Displaying items by tag: prayer letter

This prayer update is based on input from a contact of International Prayer Connection who is living in the region (for the full letter click the ‘More’ button). ‘Covid-19 spreads like wildfire and it looks as if the whole country is penetrated by this virus. We received reports that it has now reached the mountainous areas, whereas previously it was mostly contained in the larger cities. Many are dying because of lack of medical facilities. People are poor and cannot afford to buy oxygen cylinders. Many brothers and sisters, expats and locals, have become quite seriously ill. Some are suffering from tiredness, anxiety and depression.’ The UN said the new coronavirus outbreak is casting ‘a huge shadow’ over Afghan daily life. Under the government’s leadership, the UN is supporting a coordinated response that includes setting up a nationwide network of laboratories and the provision of personal protective equipment.

Xiao, the wife of Qin Defu, an imprisoned pastor, writes, ‘I am begging for prayers for my family and me. Defu has been in jail over six months.’ At first she received short phone calls from him but she has now not heard from him for over 70 days. She said, ‘My reasoning makes me believe he is alive, and God is with him. However, not hearing from him is like an enemy. It hurts me so much that I suffer every day. I just want to receive one three-minute call from him, but this apparently has become an extravagant hope. Dear God, please let me follow behind You, pulling on the hem of Your clothes, I know my weakness, so I am begging for my brothers and sisters to pray for me and Qin Defu. God, please, out of charity, give us mercy. We are so lowly we cannot bear it.’

A prayer letter from a family and team laboring in Iraq in such a time as this. 

We are honored to reap what we and others have sown in this field.  In recent weeks Muslims who have recently come to faith have joined our church community.  Our team is actively spending time with these new believers to disciple them not only with the word but with our lives as well. 

House Church Meetings and Teaching Seminars

In our house church gatherings we have increased our time of teaching the Word, praying, worshiping and waiting on the Lord together.  We are currently studying the book of Acts.  Every month we are also hosting all day seminars teaching the Scriptures to our church community who are believers saved from Islam.  In these seminars we are using the three main aspects of what Paul unveiled in his letter to the church in Rome how he brought the Gentiles over to God.

‘Yet I dare not boast about anything except what Christ has done through me, bringing the Gentiles to God by my message and by the way I worked among them.  They were convinced by the power of miraculous signs and wonders and by the power of God’s Spirit…’  Romans 15:18-19 (NLT). 

From the three main aspects that Paul showed us, we are focusing our classes of teaching on

1. the Message of the Gospel of the Kingdom; 
2. Character; 
3. Faith and the Miraculous.

Sharing the Gospel on the Streets with Muslim Background Believers (MBBs)

There are many challenges discipling new believers saved out of Islam in Iraq.  Persecution from family, relatives, their tribe and at their work places is a normal occurring thing in Iraq. 

However with the challenges comes joy, lasting fruit and Christ receives much glory.  One of the joys of discipling “MBBs” is evangelizing Muslims on the streets of Iraq together with them.  These new disciples become spiritually stronger when they share their testimony and the gospel to other Muslims.  One of the ways fear is overcome, is by courageously sharing the gospel with the lost.

Cold Winter - Distribution of Kerosene to Syrian Refugees

Winters in Iraq are cold.  The temperatures can dip down into the 20s. With the financial gifts that you gave we were able to distribute cans of kerosene, which they use to fuel their heaters, to 100 poor Syrian refugee families.

Prayer Gatherings in Iraq this year

The dates for the 50 Hours of Worship and Prayer are April 23-25 and the dates for the 100 hours of worship and prayer are October 27-31.  

Quote of the month:

“Persecution does not take us away from our home.  Persecution helps send us along the way to our true home.”  Pastor JC

Praise Report

• In recent weeks more Muslims have come to faith and joined our church community.
  
• Disciples are being made, taught the Scriptures and going out on the streets to evangelize other Muslims.
  
• Prayer gatherings are planned for this year.

Prayer Requests 

• The Holy Spirit’s power to find the men and women of peace and build the church in Iraq.
  
• Pray for the new believers saved out of Islam that Christ may be formed in them.

Thank you for your love for us and your prayers

A German intercessor writes, ‘God has encouraged us greatly through answers to prayer and has richly blessed prayer conferences. However, the challenging developments in our land in many areas of politics and society (polarisation and hate, the growing influence of gender-mainstreaming, anti-Semitism, declining church attendance, etc), and the rapid turning away from Christian values, cause us to sit up and take notice, and to personally make time to be still before God.’ Throughout September German prayer groups will seek God across the land, believing that ‘if we seek Him with all of our hearts, we will find Him’ (Jeremiah 29:13). Let us join our brothers and sisters and pray for the welfare of German politics and society. God is shaking the nations (Hebrews 12:26,27), so we must not consider everything that is now happening in Germany and across Europe as ‘a bad thing’. There is much for which we can be thankful for in these times.

The Christians in Parliament team write, ‘Our programme of chapel services started with an Easter service looking at the Hope of the Resurrection, and will continue weekly for the rest of the term. Please pray that parliamentarians and staff will be strengthened and encouraged to fix their eyes on Jesus and live out their faith in Parliament. Please pray for new attendees to come, and for the speakers as they prepare. We are looking forward to the 2019 national Parliamentary prayer breakfast. The Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, will be speaking on ‘building unity in a world of difference’. The breakfast will be chaired by Baroness Sherlock, and prayers will be said by members of both houses. Pray for increased numbers of MPs and peers attending, particularly those who have not been before, and for strengthened relationships between church leaders and MPs.

What kind of veil lies over Germany that keeps most people from a living relationship with Jesus? The gospel is veiled where ‘the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ’. (2 Cor. 4:4) They don’t believe in a Creator or Redeemer - or they think everything will be fine because they belong to a church. They believe in the hollow and deceptive ‘spirit of the age’, which depends on human tradition and the principles of this world rather than on Christ. Please pray according to a German hymn, ‘O come, Spirit of truth, come and dwell in us; spread light and revelation, banish falsehood and pretence.’ Pray for many people to have supernatural encounters with Jesus and so turn to him. (Acts 9:3-5)