Prayer Initiatives

Albania

A mountainous Balkan state on the Adriatic sea, Albania remains one of Europe’s two poorest nations.  While there is marked improvement, poor infrastructure, corruption, and high emigration rates hamper further growth.

No religion was allowed to exist in Communist Albania from 1967.  The ban was lifted in 1990, but no legal provision for religious freedom was made until 1998.  Since then, Albania enjoys total religious freedom, cherished by many.  The majority of Albanians are very nominal, but some traditional religious groups have had a tendency to resent and oppose the proselytism and activities of both evangelicals and marginal cults.

Haiti

Haiti is on the western third of the island of Hispaniola, an island shared with the Dominican Republic, and the poorest state in the Western Hemisphere.  Hundreds of thousands of Haitians have fled/emigrated. Haiti has a history of bloodshed and dictatorships and annually appears at or near the top of the corruption index; crime is rife, and 25% of the already-under-strength police force are in the pockets of drug lords and gangs.

The Roman Catholic Church’s role as the state church ended in 1987.  An estimated 75% of Christians are also actively involved in voodoo, a development of West African Spiritism and witchcraft.  But religious sentiment is strong, and almost all Haitians primarily identify themselves as Christians.  There is freedom of religion.

India

Geographically and politically, India dominates South Asia and the Indian Ocean.  There are 28 Union States and 7 Union Territories.  Kashmir is the contested area That is administered by Pakistan and China. 

India’s constitution provides full religious freedom of worship and witness for all religions.  The rise of Hindutva extremist resulted in a hate campaign against Muslims in the early 1990s and against Christians in the last 1990s as followers of ‘Foreign” religions.  Due to mass-conversion movements by Dalit groups away from Hinduism, and to evangelistic activities by Christian groups, issues of conversion and anti-conversions laws are high importance and sensitivity.  Persecution levels range widely, usually depending on the strength of Hindutva groups from one state to the next.

Uganda

Long known as the “Pearl of Africa”, much of the land in Uganda is fertile and well watered.  The numbers of those who perished from Amin’s dictatorship (1971-1978), civil way, famines, and tribal killings are unknown, but estimates vary from 800,000 to 2 million.  The slow, steady improvement made since 1992 was undermined by the conflict in the north and west and the ravages of AIDS and disease.  AIDS has significantly impacted the rate of population growth. Debt relief allows for longer-term development, but poverty remains widespread.

Under previous regimes of governance there were restrictions and intense persecution of Christians.  There is now a new freedom of religion.

La Chapelle

Top 3 prayer requests:

1. Please pray for the new church plant in Quebec City and pastor Jean-Philippe. He arrived in Quebec City this summer. There’s less than 1% evangelical in the city of Quebec City. Already 40 people joined the church. We pray that this church plant may grow and baptize a lot of people.
2. Please pray for the spiritual health of all the people in the church and the multiplication of our small group. We cannot have in person gathering on Sunday and we can only have private gathering of 6 people from 2 different families.
3. Please pray for our baptisms on September 27 (in our office!). 10 people will be baptized. Pray that they may grow in their faith before and after the get baptized. 

Mission of Hope (Haiti)

Top 3 prayer requests:

1. We are praying we can start opening up trips soon (2021) to Haiti, DR and Guatemala. The team just released reservation options on the website for churches to reserve their spots. We are prayerful that we can reconnect with our partners and start mobilizing again.
2. Pray as we make more progress in Guatemala. MOH expanded into Guatemala not too long before COVID. So there still some ministry infrastructure pieces that need to be built out. The opportunity is great, by God’s Grace we will have firm footing by first quarter of 2021, though even now so much Good stuff is happening in Guatemala.
3. Continue to pray that the MOH team can serve the church in the states well. Part of our heart and vision is to be a resource to our partnered churches. With the lockdown, it has made it difficult to fully do so.

Marissa's House

 Top 3 prayer requests:

1. At the start of the Pandemic, the government of Uganda required all the kids from the various Church Homes to be returned to wherever they were rescued from originally.  These places they came from were often abusive and always suffered food instability and many other unhealthy or emotionally/mentally challenging situations.  Pastor John and the other Pastors have tried to keep up with each of the kids and insure that they are safe, healthy and fed, but that has been a challenge that they haven't been able to keep with, in light of the Pandemic.  Please pray for our kids.  We worry about them.  Pastor says that many are depressed and suffering. Pray that they are able to return to the Church Homes soon and begin to thrive again.
2. For the health of the Pastors and their families during the Pandemic.
3. For the Hadassah Girls Empowerment Project. The Director, Mercy, was let go of her full-time employment due to the Pandemic and has not been able to find new employment. She used much of her own salary toward this project. Many of the girls they serve have not been able to get to the house to learn/work due to public transportation being shut down so they are suffering from lack of income and lack of food.  Please pray that Mercy would find a new job and that the Uganda infrastructure would re-open and allow movement so that these girls might be able to begin to support themselves again. 

Legacy Church Preschool

Top 3 prayer request:

1. For continued health and safety for the staff and children.
2. That God would use us to plant seeds in the children and their families that lead them to trust and follow Jesus.
3. That God would grow our program and send families that need to hear about His amazing love!

Belle and Sparrows

Top 3 prayer request:

1. Financing for the Stella Projects House and discernment for the women that be the first to move in.
2. Being able to continue to serve all of our partners in innovative ways, through the pandemic, to help meet their needs.
3. More monthly partners as we enter into 2020 to allow us to reach more women with the message of worthiness and the gospel.

Emily's Place

Top 3 prayer request: 

1. Financial. Our Virtual Banquet; there is much anticipation surrounding it! This event was rescheduled from April due to COVID and typically brings in about 1/3 of our annual income. We have seen the Lord do MIGHTY things this year in our finances that are nothing short of miraculous. But we need to end the year strong to continue to minister!
2. Virtual 180 Education Program. As schools have shifted to and from Virtual learning our 180 Abstinence Education team has been hard at work transferring all of their in-person presentations to a virtual platform. Please pray for guidance in how to market and execute this new way of engaging with students, and for the Lord to fill their calendar!
3. Abortion Support Group. We are starting an additional post abortion support group that is separate from our Forgiven and Set Free Bible Study. This will be led by our Abortion Recovery Director and our partners at the Meiers Clinic. It will focus on the trauma of abortion and how to work through that. Pray that we have willing participants and it will open the door to lead them to Christ!

Real Options for Women

Top 3 prayer request:

1. Financial. Our Virtual Banquet has much anticipation surrounding it! This event was rescheduled from April due to COVID and typically brings in about 1/3 of our annual income. We have seen the Lord do MIGHTY things this year in our finances that are nothing short of miraculous. But we need to end the year strong to continue to minister!
2. Virtual 180 Education Program. As schools have shifted to and from Virtual learning our 180 Abstinence Education team has been hard at work transferring all of their in-person presentations to a virtual platform. Please pray for guidance in how to market and execute this new way of engaging with students, and for the Lord to fill their calendar!
3. Abortion Support Group. We are starting an additional post abortion support group that is separate from our Forgiven and Set Free Bible Study. This will be led by our Abortion Recovery Director and our partners at the Meiers Clinic. It will focus on the trauma of abortion and how to work through that. Pray that we have willing participants and it will open the door to lead them to Christ!

This Side UP! Family

Top 3 prayer request:

1. Provision- finances to cover the rest of the year and to be able to get off to a good start in 2021.
2. Wisdom- on decisions regarding in person vs virtual programming to keep everyone safe.
3. Board Recruitment- that we would be able to recruit the right people to fill out our board and help us grow into our next chapter.

The Seed Company

Top 3 prayer request:

1. For God to open doors for us to begin work among the people groups who do not yet have Scripture. There are 2,000 people groups that do not have a single verse of Scripture translated into their language.
2. For God to sustain our staff as we currently manage 900 Bible translation projects around the world and will continue to increase the number of active translation projects.
3. October 1 is the start of our new fiscal year. We start the year with a $47,000,000 fundraising goal. This allows us to sustain our number of current projects and allows us to begin work with new people groups who are still waiting.