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Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray and hear from God about North Africa.
Photo credit: YWAM North Africa
“Jesus is God. It is the truth. I believe!” was the voice message left by a local North African last month. This simple declaration of faith is evidence of the deep workings of the Holy Spirit in North Africa. Seeing North African friends come to a saving faith in Jesus is often a long, hard fought battle entailing years of fellowship, food, storytelling, evangelism, Bible reading, and desperate prayer before the Lord! It is no small victory for the Kingdom of God when one believes. Please join us this month in prayer for the people of North Africa.
In 1991, the YWAM North Africa Regional Center was established in Southern Spain as a strategic springboard to North Africa. Predominantly Muslim, with little Gospel influence, the North Africa region includes Algeria, Chad, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger and Tunisia.
YWAM’s North Africa Regional Center runs a DTS and a secondary frontier school called Foundations In Intercultural Studies (FIS), as well as, offering hospitality and member care for long term workers in the region. The team is focused on sending new workers and teams into the region where there are over 130,000,000 unreached peoples.
Isaiah 60:1a – Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of November to pray for North Africa with us. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, November 8. If you only have a few moments to pray, please pray for more workers to come to North Africa bringing the glory of the Lord with them and pray for the hastened work of the Holy Spirit in North Africa.
(Please note: All North African nations are very sensitive and have security risks. Careful attention is needed to communicate about YWAM’s work there. Please be aware that stories, news, or prayer requests from the region should not be posted online or shared in public settings, including churches and YWAM meetings that may be recorded.)
Photo credit: YWAM North Africa
Prepare to Pray:
Ahead of your prayer time, please weigh out 250 grams of uncooked short-grain white rice. If you were to count them, this will be approximately 10,000 individual grains. Place the rice in a dish or container. Add to your white rice 20 uncooked brown lentils or grains of black wild rice, that can be visibly distinguished from the rest of the rice. (See the picture in the letter at ywampodcast.net/prayer.)
As you prepare to pray, allow participants to run their fingers through the grains in the dish. Invite them to consider that across North Africa, evangelical believers find themselves comprising no more than 0.2% of the population. Imagine how widely dispersed these believers are, how difficult it is for them to gather to support one another, and how challenging it is to establish discipling communities. At the same time, bring to mind the 98.8% of the population who may never meet a believer who can tell them the message of Jesus.
As you seek to enter into this experience – possibly of isolation, or remoteness – you are invited to bring the emotion, longing or need you identify into your time of prayer. May your prayers bring with them the gift of identification with and empathy for the people of this region.
Photo credit: YWAM North Africa
Pray for North Africa:
- North Africa needs workers for the harvest! Pray for more workers. (Matt 9:37-38)
- Pray for the peoples of North Africa to call on the name of the Lord. (Rom 10:13)
- Pray that believers (local, YWAMers and other workers) will abide in Jesus so that they will bear much fruit. (John 15:4-5)
- Pray for unity of YWAM teams, local believers, churches: whether expat, local, official or small house groups. (John 17:21)
- Intimidation and fear are big strongholds in North Africa. Pray for our teams and believers to operate in the opposite spirit. (1 John 4:18)
- Pray for believers in North Africa to stand strong when they face hard times or persecution. (Daniel 11:32b)
- Pray for workers living in security-sensitive areas to find their identity, both hidden and shown, in the Lord.
- Pray also for those in captivity.
Photo credit: YWAM North Africa
Take Action:
- Read and pray through some of these challenges facing Muslims coming to Christ.
- Developing a Biblical Worldview
- Family and community pressures
- Threat of physical harm due to decisions about Jesus
- Fear of new ways of life, persecution, societal influence, loneliness
- Spirituality – focusing on relationship with God instead of doing good works
- Leaving behind traditions and previous ways of life
- Difficulty integrating into communities of Muslim background believers
- Living in countries where change of religion isn’t allowed
- Emotional wounds and struggles due to low economic status or difficult backgrounds
- Contact YWAM North Africa at info@gosahara.org about having a field worker speak on your DTS or School.
- Take the Foundations in Intercultural Studies (FIS) Course at YWAM North Africa. Contact: gosahara.org/fis
- Read “We Died Before We Came Here,” by Emily Foreman, An incredible true story of God’s work in North Africa.
- Sign-Up for YWAM North Africa’s Newsletter
- Bring your outreach team through the North Africa Center for an Orientation. Contact: info@gosahara.org
- Contact us about a 3-month internship with one of our field teams. (info@gosahara.org)
Photo credit: YWAM North Africa
- Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
- Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
- Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.
Photo credit: YWAM North Africa
How We Prayed:
October 2018 – YWAM Foundational Values 10 – 12
- YWAM Kona – Darlene Cunningham’s staff rejoiced that The Invitation for October was in “perfect sequence” with the release of the updated YWAM Beliefs and Values document, with the clarified wording for Value 15.
- Many prayed for YWAM Foundational Values and also requested prayer for other topics including healing and recovery without dependency on drugs and forgiveness regarding abortion through faith and repentance.
Future Topics:
- December 13, 2018: Moscow
- January 10, 2019: YWAM Foundational Values 13 – 15
- February 14, 2019: Growth
Don’t Miss The Invitation:
- Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
- Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
- Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
- You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
- If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.
