July 25 : Passing the Baton. You prayed in May for a volunteer team that was coming to SL to lead trainees in house church-planting principles. The training was great! Thanks so much for praying! Instead of a “mass gathering,” the 30-plus trainees were broken up into three different small groups, which then became a “house group” led by one of the volunteer team members. Each of these men had been in a small group that an international Christian had led while he was back in the United States. Not only have these men been passing on what they had learned during that time to small groups in the U.S., but now they had the opportunity to teach these “house groups” on the other side of the globe! Pray now that the trainees will pass on these lessons to those they are leading, and that much fruit will come from it.

July 26 : Unity of Purpose. “As July comes to a close, our team will again undergo major changes. All cross-cultural representatives will be leaving for at least six months. This year has brought so many unexpected twists and turns in the work among the Muslims of K. Please continue to pray for former national partners who are no longer receiving support. Ask God to continue to provide for their needs, both physically and spiritually. Ask the Holy Spirit to continue to teach them the truth in Scripture and help them to know how to teach it to others. Please continue to pray for the many seeds that were planted over the last few months. Ask God to cause them to grow and produce a harvest. Also pray for the many Christians who have heard about the need to reach out to their Muslim neighbors. Ask God to call out laborers for the harvest that He is preparing in K. As the vision is shared in the United States, please ask God to burden churches to adopt the Muslims of K and to join the efforts to reach them. As representatives are away from their area of service, ask God to continue to use nationals who have already been trained. Pray for relationships between nationals and cross-cultural representatives to continue even while they are separated. Pray that cross-cultural representatives will be able to rest and return with a renewed passion and vision for the work.”

July 27 : Apostles in Bangladesh. There are a handful of people with nobody among them who would really warrant a second glance. They are average people who are not wealthy or famous, but who have normal jobs and lead a simple and fairly uncomplicated life. We are talking about the kind of person who gets lost in a crowd. However, these people are vastly different from the millions who mill about the streets of Dhaka every day. That difference is Jesus Christ. Pray for this group of believers as they begin a 10-lesson discipleship program using word pictures and stories communicated orally to encourage reproducibility. By God’s grace and power, they will go from believer to faithful witness to disciple to disciple-maker to church planter to church-planting movement facilitator and, finally, to “apostle” (cross-cultural church-planting facilitator). The program encourages high accountability and often weeds out those who are unwilling to count the cost of following Christ. Pray that God will bring those who are ready to take up their cross and follow Him. Pray that He will empower them to go and share of His love and sacrifice in a land desperate for a Savior. What can God do with a handful of average people indwelled with His Spirit and committed to Him? Ask Simon Peter, Andrew, James, John, Phillip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James, Thaddeus, Simon and Matthias. They may tell you that He can use them to start a “fire” that will blaze around the world!

July 28 : Widow’s Family Needs Prayer. F, one of the D Muslim men whom V, a Christian evangelist, had won to Christ, had been maturing in Christ over the last two years and had been inviting people to his home to share his testimony and the Gospel. One evening in mid-April, F conducted one of the seeker meetings in his home. The next morning, he was visited by several men who wanted him to return to Islam. When he refused and began sharing the Gospel with these men, the group was joined by some neighbors and they struck F with iron rods. They beat him so severely that he was hospitalized and succumbed to his injuries a few weeks later. F’s widow and two teenage daughters need your prayers. All of them had come to Christ before this incident. Several recent believers are handling this with courage and faith, revealing a depth to their faith in Jesus that only the Spirit of God can bring. Praise God for their depth of faith and God’s work in their lives in the midst of this tragedy.

July 29 : South Asians in East Africa. Pray that the Holy Spirit will be poured out on the South Asian people of East Africa through prayer, networking, evangelizing and discipling that reaches into the South Asian communities. Pray that weekly radio broadcasts and the growth and multiplication of leadership and discipleship groups will develop into a church-planting movement among South Asians that spreads to all of East Africa.

July 30 : Turmoil Avoided in Nepal. In late May, the three largest political parties agreed to extend the completion date of the Nepal Constitution by one year. By this extension, much turmoil was avoided. Please continue to pray for the Nepal Constitution to be completed and for the many political parties to be at peace with it.

July 31 : D Digging in Deep. In light of recent persecution, there is evidence of new believers who are abiding in Christ (John 15:1-8). They are reading the Word of God, and what little they know and however imperfectly they know it, they are doing it; they are obeying God’s Word in faith. Praise God that in response to the days of persecution over the last few months until now – even with the martyrdom of one man, F – the small group of D Muslims who have come to Christ are digging in deep and not letting go of their Jesus!