Today, our African travels take us right into the heart of the 10/40 Window - from 10 degrees to 40 degrees north of the equator, where the majority of the world's unreached peoples live. In Africa, the vast majority of the unreached are Muslims of varying degrees of commitment. Please read pages 38-40, "The Unreached of Africa", then return here for prayer.
From the early days of Christianity, there have been Christians in Africa. Tradition holds that the Ethiopian eunuch, best known to us as the man God took Phillip to share the Gospel to from the midst of a revival in Asia, returned to his country and became an evangelist. We know for sure that Christians were found in North Africa as early as 100 A.D. Despite the presence of a church, the Gospel did not permeate Africa and in fact, Islam spread throughout much of North Africa after thta religion was founded in the 7th century. Africa remained "the dark continent" in the eyes of much of the west but eventually missionaries began to find their way there. Robert Moffatt and later David Livingstone did much to pave the way to the interior and open up the continent to the rest of the world. Still, there is much history of missions in Africa that remains to be written. Let's pray today for God to call laborers to the unreached peoples of Africa.
My prayer for today: Lord, we love the diversity of the body of Christ, including the beautiful African segment of Your body. We know Lord that when the last page of history is written, around Your throne will stand believers from every tribe, tongue, nation, and people group. But Lord, today some of the African people groups are missing from Your throne room. Today, we come before You to plead the prayer You taught us to pray - laborers for the harvest. Lord, send laborers for the harvest of unreached people groups in Africa. Call many to take the Gospel where the name of Jesus has not been heard. We pray specifically for some of the largest unreached groups in Africa: The North African Arabs, millions of whom have had little outreach from Christians. The Berber people who had somewhat of a Christian history before being conquered by Islam, and their relatives the Tuareg - Lord, please call people who are able to live in the desert climate. For the West African coastal and interior groups that are unreached, Lord, I pray for You to especially use the churches already established in other parts of west Africa. Burden their hearts for their near neighbors, Lord. God I ask You for the Fulbe, one of the major challenges. Thank You for the unified ministry to them; Lord please give creative access ideas to those seeking to minister to this nomadic group. Oh Lord, I have a special place in my heart for the Hausa. I see their beautiful faces before me from the pictures I've seen in the newsletters. Lord, help them to have a hunger for the resources that exist in their language. Give them a thirst for You, Lord, a desire to know You deeply and passionately. I pray, Lord, for the peoples across North Africa - Sudan, Chad, CAR, Egypt - guide them to You Lord. Where there has been a prevous witness I pray that You will water the seeds that have been planted. Lord, for those in the Horn area where it is so hard to witness - I pray that You will use believers from within Africa, and I pray that those who are traveling or studying or working abroad will find themselves surrounded by Christians. I pray that as You bring these unreached peoples across our paths that You will give us deep relationships and boldness to share the Gospel. Lord, for the Bantu and for the mountain peoples of Chad, the Nile, and the Nuba area , and for the East Asians living in Africa - we ask for You to remember them, hear the cries of those who long to know You and send someone to share the Gospel with them. In all these peoples Lord we pray for You to raise up Corneliuses and Peters - those who long to hear and those who are called to share. We are reminded You love them far more than we do. Thank You, Lord.
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