Pray

James and Judy Burdett Minister in the USA but ministered among the Dom people of Papua New Guinea (PNG) for 38 years. They recently exclaimed, “It is happening! We are leaving for PNG … and [will] return in December. While there, we will reconnect with our Dom Christian family and break the news to them that we will no longer be living there with them. However, we plan to make short trips once a year to visit and minister to them. Jim will work with Gena to go over the lessons that Jim has been working on. [He] hopes to also teach from them or some of them while there.

“We have been proofreading and improving the Dom New Testament for the second printing. This takes a lot of time, and God willing we will have 1,000 copies printed and ready to ship to PNG next year. Once shipped and arrived, Jim will make a short trip to the Dom to give them out to the people there. Pray for continued checking of the Dom New Testament and for the Dom folk to receive the word. [Pray for] Jim and Gena as they check the lessons that Jim has been working on and for good times of fellowship with the Dom Christians.”

Rachel Chapman ministers among the Nahuatl people of Mexico. She said, “We just finished translating Ephesians. The last chapter talks about our preparing ourselves to stand against the schemes of the devil. As Paul finishes telling us about the spiritual armor that we have available, he says, ‘And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.’

“The believers aren’t asking to be relieved of the pressure. They are asking God for strength and bravery to walk through it. They are asking for wisdom to know how to answer their family and neighbors. They are asking for boldness to share the truth despite the circumstances. They are asking God to help them be attractive examples of Christ to the community. They are asking God to protect their children and to help them choose the right path. And they are asking God to open the eyes of their families and the people of Las Moras to see His truth and believe. Will you pray with us for the spiritual warfare here in Las Moras?” For more ways to pray for the Nahuatl work specifically and strategically, download the prayer guide.

Rachel Chapman ministers among the Nahuatl people of Mexico. She wrote, “God has established His church in Las Moras. Light has come to this area, the believers are growing in their faith and others are interested in God’s Truth. Obviously, the devil does not like this challenge to his control. He has ramped up the spiritual warfare against the believers and their families in the last year.

“Villagers are accusing the believers of having the devil in them because they no longer go along with what everyone else believes. Mothers are completely ignoring their daughters, not even responding when they speak to them. In front of the whole village, a father said that his daughter and her family should move away because they no longer respect the idols. Another father won’t let any of his children go to any school, in hopes that they will not learn to read and have access to the ‘foolishness’ of the Bible. Family members are doing drugs and are being drawn away from the Truth that they have heard. Families are pressuring 13-year-old girls to go to parties and meet guys. Kids are being pulled between parents who believe the gospel and family members who want them to take part in witchdoctor ceremonies and honor the local spirits. Kids are being lured into local gangs with the promise of power and money. Families are accusing believers of acting as witches, blaming them with sickness and death.

“Despite all these pressures from the enemy, we have hope. God has already defeated the devil, and He provides us with the ability and power to withstand his attacks.”

Reuben and Lydia Schuring minister among the Ka’apor people of Brazil. “The Ka’apor believers thank the Lord again and again for the truths that they are learning about God, about the Heavenly Father adopting them as His sons and daughters and [about His] raising them up. Sese repeatedly comments to the believers, ‘Where would we be at today, if the missionaries were not teaching us these truths?’ Recently, this became even more real to them because a different religious group has been trying to make their way on to the reservation. This group can’t speak their language, nor do they know their culture. A couple of men expressed to us, ‘You guys are explaining God’s truths to us in a way that we can understand them, in a way we understand God’s salvation, in a way we understand what it means to walk with God, but this other religious group doesn’t do that. If it weren’t for you, we would still be steeped in our ways and controlled by the fear of the spirits.’ We are humbled being able to see God at work. We know this is coming about because of His mercy and because of the body of Christ saying, ‘Yes, here I am, use me!’

“Recently, the Ka’apor church in this village met with a group of five men and their families from another village to discuss how to go forward with evangelism. The interesting thing was one Christian man who came was Rossi. He had helped the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) missionary translate the New Testament into their language years ago. Three of the wives of the other Christian men were also daughters of two other men who were led to the Lord by Jim Kakumasu and his wife (the SIL translators). Both of these groups have agreed to work together to see the gospel go out to other villages.”

Kathryn Kreiger ministers as a language consultant in the Asia-Pacific region. “I've just spent a long weekend out in town finishing up the main part of my phonemic analysis write-up to send in to be checked by our language consultant as well as [by] my former linguistics teacher at the Ethnos360 training in Missouri. I am sure there will be plenty of revisions that need to be made in the future regarding the preliminary … alphabet that I have proposed as the result of my analysis project, but for now, I can redirect my attention to full-time language study again and, Lord willing, make some good progress in my oral speaking ability of the … language over these next couple of months. Praise the Lord! We trust and pray that God will continue to open doors for us to live here, build deeper relationships, and learn the … language to proficiency so we can proclaim the truth of His beautiful gospel here in this little corner of the world. He is always working.” Pray for the team as they press on to fluency in the language.

John and Krista Poidevin minister as support staff in Papua New Guinea. They wrote, “One of the blessings of being at church was hearing a firsthand report from the Wantakia team. These missionaries first moved in around 2015. After years of house building, language learning and literacy teaching, they began Bible lessons in the Wantakia language. They started at Genesis and taught through to Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection. In 2020, the Wantakia church was born, and in 2022, as they taught through the original lessons a second time, 27 more believed! Praise God for growing His Church!

“We heard several testimonies from these new believers. One man had planned to be at the teaching, but when his close friend became terribly sick, he decided he absolutely must trek to town to find medicine. However, the missionaries contacted the medical clinic and provided the required help. Two days later, this same man’s wife became so sick that he realized it was imperative for him to travel and find medicine. But once again the missionary team was able to contact the clinic and get the help needed for his wife. Part of this new believer's testimony is that even though Satan twice tried to distract him, he heard, understood and believed the truth.” Watch a video.

Jordan and Rachel Keefe minister in Colombia. “We have been trying to visit one particular village for several years now, but for a variety of reasons, it seems the Lord has left that door shut until just recently. We were finally able to visit, and it is clear that this small indigenous church is really struggling. However, we were very encouraged by the attitude of the leaders. They recognize that they need help and want us to consider starting a serious process of discipleship with them. There are eight to ten other villages within proximity to this one that need to hear the gospel, and we believe God wants to use this small indigenous church to make that a reality. Pray for our ministry with the indigenous church in the jungle and that God would give us wisdom, energy and endurance. Pray for the indigenous leaders that God would give them devotion, fervor, passion and capacity to pursue God's kingdom within their own communities.”

Josh and Erin Verdonck minister with Ethnos360 Aviation in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Josh is a pilot. “Exciting things are happening here in Papua New Guinea ... and you have been a part of it. Several years ago, when I was flying Kodiaks here in PNG, I had the opportunity to fly a bunch of house-building materials to an airstrip in the Western Highlands of PNG. From there, the supplies were flown by helicopter to [where the Maliyali people live. Three families — the Rimestads, Muellers and Earls — built their houses and moved their families into this remote location. For the last several years they have been building relationships with the people, learning the language and culture, and preparing for what’s coming this month: For the first time ever, the Maliyali people will hear the Good News.

“On August 29, 2022, the village will gather to hear the missionaries begin teaching Bible lessons in their own language. It’s the next big step toward seeing a thriving church for every people. In time, we pray that the Maliyali people will come to an understanding of who God is, God’s relationship to mankind, mankind’s need for a savior and ultimately the understanding of Christ’s fulfillment of that need. That understanding will transform the worldview of these people who have not had the chance to hear and have lived in darkness. We have been honored to be part of making it possible for the missionaries to live in Maliyali along with you who support our ministry. Now, many years later, I again get to serve the Maliyali people with the helicopter as well. Pray for the Maliyali people and for the Rimestads, Muellers and Earls as they prepare to start teaching.”

The Zook family minister among people groups in Mozambique. “Thanks for the prayer for the translation check. We were able to finish chapters 1-30 of Isaiah. The check went well. Pray for continued work on the books of Numbers, 1 Chronicles and Nehemiah. We now have officially translated and consultant checked half of the Bible. Half of all the verses in the Bible are complete which is exciting and sobering that there is still so much to go. It's a big book. But a life-giving book is worth translating! Pray for us in this effort.”

Larry and Sarah Richardson minister among the Puinave people of Colombia. “The translation team finished making corrections to the epistles of James and 1st and 2nd Peter, based on our consultant’s observations as he went over our ‘back to Spanish’ translation of them. He picked up on some details we’d overlooked, and the whole team is grateful to him for going over it so carefully. He is scheduled to arrive … to begin the face-to-face ‘comprehension check’ [as well]. During that check we ask native speakers who have not helped translate those books to listen to the translation read a paragraph at a time, telling the consultant what they got out of it. That way he, and we, can pick up on anything which looked good on paper but which isn’t actually clear to others as they read or hear it. Sadly, none of the Puinaves who have helped us with those comprehension checks in the past are currently available; so, we also worked with another lady to familiarize her with the process. Otherwise, it’s pretty intimidating at first — the person listening and responding feels like they are ‘in the hot seat.’ Please pray for her to be relaxed and that her memory won’t be limited by the stress of this role. Her name is Maury.

“Please pray also for our Puinave co-translators to transition well to the next phase after this check. Instead of coming to our translation office every day to work, they will need to spend their time reading back over all the Scripture that’s been translated, both the key portions of the Old Testament and the entire New Testament, to pick up on any inconsistencies, plus be out reading them to relatives and friends to get further feedback and to raise interest in using this new translation as ‘their Bible.’ All that is going to require more self-discipline on the part of the translators.”

Albert and Lynne Castelijn minister among the Banwaon people of the Philippines. “Albert’s two-week trip to the Philippines was a huge success. While in the village, Albert met with his translation team and finalized things for the upcoming check in September. He also taught some recently revised lessons to the Bible teachers on the first few chapters of Revelation. Now … Ding! Round Two is in full swing preparing for Albert’s next trip back to the Philippines. This is the Big One … the translation check of the books of Ephesians, Hebrews, and Mark. When these books are officially approved (whoop – whoop), that will be 76% of the New Testament complete in the Banwaon language. We’re heading for the finish line with the translation, folks … pray with us to have it fully completed by the end of 2023. What a day that will be!”

Jonathan and Heidi Bamford minister among the Isnag people of the Philippines. “Victoria, one of our Isnag neighbors, has been having health issues for a while and her family has been in communication with us. She was sent to town to have testing, and the tests seem to point to a heart problem. She is too weak to travel to a larger town where she can get the testing she needs. We pray that she will improve and be able to get the help she needs. She is reading her portions of the Isnag Bible. She told her family that reading the Bible uplifts her spirit.

“Currently, [the] dialect only has four books of the New Testament published. But Lord willing, that is going to improve in the near future. Our pilot and his wife have recovered from Dengue fever, and Brian is ready to fly Heidi and me into the village [soon]. The plan is for the translation consultant to join us on Tuesday. We will have two weeks to get as many books checked as possible. We have 10 books ready to be checked. Due to the ability to put Bible translation directly into an app, we will be able to start distributing books as soon as the consultant checks them. We are excited about that. Pray for the upcoming translation check.”

Dave and Deb Rodges ministered in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and are now ministering in Durham at Ethnos Canada. “Good News is coming to the Maliyali people for the first time in their own language. The team has set the date of August 29th to start teaching. Literacy has been taught and the necessary portions of Scripture [have been] translated. This team has been preparing for this time for years. These families went through the field orientation program back when we were working in Madang province in 2016 and before that in the missions training and Bible school. Many people have invested in this work, including you.

“Please be praying for this team and these people in PNG. Pray for the Lord to be preparing the hearts of the Maliyali people. Pray for Chad, Nathan and Dave as they prepare and teach God’s Word — that He would be their constant help [and] that the Lord would get all the glory in helping them clearly communicate God’s Word in the Maliyali language. Pray for continued unity on their team. The enemy Satan wants nothing more than to thwart the gospel coming to Maliyali. Pray [that] the team be aware of the enemy’s schemes and be successful in resisting them.”

Summer Zimmer ministers with Papua New Guinea Communications. “I was able to be a part of the Tigak Bible Dedication and created this video so that you could be a part of it too! Please take the time to watch it and experience life on the other side of the globe. Pray for the Tigak people as they read and study God's Word.” Watch a video.

Aaron and Amy minister among the G people of West Africa. Amy wrote, “Aaron has made some progress on Bible lessons this past month. He has been really encouraged by the small group who helps him get the lessons into the G language because he senses a sincere interest from them in the material discussed in the lessons. This is especially neat since the lessons keep pointing to the redeeming work of Jesus on the cross, which they will be getting to fairly soon. However, the guys from the small group that help our co-worker Guy and Aaron with the Bible lessons were not able to come and meet with them as planned this past week due to various reasons. That slowed down their progress a bit.”

Aaron writes: “Please pray that we can focus on working on Bible lessons before we start our home assignment next month. Pray also that our small group will be able to meet faithfully again so that we can make forward progress with the lessons and [pray] for wisdom in how to continue with our efforts to teach the people how to read and write.”

David and Vanessa Maynard minister among the Isnag people of the Philippines. “I let some of the key guys in the village know our travel plans a couple months ahead of time so we could have a few days to have a workshop on lesson crafting. Well, it didn't exactly play out like that. Many of the guys were called out to town for their various jobs. We're so thankful that God has provided income for them, but we do miss seeing them around the neighborhood more often.

“On our last day in the village, Rigo was able to sit down and spend some time with me going over lesson development. I was grateful for the five or so hours we got. We talked in great detail about how to communicate clearly and chip away at wrong worldviews. Also, [we talked about] using stories, dramas [and] illustrations … to help people see with spiritual eyes. His wife, Flor, is also very involved in his lesson making and gives great input. Rigo came back several hours later with an example lesson that he had crafted to help his listener see what he has learned from reading and hearing this passage.

“A default belief most people in the village seem to have is [this:] ‘I'm a Christian now, so I should get my act together or get better at hiding it.’ Normally, it doesn't work to translate from English, but on this occasion, I shared something I had read from Christian author, Bob Hamp, ‘Jesus didn't come to make bad people behave; He came to make dead people alive!’ Pray for Rigo and the other believers as they are used by God to share life and truth to those who are in the village.”

Andy and Chrissy Shaub minister among the Awa people of South America. “At a monthly Bible study, H had a lot of questions. How could he become a Bible teacher? Once a month is too little Bible teaching for his family. Could we come more often? On the two-hour return to our home, we discussed H's concerns. He wants his family to have more Bible teaching. Great! He would like to become a Bible teacher. Wonderful! We've been asking God for Awa Bible teachers and leaders for the church. He wants us to come more often. Hmmm...because of security concerns in his area, we try to make our visits unpredictable and infrequent. H's family enjoy the Bible study workbooks. So, we prayed and talked the situation over with our coworkers, Kevin and Kathy Bruce. We came up with a plan. H could visit us once a month, and we can hold a teaching session, giving him lessons and simple worksheets to teach at home. On his son's motorcycle, he could possibly make the round trip in a day. We now have a ‘Teaching Teachers’ Day’ planned, and we plan to invite other Awa from our churches here to participate.” Pray for more Awa Bible teachers.

Ed and Jeanne Casteel minister in church planting and regional leadership in Asia Pacific. “Just wanted to send you all a little update on some of the happenings in Wana. The outreach in ‘Lone Rock’ continues and … they should be presenting the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. It hasn’t come without opposition. You might remember pictures from a couple of months ago of a large tent they constructed to meet in. After getting it put up, they were told by some locals that they were not allowed to use it. So, for months they continued teaching without it only to find out a couple of weeks ago from the district police that they were not putting any restrictions on them from using it. Then they knew they had been lied to by those who are in opposition. We studied together from the book of Ezra where it talks about how the Israelites suffered opposition when trying to rebuild the temple, yet we saw how the Lord guarded and protected them as they continued with the work. We know the Lord is going to build His Church in ‘Lone Rock’ too, despite the opposition they are facing.

“We also sent a survey team to the ‘Oak Tree.’ This outreach has had some real difficulties getting off the ground, so we arranged for several of our pastors along with the missionaries serving there to go and evaluate the situation and the needs. We took them in by helicopter but are hoping to get an airstrip put in as soon as we can. Also, great news came out of the Wana ‘Flat Plain’ where we lived for several years. Fifty people followed the Lord in believer’s baptism, making a public testimony to their faith in Christ. These were mostly young children, so let’s pray for them that they would grow up and give their lives to serve their Lord and Savior.”

Paul and Bella Gervasi minister among the Sekadau people of Asia Pacific doing church planting and translation. “Translation work is continuing. Bella has been working on the last two books we are translating from the New Testament. Right now, she is doing comprehension checking on Galatians. This has been the hardest book for the folks to really understand. That means it has been going very slowly. I have been drafting and checking the verses we plan to have from the Old Testament. I believe it will take me about three to four weeks to finish the checking I need to do. At that point, I am finished with doing that. I still have to translate all these books back to English for our translation checker. Then he will go through it, making notes and asking questions that I have to go through before the check. The next check is scheduled for the beginning of October. We will probably need one more check after that before we are finished. That check should be sometime in the Spring of 2023.”

Joe and Kandi Depue minister among the Baniwa people of Brazil. “Summer went by so quickly as we continued studying Baniwa and teaching God’s Word with the opportunities we have in the village. We were super excited that on June 29 we started our trip upriver. First, we participated in a Bible conference, and from there we continued visiting other Baniwa villages. The trip took about three weeks, which felt long to us because we were on the go all the time and did not have the normal comforts of home like a bathroom. Our goal was to have the opportunity to enter new villages where they have only accepted [one other religion] in the past and not missionaries. We were invited to the first one on our trip, but we were not sure how we would be accepted with the others. Our goal was not to start teaching them God´s Word yet but to start building a relationship with them for the future.

“Sitting in the pavilion of the village that God miraculous allowed us to visit back in 2017, I was chatting with an older gentleman about the time when an anthropologist used to live with him and his family. At the time this gentlemen’s father was a powerful shaman known internationally and made famous by the prolific writings of anthropologists of which I have read much. Talking to this gentleman was like meeting a legend, and I was blown away by what he said. He was saddened by the prolific drinking that takes place among his people. He even said many of his people are misled, believing that heavy drinking is what they did in times past. He told me it was not that way. He went on asking for recommendations as to who could teach him God’s Word. I wanted to teach him then and there. In contrast we visited another village that seemed merely to tolerate our presence. We had an invitation and people were expecting us, but at the end of our second night's stay, it sure seemed like they were glad to see us go.