1. Pray for G who recently came out of his country and is living in his new government-assigned city in Turkey while he awaits word on his official refugee status. He and his brother share an apartment. They, along with another Persian believer who serves as pastor, host a house group with 15 Persian believers attending every week. Thank God for the work of these men in this city. Pray for their safety. Pray that the house group would continue to grow. Also, please pray that they will have opportunities to share with other Persian refugees and Turks in this city.

2. Pray for M, a Persian refugee who is seeking official refugee status with her two teenage children. She is not able to support herself and her children sufficiently. They have been living in a room in a hotel that does not have a good reputation and is a very bad environment for her and the children. Praise God that other refugees and workers have come to her aid by helping her find better living conditions for her family.

3. Life as a refugee can be very hard and very unpredictable. For five years, M has been seeking official refugee status and has been living in a city in Turkey. Suddenly, his refugee case with the United Nations was closed. This came as a total shock because he had been hearing that he was a good candidate to receive asylum. He was completely devastated when he heard that the case was closed. At this point, he does not know what will happen to him. Praise God that M is a believer who has been growing in the Lord and attends a Persian house group in his city. God has changed his life greatly over the past several years. Since he has become a believer, he no longer drinks or smokes and is much more joyful. People in his city have seen the change and are asking him questions. Pray that M will remember that our hope is not in man-made institutions, but in our Lord and that He has the perfect place for M. Pray that M will seek the Lord’s face and feel his peace as he deals with this situation.

Something really different happened recently where one of our workers serve, certainly a miracle, and he wants to share it with others:

We have been visiting with a young friend who is married with one son. He has always claimed to be an atheist and to me I feel this means that he has never had any relationship with God, and therefore just doesn’t care really one way or the other. He is an orphan and grew up in the orphanage. His situation is like another friend of mine who is an orphan. He was kicked out of his home with his two younger brothers at the age of four. Later his parents tried to get in touch with him as a young man but he would have nothing to do with them. To him he had no parents even though they were around because he had no relationship with them. I feel like this is what my friend, whose story I am sharing with you, feels about God. We have had some good discussions and have shared the gospel with him on several occasions.

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1.  Please pray for Persians working in the world of sports in Iran.  There are well developed professional clubs such as soccer, basketball, volleyball as well as many recreational leagues.  Iran also has a very organized Olympic committee and is known for strong programs of wrestling, weightlifting, and TKD.  Persian athletes, coaches, team managers and sports administrators are often well-traveled and have more diverse experiences that the typical Persian.  Ask God to use these experiences to prick their hearts so they might recognize their need for Him and accept Christ’s offer of salvation. 

2.  There are many different projects seeking to communicate the Gospel effectively to the millions of lost Persians in Iran.  These range from printed Bibles and other literature to radio and television broadcasts to original video productions.  Please ask God to put His Word in the hearts and minds of those seeking Him in Iran. 

3.  Pray for pastors in Iran to study well and prepare clear sermons and Bible studies that will feed the hungry, new Persian believers.  The Old Testament is often neglected in the teaching of churches in Iran.  Ask God to give pastors a deep understand of the entire Bible. 

This weekend marks the one year anniversary of the brutal murder of three Christians in southeastern Turkey.  This Forum18 News story summarizes the year’s struggles for Turkey’s Christian community.

Please pray for the families who remain, the widows and the fatherless children.

Pray for Christians throughout Turkey to be unified in mind and spirit, bold in the face of persecution, encourage and edify one another, and to be filled with joy in the midst of suffering.

Pray for the Christians’ influence in their community as they continue to live in the changing political climate. 

Volunteers who have come to interact with the Turks, offering them the J Film and the New Testament in their language, have shared many testimonies, such as:

*In one shop, a lady sitting at a desk nodded as we entered. When asked if she spoke English, she shook her head. After looking and finding nothing of interest to inquire about, we started to leave. I felt compelled to give her a gift, and as she looked in the bag, her face broke into a huge smile! She stood up and said “thank you” several times in English. It was amazing to see the change in her demeanor, and I can only hope that the ‘gift’ will make an incredible change in her spiritual life.

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1. Please continue praying for two Iranian Sorani-speaking Kurds, “Kevin” and “Renee.”  Kevin and Renee are newly married and have only been believers for a short period of time.  Nonetheless, they are growing strong in their faith.  Both Kevin and Renee are Kurds from the western Iranian province of Kordestan (which means Kurdistan). However, they have not lived there for some time.  Kevin and Renee want to return to their home province, where there are only a few believers and house groups out of several million people, to do evangelism and church-planting work.  Please pray for them as they step out in faith in this ministry.  Pray that God will provide for their needs, and give them trusted partners in the work.  Pray that God will save many Sorani Kurds in the province of Kordestan in Iran.

2. Please pray for two Iranian Kurd university students, “Joseph” and “Hannah.”  Joseph and Hannah are both from the western Iranian province of Kermanshah, but current study in a nearby country where Christian workers live.  These Christian workers have been able to develop strong disciplemaking relationships with Joseph and Hannah, and have shared Christ with them. Neither one has come to faith in Jesus yet, however, they have now heard the truth of the Gospel. Hannah is returning to Iran to continue her studies there. Joseph also completes his studies soon and will return home. Pray for them as they plan on getting married this summer. Pray for the Christian workers as they continue to share Christ with them.  Pray that God will save Joseph and Hannah.  Pray for these workers as they try to attend the wedding in Iran later this year.  

1. Thank you for praying for a recent marriage conference.  The impact of exposing nationals to what God really thinks about marriage was immediate.  Already we are seeing the Kingdom expand because nationals are displaying the transforming power of the Good News in their families.

2. Pray for the Books that continue to flow into two strategic cities.  Pray that these Books and other media resources will be read by those whom God has touched with curiosity or even anticipation.  

3.Pray for a national couple who is seriously considering serving in a strategic city.  Pray that God will provide them the resources they need.  Pray that their presence will help grow and strengthen a fragile group of believers who live in and around this city.

Over the past year and a half, I have had the privilege to sit with several men around the store and talk about why I am a Christian and why I am certain that I am going to heaven. However, having private or one-on-one conversations about spiritual things has been a greater challenge. It then occurred to me that one way of having a more private setting is eat breakfast with a national when less people are around. So for the past three weeks I try to bring breakfast to one of the store owners at least once a week. This has given me not only a great opportunity to engage in spiritual conversations one-on-one, but I also pray over our food before we eat. I try to make it a point to not only pray for the food, but that God would show my national friend the true road Jesus talked about in the Gospels. Pray that God would use these prayers to speak to the heart of my national friend to the truth of His Gospel.

Barak* came to meet several young, foreign believers through an English class they taught in the summer of 2007. Class led to friendship, and friendship, of course in this part of the world, led to lots of tea! One day over tea, conversation turned to who Jesus was and Barak admitted that she believed that He was more than a prophet. God had been working in Barak’s life since she had been given a Bible by a believing national friend a year earlier. She had been reading and believed! She went to church with her believer friends and soon began attending regularly and studying the Word with one of them in a discipleship relationship. One of the foreigners love for Barak and desire for her to grow, led the start of a young girls bible study group for three of the new believers at the church. (more…)