November 2009 e-mail prayer update of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
 
The following prayer requests are from CBF Global Missions field personnel who are being the presence of Christ around the world. As a “prayer associate” who is committed to praying for CBF Global Missions on a regular basis, you are a partner, colleague, and companion. Thank you for giving this kind of support. If you need to contact us, you may do so at (770) 220-1600.  If you have trouble viewing this e-newsletter, click here for the Web version.
 

 

Thanksgiving and Hunger


“…if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday”  (Isaiah 58:10).
“How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help” (1 John 3:17)?

The month of November is a season long associated with the holiday of Thanksgiving, which is traditionally celebrated surrounding a huge feast, symbolizing the bounty that has resulted from our labors. In the midst of such abundance, we cannot help but reflect upon those whose tables are empty and who cannot feed themselves or their families. There is enough food to feed each person on our planet, but not everyone has access to it either due to financial inability or lack of land and resources to farm. World hunger is a very serious issue.

At the beginning of the month, experience a day where you do not eat anything after lunch and schedule a later dinner than is typical. As hunger pains intensify, imagine what it would be like if there were no food available to satisfy this need. Draw from your experience each week as you offer your prayers. Pray for those who are hungry. Pray for guidance for those seeking to feed and nourish the millions who suffer from hunger. Pray for opportunities to minister to those who are malnourished.

(Excerpt from Prayers of the People, a free yearlong guide to prayer for CBF missions and ministries.)
 

 

LaCount Anderson, ministry to homeless, Scotland Neck, North Carolina

  • Pray for the residents of Faith House in Enfield, a woman's homeless shelter. Pray for my wife, Anna, and me as we teach the Bible and that participants will hear the Word of God and apply it in their lives.
  • Anna's mother passed away in October. Please pray for our family as we adjust to the loss. 
  • Pray for the Union Mission in Roanoke Rapids, NC, as they are in a time of reorganization. I am serving as director to help them continue to reach the homeless and those in need in the city. Fund raising, a new men's program, and food distribution are tasks that need help. Pray that those who receive help may come to know God.  

Unevangelized people group, Southeast Asia

  • Praise that the books of Ruth and Esther have been approved for publication. Ruth will be given as a gift to all guests at the first Christian wedding ceremony ever held among this people group in this country.
  • Pray for good follow-up from a series of English camps which were held in villages in late October.
  • Some members of this people group live in a country experiencing much internal armed conflict. Please pray for the safety of the workers who travel through dangerous territory.
  • Pray that our children would grow in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and that we would be able to balance ministry and family needs in a way glorifying to God. 

Latha and Sam Bandela, unevangelized people groups, India

  • Pray for training, evangelism, and church planting in India.
  • Pray for the sewing centers, medical, and outreach projects.
  • Pray for disaster relief efforts in South India for flood victims and those who lost family members.
  • Pray for Sam and Matt Norman in their upcoming travels to India.
  • Pray for the well-being of Latha and Paul while Sam is out of country.

Lita & Rick Sample and Fran Stevenson, work with internationals, San Francisco Bay area

  • Please continue to pray for CAS, California Against Slavery, a human trafficking initiative launched by Lita and Fran designed to bring about tougher laws to protect trafficked victims. Most trafficking victims are internationals.
  • Pray for an Iranian family whose oldest son has gotten into trouble with the law. They are grappling with worry about his future as well as embarrassment that he did something wrong. Pray that the young man will turn to Christ to make his life better.
  • Pray for Rick as he counsels Afghan men on various issues.
  • Pray for ESL classes coordinated by Lita and Fran at a local Afghan cultural center for Afghan women. The women love these classes. Pray that the light of Christ will touch their hearts.

Butch & Nell Green, work with internationals, South Carolina

  • During the seasons of Thanksgiving and Christmas, we will be speaking on behalf of the Offering for Global Missions. Ask that God use us to help churches and individuals understand the myriad of ways that the offering makes a difference in the lives of so many. Ask God to provide for work around the world through the offering.
  • Brandon will return home from New Zealand in time for Thanksgiving. Sis will be home as well and will be bringing with her a friend from Belgium. Ms. Lydia, the children’s adopted grandmother will be with us. Ask God to bless this time of reunion as we open our home and our lives to share in thanksgiving for all that God has done in the past year in our family and in our ministry.
  • Pray for P., Z., F., and A., friends from around the world, who contacted us during the month of Ramadan with either questions about faith or to praise God for the ways God was blessing their lives. Ask God to continue to draw each one of them to Himself and to reveal Himself to them.

Keith Holmes/Mary van Rheenen, work with Romany, Europe

  • Praise God for progress so far in dubbing the 30-minute Ruth DVD in cooperation with the Slovak Bible Society. This will be in three different languages: Slovak, Czech, and Slovak Romani. Keith has recorded most of the first two. Pray for finding the right voices, particularly in Czech and Slovak Romani. Pray for Shane McNary, CBF team member in Slovakia who is coordinating this project.
  • Praise God for the positive response to the Jesus DVD in eight different languages (five Romani). Most of the original order of 3,000 has been distributed. Pray for the Holy Spirit to work through the viewing of these DVDs. Pray also for funds to reproduce additional copies.
  • Praise God for Petru and Olesea Ciochina, Moldovan home missionaries to the Romany. Pray that they will remain encouraged. Pray also that the Romany Christians will find stable employment and begin to more actively support their pastor and their church.

Joel & Tiffne Whitley, work with internationals, Spain

  • Thank you for praying for our three African families with new babies. They are all doing well. One baby from Senegal named Usman has a broken collar bone. Please pray that he will heal soon and be without pain.
  • Pray for our friends from Africa that the Holy Spirit will direct them to an interest in having a personal relationship with Jesus.
  • Please pray for our projects: food project, sheep project, mi casa project; that we will understand God’s direction for each one.
  • Please pray for the team from First Baptist Church, Blue Springs, Missouri, as they come to southern Spain this month to partner in the ministry to African immigrants. 

Gennady & Mina Podgaisky, urban work, Ukraine

  • Pray that one of our foster families will be able to get the two younger girls that they are waiting for.
  • Remember Mina as she leads a women's Bible study group in Russian. 
  • Pray that the Lord will send sponsors for the furnishings of the Laurel House. We hope to have our new cottage ready for a new foster family to move there in the fall of 2010. 
  • We thank God for all the sacrificial giving and the hard work of the many short-term mission workers who came to serve in the Village of Hope in 2009.

Kim & Marc Wyatt, work with internationals, Canada

  • Pray as one of the local Baptist churches is considering the use of a beautiful, well-maintained house on their church property as a Matthew House Ottawa. Final considerations for the use of the home will take place in November. The Matthew 2535 Network would be major actors in the running of the house. Please pray that God's will be done and for this to move forward only if it is God's timing. We NEED your prayers!!
  • Pray for a newcomer family here in Ottawa. The mom, B., is from Burundi, and the dad, Y., is from Congo. They spent the last several years in a refugee camp in Uganda. Now they have arrived in Canada with 10 children; five biological and five children of relatives who have died. Seven are teenagers!!!  Please pray for them as they are presently living in a homeless shelter, that soon a 5-bedroom subsidized apartment will come available for their use. Both B. and Y. are believers as well as ministers.
  • Thank you for faithfully praying for Jackie and her family. They received their housing need in April and just recently found out that they have been approved by Canadian Immigration to stay in Canada. This is indeed an answer to our prayers. Another prayer request is that the red tape process will go smoothly and that Jackie's husband will be able to join his family in Canada by Christmas.

Persian World Outreach

  • Pray for Afghan, Iranian, and Tajik Christians under persecution. Praise that these Christians are reaching their own people for Christ in their countries and around the world.
  • Pray for the increasing numbers of MBB (Muslim Background Believers in Christ) from many nationalities worldwide.
  • Pray for a PWO representative who leads worship and Bible study via the Internet with a house church in Iran. Pray that the leaders of house churches like this one will be able to get training and encouragement.
  • Pray for the Afghan and Iranian Christian Fellowships in California, Maryland, and Virginia. Pray for their leadership teams. Praise for teamwork in ministry and outreach. 
  • Pray for our health as we enter the cold, wet winter season.

November Birthday Calendar

(CH)=Chaplain
(FP)=Field Personnel
(PC)=Pastoral Counselor
(FPC)=Child of Field Personnel
(PLT)=Church Planter
(PMP)=Partner Mission Personnel

2
Karen, Southeast Asia (FP); Mark Elder, Gaffney, SC (CH); Amanda Hambrick, New York City, NY (FP); Jesse W. Hunt, Shelby, NC (CH); Mickie Norman, Leland, NC (CH)
3
Sul H. Kang, Senegal (PMP); Michael McCawley, Ft. Riley, KS (CH); David Reid, Boise, ID (CH); Thomas Thompson, Stone Mtn, GA (CH)

Cindi Abbe, Waco, TX (PLT); Eric Maas, Belize (FP); Mary Stinson, Berea, KY (CH); Mark Westebbe, Waynesboro, VA (CH)
5 
________, M. East/N. Africa (FP);  ________, son, New Jersey (FPC); Cameron Gunnin, San Antonio, TX (CH); Clyde Waters, Columbia, SC (CH)
6
Emerson Byrd, Fort Campbell, KY (CH); Meghan McSwain, Winston-Salem, NC (CH)
7 
Craig Butler, Sugar Land, TX (CH); Patricia Coley, Iraq (CH); Mike Graham, Asheville, NC (FP); Roland G. Kuhl, Round Lake Beach, IL (PLT); Zachary Morrow, 1995, Aledo, TX (FPC)

Mark Weiler, Greeley, CO (CH)
9
Debby Bradley, Mill Spring, NC (CH); Charles Seligman, Keesler AFB, MS (CH); Audrey Wilson, Durham, NC (CH)
10 
Kevin Crowder, Fredericksburg, VA (CH); Angela Lowe, Lawrence, KS (CH); Ralph Mikels, Jr., Seymour, TN (CH); Jim Smith, Atlanta, GA (FP); Aidan Storie, 2001, Marion, AL (FPC)
11 
Scott Blair, Grayslake, IL (CH); Dana Durham, Sacramento, CA (CH); Mike Langston, Newport, RI (CH); Troy Petty, Palmyra, VA (PC); Steve Sweatt, Birmingham, AL (PC)
12 
Michael Cox, Europe (CH); David Cromer, Williamsburg, VA (CH); John Lepper, Crestwood, KY (PC); Jessy Togba-Doya, Liberia (FP)
13 
Shelia Earl, Macedonia (FP); Earl Martin, Emeritus (FP) Jim Rennell, Cookeville, TN (CH); Gail Smith, Hillsborough, NC (CH); Cindy Wallace, Rome, GA (CH)
15  
Marcia McQueen, Eden, NC (CH)
16  
Cris Avila, Newnan, GA (PLT); Edwin Hollis, Odenville, AL (CH)
17  
Chuck Strong, Olive Branch, MS (PLT); Elizabeth Thompson, Littleton, CO (PC); Cade Whitley, 2004, Spain (FPC); Dylan Whitley, 2004, Spain (FPC)
18 
Elaine Greer, Frankfort, KY (CH)
19  
Will Kinnaird, Keller, TX (CH); Nancy Stephens, Georgetown, KY (CH)
20 
Charles Christie, Loganville, GA (CH); Kevin Park, Bellingham, WA (CH)
21 
________, Middle East (FP); Ana Marie Houser, Southern Africa (FP); Fred Madren, Indianapolis, IN (CH)
22  
Becky Smith, Atlanta, GA (FP)
24  
Will Barnes, Savannah, GA (CH); Carol Lynn Brinkley, Fayetteville, NC (PLT); Peggy Gold, Durham, NC (CH); Wilford Manley, Johnson City, TN (CH)
25  
Gary Batchelor, Rome, GA (CH); Tony Biles, Richfield, NC (CH); Robert Cooke, Selma, NC (PC); Ed Farris, Shawnee, KS (CH); Brad Hood, Knoxville, TN (CH); Sue Smith, Fredericksburg, VA (FP); Lee Weems, Pineville, LA (CH)
26  
Carol Fletcher, Athens, GA (CH); Michael O’Rourke, Chesterfield, VA (CH); Charles Reynolds, Washington, DC (CH)
27  
Macarena Aldape, India (FP); Posey Branscome, Charlotte, NC (CH); Anna Lee, daughter, Russia (PMP)
28  
Clista Adkins, Hungary (FP); Ronald King, Midland, GA (PC); Mark Tidsworth, Chapin, SC (PC); Joel Whitley, Spain (FP)
29  
Shannon Binkley, 1993, Uniontown, OH (FPC); David Ramsey, Rolla, MO (CH); Duewayne Tullos, Clinton, MS (CH)
30  
John David Hopper, Emeritus (FP); Lucas Pittman, 2003, Miami, FL (FPC); Jeffrey Ross, Oceanside, CA (CH); Peter Stephens, Georgetown, KY (CH); 


Resources

The Fellowship serves Christians and churches by producing resources as well as recommending existing resources to help meet your needs. We can connect you with people resources, printed resources, and electronic resources.  The Fellowship resources are available through The CBF Store online at www.thefellowship.info/thecbfstore or by calling (888) 801-4223. 

 

 


 
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