May 30 : Faithful Women. In January, you prayed that nothing would hinder the partnerships in India and that the Father would open closed doors and closed hearts. Thank Him for answering that prayer: “Recently we trained the first group from our original work in the slums, and it turned out that eight non-literate women were able to return for the second training. The first thing we do at this training is to get a report of how many people they have shared with and how many new believers, Bible studies, house churches, baptisms and lay leaders there are. When we talk about sharing, that includes giving out a tract, sharing your personal story, giving a New Testament, or showing the ‘JESUS’ film. All of these women work and have their own daily home duties. Still, they had shared with approximately 1,400 people and they reported 81 new believers and the start of 12 new Bible studies!”

May 31 : Faithful Despite Persecution. Thank you for your prayers for H, who had been summoned before a village judiciary council and then beaten until he lost consciousness. He has now relocated, and currently he is gathering 20 to 25 Muslim-background believers for meetings each week. Give thanks to God for this work that H is doing despite persecution! Please pray that the men of this village who are now following Christ as Savior will grow in their faith and will lead their wives and families to accept Jesus as Lord of their lives also. Pray that entire Bihari villages soon will be worshipping the Risen Lord. Pray in His name that Satan will be kept at bay and that these new believers will firmly stand on Jesus, the Rock. Please ask for continued guidance from the Holy Spirit for H as he leads these men.

June 1 :  Never Too Old. Thank you for praying for J, an elderly tsunami survivor in Sri Lanka. J was the oldest person staying in a displaced-persons camp when Southern Baptist representatives first met her shortly after the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami. During the years, you prayed for healing for J’s ulcerated hand after a cat had attacked her, for permanent housing for her, and for her salvation. In October 2008, after J finally was in permanent housing, she was able to hear the Gospel clearly for the first time, and at age 92, this precious Buddhist woman prayed to receive Jesus as her Savior. She testified that she believed Jesus could forgive her sins because He had healed her ulcerated hand just as Christians had asked Him to do. She added that she knew she would go to be with the Jesus who heals and forgives when she died. Praise God – that is right where J is today. Late in March, J entered the presence of her healing, forgiving Savior! Thank you for praying for her all these years. Please continue to pray that her daughters, sons-in-law, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will follow the example of this matriarch and place their own faith in J’s Jesus.

June 2 :  Standing Firm. Thank you for praying for a group of Bihari teenage girls whose mothers were trying to keep them from meeting to study the Bible. Some Bihari girls are continuing to meet for weekly Bible study and discipleship. These girls believe in Jesus, but they are still immersed in the Islamic worldview of their parents and community. Muslims in Bangladesh are not allowed to change their faith. Please pray that these teenagers’ faith in Isa (Jesus) will grow stronger every day. Pray that they will learn all that they need while they are still able to join the Bible study and read Scriptures. Pray that the leaders of this group will have wisdom in discipling the girls, so that the girls can stand firm when persecution or marriage possibly separates them from other believers. Please pray for the salvation of their Bihari Muslim families and their future husbands as well.

June 3 : Seeking God. “The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom; his tongue speaks what is just. The instruction of his God is in his heart; his steps do not falter” (Psalms 37:30-31, HCSB). Pray that followers of Jesus in Bhutan will sense God’s guidance in all they say and do. Pray that their non-believing family, friends and neighbors will recognize the godly wisdom of the believers and come to them for spiritual counsel. Pray that the faithful followers will not falter in their faith.

June 4 : Set Free in Jesus. Thank you for your prayers for the village health survey trip. Give thanks to God that because of the power of prayer, many wonderful opportunities were given to the two representatives during this trip. They learned of some of the accidents that had occurred to people in the village. Some were missing fingers or had broken bones that had healed crookedly. One man had been bedridden for 14 years after becoming paralyzed from a poorly performed spinal tap. Representatives prayed for him and gave him encouraging words. A young girl, thought to be demon-possessed, was found to be an epileptic. They prayed with her and encouraged her to take the medicine she had to prevent her seizures. Many problems in the villages are blamed on evil spirits. A young Christian man from the village meets weekly with a mostly non-literate women’s group to share Bible stories. He challenges them to share the stories with others. The representatives were able to share stories they had learned in the Urdu language. They listened to encouraging testimonies from the women. One woman had a demonic attack while listening to the story of the demon-possessed man. The women all prayed together, and she was immediately healed and came back the next week and shared how Christ had set her free.

June 5 : Village Health Programs. “Last month we reported that one of our health-training teams might have to stop their work because of financial pressure from their families. The team is now going to receive partial funding and – though it is still our prayer that these funds will soon come from their local association – this will allow them to continue the work. The women on the team are encouraged and are enthusiastic about moving forward with their health program in this village. Pray that they will bear witness to Jesus in both word and deed. Pray that through the health program, they will have opportunities to build relationships, share stories from the Bible, and mentor seekers.” 

May 23 : Drawn to Jesus. In a small Gujjar (pronounced goo-jer) village, children and women gather in a hut to learn to read and write Urdu, the national language. All the women are non-literate, and the families have no money to send their children to school. Besides, there is so much work to be done that the children don’t have time to go to school. Every day their herds of water buffalo have to be milked, the dried manure chips have to be gathered for fire fuel, clothes have to be washed and hung to dry, and food has to be cooked for the family – all before they can sit down for their lesson. Representatives have been visiting this village for some time and are well-respected. Recently representatives were able to show the “JESUS” film to the class, and even some of the men of the family joined in to watch. As they have seen love lived out in the life of Christ, please ask the Father to draw them to Himself, and pray that through His Spirit, His church will be established.

May 24 : Census Begins. On April 1, 2010, India began the process of counting and fingerprinting every citizen in the country as part of the 2010 census. The Home Minister states, “This is the first time in human history that an attempt is being made to identify, count, enumerate and record . . . 1.2 billion people.” Praise the Lord that our heavenly Father knows every one of these people and sent His only Son to die for their sins so they might have eternal life! Pray that each one of them will have the opportunity to hear the Good News.

May 25 :  New Opportunities. Praise God! He is leading Christians to begin a new project in India that has the primary goal of impacting marginalized people with God’s love. The project is in a city where many Bihari Muslims reside. It will include a school for children who live in a slum. An Indian church-planting partner who lives near the slum will oversee the operations of this school. The overall project will provide access to hundreds of families who need to hear the Gospel, an education for children who need freedom from the cycle of poverty, and sustainable income-generating projects to improve the quality of life for these poor families. Please pray that the commitment of these Christians will provide an open door into the hearts of the families and meet both physical and spiritual needs. Pray that they will find godly teachers and staff who will truly minister in the name of the Lord.

May 26 :  Seeking Obedient Students. “We have developed a comprehensive teaching on how to reach Muslims in North India and are now actively looking for places to teach the material and interested people to teach. Although we would love to have 100 percent participation, we would much rather teach this course to people who will put it to use. The full course is four days per month for five months. Please pray that committed people will be taught and that God will bless their efforts as they go out and reach people for Christ.”

May 27 : Family of Peace. In March, three groups of pastors, lay leaders, and church members were trained in how to plant churches. During the training, the trainees were asked to come up with a list of people and places that need to be engaged with the Gospel. Give thanks to God that the trainees took this seriously, made lists, and are seeking ways to engage these areas. One woman in particular asked representatives to go to a nearby village and have an evangelistic meeting. A “family of peace” (Luke 10:6) offered up their home for that meeting. Please pray for the salvation of that household. Pray for a church to be started in that village and for leaders to be raised up from among the villagers.

May 28 :  Greatest Story Ever Told. Stories are important to the V people. They represent 20 percent of the population of one state, and all of them are oral learners. Many are non-literate and uneducated. Because of this, there is a huge need to share the Good News through stories in a way that the stories can be told and retold, and passed from person to person. In the coming months, some leaders will be training national partners in how to “craft” Bible stories. That means taking a story from the Bible and putting it in the story form of the people, using words they recognize and understand, so they will learn it and tell the story over and over. Please pray for the three places where this training will begin. Ask the Holy Spirit to be the guide, and pray that because of these efforts, many will have a chance to hear and respond to the greatest Story ever told.

May 29 : Hospital Growth. Thank you for praying for the meeting of the hospital’s Governing Board. The board members were positive about the work of the hospital, its growth, and the physical and spiritual care it is providing to a large population. Pray for the hospital leaders as they carry out the decisions made.  Pray for a new chaplain who is joining the staff of the Pastoral Care Department of the hospital.  Pray for his witness, ministry to patients and staff, and his leadership in these coming months.

May 16 : Bhutanese Believe. For several years, you have been praying for more than 60,000 Bhutanese refugees who were being relocated to the United States and Canada. A new group recently arrived in Virginia. At the home of one refugee family, American and international Christians began sharing chronological Bible storying with a group of the refugees. The week before Easter, this group watched the “JESUS” film together. Afterwards, a South Asian believer led them in a discussion of the movie. At least five of the refugees indicated that they were ready to receive Christ as their Savior, and they prayed to do so at the end of the evening. Praise God for their salvation! Praise Him for those who reached out in love to share the Gospel! Pray that these new brothers and sisters will pursue discipleship and receive training in how to live this new life they have been given.

May 17 : Restaurant “Satsang.” Mr. B is one of 450,000 South Asians living in a major city in Canada. Born into a Christian family in India, he worked in several countries before immigrating to Canada. Mrs. M, a Hindu woman who also had immigrated years before, helped Mr. B get a job. Mrs. M eventually came to faith in Christ through the testimony and many urgings of Mr. B. Later they decided to open an Indian restaurant together, which was very hard for just the two of them. Mr. B decided that it was time to find a wife, an Indian Christian woman. The church prayed for him as he left for India, and he came back engaged! Later he returned to India for the wedding and to start the application process for his wife to immigrate. Again the Lord answered prayers for his wife, and she is now with him – a great helpmeet indeed! In February of this year, a weekly Bible study was begun in their restaurant. It is called a “satsang,” meaning “assembly for learning truth.” Please pray that the Holy Spirit will bring many other South Asians to the “satsang” to learn the truth about following Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life.

May 18 : Creative Outreach. Pray for more women to come to Christ in Pakistan. Especially pray for those families that already have a husband or brother who has come to Christ, asking that those believers will be able to give an answer for the hope they have in Christ with gentleness and reverence. Pray for creative outreaches to women without access to the Good News. Ask that crafts and songs will be used by many women to teach others and that women will respond to the Gospel. Also, please pray for the completion of discipleship materials.

May 19 : “After God’s Own Heart.” Workers recently learned of a village hostel housing 23 boys, ages 8 through 16. These boys come from extremely poor Christian families living many miles from the hostel. Families pay a minimal amount for their son’s housing and education. Supporting funds have been abused, leaving little money for food, education and daily necessities. A Christian family and a “gatekeeper” have been overseeing the children. Cooking is done by the children themselves; however, the shelves were found recently to be almost empty, with hardly enough food for a day or two of meals. There is barely enough money for the boys to continue schooling. World Hunger funds have been procured to provide food. Representatives have begun coming to give encouragement and Christian teaching and discipleship to the boys. The boys have been leading their own worship services – selecting songs, praying together, and reading the Word to one another. Pray for the representatives engaging in this ministry to be catalysts leading to the spiritual growth and maturing of this future generation of Punjabi Christian men. Pray that they will grow into men after God’s own heart.

May 20 : Salt & Light. “Please continue to pray for the development of our agricultural model site. Last month, volunteers from the United States visited to assist with the site and share advice on how to make improvements. Please lift up the Christian community where this model site is built. A national partner reports that many villages around this community are open to the Good News of Jesus but are turned off by the way the Christians live. Pray that the church in this community will truly be salt and light to those around them. Pray that they will catch God’s vision and heart for their neighbors in surrounding communities to be reconciled to Him.”

May 21 : All For Him. “V and Friends”… this is a group of five recent D Muslim-background believers along with V, a Christian evangelist. For the last eight months, they have consistently pursued their family and friends with the Gospel, spreading across multiple cities, towns and counties. Recently, while traveling back from visiting two families who had professed faith in Jesus, their car was stopped and vandalized. God spared their lives, yet they were traumatized by the experience. Several leaders from the community they were driving through had led some troublemakers to break their windows and slash their tires. Please pray that God will continue to deepen their faith in and obedience to Jesus, that they will be comforted by the Holy Spirit, and that they will receive God’s anointing to continue being so bold.

May 22 : Deep Roots. Jat Pastor S and a few of his friends met recently to pray together and seek God’s will for the work among the Jat Sikhs. They really felt that God was showing them the need for depth in the work. In other words, they want to focus on discipleship and mentoring. S has said that the work “seems to be a mile wide but only an inch deep.” New Jat believers need to learn how to live in obedience to the commands of our Lord Jesus. Pray for S and others working among the Jat Sikhs as they try to go deeper with the new believers. Pray that each new believer will be deeply rooted and anchored in Christ. 

May 9 : Living Water. “We had just moved into our house when we saw out our window a woman and her daughters getting water from our outside faucet in big pots and carrying them on their heads out of the gate. This became a daily ritual to which we looked forward. We would smile, make hand motions, and try to communicate. That was 14 months ago, and now we are close friends, speaking their language. D lives in a mass of blue tents close to our home. She cooks on an open fire outdoors and washes clothes on a rock. Her three children started coming to our home each day to ‘see the white people and to taste their food.’ Now, they seem like family to us! They attend our church and come twice weekly for Bible stories and songs – not counting daily visits for food and love. Recently, after hearing Bible stories, D became a believer. How we have rejoiced with her over her decision! She works daily, carrying cement on her head in the hot sun at construction sites, making about two dollars a day. Her husband drinks nightly and beats her. Within the last month, we have discovered that R, D’s 9-year-old daughter, has a bone disease called Perthes. She is now immobile and has gone to their home village to have a village doctor put leaves on her leg in hopes of healing. Please pray for this precious family, asking that they will know the healing power of Jesus.”

May 10 : Searching for Treasure. South Asians are no longer concentrated in one spot on the globe; they are everywhere. “Little Jaffna” in Paris is a cluster of streets in the capital’s 10th district and is generally referred to as the “immigrant neighborhood.” The area is usually tight with people and alive with commercial activity and the hum of business. It is packed with “cash-and-carry” stores, sari “palaces,” sweet-meat vendors, restaurants, video and music shops, butchers selling goat meat, tailors, barbers, travel agents, and fresh fish-wallas. The Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora in Paris is estimated at 75,000. Pray that the Sri Lankan Tamils who are searching for economic prosperity in Paris will find the true source of life – Jesus – and take back this treasure to their families in Sri Lanka.

May 11 : Sikhs in Canada. They have emigrated from India to Canada by the tens of thousands. Some of their temples are massive and ornate, built to preserve their culture and faith. Many keep the traditional clothing, including large turbans. Who are they? As to religion and culture, they are Sikhs. As they see it, to become Christian is to throw away not only their faith, but their entire heritage. This is why only a handful have left Sikhism to follow Jesus. One such person is Miss M, born of Sikh parents and raised in Canada, who heard the words of Jesus four years ago while in college and took the risk to follow Him. Despite mild persecution from family and spiritual attacks from the evil one, her faith and commitment have grown. Recently, while seeking a teaching job, her mother prayed to one of the “gurus” that Miss M would not get work until she had returned to the Sikh faith. But within three weeks, our Lord had provided a job offer. Please pray that it will be a testimony to her family that Jesus is the Way. Miss M is now leading two other former Sikh young women to be disciples of Jesus. Please ask the Father to strengthen these women by the Holy Spirit. Please pray that Jesus will build His church among Sikhs in Canada.

May 12 : Music & Art. Please pray for a woman serving in North India who is going to spend two years developing music, and possibly drama, resources for a Muslim people group. Pray for her as she finds musicians and artists in that people group – both believers and non-believers – who will help her in her task. Pray that many will hear about Jesus from the resources that come from this project. Thank God for pouring out His Spirit, in answer to your prayers, when groups of songwriters and keyboard music teachers spent time in a very large city in India in January. Dozens of people responded to the Gospel, and many more heard. Pray that God will continue to work in that city.

May 13 : Easter in Bangladesh. On Easter Sunday morning in Bangladesh, approximately 10,000 people gathered in front of the national Parliament building to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. Thank the Lord for the clear and powerful presentation of the Gospel. Pray that the many non-believers who heard the Gospel will continue to be drawn to Jesus. Pray that the Christians in Bangladesh will be unashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and share Him daily with those around them.

May 14 : Faithful Witness. “F was born in a Muslim family in the northern part of the state. Because of a physical disability, she was allowed to attend college. One of the young women in her dorm room was a believer. Eventually all the young women became believers, but F was the only Muslim to trust in Jesus. Her family opposed her decision, and she left home. They still have not believed in Jesus. F recently finished Bible college and is praying about her future. She is being discipled and is learning tools to reach Muslims. Already F has been able to share her testimony with many local pastors and several Muslim women. At the end of April, she helped to teach hundreds of college students how to share with Muslims. In May, we will be sharing with a small group of youth about reaching Muslims, and F will be teaching them how to be a disciple and teach others to be disciples. We have received an invitation to teach a group of church planters in June about reaching Muslims in a strategic district in the northern part of the state. Please pray for God to clarify His call to F. Also pray as we travel and teach together, asking that F will learn many things to help her obey the Father. Please pray that some who attend these classes will be burdened to reach Muslims living and working beside them.”

May 15 : High-rise Building for Bihari. A newspaper in Bangladesh has published the Bangladeshi government’s plans to demolish the two major Bihari camps in the capital city of Dhaka so it can build 45 high-rise buildings with adequate housing for 38,000 Bihari families. The construction project is supposed to take four years, during which time the government will resettle camp dwellers to a flood-control embankment area west of the camps. Thank God for this answer to prayer, and please pray that officials will approve the proposal. Pray that all concerned genuinely will have the welfare of the Bihari people in mind. Pray that neither the land nor the finished housing units will be misappropriated by more powerful people, as has happened in the past. Thousands of Bihari Muslims have been living in cramped, refugee-like camps since Bangladesh won its independence from Pakistan in 1971.