Want a place to connect with other prayer coordinators and prayer mobilizers? You have found it! This blog is dedicated to the army of pray-ers across the world — especially those who are coordinating and mobilizing efforts with prayer as the crucial strategy for reaching the unreached. Please feel free to submit your ideas and share prayer needs and movements which will impact the world for Christ.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Betty Byrd
Director of Prayer and Operations
Team Expansion
Posted on April 25th, 2007 by bbyrd
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The Tindan villagers gathered in a field near their village at sunset and bowed to the crescent moon as it rose in the east between two peaks of the Caucasus Mountain range. The Tindans were Muslims but felt no guilt about worshipping the moon. Their ancestors had worshipped the moon long before the coming of Islam. After all, isn’t the moon one of Islam’s holy symbols? During the day these same villagers also bowed in worship to the sun.
Although the Tindan people group converted to Islam hundreds of years ago, few outsiders know why they still also worship the sun and the moon. Perhaps this people group sees the silent witness of the true God in the heavens. Long ago Christian missionaries from Georgia tried to bring the message of salvation to the Tindans, but none responded. The arrival of Islam centuries ago put an end to such missionary activity.
Ask God to open the hearts of the Tindans to the message of salvation. May the heavens declare the glory of God to this people group, and point them to Jesus Christ. Pray that the Tindans will come to see Jesus Christ, and not the laws introduced by Mohammed as the true source of salvation. May they soon thank Him for the beauty of the sun and the moon, and worship the Creator rather than creation.-WK
Luke 5:31
Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
All of humanity falls into the category of “sinners” who need to repent. But a little more than half the world’s population lives within people groups that have access to the Scriptures in their own language and/or a fellowship of believers. What about the other half, the other “sinners”? The first group has access to the life-saving gospel, and a relationship with our sin-forgiving Savior. The other half, such as the Tindan people, looks to rituals and religion to heal this mortal wound. Don’t we owe them the gospel? Ä®Pray for the gospel to quickly go to the peoples like the Tindans that still have no way to atone for their sins, and do not yet know the One who alone can forgive.
Posted on March 15th, 2010 by bbyrd
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There are no bookstores or libraries in Tsakhur villages in Azerbaijan, and you won’t find one no matter how hard you look. Do you know why? It’s because the Tsakhur language has no written form.
The Russians tried to create a writing system for them 75 years ago, but it never caught on. Tsakhur is a very difficult language for an outsider to learn. It has 18 cases. Most Germanic languages, like English, have at most four cases.
The Tsakhurs are a Muslim people group living in Azerbaijan and Dagestan. Over a thousand years ago missionaries from Georgia won many Tsakhurs to salvation in Jesus Christ. But they neglected to translate the Bible into a language this people group could understand. Some centuries later Islam arrived and the Tsakhurs gravitated to the newer religion. Today there are no known followers of Christ among this people group.
Pray that the Bible would be translated into the Tsakhur language and that the right missionary agency would be led to start this task. Ask God for the start of gospel radio broadcasts in their language. Ask God to open the hearts of this people group to Christ’s message of salvation.-WK
John 1:34
I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.
Once again, the testimony of John the Baptist is clear. Jesus is the One we must look to in order to join the Kingdom of God. But how will the Tsakhur people know? There are very few who speak their language, and they have no Scriptures in it. When Islam came to their land, they embraced this religion that keeps their scriptures in the language of 7th century Arabs. What would the Tsakhur people do if they could read God’s true Word in their own language? Ä®Pray for a well-translated and complete Bible for the Tsakhur people.
Posted on March 15th, 2010 by bbyrd
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In a mountain valley in the Caucasus Mountains the Avar farmer hoed the ground. The soil was thin and he turned up numerous rocks as he prepared the field for spring planting. Being a farmer was a hard life. Only 15 percent of the land in the Avar homeland is suitable for farming. Being a Muslim, the farmer had never read the Bible, so he’d never heard of the Parable of the Sower. Many previous Christian missionaries have found the Avars to be “rocky ground.” In years past the Avars haven’t been open to the message of salvation.
At one time the Caucasus region was ruled by empires that had a Christian witness. Then the Arabs, and later the Mongols, conquered this region and introduced Islam to the Avars. Even after the Avars began converting to Islam, some resisted. Some of these people were Christians. There were several bloody rebellions, which were brutally crushed. By the time the Russians conquered the Avar homeland in 1874 there were no Christians left among this people group.
Pray that the Holy Spirit would miraculously turn this rocky soil into good soil that Christ can penetrate. Pray that Russia would ease the restrictions placed on missionaries attempting to operate in the Caucasus Mountains. Pray that workers will soon go to the Avar homeland with the JESUS Film in a language the Avar people can understand.-WK
Luke 8:4-15
While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, He told this parable: “A farmer went out to sow his seed.”
Farming peoples like the Avars understand how essential the condition of the soil can be. Hard or rocky soil can prevent a good crop. What kind of soil will workers find in the homeland of the Avar peoples?
Pray that each Avar subgroup will be receptive, good soil when they hear of the Savior.
Posted on March 15th, 2010 by bbyrd
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Nogai People
The group of Nogai sheepherders living in the mountain valley heard the steady “pop pop” of rifle fire They ran for their houses, hoping not to get hit. These people were Nogais, but they lived among the Chechens who were fighting the Russians for an independent homeland in the Caucasus Mountains. The firing stopped and the villagers went back outside to finish tending to their wheat fields.
The Nogai people once lived in Crimea, near the Black Sea, until the Russians drove them out of the region hundreds of years ago. The Nogai people can now be found as far west as Romania and as far south as Turkey. Many now also live in Chechnya and some members of this people group have become involved with the Chechen rebels. Like the Chechens, the Nogais are Sunni Muslims.
Ask God to restore peace in Chechnya so that missionaries can safely reach out to the Nogai people group with the message of salvation.
Pray that God would break the hold that Islam has on this people group. Ask God to move a missionary agency to reach the Nogais for Jesus. May the Nogais realize that faith in Jesus Christ, and not political action, leads to true freedom.-WK
Luke 6:27b
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
What other “religious” leader offers such a radical teaching? Jesus really was asking the humanly impossible! God the Father told Moses that there should be an “eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” He was setting limits that would prevent an endless stream of retaliation like we see in the Caucasus Region. Now Jesus was saying to “do good,” “bless” and “pray for” our enemies. Only the Holy Spirit can give us the strength to do these things! And only those who are following Christ have the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the kind of radical obedience that draws the nations to Christ.
Pray for this kind of radical obedience to come to the Nogais and other peoples of the Caucasus Region.
Posted on March 14th, 2010 by bbyrd
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