Found this email today from Kimberly back in 2011…
I was, at that time, on a bus heading from Khartoum, Sudan south to another town where we hoped to open a language center. We didn’t know at the time, but I (along with 2 guys with me) would be arrested, interrogated from around 4PM to 2AM, have passports, phone, etc. taken, and then finally sent back the following day to Khartoum. That was in the first few days of my first vision trip to Sudan, back when we thought we would be working there.
Our friends in Chad, as well as all Muslims around the world, are now in their most religious month of the Islamic calendar – Ramadan. This is a time for followers of Jesus – you and me – to pray fervently for God to work in the hearts and lives of many who are following a false religion and have a false sense of hope that their sins may be forgiven. This year, Ramadan will last from May 27 – June 25.
What is Ramadan?
Fasting is one of the five pillars of Islamic faith. Ramadan is the holy month where all Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and feast in the evening and early morning hours. In addition to the other pillars, fasting is practiced in hopes that Allah will have pity on the Muslim and forgive him of his sins. Of course, as those who follow Jesus and the teaching of Scripture, we know that this is false hope. The only hope any of us has for forgiveness of sins is by faith alone in Jesus – apart from any works.
What does Ramadan look like in Chad?
I recently messaged a friend online to ask her if she was fasting. Her response to me was, “Yes, WE are fasting.” It is very much a communal practice. We have observed men and women who will not even swallow their own saliva (at least in public) in an effort to prove to others around them that they are following the rules perfectly. We hear stories of people who secretly “cheat,” but we haven’t seen this firsthand. We know pregnant women and nursing mothers who choose to fast during Ramadan, because otherwise they must make up the 30 days of fasting during the rest of the year on their own. Despite the difficulties this creates for the unborn or young child, it is easier for the mother to fast while everyone around them is doing it.
How can we pray during Ramadan?
I have been using the French version of the Jesus Storybook Bible for two months now in my Arabic studies. My language partner translates the stories into Arabic; then we listen together, stopping for clarification on new words and phrases. This has helped me immensely in increasing my vocabulary. It also provides many opportunities to share Bible stories with my language helper and discuss the significance of the stories in our own lives.
Now halfway through the book, we just began the stories from the New Testament this week. We have translated and discussed the story of the angel Gabriel announcing God’s plan for her to give birth to the Savior; the story of the birth of Jesus; and the story of the shepherds coming to see the new baby. There is always discussion and clarification of things she has heard that are incorrect or halfway true. Many times I get to see “lightbulbs” going off in her head (and hopefully her heart).
Pray with me that M. (my language helper) will fall in love with Jesus as we continue to talk about the Truth she is presented with.
Pray that she will desire to read the stories in their entirety in the Arabic New Testament and search out Truth for herself.
Pray that God will convict her of her sinfulness, her need for a Savior, and her desperate need to believe in this Jesus who is God’s plan for salvation from the beginning of time.
Remember last week I asked you to pray for my friend Amy, since we were going to start reading the Bible together? The day that post was published, I found out she had to move. It was a very sudden thing. Amy has six children and has not seen her husband in about 2 years. He never sent money and had another wife in the capital. He appeared unexpectedly on a Wednesday evening and by Friday morning told her she had less than 24 hours to pack up her house and move all six children to N’Djamena.
It felt like a death to me. She was my favorite lady in the neighborhood, and, as I shared, not only did my children love her children, but she had connected me to many other women in the neighborhood. I asked God why she had to leave now, just as we were going to start formally reading the Bible together. He is sovereign over all things, even Amy’s salvation. So, I trust that what He began He is capable of continuing if He desires!
I see God’s hand in her leaving, at least a little bit: now I have several connections to other women. Instead of investing in one woman, her absence “forces” me to spend time with these other women.
We did send a micro sd card with the New Testament on it so she can listen on her cell phone if she desires.
Please continue to pray for Amy’s understanding of Scripture and for her salvation. We hope to visit her when we are in N’Djamena to continue conversations with her. I am thankful that her salvation does not hinge on my presence in her life! I am thankful that God knows the full picture and that He allows me to be a small part of His great plan.
Sometimes it is hard to know what or how to pray for those missionaries who live so far away in another country and another culture. It’s always helpful to pray for their health and fruitfulness, but beyond that it might seem like you are praying the same prayers all the time. In the last few years, I have found praying the words of Scripture for my family to be a helpful practice. Andrew Case has a book called “Setting Their Hope in God” that has taught me how to pray Scripture for our children.
So, as I have been reading the Bible lately, I found two passages that I thought would be great ones to pray over missionaries. If you ever wonder what you should pray, other than the normal things, maybe the examples below will help you. And while you’re at it, using this model to pray for yourself or loved ones might bless your prayer life like it has mine!
“Lord, please help [Missionary’s name] be filled with the knowledge of Your will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of You, God, fully pleasing to You, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of You. May they be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks you You, who have qualified them to shared in the inheritance of the saints in light.” (Taken from Colossians 1: 9-12.)
“God of peace, You brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant. Please equip [Missionary’s name] with everything good that they may do your will, working in them that which is pleasing in Your sight, thr0ugh Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” [Taken from Hebrews 13:20-21]
I have been blessed with many cultural opportunities these past few weeks – from being kicked out of a home, dealing with a difficult discipleship issue with a lady in the church, visiting a village and observing a woman crawling on her hands and knees out of respect as she past a group of men (no joke!), and observing a heated conversation between a group of Muslim women and our believing male friend about faith. These and other experiences have taught me how to better pray for God’s work here, and I think they are worth passing along to you who want to know how to pray for our ministry:
We are back home in our town and excited to continue in language learning so we can deepen relationships here as well as make new friends. I was visiting with one friend yesterday who has been severely wronged, but who has also made sinful choices and is seeing some immediate consequences of those choices. It is painful to walk alongside someone who has no frame of reference for the kind of forgiveness that God in Christ offers us or for the kind of forgiveness He expects us to have for others. How do I talk to someone about Jesus teaching to forgive 70×7 when they have yet to accept God’s forgiveness for their own sins? I have a renewed sense of sadness for my friends here who are living in hopeless situations apart from God. How do they even want to continue? I am burdened even more to pray that the truths that we share would take root in the hearts of our friends here and transform their lives, families, and communities. Will you pray with me in this new year that we would be purposeful to speak of truth, hope, and forgiveness to our friends here and that many would believe and turn from their sins?
My house helper comes to our house 6 days a week to cook, run to the market, clean dishes, basically be of help however is necessary that morning. She called me at 5:45am last week to tell me that her former husband, the father of her 5 children, and also the man who she was considering remarrying, had died suddenly. M. was in the hospital awaiting surgery to amputate some toes because of his diabetes. He passed away when the put him under, before they ever performed the operation. Life can feel so cheap here. He was likely in no physical condition to undergo the operation, yet it was still a shock that he died.
This death has had numerous implications for our family. Josh got to visit the man at the hospital days before he passed away. I am thankful he was able to share his care and concern for the family in this way. His death means that I have been without a house helper which is a big deal here with so many tasks to complete in a day, but it has been a week of God showing me his grace and provision as well as breaking my heart for the hopelessness of the people here.
First, counting my blessings:
Now a reflection on what the actual funeral and mourning process has helped me to be aware of: the amount of people in and out of my house helper’s compound this past week has been astonishing! The vast majority come to stay just a few minutes, offer condolences (“May God give you patience.”) and say some prayers on behalf of the deceased, hoping this may tip the scale in his favor so Allah will allow him into paradise. The problem is, it seems so fabricated. The majority of the people who come seem to be doing it out of necessity. Their words are not filled with any sense of emotion or even a sense that they believe what they are saying to the grieving. Even the prayers they offer up in to bless the deceased man seem hopeless and emotionless, like they know what they are doing is futile but they do it because it’s what is required and expected. Because they want people to do it for them when they die. Maybe it will be enough to get them to Paradise.
Pray for these people who have yet to hear that there is a better Way. There is a sure Way to peace with God both in the present and for all eternity. Pray for many hearts to be sensitive during this time of mourning, longing for something much more fulfilling and life changing than Islam can ever offer them. Pray for God to prepare the soil of my house helper and her family to receive the Word with gladness, that it would take root in their lives and produce much fruit. They are a very religious family but have been around believers and Westerners a lot so they are aware of at least the basics of the gospel and Christianity.
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