Prayerline October 2023
Your Prayer Guide To Reach The World
Help Equip Evangelists in Congo
Routes to unreached jungle villages were accessible only by motorcycle and on foot, but native Christian workers recently went to plant churches in those areas; there were no schools within 12 miles, and the nearest health center was 19 miles away. With prayer, commitment and faith, they recently opened three churches with 173 members in those villages.
Provide Gospel Resources in Brazil
Tribal people have eagerly received solar audio Bibles in their native tongue and are growing closer to God. Local Christian workers are also distributing SD cards that contain the Jesus Film in the local language, as well as hymns and Bible study materials. These SD cards are placed in used cell phones collected in churches.
Help Support Gospel Workers in China
The gospel made new inroads as native ministry leaders encouraged church members to serve their neighbors by cleaning the homes of the elderly, moving furniture and helping with trash removal. Looking after children, the church members formed relationships with parents and invited them to church Christmas celebrations.
Help Advance the Kingdom in Israel
Native Christian workers have continued to faithfully bring word of the kingdom of God to the lost, with more than 600 people hearing the gospel over six months. Among the means of creating opportunities to share Christ were visits to Holocaust survivor groups and a weekly children’s Bible club, resulting in kids’ parents or grandparents attending worship services.
Support Church Planters in South Asia
A 40-year-old man who showed signs of demonic possession since age 10 used to run out of his house in the middle of the night and eat ashes from ritual cremation grounds. He had been to witchdoctors and received all possible medical treatments without success before he heard a native Christian worker preach in his village this year
Help Bring Word of Salvation in Cambodia
A 38-year-old Buddhist monk had everything he needed in his monastery, where he had lived since his teens, but he longed to be a child of God. He had listened to a native Christian worker’s radio broadcasts for about four months when he heard him quote John 1:12 about becoming children of God through receiving Christ.
Equip Gospel Messengers in Spain
Among 15 inmates who put their faith in Christ after a native ministry leader preached at their prison was a young man who was subsequently released and began a new life. He recently called the leader to say he cannot stop reading the Bible. “God changed his life from a narco-trafficker to a new person,” the leader said.
Send Aid and Gospel Hope in Nigeria
Violence and kidnapping have driven thousands of people from their homes, creating unprecedented opportunity for native Christian workers to share the gospel as they provide critical aid to the displaced. “We need 400 Hausa Bibles urgently and more audio Bibles in Hausa, Fulfulde and English,” the ministry leader said.
Help Bring Gospel Reconciliation in Nepal
Witchdoctors unable to cure a sick woman accused her neighbor of putting a curse on her. The neighbor was then ostracized, and her health deteriorated as she worried that she could be publicly beaten over the false accusation. After medical treatment failed, her family brought her to a native Christian worker for prayer, and when she attended his worship service, she was astonished to find her sick neighbor present.
Send the Message of Eternal Life in Mexico
An alcoholic who burglarized the home of a native Christian worker later threatened him so severely that he had to leave town with his family for a few days. The aggressor himself was later forced to leave the area because of his violent ways, and he became so emotionally distraught that he sought the worker’s help.
Help Plant and Grow Churches in Türkiye
Native Christian workers are seeing the Lord do amazing things. After much prayer and outreach, workers began a fellowship of Iranian refugees in one town, and in another city, a new home fellowship has begun as 12 people recently put their faith in Christ. Each week after Sunday worship, workers and church members travel to two cities more than 80 miles away to share the gospel and lead services.
Help Form New Disciples in North Africa
Christians and Muslims are forming relationships that create good will and break down barriers to the gospel through a local ministry’s sports outreach. Competitions are held in several areas, including one where provincial officials attended events and praised workers for creating a spirit of cooperation as they brought together people of different faiths and economic levels for sustainable development.
Help Build the Kingdom in the Philippines
A native Christian worker has started a house church among his relatives, and the ministry that supports him is praying other members of the community will soon join. “Their days now are not only spent in farming and hunting, but they have a special day spent only in worshipping the Lord,” the ministry leader said.
Help Bring Gospel Transformation in Pakistan
A farmer woke one morning unable to get out of bed or speak. A native Christian worker visited his home and shared how Christ is able to heal. Weeping, the man called on the Lord in his heart. “The Word of God touched me, and I repented of my sins and accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior,” he said, adding that he was later healed after further prayer.
Help Workers Share the Gospel in Malawi
A native Christian worker who has brought many people to the Lord said the gospel tracts he leaves in various villages are still effective. After a two-hour trip to preach at a church earlier this year, he led eight people to give their hearts to Christ and encouraged congregation members to share the gospel with others.
Help Send the Word of Life in China
The pandemic forced church members to spend more time with family, and native Christian workers encouraged them to share personal stories and literature with relatives. Praise God that workers and church members saw lives transformed in Christ as they connected more deeply with family members.
Help Workers Proclaim Good News in Iran
When native Christian workers collected a church offering to bring to a needy family, upon arrival they were surprised to hear the daughter tell them she knew they were coming from Jesus. She told them that two nights prior she had dreamt of being in a beautiful garden where Jesus told her He would send her help.
Help Power Gospel Advance in South Asia
The leader of a native ministry recently had the opportunity to preach in two new villages, resulting in two families putting their faith in Christ and joining churches. He and other workers have focused on two people groups in the grip of witchcraft and alcohol. In one village, workers prayed for a man known for his malice, sexual immorality, drinking and stealing, and he said he felt the power of God piercing through him as he remembered every sin he had ever committed.
Help Send the Salvation Message in Sri Lanka
A native ministry that provides shelter, food and education to orphans and other poor children is doing much to raise future generations of biblically grounded Christians. A teacher at the ministry’s school recently told children about the importance of doing what is right, explaining that Christ would help as she shared the gospel with them.
Support Workers Proclaiming Christ in Indonesia
Native Christian workers spent much time in prayer before visiting a Hindu “holy man” with the gospel. When he and his wife put their faith in Christ, they were first kicked out of their home, and then the village and Hindu leaders held a ceremony ritually excluding him from their ancestral temple.
Help Provide Aid to the Needy in Zimbabwe
In a country ravaged by drought and inflation, hunger is widespread. Three children in an area where a native ministry works recently collapsed at school from malnutrition, and workers added them to their feeding program. “We thank the Lord for bringing these children to us; it is a blessing to help the community,” the ministry leader said.
Help Send Word of Christ’s Grace in Lebanon
A father of three young children was pleased when they became involved in a native Christian ministry’s youth program, and when he was laid off from one of two jobs he had taken to support his family, a native Christian worker offered to pray for him.
Help Provide Aid to Refugees in Greece
A refugee mother who was jailed for lack of legal papers was separated from her young son, who was sent to a hospital. Native Christian workers assisted in obtaining her release, reunited her with her son and helped her locate her two other children who had traveled with another family.
Help Spread the Salvation Message in Bangladesh
A follower of a traditional religion wondered how his sin could be removed, and then a native Christian worker had the opportunity to share the gospel with him. The man received Christ and has begun telling his relatives about God’s grace. Workers focusing on an unreached people group recently planted a church among them, and members of that congregation are bringing the gospel to their relatives in a neighboring village.
Help Plant Fellowships in Laos
Native Christian workers planted 26 churches over a six-month period in two ways: They led people to Christ at seminars that families from different areas attended, with those people going back to their villages to worship in their homes, while other churches began as ministry teams brought the gospel to various districts.
Help Bring Tribal People to Christ in Togo
Several ethnic Ewe women serving Hevioso, a West African god of rainstorms, recently heard native Christian workers share the gospel and put their faith in Christ. Among the Ewe overall, workers saw 62 people accept Christ in 2022. A ministry seminar among the Mossi tribe resulted in 40 people accepting Christ and the planting of two churches last year, with discipleship continuing.
Enable Evangelistic Outreach in Peru
A woman who accepted Christ at one of the churches of a native ministry shared the gospel with her husband for years, but he was not interested. Her death left the 60-year-old widower in a remote village in the Andes deeply anguished, and the gospel seed planted in him began to germinate.
Help Desperate Refugees in Europe
Among the refugees that native ministries receive are both Christians and Jews escaping jihadist violence from different countries, including Nigeria, Morocco and Mauritania. Workers in one European country formed an outreach offering spiritual and psychological help for Jewish refugees.
Provide Gospel Training and Tools in China
Praises that a teenager who experienced the care and teaching of native Christian workers recently put his faith in Christ, as God’s Word broke the bondage of belief in ancestral deities. At the same time, discipleship through trainings, camps and Bible studies strengthened the faith of young people and others.
Support Evangelism and Discipleship in South Asia
When a native worker went to a Christian’s home, non-Christian neighbors were angry that her feet had touched their area and came over to beat them. The Christians continued to pray, however, and the hostile family left – only to return days later to ask the worker to pray for a grandchild that had died. She prayed, and the child was revived.
Help Find, Vet and Evaluate Workers
Respecting the unique, God-given vision of each native ministry we find, Christian Aid humbly assists them in their calling to share the gospel, and many of them are based in the world’s most difficult fields of spiritual and physical need. Committed to serving rather than directing, we financially assist them as God provides through our donors, giving priority to ministries making disciples among unreached people groups.