Author: bbyrd

Praise God for a house church movement on the largest island in the Caribbean in spite of forms of harassment, discrimination, and imprisonment of leaders. Pray for steadfast courage and perseverance for suffering believers.

Pray for the 26 sovereign states, overseas departments, and dependencies of the Caribbean. Religious faith tends to reflect largely whichever European power controlled each island. Local influences like Rastafarianism in Jamaica and elsewhere, Santeria in Cuba, and voodoo in Haiti are significant. Pray for believers to live out the Word of God in obedience. Pray for the islands to sing His praises and echo back in ocean caves. This their song of victory, Jesus saves!

Pray for the more than 300,000 high-altitude farmers known as the Quechua of Mexico. Their faith is nominally Catholic with a lot of animistic superstition and fears mixed throughout. Most have never heard the Gospel of Jesus nor experienced His deliverance.

In Peru, the lack of education is a major problem that has been identified in the barrios of Trujillo. Workers have started three reading classes for children. Praise God for 100 children’s books in Spanish that the children are enjoying. Pray for a tutoring program to be launched in 2016 for students. This is a huge need in the barrio since most kids drop out of school at a young age, for many lack reading skills.

Paraguay still suffers from the effects of two centuries of devastating wars and bad government. Pray for the citizens of Paraguay, that they might establish a legacy of uprightness and wisdom for the sake of their suffering people.

Praise God for moving among the people of Santa Martha, Ecuador to multiply disciples. Pray for on-going work and building up of ministries to women, children, youth, the elderly, couples, men, and house churches. Pray that believers are strengthened by mentoring and discipling others.

Praise God for multiplying disciples as a result of many Jonathan Trainings during the past several years. Since using disciple making principles and practicing these principles in many fields, Team Expansion has seen God increase the harvest. Praise God for 520 churches/groups that have been started, for 4651 baptisms, and 27,761 in church attendance in this 40^th year of ministry and service.

Give thanks for those who will attend CHE training at Emerald Hills Sept 17-20. Pray for an outpouring of God’s Spirit upon the participants.

The children of Bolivia, up to 75%, are raised in a context of poverty and chronic malnutrition. Perhaps 100,000 are homeless or street kids using drugs and experiencing sexual abuse. Pray for churches to see the importance of ministries to reach the children of Bolivia. Pray for fruitful outreach.

Praise God for the answers to prayer for Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama. Growth among evangelicals and charismatics has sustained over several decades. Contributing factors to this growth are the devastating earthquake (1976), violence and pain of war, the effective witness of believers and the large, dedicated force of missionaries. Pray that believers unite in prayer and practice disciple making.