When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came ... to meet him. Jesus ... said, "Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." (Mark 5:2, 19, NIV)

PRAISE:
We are pleased at the way God provided a job for our friend Baraka. He can see God’s faithfulness and blessings on him and is keen to tell his Muslim family and friends that Jesus is blessing him.


PETITION:
Pray for the tentmaking single who has to decide between some different work offers. The job is necessary to obtain a visa to stay in the country. Pray that she would be able to discern with her team, which is the best opportunity.

Please pray for a local lady who has an unhappy marriage and had cancer last year (now in remission). Pray for opportunities to talk to her about Jesus.

Pray for the expatriate church here. Pray for the leadership to have wisdom and a vision for the future. Pray for those who have changed fellowships - that God will meet their needs too and provide his grace to all involved in the prolonged conflict.

Continue to pray for the Chinese fellowships - for provision of places to meet, for God's provision of people willing to serve them and be involved with this growing ministry. Pray for God to continue to bring Chinese to the Gulf region so that they can come to know the living God and for Him to strategically place them back in China at the end of their contract here.

Please pray for a secret MBB+ who is a member of a fundamentalist
Muslim family. He was brought to faith 3 years ago, partly through a dream and the witness of a tentmaking family. In all that time he had no Bible. Recently, he sought help from a Christian who put him in touch with the missionary that is now discipling him, and he is devouring the Bible in his own language. Please pray for his testimony before them, and for his entire family to come to Christ.


TESTIMONY:
Two Christian workers were summoned up to a remote mountain village to help the villagers deal with a long running conflict. They had locked up a man they believed to be crazy – just like the man in Mark chapter 5. They had him locked up in a small, stone hut, with bars on the windows and big chains on the door. They fed him through a small slot at the bottom of the door. By the time the Christian workers got there, the man had been locked up for almost 20 years! He was angry, but not crazy. They were able to go into the hut, talk to the man, pray with him and held him when he cried tears of grief and anger and joy. They brought him out of the hut, to meet the villagers – many of whom were family. This was the first time in 20 years that they had even looked at each other face to face. After a time of Bible teaching about love, forgiveness and restoration, the village voted to care for this man. The people didn’t want the miracle working Christians to leave, so they promised to return weekly to teach them the way of peace through the Prince of Peace. With Ramadan the process may be slowed, but the joy of all those involved is tremendous.

* AP = Arabian Peninsula
+ MBB = Muslim Backround Believer

<>< <>< <>< <>< <><
Praying Thru the Arabian Peninsula
www.pray-ap.info
USA #: 800-376-5876 (Eastern Time)
Encouraging & equipping believers & churches everywhere to pray with a heart filled with the "Seed-of-Laughter" for those at the heart who know that "God-Sees-&-Hears-me" so that biblical church planting movements will spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula and beyond for the Lord's glory.

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To learn how you can support this & other work in the Middle East, visit: http://www.srginc.org

Or write MertH.: ptap@srginc.org

Or:
PTAP
c/o Strategic Resource Group
P.O. Box 1809
Easton, MD 21601
USA

From Acts 4-5 (about the lame man who was healed).

This message was delivered by an Assembly of God district staff person. I found it much more encouraging than the former ones he had given, largely because he stuck with what the Bible actually says in most of his sermon.

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Three keys to the healing of the lame man.
Focus, Acts 4:13, "Seeing Peter's boldness of speech, and John's, and having discovered that they were unlettered and obscure men, they began to marvel, recognizing them also as having been with Jesus.

A. Practice the presence of Peace with Jesus.
= Be with Jesus!
B. Spiritual sustenance.
= Be bold!
C. Risktakers rule.
= Be fearless!
==> God will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Mert's application:
The Lord will help. Only trust Him & obey day to day.

"My child, you sins are forgiven!" - Jesus
... As a result, they were all astounded and gave glory to God, saying "We have never seen anything like this!"
(Mark 2:5b, 12b).

TESTIMONY:
There two women in our very modern city that a young tentmaker mom has been visiting for several months. The ladies live many kilometers apart and it is difficult to get together. Both are expatriate Muslim Arabs and they don’t drive. Both are feeling trapped in their lives. Fatima, the first woman – a 28 year old mother of 6 children, showed an interest in the Gospel kindled by a friendship she had with another tentmaker several years back. The other gal, Maryam, was very negative about anything religious and would stifle any conversation about Christianity when the 3 of them were together. The tentmaker prayed for wisdom in this situation. The Lord gave her the idea to meet with the women separately. This was a difficult thing due to her home responsibilities trying to care for her 2 small children, drive across town in terrible traffic and spend time with both ladies separately. But she trusted that God would provide.

God’s plan has borne fruit in that Fatima recently proclaimed that ‘she loves Jesus & wants to know more about Him!’ After her daily reading, she returns her Bible to its hiding place while her Jesus video is in another place – away from her husband’s suspicious eyes. She is hungry for the Word and is growing spiritually. Meanwhile, Maryam didn’t know that Fatima was meeting one-on-one with the tentmaker. Maryam was glad for her "alone-time" with the tentmaker. She has just recently begun to ask questions and wants to study the Bible with her friend. PTL for God melting her coolness and drawing her to Himself! Join us in prayer that Maryam will come to faith in Jesus. Pray for wisdom for the tentmaker mom as she juggles her schedule and responsibilities to meet with these dear women.


PRAISE:
Recently a Christian worker brought her "Muslim" friend to a Ladies' Fellowship to receive prayer. The young friend had a progressive disease leading to blindness, to paralysis, and death. She received prayer from the believers & the next day went for her routine check-in with her doctor. The doctor could find no trace of the disease, pronounced her "healed" & cancelled all her future appointments! Pray this will impact the Muslim community all around.


PETITION:
Pray for the tentmakers studying Arabic so they can speak the heart language of tens of millions of lost Arabs in the heartland of Islam. Some are learning storytelling, folk stories, and debate to better connect with locals – particularly the large number of illiterate women in Yemen & rural Saudi Arabia.

Please pray for a key couple in the region who are having an impact on the Muslim population & also the Christian community. They have been under persistent attack from the enemy & need protection, power & grace from the Lord.

Two Muslim Background Believers, Baraka and Hamad got together last week for the first time to study John’s Gospel together. It was awesome to see Hamad taking the lead in answering Baraka’s questions! Pray that the studies would continue and that both men would become pillars of God’s church in our country.

Pray for the work of God in the Farsi speaking community in our city. There are many that have come to faith in Iran and are now living or working in our city. Many come from homes that are loving on the outside, but manipulating and self-centered to the core. Pray for the wisdom as there are leadership issues and struggles in the small fledgling church.

Praise God for a new believer, we will call “Ben”. He just came to faith in the past few weeks. This dear believer is illiterate, but trying to learn to read so that he can read God's Word. Pray that God would bless him in his attempts to learn to read. Pray that God would continue to help him grow in wisdom and knowledge of the Lord.


<>< <>< <>< <>< <><
Praying Thru the Arabian Peninsula
www.pray-ap.info
USA #: 800-376-5876 (Eastern Time)
Encouraging & equipping believers & churches everywhere to pray through the heart of the Muslim world so that church planting movements will spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula and beyond for the Lord's glory.

====
To learn how you can support this & other work in the Middle East, visit:
http://www.srginc.org

Or write:
ptap@srginc.org

Or:
PTAP
c/o Strategic Resource Group
P.O. Box 1809
Easton, MD 21601
USA