30 Days of Prayer for Global Awakening
Verses for contemplation: Psalm 95
Acts 2 suggests the Parthians who heard the Gospel at Pentecost would have carried it back to Southern Turkmenistan, among other areas. As Christianity spread farther in the first centuries, several cities along the Silk Road became strong centers for Christian culture and thought, including Kabul and Kandahar in Afghanistan, and Bukhara in Uzbekistan. In the early medieval period, this region held large populations of Christians, but brutal conquests by Muslims mostly wiped them out by the end of the 18th century.
In the 20th century, the USSR incorporated all of these nations except Afghanistan under Communist rule. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, missionaries found a brief window to share the Gospel in portions of Central Asia, and Kazakhstan even experienced a religious revival of sorts.
Today, all of these nations are Muslim majority and closed to mission work. Christians face intense persecution and many of the 227 unreached people groups in this region still have no Bible in their language. Conflict and oppression in the nearly 99% Muslim nation of Afghanistan has produced 3.5 million internally displaced people and 2.7 million refugees. In addition, 90% of the country suffers from acute hunger and poverty.
Prayer points to consider:
- Unreached peoples (especially Afghanistan)
- Islamic extremism, violence, terrorism
- Christians abducted, forced to marry Muslim men
- Oppressive governments
- Censorship of Christian materials
- Protestants labeled as extremists
- Pressure to renounce Jesus
- Hunger, starvation (especially Afghanistan)
- Girls/women forbidden to study/work (Afghanistan)
- Drought, floods, earthquakes
Prayer starter:
Long has this region been lost without You. Please, Father, have mercy. Open the way for Christians to enter these nations cut off from You Good News. Awaken a longing for You so desperate in every person they will seek You with all their heart and find You. Break the chains to violence, fear, Islam and demons. Meet them in their dreams. Get up in their face. Show them Your grace. When they reach for the Quran, hand them a Bible instead, and when they open the pages, make Your words come alive. Show Yourself strong in their midst, all-powerful like the God they have always longed to worship. Bless believers in this region so abundantly, they will abundantly bless those around them. Shield them from persecution and shine through them so powerfully others will see Your love, joy and peace and be drawn to You. Grow love deep in Christian marriages and give them favor with their neighbors and with authorities. Connect them safely with other believers and hide their gatherings from those who seek to do them harm, but make them accessible to seekers who truly want to know You. Father, in this region where Muslims fight against Muslims and prejudice rages between people groups, give the lost a hunger for something more, for love and acceptance like only You can give. Make a way for every person to hear Your Good News in a way they can easily understand. Protect girls, especially Chistians, from abuse, abduction and forced marriages to Muslim men. Subdue violence, and bring those bent on evil to their knees before You in repentance so they can be saved. Awaken every heart in all the “Stans” to Your love.
Parallel Prayer: Our 30 Days of Prayer for Global Awakening coincides with Ramadan. March 11-April 9, Muslims throughout the world are fasting and seeking God right now. Let’s pray they find Him!
Lord, please give the Muslims of Central Asia a hunger for You so strong, they will travel far and wide to find You. Raise up Christians with a calling to learn their unreached languages, share Your love with those who have never heard, and translate the Bible. Open up the doors for Your Good News to go in with power and flood hearts, homes and villages with Your love. Make every Muslim heart in this region like soft ground ready to receive Your seeds of Truth, and then plant those roots deep and make salvation spring up from the ground. Show them You are the One they’ve been waiting for, and save them, O God. Rescue them from darkness and free them to dance for You in the Light. In Your name. Amen.
Dinner and a Prayer: Each day during these 30 days, we will share with you ideas for special family prayer times, including a suggested menu to go with that day’s prayer theme. Today’s suggestions:
Search the internet to choose recipes from Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and/or Afghanistan. You can also have your children research some of these countries to find the barriers to the Gospel, and then share those together with the family for prayer. Menu suggestions: fatir bread and qurutob (Tajikistan), Afghani chicken (aarthi), dimlama (Uzbekistani harvest stew), Turkman rice pudding
You can also go to Joshua Project to discover unreached peoples, and Open Doors and Voice of the Martyrs to see where and how Christians are persecuted.
If you would like to plan ahead for international meals, see the “Dinner and a Prayer” section at the bottom of our 30 Days page or in the back of your 30 Days of Prayer for Global Awakening, Vol 2 book.
Don’t Miss a Day of Prayer
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A full-color book, 30 Days of Prayer for Global Awakening, Volume 2, is available in both paperback or pdf format (for Kindle and other devices) at MoreThanAConquerorBooks.com.
Fight the right fight with these powerful devotional Bible studies from MoreThanAConquerorBooks.com on overcoming the enemy in the battlefield of the mind, breaking free from strongholds and loving well: Dare to Be a Man of God and Dare to Be a Mighty Warrior.
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Mikaela Vincent and her husband are missionaries who live by faith, trusting in God to provide for their needs as they pray for and share Christ with the nations. If you would like to help their ministry through giving a donation, shopping at Mikaela’s online bookstore, praying for them or inviting them to speak at your church, retreat or other event, click the buttons below:
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