entire New Testament.
Pray specifically for this family, and ask that God would
draw them to Himself. Pray that they as a group would one
day say, "As for me and my household, we will serve the
Lord" (Josh. 24:15b, NIV).
WASSULU OF MALI AND GUINEA (WAH-suh-loo). Pray
that S (a local believer) would grow so much in Christ
and find such boldness in Him that he would be able to
become a spiritual leader and teacher among his people.
Pray that even now he would begin to lead in chronologi¬
cal Bible storying sessions. Pray that the Wassulu team
would have the grace to show Christ to the Wassulu people
with their day-to-day lives. Pray that the Wassulu people
would know that the team members love them, and that
the truth the team members proclaim would be visible as
they live among the Wassulu.
XIAMEN, CHINA (SYAH-men). Many people in Xiamen
feel that the official, government-authorized Bible trans¬
lation is difficult to understand. This is the only Bible trans¬
lation that is readily available in China. This problem keeps
many people from attempting to read God's Word, espe¬
cially those without a higher education. Please pray that
the government authorities would be moved to allow a
modern Chinese translation of the Bible to be published
and sold in China.
RURAL HAITIANS OF HAITI (HAY-shuns). "At the end of
one of the chronological Bible storying sessions in
Thomonde about the birth of Jesus," writes the Rural Haiti
team, "we were asking questions about the story that had
been told to be sure that everyone understood the truths
from the story. It is very common in Haiti to have multiple
children from multiple partners without being married. In
fact, it is culturally acceptable and much more common
than being married to one person and faithful. The discus¬
sion came around to why Joseph was thinking about
putting Mary away privately, which led to the cultural prob¬
lem, which led to the idea of the sins of the parents being
paid for by the children. They had not considered their
sins' effect on their children. Eventually the discussion came
around to what impact will come from the United States try¬
ing to make marriage for homosexuals legal. As we all pon¬
der these things, pray for both Haiti and the U.S. that we
will see the truth and follow God, not tradition or Satan."
Today is the Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all cir¬
cumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus
(1 Thess. 5:16-18, NIV).
CHINA (eastern and central Asia). Persecution is a reality
for many Christians in China. Although many of the pur¬
ported 60 to 100 million believers in China experience sus¬
tained periods of relative freedom, government crack¬
downs are always a possibility for those worshiping in
