GDN Prayer Newsletter - March 2017
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The Lord hears and answers. Praise the Lord!
Praise God for the fruitful Refugee Highway Partnership’s European regional roundtable last month. The interest level among Europeans helps show how God is at work. Please pray for expanding connections with refugees, as “the body is one and has many members” (see Romans 12:12).
Praise God for several major breakthroughs in ministry among an unreached people group cluster spread over several nations, including China: the recording of a praise album with traditional instruments and God’s provision for expanding an arts studio. Pray that we will soon see many of these oral learners rescued from darkness and rejoicing with dancing, music and the visual arts: “Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously” (see Exodus 15:20-21).
Prayer requests from Global Diaspora Forum participants
Please pray that as people around the world observe Lent, the Spirit will bring repentance and revival among many nations. Pray that this season will be a time when those who follow Christ will humble themselves, pray, seek God’s face and turn away from wickedness; pray that God will hear, forgive and heal (see 2 Chronicles 7:14).
Please continue to pray for the Global Nepali Speaking Christian Leaders Conference in Siliguri, India, in mid-March and the diaspora-focused track of the Amplify Conference near Chicago in June. Pray that these events will help more groups of Christ-followers to understand the times and know what ought to be done (see 1 Chronicles 12:32).
Please lift up our brothers and sisters who are being persecuted. In Nigeria, Sudan, Turkey, Syria and elsewhere, pastors (including some expatriate ones) have been arrested and detained while churches and homes have been destroyed. Pray for our brothers and sisters to be strengthened with power through the Spirit (see Ephesians 3:16). Pray also that those who are persecuting Jesus would one day be “preaching the faith [they] once tried to destroy” (see Galatians 1:23).
In the first century AD, the apostles sometimes shared teachings through letters which were circulated from church to church, town to town (see Colossians 4:16). Ask God to give the Church wisdom and creativity to make the most of today’s communication methods like the internet and mobile devices for evangelism, discipleship and prayer. Pray that people searching the internet for truth, comfort, peace and/or purpose will encounter the Lord. Pray that followers of Christ who are isolated geographically, linguistically or culturally, might find some more fellowship. Pray that the family of God around the world might unite in prayer.
People Going: Punjabi speakers
The Punjabi language gives a glimpse into how diverse its over 100 million native speakers are. Punjabi has two scripts, a Brahmic one (like Hindi) and an Arabic one. The many dialects are as on a continuum, where speakers from opposite ends might not be able to understand each other. Punjabi speakers are Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus, Jains and Christ-followers. The majority can be found in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, but Punjabi speakers are scattered in places such as Saudi Arabia, the USA, Oman, Japan and Kenya, and they have numerous descendants in the UK, Canada and the States.
Praise God for His plan for Punjabi speakers. Ask the Lord Jesus to make known to the Church how to spread the good news to this geographically and religiously diverse group of people (see John 15:15). Pray that Punjabi speakers from Japan to Singapore, Fiji to Mauritius, Libya to Tanzania, will give glory to the Lord and proclaim His praise (see Isaiah 42:12). Please pray that the Word of God would be the songs for Punjabi speaking migrant workers as they sojourn in the Middle East (see Psalm 119:54). May generation to generation of Punjabi speakers and their offspring give thanks to the Lord and recount His praise (see Psalm 79:13).
New York City, perhaps the most ethnically and religiously diverse city in the world, has the largest diaspora population. The greater metropolitan area has close to 5.7 million foreign-born residents, with over 3 million of them in the city itself. The metro area has about 2 million Jews (the largest outside of Israel), 800,000 Muslims and 400,000 Hindus. New York City is a world center for finance, trade and media and contains the main headquarters for the United Nations. The cultural diversity of the “city that never sleeps” helps make it a popular tourist destination as well.
Praise the Lord for gathering many nations in a place where they might hear, boldly proclaim and teach about Christ and His Kingdom without hindrance (see Acts 28:31). Thank God for the ethnographic research of Metro New York which has been completed and made available as informative tools for prayer and action; pray that the Church will wholeheartedly follow the Lord into new territory (see Joshua 14:9). Pray for unity among local churches and ministries, that all who believe might be together and have all things in common (see Acts 2:44). Ask God to shine in the hearts of people of influence from every people group found in New York City so that they may have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God (see 2 Corinthians 4:6).
(Information gathered from Joshua Project, Operation World, Wikipedia and ethNYcity: The Nations, Tongues, and Faiths of Metropolitan New York)