Amelia* serves in West Africa, sharing the gospel with those in a region that is very opposed to the message of Jesus Christ. Marriage and divorce are topics that come up repeatedly: her friend was married at 12 and had her daughter at 13, while her friend’s older sister has been married and divorced five times, with children from three different fathers. While the former is now much less common – and her youngest sister has made it all the way to university without getting married, the latter is not seen as unusual. Maybe five times is at the upper end, but it’s not something that would necessarily cause surprise. On the other hand, to be a never married woman in her mid-40s, that is a strange thing! And while Amelia’s language still limits the depth of conversation, it’s an easy jumping off point into things of faith, and a number of things she has said are repeated by her friends to new people when she meets them. Pray that the strangeness of what they hear would linger and prompt a desire for more and better than what they currently know.

* Name changed for security reasons

Amelia* serves in West Africa, sharing the gospel with those in a region that is very opposed to the message of Jesus Christ. She has recently been learning from her language teacher about the influential Griot (musicians/singers) status group – this is a hereditary caste-like group who serve as oral historians, poets, musicians and praise singers. Though considered to be of low status, they wield a lot of power through their ability to praise or shame through song. She has heard stories about policemen stopping cars for traffic infringements, but on hearing the family name, quickly letting them go (or as one story goes, even paying them to drive on) after they recognised a Griot family name. Please join Amelia in praying for the redemption of music from being a weapon wielded for money or power, or for the praising of individuals or families. Pray instead for a release of worship that unites people and stirs hearts as they turn to look at Jesus. Ask the Lord to raise up writers and singers of worship songs.

*Name changed for security reasons

Amelia* serves in West Africa, sharing the gospel with those in a region that is very opposed to the message of Jesus Christ. One thing her team has been working on is praying in the local language. Amelia really wants to get to the place where she can pray freely and fluently, and obviously one of the best ways to do that is to pray with someone who does just that. It has therefore been a little frustrating to have a language helper with whom this could happen and yet who always just wanted Amelia to pray. However, recently the language helper was watching the news about the ME conflict when Amelia arrived, and she announced that today she was going to pray. It was a beautiful moment – the first time Amelia had heard a local woman really pray. Their lives have been very different, and yet they are both children of our Father in heaven, and they both live in a broken world that needs him. Ask that praying together would become the highlight of the week for both of them. Currently there is a gathering head of steam around language learning among workers, including a short Bible study in the local language after their Sunday house church. Pray this would continue and that they would all become better equipped for kingdom work.