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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 the Hindu World.
Hindu World – 15 Days of Prayer
Hindus are the second-largest least-reached religious group in the world, with only about two percent of cross-cultural missionaries focused on sharing the gospel with them. The majority of the world’s 1.1 billion Hindus still live without any meaningful access to the gospel of Jesus Christ. This month, we invite you to pray for Hindus on September 12 as part of YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, and we also invite you to join the 15 Days prayer focus on the Hindu World.
15 Days is an annual prayer movement that calls Christians and churches worldwide to take 15 days, October 20 – November 3 to learn about and pray for Hindus around the world. This period encompasses the significant Hindu Festival of Lights called Diwali (or Deepawali) which is the most notable festival of Hindus and an excellent time to pray for and share with Hindus the precious love of Christ, the light of the world. Prayer guides are available in several languages and are either free or available for a nominal price depending on the country. You may access the prayer guides here: www.pray15days.org.
If you only have a few moments to pray during The Invitation please pray for the light of Christ’s presence to be fully received among Hindus in general and by any Hindus that you know. Thank you for being part of The Invitation. We would love to receive stories from you regarding how you prayed. You can email us at prayer@ywam.org.
Prepare to Pray:
“When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16).
As you prepare to pray, consider that Jesus declared Himself to be the light of the world and also declared that His people are the light of the world. Think of a way to represent that light in the place where you will be praying: could you light candles, shine torches/flashlights, pray as the sun rises, or find other ways to bring to mind this powerful image of Jesus and His people bringing light into dark places? Let this physical action of bringing light become your focus and attitude in prayer. May our prayers for the Hindu world be shining shafts of light into the darkness, that the light of Christ’s presence may fully come among those who do not yet know him.
Pray for the Hindu World:
- Pray for the more than 2,000 YWAM staff who work in South Asia. Many of them work directly with Hindu people.
- Pray for the 2,328 unreached Hindu people groups (https://joshuaproject.net/religions/5) and that they will turn to Christ. India is where most Hindus live, compromising about 80% of its almost 1.4 Billion person population. But Hindus also have large populations in Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Indonesia.
- Pray for Bible translation and distribution efforts in the Hindu world and the ending of Bible poverty. Many Hindus do not have Scripture available in their language or do not have access to the Bible or biblical education in any meaningful form. The Bible is the worker who never sleeps, never gets tired, doesn’t require support and always bears fruit.
- Pray that Hindus would have life-changing encounters with Christ as they set out on pilgrimage and search for God, often each year.
- Pray that God would start more movements of Hindus who will turn towards Him in all types of Hindu communities.
“There is nothing that intercessory prayer cannot do. Believer, you have a mighty engine in your hand–use it well, use it constantly use it now with faith, and you shall surely prevail.”
– Charles Spurgeon
Take Action
- Visit pray15days.org for more information and to get a copy of the 2019 prayer guide.
- Review all of the languages into which this prayer guide will be published. Please encourage your network to pray.
- Mizo
- Nepali
- Hindi
- Khasi
- Paite
- Tangkhul
- English
- Spanish
- Portuguese
- German
- Dutch
- Russian
- Ukrainian
- Garo
- Korean
- Pray regularly. Set an alarm for 9:38 (AM or PM) every day to remind you of Jesus’ command in Matthew 9:38: to pray that He will send more workers who will go and share the good news with Hindu peoples everywhere.
- Get trained to reach Hindus through YWAM Frontier Missions: ywamfm.org.
- Consult the Joshua Project site that is dedicated to people groups of South Asia, for prayer points: http://www.southasiapeoples.org
- Lead an intercession time at your location, or with your ministry, possibly using the informative video at https://www.prayercast.com/hinduism.html to give an introduction to the topic.
- Read Mission Frontiers’ special June 2019 edition on India and the unique challenge it presents: http://www.missionfrontiers.org/issue/archive/india-the-greatest-challenge-to-world-evangelization
- Visit and engage with the Instagram & Twitter pages for Pray 15 Days: https://www.instagram.com/pray15days/ and https://twitter.com/@pray15days/
- Read and learn:
- If you are interested in prayer and communication, you can be part of The Invitation. Contact us at prayer@ywam.org. We need an administrator/coordinator; photographers/videographers; and researchers.
- 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.
YWAM Ozarks Prayed for Central Europe in July
Photo credits: YWAM Ozarks
How We Prayed
August 2019 – U of N
- We heard from multiple people about the words they sensed from God during their time of prayer: the Jubilee; simple; a sense of coming back to basic truth; trust; fellowship; and this is dedicated ministry.
July 2019 – Central Europe
- YWAM Ozarks in Arkansas: “We distributed the Central Europe map that was included with the description of prayer needs and then we each took on the identity of a nation in the region. One became Croatian, another a Macedonian, someone else a Romanian, etc. About 15 minutes was given to research our particular nations and then we reported from a first-person perspective. We talked a little about our nation’s history, our strengths, our challenges, the religious beliefs that most of us in our country shared, etc. Some told about these crazy people they have in their neighborhood, called Youth With A Mission and what they seem to be doing. After each one shared about his/her identity as a Croatian, etc., we prayed for the nation and its people. Taking on a personal identity of people from these nations made them come alive to us. At the close there was a friendly competition over just who was the hardest working nation, Hungary or Poland” (see picture above).
Future Topics:
- October 10: Children at Risk
- November 14: Tokyo
- December 12: Israel
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.
