A Church is Born and Ramadan Starts Tomorrow!

This picture is of five of your new brothers and sisters in the Lord. The 5 on the left were baptized into Christ last Sunday August 24th. Eugene, the guy on the right is the one who did the baptizing. Besides the amazingness of five more names being written in the Book of Life, is the origin of those names. See the lady in white? Her name is Mariatou. That's a Muslim name. She and the two women next to her are Muslims who are now new believers in Jesus Christ. We are in awe, yet again, of God's work in their lives and their courage to answer His call. Pray for these five people, hat they will grow in Christ and will be a witness to their families and neighbors, a light for Christ that illuminates the Truth to everyone around them.

Another really great thing about these people, from the new church in Adoukoffikro, is that they are an indigenous church plant, meaning the national leaders from the Abengourou church, Eugene, Emmanuel, Douti, Wisdom, Max and Janvier evangelized, taught, baptized and are discipling these new Muslim background believers 100% on their own with NO foreign missionary involvement. We can't tell you how encouraging it is to see the people you've been teaching and training for years, begin to practice and live what you have been teaching them. May God be praised!

Tomorrow is the beginning of Ramadan. Since we're not in the US we don't know if much has been mentioned about it in the news amidst the politics, and prices and hurricanes, but around the world, to Muslims, it's a big deal. This is the month of Ramadan according to the Islamic calendar. This is the month that Muslims fast and abstain from all pleasures during daylight hours, to purify themselves and seek the will of God. Observing the fast of Ramadan is one of the 5 pillars of Islam and is a very important part of their religion.

While some Muslims, use this month to enjoy huge feasts after dark (sort of like Thanksgiving everyday for a month!), many are truly seeking God's will for their lives during this month. We think that's a great excuse to increase our prayers for the Muslim world that God really WILL reveal Himself to them and that through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. You can do this in anyway that works for you. Some Christians we know are fasting with the Muslims while praying during daylight hours. Others, we know are fasting one meal a day or one day a week, and others are simply devoting themselves to faithful prayer on a daily basis this month. Regardless what method works for you, we would really appreciate, in fact we covet your prayers for these beautiful people living in the darkness of Islam during this month. A great prayer resource we've found is here at www.30-days.net You can sign up for daily e-mail prayer requests and reminders during the month of Ramadan too here : http://lists.bfp-listen.de/mailman/listinfo/30-days