(tee-more LESS-tay) - Please pray for the Holy Spirit to work in the hearts of the Habu people of Timor-Leste, where the majority religion is Roman Catholicism. A group of believers from a neighboring country recently traveled through the Habu people's area, sharing the gospel. They reported that the Habu were open to discussing the Bible's teaching on salvation and Jesus' commands for His followers. Please pray that people from the Habu people group will walk according to the Word, becoming true disciples of Christ, and not simply follow the culture's idea of religious works.
Workers write: "Pray for displaced senior leaders to give guidance from afar as they help young personnel take on more direct leadership on the ground where they serve. As senior leaders were displaced from their homes in the city, there is an unplanned opportunity in God's kingdom for Him to do great things through fewer personnel in the country."
(car-NAH-tuh-kuh) - Please lift up a follow-up training that will be happening with a network of pastors and their wives. Pray that these leaders will have been faithful to use what was entrusted to them in the previous training and that they will be excited to learn more. Ask that they will be willing to talk about where they are stuck or struggling. Pray that these wives will continue to connect at a deeper level, and ask that their trust of one another will be rooted even deeper. Pray for these leaders to have eyes for the unengaged, unreached people groups that are living near them and hearts that desire to be obedient to the Lord as they discern how to engage these groups of people.
(PEH-dee) - There is great spiritual darkness over the Pedi people of South Africa. As the new year begins, pray that the Holy Spirit will be strongly at work among the Pedi people to bring about a spiritual awakening so that the people who walk in the darkness of false beliefs will see the great light of the gospel (Isaiah 9:2) and come to salvation in Jesus Christ.
(NAH-goh-yah) - Teacher Sharon has heard bits and pieces of the gospel over the last two years. She has also attended church a couple of times. She seems a little more open at times and listens as others share with her. When she heard that murderers can even go to heaven if they repent from sin and turn in faith to Jesus, she was so surprised. Gospel seeds are being planted in her heart slowly, little by little. She now has a couple of students who are Christians. Please pray that during class, there will be opportunities to plant more gospel seeds. Pray for God to open her eyes and allow her to see the light of the truth. "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6 ESV).
Please pray for the trauma healing training that will take place in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, starting on January 13. This training will be in two parts, one with a team of Baptist representatives and another in a village. Please pray that this tool will help hearts heal and also become a new ministry that will help spread the gospel to many people.
(kwah-luh LUM-pur) - This month, many across the city will celebrate both New Year's Day and Chinese New Year. Pray for believers who celebrate Chinese New Year to be bold in sharing the gospel with their families as they gather for celebrations. Pray especially for first-generation Christians as they go back home and share a meal with their unbelieving families. Ask the Lord to open hearts of many to be ready to receive the good news of the gospel this Chinese New Year!
(dar es sah-LAHM) - "The year 2024 has come to an end with all its victories and defeats. We thank God for a new beginning as we press on for the goal of the prize. Please join our Dar Urban team in praying for the millions of lost people who have entered 2025 without knowing Christ as their Savior and Lord. Pray that as we begin this new year, we will not forget our goal of reaching the lost, equipping the saints, assimilating the reached into churches, and leading out in mobilizing prayer. Pray that we will remember in 2025 to keep our eyes on the goal of the prize: seeing the kingdom advance here in Dar es Salaam, all over Tanzania, and throughout the world. 'Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus' (Philippians 3:13-14 ESV)."
(AH-far) - Amin and Assia have been married for more than 20 years and have often migrated, along with their many children, between their home village and larger towns and cities. Like most semi-nomadic Afar people, they both grew up in Afar traditions, and regardless of where they live, they continue to practice those traditions and pass them on to their children. For example, Amin fishes with a handline as Afar fisherman have done for centuries, and Assia cooks over coals like her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother did. Though they are content with their traditions, they are also curious learners, eager to gain new skills. Recently, Amin asked another fisherman to show him how to use a fishing pole, and when their neighbor got a gas oven, Assia asked to learn how to bake cakes. Pray for this husband and wife, asking that their hunger for knowledge will lead them to hunger for truth. Pray that they will seek out the Scriptures and that God will open their minds to believe and receive salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ!