Welcome to the latest issue of the Wider Church Prayer Letter. I hope you find this prayer letter useful in praying for the wider church. I hope to make some improvements in the prayer letter on my return from holidays, so the next issue should be a little different - in some way.
ARGENTINA - CARLOS PAZ - DON AND GAIL DONELL
Recently a series of outreach meetings were held in and around Carlos Paz, with assistance from visiting Reformed Baptist pastor Omar Ramos from Chile (Santiago). The church in Carlos Paz was blessed with several apparent conversions as a result of the Lord’s grace and the instrumentality of these meetings. The church continues to grow. Please pray for these new believers including Felix and Pablo. Pray also for Romina who has been interested in hearing more of the Gospel.
PHILIPPINES - NAGA CITY
Naga City is a city of some 100 000 mainly Roman Catholic people in the Philippines. There are now two Reformed Baptist works in the city, one under the oversight of the Moonwalk Reformed Baptist Church and the other under the oversight of Cubao Reformed Baptist Church. The latter is currently led by Agnel Collao, a former Pentecostal minister and a student of the Grace Ministerial Academy. The current meeting place is a small building with a palm leaf roof. There are about 20, mostly very poor people who attend the church planting work. There are a number of outreach meetings in surrounding centres, with a lot of interest being shown in the gospel.
VIETNAM
Christians continue to suffer persecution throughout Vietnam. Christian leaders are being killed and are going missing, leaving families without a father and churches without a pastor.
More Information: http://mnn.gospelcom.net/article/5143
TANZANIA
Some 36 million people live in the East African country of Tanzania. Among this number are over 150 different language groups. It is thought that about 20% of the population are Evangelicals of one form or another and another 20% Roman Catholic. There is freedom of religion in Tanzania.
Prayer points include a need for Biblically trained pastors, as well as places to actually train men for the ministry. There is also a need for Bible translation work and continuing missionary activity.
Militant Islamic groups are growing in influence throughout Tanzania, with Islam making up some 30% of the population. There are also a large percentage of people following primitive native religions.
LAOS
Christianity has been spreading among the Bru people, a small minority tribe of Laos in Asia. As a result authorities have been coming down on believers in their area. Believers have been arrested and some forced to other areas in an attempt to isolate them from other believers. The Lord in His providence actually used this forced removal to bring people to salvation in the new area.
ERITREA
Believers are continuing to suffer persecution in Eritrea, with believers being arrested for taking part in Christian meetings. There are currently over 200 Evangelicals being held in Eritrea for not renouncing their Christian faith.
In other news from Eritrea a large group of teenage Christians at a military training camp have been detained in shipping containers for having Bibles. Several have been released after signing documents denying their Christian faith. The rest of the group is refusing to sign the documents.
SOUTH AFRICA - EINFELDTS’
Rene and Sonia Einfeldt are now back in the United States considering their future role in South Africa (if indeed there) with their sending church. Various items are currently being stored in South Africa as they pray and think over their future. Please continue to pray about their situation.
INDIA - KARNATAKA - BIBLICAL BAPTIST CHURCH
The Biblical Baptist Church was planted in 1958 and is currently pastored by Billa Nelson Babu. In the year 2000 the Baptist Bible Institute was opened to assist in the work of evangelism and teaching. Evangelism is a daily activity in and around Karnataka, with the believers sharing a common goal of reaching the lost for Christ and of planting new churches.
There are now four village house churches, five Sunday Schools, four women’s fellowships and two youth clubs in the area. Prayer and Bible study is held on Wednesday nights, with times of prayer and fasting on Friday nights. The church also seeks to assist the disadvantaged in the community through providing food whenever possible.
India is basically a very poor country, with the believers struggling to makes end meet for their own families, let alone supporting the ministers and ministries of the church. Please pray about this situation and if possible assisting the work where possible. Financial aid is needed to complete the church building project (currently held up because of a lack of funds) and the usual ministries of the church.
NIGERIA
Christians in the African country of Nigeria continue to face harassment from Islamic extremists. Recently a number of Christian villages were attacked with a number of Christians being killed. The Christians in Gombe State were attacked for resisting the Islamic Sharia law that has been imposed in most of Islamic northern Nigeria.
TAJIKISTAN
In the Islamic dominated former Soviet republic of Tajikistan there is freedom of religion, however pressure is continuing to build from surrounding Islamic states such as Iran for further Islamic influence.
There is a very small, yet growing number of Evangelical Christians in Tajikistan. Evangelism is allowed in the country, but no missionaries.
Other prayer points include the printing and distribution of the Bible and other Christian books in the Tajik language.
CHINA
Persecution continues in communist China with 170 Christians recently arrested in Nanyang, in Henan province. Most of these believers, having been warned, were released. However, those identified as leaders in the house church movement remain under arrest.
SYRIA
Some 17.6 million people live in the Islamic country of Syria. Though largely Islamic (90%), there is a measure of religious freedom. Only 0.1% of the population is considered to be Evangelical and these are closely watched by the government. Please pray that more missionaries will be allowed into the country and that for longer periods of time. Pray also for our brethren who face enormous pressure from their Islamic countrymen.
VISIT US ONLINE
Please visit The Aussie Reformed Baptist Outpost online at:
http://particularbaptist.com/index.htmlThe Outpost Wider Church Awareness Site can be found at:
http://particularbaptist.com/wider/widerindex.htmlIf you are of Reformed Baptist persuasion and would like to add news of your church or work, or add requests for prayer to this prayer letter, please contact Kevin on the above Email address.
For 'snail mail,' write to 'The Aussie Reformed Baptist Outpost, 27 Middle Street, Cardiff South, NSW, Australia, 2285.
We thank all sources of information that have made this prayer letter possible and ask the church at large to commit to praying for one another. Brethren, please pray for us.
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10/10/2006
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