Dear
Friends and Prayer Partners,
The
great need of our day is prayer, not new organizations nor new methodologies.
The devil is perfectly willing for the Church to multiply its
organizations for the conquest of the world for Christ, if it will only give up
praying. “God’s power,” J. A.
Stewart says, “should be sought and obtained for the work by earnest,
persistent, believing prayer."
Bayelsa
State is located in the swamps of the Niger Delta where 60% of Nigeria’s oil
fields are drilled, and it presents to the mission-minded, those with the heart
of Christ, a condition of indescribable need.
Here the people, having been virtually cut off from civilization and the
rest of the country, are now being radically transformed through the oil
exploitations of multi-national companies.
The
area has become a breeding place for every form of sin and error.
The need here is great. To top it off, Satan and his host rule the hearts
of many of its sons and daughters. It
is our prayerful aim to enter this valley of darkness clothed with power from on
high to meet the fierce battlefield with the Gospel of Christ.
What we need above all else is the assurance of your concern and
prayers-- prayers that the effort will result in the salvation of many precious
souls, prayers to the end that there may arrive groups of believers in these
locations who have a living testimony of deliverance from sin.
Pray
for those who are utilizing the Emmaus courses for evangelism and discipleship
and are seeing fruits. Pray for
those who labor faithfully without an expectation of reward.
Please uphold the following in your prayers specifically:
Mrs. Zamani, head of the Deptartment of Psychology, Kaduna State College of
Education; the groups at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; and at the University of
Nigeria-Nsukka; Cephas Okwori, the principal of Petros
Bible College & Seminary in Makurdi; and Professor Onimisi, and all who are using the courses to
build the Kingdom.
As E.
M. Bounds has said, “The greatest benefactor this age could have is the man
who will bring the teachers and the church back to prayer.” “And I sought for a man, said the Lord, among them, that
should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land…but found
none” (Ezekiel
22:30). We need some Elijahs, alone perhaps, with heads bowed, praying for a
spiritual deluge and keeping a sharp outlook for the gathering clouds.
Fellow pilgrims, more things are being done by prayer than the world ever
dreams of. So pray for us, as we
put the motif of the kingdom of God at the center of all we do, think, or say.
“For the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James
5:16).
Yours, found in the righteousness of Christ alone,
Joy and Cyprian