Pray for the Tatar, Crimean of Turkey

Tatar, Crimean of Turkey

Population: 143,000
Language: Crimean Turkish
Religion: Islam
Evangelical: 0.00%

What are their beliefs? The Tatars are Sunni Muslims who belong to the Hanafite branch. However, they have no version of the Qu'ran in their language. The Muslim faith includes observing Ramadan, a month of ritual fasting. During Ramadan, they are praying for Islam to fill the earth.

What are their needs? Some evidence suggests that the Crimean Tatars have a thirst for the Word of God. Getting a translation of the Bible in their language is the most urgent need since only portions are available at this time. There is also a great need for laborers to work among the Tatars. Tentmakers with skills in agriculture and construction are needed, in addition to those who can evangelize and do church planting. Tatars also need job training and help in establishing small businesses. English language studies may be needed as well. Of the 143,000 Crimean Tatars living in Turkey, only a few have found abundant life in Jesus Christ. It is God's will for these precious people to come to know Him, for He "...is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)

Prayer Points:

• Ask the Lord to call full-time Christian workers who are willing to go to Turkey and share Christ with the Tatars.
• Pray for those who are leaving comforts behind and risking their lives to return to their homeland.
• Ask God to strengthen, encourage, and protect the small number of Crimean Tatar Christians.
• Pray that God will raise up qualified linguists to translate the entire Word of God into the Crimean Tatar language.
• Ask the Holy Spirit to soften their hearts towards Christians so that they will be receptive to the Gospel.
• Pray that God will open the hearts of Turkish governmental leaders to the Gospel. Ask the Lord to raise up a strong local church among the Crimean Tatars.

Taking the Church Where It's Needed Most

The African Planter

What must we learn, and unlearn, to be agents of God's mission in the world?

In the 1950s, while Kenya was still a British colony, a group of white expatriates started a church. Since they were from free church backgrounds, largely Plymouth Brethren, they called it Nairobi Undenominational Chapel. The church was located near the Governor's house, within a secured area where Africans were not allowed. So the church had no African members.

After the Mau-Mau Rebellion, as whites left Kenya for Rhodesia and South Africa and other places still under British rule, the church dwindled. In the meantime, the University of Nairobi, in the center of the city, began growing and occupying the land around the Chapel. But until 1989, the church had no university students, and only one African family among the remaining 20 members in the congregation.

That's when the congregation approached an indigenous African church to take over. And a young graduate student named Oscar Muriu became the pastor of Nairobi Chapel. Today the church has planted 25 congregations in Nairobi, with thousands of members, and is planning to plant churches in Asia, America, and Europe. Read more...

Dandelions...

I've been thinking about a Midwestern spring phenomenon...

Dandelions

"We have all seen the simplest of weeds, the venerable dandelion, masquerading as a flower in the fullness of its yellow bloom, and then quickly fading to gray... Who knows how it came to this little garden, drifting in on the wind, no doubt, and settling unseen into the fertile soil to germinate. Soon it sprouts tiny green leaflets that grow and extend themselves upward... Who would want to pluck such a brightly colored thing from the ground?

In its full flush it seems to exude the energy of spring and summer, tempting the pollinating bees as ably as any rose I have ever seen. Its slender stalks, so frail and milky when snapped away by the casual gardener, are in fact designed to give way easily, so as to leave the vital root of the plant intact. And its hour and day in the sun is fleeting and brief, a mere wink and a nod before the plant gets about its real business-the making of more dandelions.

In a matter of days the golden crown can wither and whiten to an afro of puffy white and gray seedlings. If your hand was in the slightest stayed, and you have not troweled up the deepest tendrils of its roots by then, you have lost your battle with this hardy weed. Try to pluck it away when it has gone to gray, and you ensure the next generation will colonize your world. The slightest touch sets the feather light seedlings to flight, and they drift and scatter on the barest whisper of a breeze. One dandelion can become a hundred in the space of a few short weeks, and any gardener arriving too late on the scene will have a great challenge before him. Just when you think you have plucked out the last of the feisty little demons, you find ten more have rooted somewhere else." *

This week during the INSTITUTE we were spending the hour in Solitude, during that time I started thinking about the seed metaphors that Jesus talked about. My mind ran onto dandelions. In the middle of my musing...one of those delicate dandelion seeds came floating right at me. It missed me yet landed right on the picnic table in front of me. (That cinched that I would be writing about it in this article! )

The seed didn't find suitable soil there on the picnic table, but a gentle breeze whisked it away more than 20 yards in the air before I couldn't track it. In that little seed lies resident the whole potential to germinate, to grow, to produce a flower, then to produce seeds that starts the cycle all over again. Amazing.

It's amazing that the Good News Seed has resident in it the potential to germinate people into followers of Jesus, to grow, to produce fruit and seeds to start the cycle all over again. It's simple, light, and UNSTOPPABLE! Just like dandelions in the Midwest in springtime...

Press On,
Mike Jentes

*the dandelion article above was excerpted from an online article by John Schettler in his article found here
posted originally in thequest email UPdate from May 25, 2005

Tibetan, Shanyan of China

Please pray for the ...


Tibetan, Shanyan of China
Population: 23,000
Language: Language Unknown
Religion: Buddhism
Evangelical: 0.00%

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy; For You will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth."
Psalm 67:4

Progress of Christianity by People Group

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Pray for the Uyghur of China

Please pray for.....


Uyghur of China
Population: 10,584,000
Language: Uyghur
Religion: Islam
Evangelical: 0.00%

Islam has been the dominant religion of the Uighurs since the 10th century. In the past, they were Muslim in name only; however, there is some renewal that is currently taking place among them. One hundred percent of the Uighurs now claim to be Hanafite Muslims. Mosques in the capital city, Urumqi, are overflowing with followers. On the pavement surrounding the mosques, worshippers kneel on their prayer mats and offer prayers faithfully. Islamic literature is freely bought and sold, and the graves of Muslim saints are highly venerated.

There are no known converts. As Muslims, they are taught that Christians are their enemies. Even school children are indoctrinated with atheism. It is reported that Christians in this area of China are persecuted. The Bible has already been translated into the Uighur language; Christian broadcasts and the Jesus film are available. In spite of these facts, they remain untouched with the Gospel. There are no Uighur churches established, and the Uighur have never heard that salvation comes through Jesus Christ. They desperately need to know the Truth of the Gospel.

Taking the Church Where it's Needed Most