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LMCO Prayer Guide
Oct 29, 2009
By STAFF

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Reaching the world with the Gospel can be like working a jigsaw puzzle—but with half the pieces missing.

False religions, political oppression, multiple languages, harsh living conditions and religious persecution are some of the barriers to sharing Christ with unreached people groups. Still, that doesn’t override the Great Commission that Scripture gives to all those who follow Him.

It’s this challenge that compels Southern Baptists to go into difficult places and preach the Gospel.

The theme of this year’s Week of Prayer for International Missions is “Who’s Missing? Whose Mission?”

In this material, you will read about multitudes of people who are “missing”—those who have yet to hear the message of Jesus.

You will also learn how missionaries—more than 5,500 with the International Mission Board—as well as churches, volunteers and local believers are finding creative ways to overcome barriers and spread the Good News in dangerous places.

•In remote Himalayan villages in northern India, people are learning about Jesus. A group of missionaries and a local believer travel village to village, using hand-drawn pictures to share Bible stories.

•In Cambodia, mobile medical clinics, food distribution and education allow Christian workers and local believers to go into remote villages—some that float on water—and share their faith while meeting physical needs.

•Among the Berber people of North Africa, Christian workers are breaking down language and other cultural barriers through modern technology. Believers use digital recorders to share the Gospel message in the Berbers’ language.
There are still areas in the world, however, that are closed to outsiders—especially those who carry the Gospel.

Southern Baptists must continue to support missionaries through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering® and to pray for and reach out to these pockets of lostness so that everyone has an opportunity to hear about Jesus.

Peoples of Northern India

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At 17, Moses suffered from debilitating arthritis. Like many Orthodox Hindus, he petitioned various gods and goddesses seeking help. As his condition worsened, he began to lose hope. One day a stranger handed him a Gospel tract, and Moses began reading about the Great Physician. He started attending church and soon put his faith in Jesus Christ. Fifteen days later, his arthritis was gone.

Years passed and Moses became a successful businessman, but God convicted him that he needed to do more. Leaving his wealthy lifestyle, Moses journeyed with his wife and children to remote Himalayan villages in northern India to share the Gospel.

But following Jesus is hard. Indian people are willing to “add” Christ as one of their gods, but if they believe in Christ alone, they are persecuted. Many believers are burned alive, raped, mutilated, killed or chased into the surrounding jungles. Moses and his family have been thrown out of their home numerous times after landlords learned of their faith.

Despite the hardships, Moses works alongside International Mission Board missionaries supported by the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Together Moses and the missionaries share the Gospel, disciple believers and start house churches.

Pray that God will give boldness and protection to Moses and other believers in northern India as they share their faith.

“Time is short,” Moses says. “I must go, pray and preach the Gospel.”

Peoples of Ethiopia

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As the sun rises in Ethiopia, thousands of people make their way to church. They worship, sing and hear sermons delivered by priests in an ancient language they do not understand.

The people place their faith in a religion with many roots in the Bible—Christianity and Old Testament traditions. This religion, however, has lost touch with biblical truth through the years.

Many worship saints and demons. They believe there are more than a dozen paths to heaven. They do not have any assurance of salvation and lack understanding who Jesus Christ is. Most put their trust in Saint Mary.

More than 42 million people in the Horn of Africa claim this religion as “truth.”

Christian workers Renee* and Ed* have dedicated their lives to sharing the Good News with the people of Ethiopia. More than 90 percent cannot read the Bible in their own language.

Pray for Renee and Ed as they build relationships and share that the only way to heaven is through God’s Son, Jesus.

Pray the people Renee and Ed meet in Ethiopia will be open and receptive to the friendship and message of hope they offer.

Pray that more workers will be called to help spread the Gospel message.

Lezghi people of the Caucasuses

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Fear of the supernatural is part of daily life for the Lezghi people, who make their homes in the Caucasus Mountains of Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

Though they profess to be Muslim, nearly all Lezghi wear amulets or charms to ward off evil spirits; broken teapots hung from homes and thorns on vehicles’ rearview mirrors serve the same purpose. Holy places called pirs provide a place to offer sacrifices and consult witch doctors to garner favor with spirits.

Most of the more than 650,000 Lezghis have never heard the Gospel. Southern Baptist workers Carl and Amy Stroller* are working to change that.

But progress is slow and workers are few. Carl and Amy have served among the Lezghi for more than 10 years and seen little results. But that doesn’t stop them from sharing.

Today the Strollers are nurturing a Lezghi church they helped start and looking for new opportunities to tell others about Jesus. Despite the challenges, they remain faithful to the task.

“The biggest hardship working with the Lezghi is their overall resistance to the Gospel,” Carl says. “We thought these people only needed to hear about Jesus and they would start coming to faith. Their eyes have truly been blinded.”

Pray that God will open the Lezghis’ hearts and protect the Strollers from discouragement.

Berber people of North Africa

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Keith Jones* often stopped in at the small shop across the street from his home in a North African city.

Sometimes it was just to pick up bread or fruit, but Keith always tried to share Gospel truths with the Berber shop owner, practicing the Berber language he was learning.

He and his wife, Susan,* say the shop owner viewed Keith as a “person of God.”

One day the shopkeeper told Keith that he should be an imam, a spiritual leader in a mosque. The Berber man explained: “We live up here and we speak [the Berber language], and these imams come here and they preach to us in Arabic … and we don’t understand a word that they are saying.

“But you come and talk to us about God and you’re doing it in our own language.”

“It was as if, for the first time, he realized that God could speak his own language, too,” Susan recalls.

Keith and Susan are completing a translation of the New Testament into the Berber heart language. Southern Baptists help get the Gospel to the Berbers through their Lottie Moon offering gifts.

Pray for Keith and Susan’s team to develop relationships with more Berber men and women with whom they can test these vital materials. Pray that they and other translators will be able to communicate clearly and accurately.

Vietnamese of Cambodia

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Tonle Sap, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, is dotted with numerous floating villages occupied by much of Cambodia’s Vietnamese population. Because so many Vietnamese are fishermen and find it difficult to gain land rights in Cambodia, they prefer to live on the water in tight-knit communities. They take care of each other—from sharing generated electrical power to caring for one another’s children.

Most residents in the floating village of Kbal Taol had never heard the name of Jesus—but that changed in March 2008. A Christian worker named David* visited the villagers to tell them about the One who is a fisher of men. A Vietnamese man named Tim* became especially interested, so David gave him a Bible. Later Tim invited David to his home for dinner.

After dinner, the talk turned to spiritual things. Tim had begun reading the Bible David gave him and had many questions. Around 3 a.m., Tim accepted Christ.

“That is the longest visitation I’ve ever had,” David said with a smile.

Tim is the first believer in Kbal Taol. By God’s grace, he will not be the last.

Pray that other Vietnamese in Kbal Taol and surrounding villages will be open to the Gospel and will put their faith in Jesus Christ.

Peoples of Iran

Tucking away a JESUS film and a few Bibles in her belongings, Zahra* boards a bus in the capital city of Tehran to share the Gospel with relatives in the Iranian countryside.

Zahra is taking a risk by carrying evangelistic material in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Publishing and distributing Bibles is illegal. Converting to Christianity and sharing the Gospel can be punishable by prison or death.

Despite the risks, Zahra felt burdened to act after seeing her tribe—the Bakhtiari—listed as an unreached people group in International Mission Board material her house-church pastor had given her.

While it is safer to share the Gospel in small home groups to escape notice, the Lord gave Zahra boldness when the movie being shown on the bus malfunctioned. She handed the JESUS film to the driver, who played it all the way through.

Eight of the 40 people on the bus told her they were interested in becoming Christians. During home visits, Zahra led the driver, his wife and their three grown children to the Lord—as well as her own sister.

Though there are restrictions against Christian workers living in Iran, giving through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering enables personnel to share the Gospel with Iranians living in other countries, disciple Christian refugees and train house-church leaders when they can travel outside their country.

Pray for Christians who risk their lives to share the Gospel in Iran. Pray for the peoples of Iran to be able to hear and read God’s Word.

Lost cities of China

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During the past two decades, central China’s urbanization has grown at full throttle. Workers migrating from the countryside to new urban centers have transformed 223 towns into cities, each counting more than 1 million people.

The lure? Money. A city job pays three to four times the salary possible in villages. But in the past, moving to find that job put rural people at risk because government policies denied them the documentation they needed to work in the cities. Last year, thousands of Chinese took to the streets to pro­test their dire economic situation. The government responded by allowing 20 percent of them to move into cities—cities with insufficient housing, factories and roads.

And little Christian witness. As these metropolitan areas continue to sprawl, there’s a growing concentration of people who don’t know Jesus and have little opportunity to meet Him. In essence, they are a collection of lost cities.

Finding a way to share Christ’s love, developing a plan to reach these urban centers is critical. Now is the most opportune time as workers arrive and struggle to find their way, they—and the relatives they left behind—need the stability found only in Jesus.

Pray that God will call more Christian workers to take the Gospel to these unreached peoples.

Peoples of the Canary Islands

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Pepe and Shari Lopez* rely heavily on relationship building to enhance their ministry opportunities in Fuerteventura, one of seven Canary Islands located off the west coast of Africa.

Many islanders are immigrants from northwest Africa who have come looking for a better life in the European Union. Some enter the country le­gally, while others go a more dangerous route on rickety boats or makeshift rafts.

Earning these people’s trust is a lengthy process, but the Lopezes have found that providing free, no-strings-attached services help tremendously. Shari leads multilingual children’s camps, and Pepe teaches a Spanish class. Omar, a Muslim, is one of Pepe’s most dependable students. Because of Pepe’s dedication and free teaching, the trust level among his students has skyrocketed—especially with Omar.

The friendships built during the classes and camps have helped Pepe and Shari reach areas of the community that previously would have been nearly impossible.

“The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is our ‘life support.’ We could not live, function or remain here should Southern Baptists not be praying for us all the time,” Pepe says. “We are the tangible extension of your life and your ministry.”

Pray that Pepe and Shari will continue building deep relationships with fellow islanders.

Beulah Baptist Church penetrates Bambara of West Africa with Gospel

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When God’s people pray, the Gospel can penetrate difficult places. Just ask members of Beulah Baptist Church in Hopkins, S.C.

Beulah Baptist is a 200-year-old church that averages about 275 people each Sunday. In 2007, pastor Brad Bessent led the congregation to begin praying about adopting an unreached people group.

The church recognized God’s call to take responsibility for spreading the Gospel among the Bambara, a West African people group of 6 million—nearly all Muslim.

Working together with IMB missionaries Steve and Susan Roach, the church set its sites on a village of about 3,000 Bambara in Mali. There were no evangelical churches in the village and no known Christians.

After nearly two years of prayer and 12 trips to the village, Beulah Baptist has witnessed more than 100 Bambara come to faith in Christ.

“I’m convinced that God called every one of us to fulfill the Great Commission,” Bessent says.

Pray for more churches to catch the vision of adopting an unreached people group and having a part in bringing them to Christ.

 

 

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