July 2021 Prayer Points

In a season of many closed doors, the Lord has taught us to wait and pray. Over a year ago, we last went on a mission trip to China to support local ministry teams because of the lock-down. Churches and team members shifted temporarily to meeting virtually. After much prayer they began again worshiping in church sharing their hearts and vision for ministry with community needs and continuing to meeting weekly to build relationships. As we look back, we could have easily been discouraged that we were not able to do ministry as we had imagined it. Now, we see how the Lord has been preparing the way and orchestrating His purposes all along. Pray for team members as the serve alongside Chinese brothers and sisters with the long-term goal of reaching the lost.

Many large urban centers across China remain under strict lockdowns and hospitals continue to be overcrowded. Oxygen and medicines are in short supply. Vaccines are still not available for all to receive. Pray for continued healing and progress in China.

The Meskhetian Turks, displaced from their homeland during Stalin’s ethnic cleansing and dispersed across Central Asia, are unengaged and in need of a gospel witness. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers to these industrious and hardworking, Islamic peoples.

Gateway cities in China are using “New Hope Trauma Healing” groups to minister to the hurting around them. Pray for those receiving the training and beginning new groups. Pray that as they meet, nonbelievers will be healed from trauma and come to salvation.

Pray for a local church leader who, along with his wife, recently decided to use their gifting to make fun songs and videos declaring biblical truth. Pray that the Lord will grant them an audience of children and adults, and ask that seeds are planted unto salvation.

Pray for the true Light to shine among blind communities. Blind people are often mistreated; people steal or break their canes. Some believers have supplied new canes and blankets for these people, opening up opportunities for spiritual conversations.

Man made borders divide the Afar homeland into three countries. Pray for the good news to be available to the Afar, in the northern part of their desert homeland, through radio programs and internet sites. Pray they will meet believers who will share the truth with them.

Church planting is hard work and with each step forward, there are a few steps back. Attacks from the enemy can be numerous. Some church planters are facing serious medical issues in addition to COVID. Pray for good health so they may carry out this important work.

Anita, a Deaf woman was finally able to attend church! She was so encouraged that she went out to share the good news with friends the next day. Praise the Lord that Anita was able to gather in worship, be renewed in spirit, and share the gospel!

“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” (2 Timothy 2:2). Pray for China teams as they begin teaching orality at a school of evangelism run by a trusted local pastor.

Healthy partnering is key to reaching the lost. Pray for more national and US partners to work with missionaries in evangelism, discipleship, and leadership development. Pray for both nationals and US partners to be called to take the gospel to the nations.

Pray for indigenous Chinese  people bringing their sacred ancestral items with them. Pray they come to know Jesus and not depend on any other spiritual items for eternal life.

The coronavirus pandemic has brought economic, healthcare, and political problems. People are falling into poverty rapidly in many places around the world. Ask the Lord to mobilize His people to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of those around them.

Victoria will be joining ministry teams working with refugees. She has experienced months of visa complications. God makes impossible things possible. Pray for her way to be cleared, so she may go where God has called her.

David, currently running for local office, is a well-known, respected member of his community. During quarantine, a family began sending Scripture via text to him. As David ponders God’s Word, pray for the Spirit to change his heart and show his need for a Savior.

Pray for the New Hope Trauma Healing group in China. Pray for the healing of deep wounds in their personal lives and their experiences within church life. Pray they will be able to reintegrate into church well.

Descendants of the Han Chinese majority and the Qiang minority, the Ming people live north of Chengdu in the Sichuan province. Pray for the Ming, who have been untouched by the gospel, to know their identity in Christ and to reject the false gods of their ancestors.

Cesar and his wife run a shelter for refugees. Pray for them as they currently host 19 adults and 11 children, and also care for their own special needs son. Pray for more volunteers to help at the shelter and share the love of Christ.

Pray for Theological Education centers in China as they train lay leaders and ministry students. These men and women are the future pastors, teachers, and missionaries who may be called to lead or plant churches and bring many to Christ.

Local believers, Vicky and Natalie, feel called to reach the Muslims. Lift up these women as they seek to enter homes, pray for households, and find opportunities to share God’s Word through Bible storytelling. Pray for many to come to faith.

Deaf James has been meeting with Bethany multiple times per week to learn more about Jesus. Pray against discouragement for James, who learned the local Sign Language late in life. Pray that he will understand the gospel, and also realize that he can teach it to others.

There are thousands of small villages of indigenous peoples all over China. Due to the pandemic, many who were previously contacted have not had any missionary presence in over a year. Pray for God’s Word to spread despite limited access to these villages.

An app is being developed for Uzbek believers to be able to find helpful online resources in their own language. Pray for the app to be completed and made available soon, and ask that it will be a helpful tool for the Uzbek churches.

Believers have been called out as missionaries and teachers to countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Asia. Pray for God to strengthen and protect these believers as they bring the good news to the nations.

One facet of a Pregnancy Center Team’s ministry is post-abortion counseling to hurting women. Ask God to grant wisdom to a team member who hopes to have a post-abortion Bible study with a friend. Pray for the friend to find healing, freedom, and joy in Christ.

In China, there are “high priority zones” where multiple people groups live within one geographical location. Missionaries are partnering with nationals, US churches, and other Christian workers to reach these people. Pray for wisdom and creativity in this task.

Pray for students as they finish college for the year. In one student ministry group, many are graduating. This includes some who have believed since they began their college careers and were baptized. Praise our Lord for that! Pray for all students that during an uncertain summer, they will thrive in the Lord’s hands. Some of them may have internships. There is a strong possibility of online Bible study groups happening as well. May God continue His amazing work among these young people!

Pray against fear. Rising COVID 19 cases, a prolonged government emergency, and economic concerns have inspired many people to become fearful. Ask that people will not dwell in fear, but rather in gospel-driven confidence. Pray for Chinese to have a true spiritual thirst that can only be satisfied by the Living Water.

Medical experts have made some dire predictions about what the coming days of the coronavirus pandemic will be like for China. One expert believes that nurses will be the key soldiers in the war on COVID 19. Pray for the hundreds of Christian nurses who have been trained over the years. Perhaps the Lord has raised up these Christian nurses to serve in the different hospitals across China for such a time as this! Pray for their stamina and courage, and petition for open doors for a gospel witness to their patients. Pray that many patients will call on the name of Jesus and be saved.

As partner churches started to expand ministry into new areas as well as around their current locations, pray for unity, understanding, and grace. Ask that they will be one in heart, mind, and spirit in the strategic approach for all ministry with the local churches. Pray for God to protect the missionaries’ health and protect their relationships with partners from the evil one.

Shaun, his wife Natalie, and Natalie’s sister Sara are believers living in a small village near the mountains. They are the only believers they know in that area. By God’s grace, they have been seeking to read the Word and pray together as a family as often as possible, and there has been evidence of growth in their efforts to share the gospel with those around them, including other family members. Pray that God will grow them in the knowledge of His Word and in love for Him. Pray for protection against false teaching, as they often try to watch something on the internet as their source of teaching. Ask God to bring many others around them to faith through this family’s witness.

While technicians complete the final editing of the standard Bangla Old Testament audio files, other people work on the logistics for distribution through various channels, such as online Bible websites and mobile apps. For the first time ever, the complete Bible, not just the New Testament, will be available to oral learners who speak standard Bangla. Pray for the salvation of technician Jibon, who has heard the gospel as he has asked questions about what he has listened to during the recording process. Pray over the audio-recording distribution process, asking for good relationships with distribution partners and for minimal technology issues as the audio files are distributed through apps, cell phone memory cards, and many other ways.  In Isaiah 55:10-11, we read that God’s Word goes out like rain and snow that waters the earth, and that God’s Word will not return without accomplishing His purposes. Pray that the complete audio Bible in standard Bangla will be refreshing water to thirsty souls in the Bangla speaking communities in South Asia and worldwide. Pray that by reading the Word of truth, many will come to know Jesus, the Living Word, as their personal Savior.

The countries where the Outer Rim People of Asia live have been greatly impacted by COVID 19. Because of this, many of the Outer Rim people have been filled with fear, and some are even too afraid to leave their homes. Pray for opportunities for those laboring among the Outer Rim People to share the good news. Pray for open doors and creative access opportunities during this time when it is so difficult to meet with people. Pray that the Lord will use their fear as an opportunity for them to seek Him, and that their eyes will be opened to the falsehood of their religion.

The Darang Deng of China are part of the Tibeto-Burmese people. They outwardly observe many Buddhist rituals, but are not overtly Tibetan Buddhist. They fear ghosts and gods. Their primary religion is Chinese folk religion, a mixture of beliefs and practices that includes elements of Buddhism, Taoism, and ancestor worship. Only a handful of believers exist among the Darang Deng, even though gospel materials are available. Pray for believers to go to this part of China and proclaim God’s truth. Pray for the Darang Deng to have a hunger for the truth and seek it with all their hearts until they find Jesus, and then may they forsake all to follow Him. Ask God to then give them boldness to proclaim Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). Pray for the entire people group to be inwardly and outwardly Christian!

Pray for four short-term missionaries who have just finished their orientation training. Ask the Lord for their protection, safety, and last-minute preparations as they head to the field to serve among indigenous peoples. Pray for their language and cultural acquisition as they look forward to beginning their ministries.

What do you do when you have invested a great deal of time, effort, and money in preparing outreach materials for the Tokyo Summer Olympics, but the many volunteers that you had counted on to put this literature in the right hands are no longer able to come? It would have been easy to lift hands in despair, but one group chose to bless churches, institutions, groups, and missionaries by offering their materials free of charge, including free shipping! Pray that many will respond to this gracious offer and that these materials, geared to gospel witness, will find their way to open hearts and that many will believe. Groups with a mindset like this are a reminder to never stop thanking the Lord that we are blessed to offer the ultimate blessing who is Christ Jesus our Lord!

Pray for new Hakka seekers, Ji and Moi, and believers, Shue, Tina, and Fu, in Taichung, Taiwan. Pray for their faith to grow as they follow Jesus. Pray that their life in Christ will impact their families and that they will be faithful to Christ as they face pressures to continue in ancestor worship. Pray especially for Tina. Her husband’s family runs a “family temple” which is open to the community. This will present extra challenges for Tina in her new faith.

While waiting to travel to Asia, a brother recently began online language studies. He learned that his online tutor, Ted, is a Asian man. He is a Jehovah’s Witness and speaks five languages. When this brother asked Ted why he knows so many languages, Ted shared that he wants to teach others the Bible according to how people in his faith operate. This brother then preceded to ask Ted if he would be willing to discuss the Bible offline in his native language, to which Ted agreed. Pray with this brother that Ted will actually study and discuss the Bible with him, that Ted’s eyes and heart will be open to the truth of the gospel, that he will reject the teachings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and that he will be saved by faith alone in the gospel alone. Ask that God will raise him up and use him to share the gospel with many people all throughout Central Asia.

“Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest,” says the Lord in John 4:35. After a season of global uncertainty, political shifts, and cultural challenges, many hearts in Asia are searching for unchanging truth. The field are indeed white for harvest. Ask that God will equip believers living among Mongolic peoples to share boldly so that many may repent and believe.

Jonathan and several of his friends experienced personal revival at a student prayer group retreat. He and 45 others went out to the beach twice in two days to share the gospel. During the witnessing time, he learned about the biblical pattern of baptism from one of the leaders. Before going home, Jonathan and two other students obeyed the command of Scripture by being baptized in the ocean. Jonathan gave a testimony to the group and said, “Praise the Lord for this material about witnessing and obeying the Great Commission! I rarely hear this at church. I want my life to be focused and more committed to the Lord. I want to share the gospel more and see souls saved.” Pray for Jonathan and his two friends to grow in maturity. Pray for others to have a burden for the lost people around them.

Believers who work among the Wok People have been waiting to return. Due to COVID 19 restrictions, many have been temporarily relocated during the pandemic. As they are awaiting a response to visa applications, pray that they will not become weary in the waiting. Pray that their visa applications will be met with approval and that they will return to work among the Wok People soon.

Marie and Jason are leading courses in “New Hope Trauma Healing”, which not only gives earthly hope by helping the hurting overcome trauma, but also provides eternal hope through stories from the Bible. During a group meeting a woman who originally planned for an abortion decided to keep her baby after hearing the creation story. This same Bible story also helped a young man, who was feeling unloved and contemplating suicide, to realize that God had a purpose for his life. After learning the story of the woman with the issue of blood, another woman and her son were reconciled to one another. Life change is happening and relationships are being restored through New Hope Trauma Healing. Over fifty people have been trained in the course and many are now leading groups of their own. Pray specifically for the missionaries who will receive this training and for the future training of women as well.

“Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” (Habakkuk 1:5)