1. Please pray for three Persian families living in a city in central Turkey. All these families are refugees who have fled their country because of their religious beliefs. They live in a city of approximately 100,000 people and are the only believers that they know of. They have little to no fellowship with other believers, as their town is in a remote location and others do not travel there often. Praise God that workers were recently able to visit with these three families, encourage them and leave several Bibles in Farsi (the Persian language) with them. Before this visit, the families had one Farsi New Testament to share between them. Pray that God would protect them and that they would know that they are never alone with Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

2. Please pray for F and her family who are Persians living in Turkey. F is very active in helping others and sacrificially gives her time to help prepare food for other refugees who need help. Praise God for her giving heart and for the testimony others see in her giving. Pray that she and her family will be strengthened and grow closer to God.

3. This year, several volunteer teams will be coming to help workers in Turkey. Please begin praying for a group that is planning to come during No Ruz (”no – rooz”) – the Iranian new year, which will be in March this year. They will be coming to prayer walk, meet and fellowship with Persians in Turkey. Pray for this group as they make preparations to come. Also pray that God will work in their lives and in the lives of the people they come in contact with.

The promise of additional troops sent to Afghanistan by President Obama raises hopes that the country will be more secure. According to this New York Times article, many of the problems existing in Afghanistan are directly linked to the number of soldiers or policeman per capita.

The past year has seen a serious deterioration in the security situation. Please pray that the new troops would help to bring peace to this land which has known so much war.

1. Pastors in Iran are undertaking huge daily risks.  Recently a pastor told us that every morning when he and his wife wake up, they say “Thank you, God, that we were not taken by the authorities during the night.  Help us to make the most of these precious 24 hours and plant your church TODAY!”  Police usually come at 4am so each morning that pastors wake up safely they know they have 24 more hours to labor.  Ask God to work through them and pray that we all will have this sense of urgency.

2. Formerly known as Persia, Iran is home to one of the world’s oldest civilizations.  Persian history is found in the pages of the Old Testament.  Spend some time reading in Esther and Daniel.  Ask God to continue to work mightily in Iran today as He did in their days. 

3. Please ask God to save F and S.  We recently had good conversations with them.  We were encouraged when we heard that they continue to be reminded of Bible verses we’ve shared in the past.  God promises that His word will not return empty.  Ask Him to lead F and S to read the New Testament and realize their need for salvation through faith in Christ alone.  

1. Pray for an important discipleship conference for new believers.  Ask the Lord to use this time to strengthen their faith and to build relationships with other believers.  Ask Him to grant safe passage to and from this event. 

2. Pray for a new shipment of media tools that are being distributed to unbelievers.  Ask God to use these media tools to bring salvation to those who hear the message.  Ask the Lord to keep those persons who make these deliveries safe.  

3. We are in need of a mediator who can provide help moving materials into a closed country.  Please ask God to make that person obvious to our team.  Please ask the Lord to grant protection for the person he calls to this task.

I’ve been invited to a women’s Koran reading today by our downstairs neighbor. The fact that she didn’t exclude me is a good sign (that she is okay with us even though she doesn’t like hearing the boys play and that I would want to be invited–she’s including me on a community event).

Our next door neighbor sewed our Christmas wall-hanging for us (the one to use with the 15 chronological Christmas story pictures). It led to a good conversation with her and her daughter about godly child-rearing. They are surprised and very positive about our desire to raise our children in the fear of the Lord, to train them from a young age, and to teach them from the Holy Book even while they are young.