Pray

Liv ministers among the B people of West Africa. “A young believer translating the Old Testament is advancing in his work. He continues to work on Exodus, and we have also been able to go through the draft of the first six chapters of the book of Daniel that he has translated. I am very thankful to the Lord for him; we work well together. Please pray for him, that the Lord [would] continue to preserve and protect him. His mother-in-law, who is a good friend of mine, has on several occasions said to me: ‘Before I gave him my daughter, I knew that he had enemies in the village because of his faith. But now I have realized just how many they are. There are so many people that come to me and try to destroy this marriage. But I have given him my daughter, and I will not go back on my word.’ Pray for his [wife’s] salvation and her family’s salvation.”

Lourens and Marie Laureti minister with national church leaders from various churches in Papua New Guinea. Their team is focused on continual discipleship and equipping of the local churches planted by missionaries and assisting the church into answering the great commission of sending their own to reach the unreached. “In May, the National Leadership team traveled to the Maleu people on the far western corner of New Britain. Here they met with selected leaders from churches on the North Coast, coming from Maleu, Kombe, Anem, Lusi, Mouk, Aria, and Ivanga. The teaching was presented by Ata, Mamusi, Lavongai, Maleu, and Mouk leaders. The leaders from these various churches will now regroup and identify a team among them to take the teaching back to their various local language group churches. And towards the end of the year, we will try to visit each of these local churches to evaluate how the churches have understood and applied the teaching.” Pray for rich understanding of the teaching.

Chad and Martha Earl minister among the Maliyali people of Papua New Guinea. “This is it. This is what we are here for and why we have spent these past years learning language, teaching literacy, preparing lessons and starting Bible translation. All of that work and we are only just at the beginning. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a church being born in Maliyali. We have a start date to the gospel teaching. We need your prayers. They need your prayers. August 29 - mid December, the men will be teaching from creation to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. This will be the first time in history the Maliyali people will hear the gospel message. Please be praying with us during this time!

“Another important announcement is that we will be using Instagram/Facebook to keep you guys posted on how the teaching is going. Many of you know we did not have internet in the [village] during our language learning years. While we still have time limitations on the internet, we do want to use it to keep you posted during teaching as best we can as you pray and follow the story along with us. Please pray for the Lord to prepare the hearts of the Maliyali people.”

Julie Arnold is part of a church planting team in Asia Pacific. “This month, several young people from the village are heading out to the big city to enter a Bible School and missions training program. Please pray for these new students as they adjust to living in a more urban setting, operating exclusively in the trade language and interacting with classmates from different cultural backgrounds. Please pray also for two students from the same village who are entering their final year of the four-year program. Pray for God’s direction as they consider options for their future: returning to be involved in their home church, moving to another village within their own people group or ministering cross-culturally among an entirely different people group. Praise God for these young people who have a heart to study His Word and share it with others.”

Lourens and Marie Laureti minister with national church leaders from various churches in Papua New Guinea. Their team is focused on continuing discipleship, equipping of the local churches planted by missionaries and assisting the church to answer the Great Commission of sending their own to reach the unreached. You might remember that one of the requests the churches in New Britain had was that they be better equipped as leaders. So last year we worked on developing 10 modules on biblical leadership within the church, which gives a biblical overview and application. This has been completed, and we started to teach these to the leaders in various locations. In February, my co-workers taught these to the leaders from churches in central New Britain. They had leaders attend from the Mengen, Mamusi, Ata, Mangseng and Nakanai people groups. And the teaching was presented by leaders from the Maleu, Mouk, Anem, Lamogai and Loko churches/people groups.” Pray that these leaders would faithfully shepherd the local churches.

Brent and Jodi Ristau minister in the Yukon Territory, Canada, with Indigenous Ministries. Unlike many of Ethnos Canada’s countries of service around the world, to be known as a missionary in Canada is only tolerated, at best, by the majority of Canadians, indigenous or not. In the midst of COVID when many ministries were slowing down or closing doors, God opened a door for us to help shepherd a small group of people who regularly gathered in ‘Hope Community’ (alias place name) to sing songs to God and be taught from the Word. We have since moved to be part of this community more holistically and authentically. Before that, we lived an hour away. Not too far, but too far to see the new relationships built for the gospel. Praise God for providing a house to purchase!

Please be praying for the Ristaus’ as they are now a part of ‘Hope Community’ that they can form growing, deepening friendships with the Tlingit and [other] people of this area so that one day their hearts will be open and receptive to hear the one and only Truth of God’s Son who came to rescue them from their sin. Pray specifically for unbelieving Tlingit friends Barry and Alyshia (names changed). And please, if the Lord lays it on your heart, pray and fast for our ministry as this is what it’s going to take to see thriving indigenous churches born here in the Yukon within the indigenous population.”

Grant and Marianne Bayfield minister among the Manobo people of the Philippines. They are currently on home assignment, but the work goes on through their Filipino coworkers. One coworker, Allan, is discipling several men from the village to hopefully become Bible teachers, using evangelistic lessons that Grant has made into a series of take-home booklets. There is also a women’s class, enthusiastically studying the lessons on their own steam. Please pray for the classes to bear the fruit of indigenous Bible teachers and for all attending to become familiar with the whole story of salvation, from Genesis to the resurrection, and to share it with their family and relatives. And please pray for Grant as he prepares the last two booklets and sends them by email for printing, in the middle of the busyness of visiting supporters and churches.

Tom and Beth Carlton minister in Mexico coaching new missionaries as they study the Spanish language and Mexican culture. “In the Nahuatl work, the translator Rachel made good progress on translating the book of Ephesians and completed the final comprehension check. The Nahuatl believers are feeling more burdened for the lost [souls] in their village and desire to be bold in sharing their faith even amid persecution. On the topic of translation, this month we were blessed to help the translator for the Tarahumara work do some printing. Beth and I supervised the printing of 200 copies of the [Gospel] of Mark in Tarahumara. It's so exciting knowing there is more of God's Word getting to the Tarahumara believers. Praise the Lord! We have a very large group of missionary families in [national culture and language study] right now. This is a huge answer to prayer as well as a huge responsibility. Each one is at a different level of fluency and has their own unique personality, learning styles and struggles. We appreciate prayer as we, along with our co-worker Paty, continue to do our best to disciple them, coach them and encourage them in this critical process of becoming relevant gospel ministers here in Mexico.”

Bart and Emily Allen minister among the Amdu people of Papua New Guinea. “There are changes happening in the hearts of the believers here in Amdu. We are privileged to have front-row seats to observe their spiritual growth. There is so much of God’s Word that they have not yet heard, but they are standing firmly on the parts they do know. We meet several times each week with the little group of believers. We started teaching through the book of Romans. Even in the first few lessons, the believers have been excited for the new things they are learning. And while they are learning new things from Romans, we continue to review some of the basic truths they have learned so far. We are also working to equip them to share the message of salvation clearly and simply with their unsaved family members and interested neighbors. The fellowship is sweet as we talk about God’s Word as well as share our burdens and pray together.”

Rachel Searcy ministers among the Punan people in Asia Pacific. “The angels have been rejoicing in heaven this last week as at least five from the group we have been teaching … expressed their faith in Christ as their Savior. Thank you for praying for them. Others have not yet spoken up about what they believe, but the lessons are not done yet. In August we will finish those lessons and teach the death and resurrection of Christ. We started our next block of lessons in the chronological gospel teaching. I told the group that for me a week like that was better than vacation time. The wonder of the grace of God in our salvation never grows old. Added to that was the privilege of being able to team teach the material with several of the church elders. As I reviewed the previous lessons with the group, I found that most of those studying had a good grasp of their sinfulness in God’s sight and of their need for God to intervene in order to save them from eternal punishment. But one issue that some of them struggled to grasp is that deeds we humans understand to be good have no part in the salvation process. Many of them had heard teaching in other churches and understood that their efforts to do good played a part in their salvation.

Ed and Jeanne Casteel minister in church planting and regional leadership in Asia Pacific. “Many of our recent updates have centered around the new outreach at the village where over 200 people are meeting to hear the gospel message. We and the whole team sincerely appreciate your continued prayers for this outreach as they have just started the ‘Life of Christ’ lessons and show how the promises of God in the Old Testament are fulfilled with the birth of the Savior. Pray that these folks’ hearts will be open and receptive as the gospel message unfolds before their eyes.

“The W outreach is in the very north of Wana land. With this email I wanted to introduce you to a fairly new outreach we have started in the south. In recent years more and more Wana people in the south have been expressing an interest in hearing the gospel, but as the Scriptures say, ‘The harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few.’ We do have one Wana family, Riben and Annie, along with a single fellow, Witan, who has been working in this area at the village. They too are making their way through the chronological lessons in an attempt to make the gospel very clear to these people. Riben feels overwhelmed with all the requests he is receiving, so we appreciate your prayers for him and wisdom to take on only what the Lord would truly have for him and the team.”

Tom and Beth Carlton minister in Mexico coaching new missionaries as they study the Spanish language and Mexican culture. “God has certainly been at work in the different people groups ministries on our field. Here are some of the highlights. We are thrilled to share that, after much work in developing literacy materials, the Tigre family [missionaries among the Guarijio] taught their very first literacy class. It was a small class but a motivated one. All four students finished the course and can now officially read and write in their own language. One of the students, Victorino, is interested in being trained to teach literacy. This is a huge praise! We pray that more and more Guarijio would desire to learn to read and write in their own language so they can read God's Word.”

Luke and Ellenie Hodgdon minister among the Konomala people of Papua New Guinea. “To put it plainly, we are learning that if anything good comes from us being here, it is all God. We have done lots of things that were seemingly controllable in the last couple of years: learning the national language and culture; then, learning the Konomala language and culture, we produced documents to prove our understanding of culture and language; we did grammar reports, phonetic reports, orthographic write-ups, discourse analysis, worldview analysis write-ups, etc.

“But now we are sharing the truths of God's Word with our friends, and we can't document change. We can't tell people to care about what God says or to be faithful to hear Him out. We can't make them follow God. We can only share the truth faithfully and allow God to work in them. We can be there for them when it doesn't make sense or it does make sense, but if they don't like it, we cannot orchestrate the change. That's God's work, and we are humbled with the opportunity to be the ones sharing that truth with them. Pray for our friends here in Konomala, that they would be present and continue to be willing to submit their thinking to what God says. Pray for the Konomala men. Pray that God will protect the faithful ones and raise up more. Pray for our Sunday mornings, Tuesday nights and Thursday nights. Those are the teaching times and rain can be a hindrance. Pray the rain holds off those times but comes all the other times (we do like a full water tank).”

Bart and Emily Allen minister among the Amdu people of Papua New Guinea. “Most of the believers share a common prayer request — the weight of their unbelieving family and neighbors ridiculing and even threatening them. But despite the pressure, they are confident that Jesus is the only way of salvation, and they are hungry to continue to learn more. What one of the believers shared is similar to all of them. ‘I’m being pressured by my family and community not to continue listening to what you (Bart and Emily) are feeding us from God’s Word. They are always telling me you are teaching us lies! But how can I leave my new family (fellow believers)? These are the words of life and I’ve seen in the book of Acts that all believers can expect persecution like this. It’s normal for us!’ Another friend shared this testimony recently: ‘The other day I was reading my Bible with my family, and we saw the verse in Galatians 3 where it says that Jesus became a curse for me (at this point he started crying with the memory of it). Jesus became a curse for me when He died in my place. That talk really helped me and my family!’ We haven’t translated Galatians yet, but this believer is hungry for God's Word, so he is studying his Pidgin Bible on his own. He came across this passage in Galatians and was encouraged.” Pray for the Amdu believers to remain hungry for the truth of God’s Word.

Lív ministers among the B people of West Africa. “I am thankful to the Lord for what we have been able to accomplish in Bible translation the last months. All the New Testament is now translated into B. The last consultant check will, Lord willing, be in November, where the Gospel of Matthew and the last seven chapters of Luke will be checked. What has been accomplished is all by the grace of the Lord. My prayer in the last years has been that I might be able to complete the New Testament, and that day has arrived. I am deeply thankful to the Lord and very humbled that He has allowed me to have a part in this work. May many B people come to know the truth by reading His Word in their own language.”

Jonathan and Devon Ames minister among the Kuyu people of Papua New Guinea. “We truly feel blessed to be a part of our new Kuyu team, and we want the ‘world’ to know that we are His disciples by our love for one another (John 13:35) and for the Kuyu people. …. Our final Kuyu survey (11-17 May) consisted of hiking to about five of the main Kuyu communities, clearly communicating that we will be coming to live among them, learn their language and culture, teach them to read and write in their own heart language, translate God's Word into their language and teach them God's Word. We emphasized the importance of having a clear understanding of what God has communicated to us through His Word. Also, [we told them] that we will enter their world with the posture of a learner/student and that it is good for them to get to know us and for us to get to know them. Everything will take place within the context of relationships and modeling.

While language and culture learning is difficult and seemingly an obstacle to ministry, it actually affords a healthy time period (two to three years) for genuine relationships to develop, for trust to grow and for us to gain a valuable understanding of the context we are living in before trying to teach or speak into anything (Prov 18:13).

Our most recent trip (12-17 June) was primarily for the purpose of signing a land agreement. It's just good to have a written agreement that outlines the purpose of our coming to live among them and to gain official permission from the landowners to build our houses on a plot of land. So, this time, we decided to hike into Kuyu, just like they would normally do. Were we in for a hike! About 15 hours later, 22 miles, and 8,000 feet of total elevation climb, we arrived at 11 p.m. What huge respect we have for these guys (and girls/baby) who do this hike often! We're especially proud of Carter, who did the whole hike better than his dad. Fun fact: this hike is reduced to a seven-minute helicopter ride.

Pray for the many, many logistics involved in house building over the next few months (July - Sept), that we will continue to grow in our relationships with our new teammates, and [that] the world would know that we are His disciples by our love for one another, considering each other’s interests, striving for unity and following Christ's example of humility. Pray that we will continue to prioritize our relationships with our new Kuyu friends as we begin to work together.” Watch a video of our survey trip.

Lourens and Marie Laureti minister with national church leaders from various churches in Papua New Guinea. Their team is focused on continual discipleship and equipping of the local churches planted by missionaries and on assisting the church into answering the Great Commission of sending their own to reach the unreached. “We know that a healthy indigenous church can sustain itself in church development and leadership, but another aspect that plays a crucial role in the sustainability of an indigenous church movement is the aspect of support. It has been a privilege to have Ineke Haaring as a co-worker and someone who carries a heavy load and does an amazing job of training our national coworkers in a lot of the technical aspects of support. She is a true servant, and someone always ready to help in any way she can even if it is very inconvenient. Toumusi and Ki are being trained, along with Palava and Grace, into many aspects of the support roles that we traditionally do for the churches. Pray for us as we continue to develop our partnership with the church to see them equipped and growing towards sustainability in shepherding, outreach, church development, leadership, and support.”

André and Aurélie Tousch minister among the Iski people of Papua New Guinea. “The three weeks before our departure [back to France] were spent checking the translation of several portions of the New Testament. This process took place in town at the missionary center with the help of a consultant and several Iski friends. Eighty percent of the New Testament has now been translated into the Iski language. Thank you for your prayers for this project! Jason and André continue to work on the translation. For André the following books still need to be finished: Colossians, Philemon, Philippians and 2 Corinthians. Our Iski friends who were in town for the translation project were able to be with us at the airport to say goodbye. The return flight was a bit complicated; one flight was late, and we missed a connection; we finally arrived 48 hours later than planned. André will begin a part-time ministry in France while continuing the work of translating the New Testament into the Iski language from France. Thanks to a satellite communication system installed in the village, we can communicate with our Iski friends through the internet. The work of translation can thus continue in spite of the distance. Finally, André will continue to make visits to PNG to support the young Iski church. Let us continue to pray for the Iski believers.”

John and Krista Poidevin minister as support staff in Papua New Guinea. “In March, we were able to travel to visit the remote, bush church in Tanguat. John was able to do some repair work inside the missionaries' houses, and we were able to hang out with our friends, who were the lone English-speakers at that time. There are several people groups within the Ramu Valley where Ethnos360 is working; however, there are still other neighboring people groups sending frequent requests for missionaries to come and bring them the Truth. They plead, ‘Who will tell us God's story?’ Please pray that God would raise up believers, either from within one of the new young churches or from the outside, who are willing and able to move in, learn another language and share God's story. Please also pray for the discipleship of these young believers and for those continuing to work on Bible translations for them.”

Lourens and Marie Laureti minister with national church leaders from various churches in Papua New Guinea. Their team is focused on continual discipleship and equipping of the local churches planted by missionaries and assisting the church into answering the Great Commission of sending their own to reach the unreached. “Working with the church has always involved studying God's Word, applying it to our lives and developing accurate teaching into some form of curriculum that they could continually use. These last few years the national leaders and I have been asked to work through this and then develop some material that could assist the leaders in areas of ‘The doctrine of the Church,’ ‘Biblical overview of leadership’ and ‘Biblical overview of support.’ This has been used as a resource for teaching and discipleship among the churches in New Britain. We also have a team that has reviewed our literacy program in our national language and has now started to review the post-literacy material to incorporate critical thinking skills so that believers can study and apply God's Word better.” Pray that these tools will help the people understand God’s Word.