Displaying items by tag: Outreach

Over 50% of Bosnians are Muslim. Muslims visit Christian neighbours at Christmas, and vice versa during Ramadan. It is difficult to differentiate between Muslims and Orthodox Christian women as both wear headscarves. People’s faith is more noticeable during religious months. Pray for a revival of prayer in the local church, and that Christians will come together and lift honest cries to God. May prayer become a unifying factor among local churches. Pray against timidity keeping believers from sharing Jesus with their friends, family, neighbours, and co-workers. Pray that believers will seek opportunities to love and share with Bosnians, Serbs, Croats and others from the Balkans. Ask that every believer will be equipped to make disciples who make disciples, and that they will live by God’s Spirit.

‘Every time your heart beats, someone, somewhere, has died without ever hearing the name of Jesus.’ In 1999, a small group of people read that statistic, and asked the question, ‘Am I willing to live a big life, with big Kingdom impact?’ They said yes and set out on a journey beginning in Iran and then crisscrossing the globe with the good news of Jesus Christ in a movement called Biglife. Biglife empowers believers worldwide to reach and disciple their own people for Jesus, so that God’s disciple-making movement grows, even in places where great faith is needed to be a Christian let alone share your faith. Now from Asia to Africa, Europe to the Americas, Biglife finds people of peace and empowers them to share the Good News where they live. They are reaching lost souls by shining Christ’s light into the world’s darkest places.

Most of Jordan's population have not heard a good gospel message. Ways of changing this include literature, media ministry, friendship evangelism, development programmes, home meetings and camps. Pray for a sensitive witness to Muslims and protection of converts amid persecution. Pray also that the growing number of Muslim-background believers have the legal right to convert from Islam. Palestinians are a majority in Jordan. Many are second- or third- generation residents after leaving their traditional homeland. Some integrate into Jordanian life; others suffer from disillusionment, bitterness, and frustration which only the Man of Calvary can heal. Due to the Gulf Wars a million Iraqis also fled to Jordan. Years later, nearly half of these are unable or unwilling to return home. Christian work among them produces a good response. Jordanian churches have effective and widespread ministry to these refugees but need to be granted permission to educate them.

Many churches will be running a wide range of school holiday clubs throughout the summer months. Pray for the themed weeks to inspire children as they discover their Father in Heaven’s love and the friend that they have in Jesus. May the new songs that they learn be sung at home with their families and friends. Pray for God to give His strength and stamina to the many adults who will be guiding the children through various craft activities, sports and games, presenting interactive mime and drama, storytelling, singing and dancing, messy play and much more. May they find many opportunities to introduce their groups to Christ in each session. Pray for the clubs aimed at children who would normally receive free school meals. Pray for the evening clubs and café clubs aimed at older children to be fun and safe for all. May every Christian holiday club be used by God to open avenues between churches and communities.

‘This lady was in deep despair when I first met her. She came to a local church foodbank seeking help to feed her four children. Thanks to God, volunteers, donations of daily needs, and gentle support, Tahreen gratefully received practical help. She also heard the gospel, and by God’s grace, she found new life in Christ!’ For further details, click the ‘More’ button.

New ways of engaging people with faith are being pioneered by the Church of Scotland in Ayrshire. It is sending teams of missioners out into the community to share the Good News of Jesus Christ and to build new worshipping communities. Team leader Revd Maggie McTernan said the aim is to connect with people who do not want to worship in traditional ways. ‘There's a challenge of declining attendance at our traditional churches on Sunday mornings. But that doesn't necessarily match with a decline in interest in matters of faith. There are people who have an interest and a concern about faith, but for a whole host of reasons they won't go to church on a Sunday morning. Maybe it's not what they're used to or maybe they have other commitments.’ The vision is an intergenerational church sharing activities, experiences and worship in new ways: Messy Church, prayer walks, sports-based wellbeing projects, online, digital parish and a disability project so that the church is fully inclusive.

A Jesus Film team begin their day by praying, ‘Holy Spirit, where should we go today?’ One day as they walked and prayed, they heard children’s voices. Following the sound, they entered a compound of 672 children and began talking to them about Jesus. The team had no idea the risk they were taking. The police heard about them and arrested them. Before being hauled away a team member turned on a NewLifeBox in his backpack and left it behind. The police beat them and then let them go. The team returned to the compound to retrieve the backpack. To their amazement hundreds of children were quiet, sitting in groups, eyes fixed on their smartphones, watching the Jesus Film. The battery-powered NewLifeBox they left behind creates a Wi-Fi hotspot, inviting anyone looking for a hotspot, and within 150 feet, to watch a film about Jesus. The children asked them questions about what they had watched and heard, saying ‘Can you help us tell our parents about Jesus?’

A 2017 survey found that very few practising Christians decided to become Christians during adulthood. The UK is becoming more secular, with churches declining and fewer believers. As a nation we are losing our Biblical foundation, and our culture is paying the heavy price of change. Many people have a false impression about what the Bible says because they have never actually read it for themselves. The survey defined 'practising Christians' as people who read or listen to the Bible at least once a week, pray at least once a week, and attend a church service at least once a month. The Pocket Testament League is full of Christians who have committed to reading the Word of God, carrying the Word with them wherever they go, and sharing the Word with others. They ask, ‘How will our friends and neighbours ever know about the transformative power of Jesus unless we share the Word of God with them?’ Like-minded Christians are invited to join them in sharing the Word and fulfilling the Great Commission.

In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, as nations entered into the uncertainty of lockdown, we saw an outpouring of neighbourliness. Unable to venture away from our homes, we reached out, perhaps for the first time, to the people who lived around us. This was a beautiful thing. Wonderful stories emerged of people helping each other in a time of need – a poignant demonstration of why community is so vital. Churches responded to local needs by supporting the bereaved and lonely, increasing foodbank provision, and helping out in whatever ways they could. Surely this was a perfect example of what Jesus meant when he told us that the greatest commandment, in addition to loving God, was to love our neighbours.

The Uzbeks traditionally were semi-nomadic shepherds. Today they farm or live and work in towns and cities. Most Uzbeks are Sunni Muslims but not orthodox. Many traditional beliefs have been mingled with Islamic practices. The younger generation are either atheists or non-religious. Uzbeks with access to the Gospel live in cities. Most rural villages are without Gospel witness, and Islamic fundamentalists living in the former Soviet regions have begun calling for strict application of Islamic law, as practised in Afghanistan. Now is the time to reach communities with the message of the Cross. Much intercession is needed for this to happen. Pray that the Holy Spirit will soften the hearts of Uzbek Muslims towards Christians. Ask God to grant wisdom and favor to mission agencies focusing on the Uzbeks. Ask the Lord to send additional long-term labourers to live among them and share the love of Christ with them.