praying for: Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas & Bangladesh

Last Monday Barry Black gave powerful devotional on the Reviving Power of the Word of God. You could watch the sermon online

http://news.adventist.org/2011/10/ac2011-video-barryblack.html

Biblical illiteracy is worrying as young people do not know Bible stories. His sermon was pointy, sharp, cutting. A few comments he made that stood out in my memory “Primary reason for moral lapse is the neglect of devotional life.” & “Let me see the Bible of a person and I can tell you their spiritual maturity level.” What does your study Bible says about your Bible reading habits? I hope you are reading the Bible daily. For without the Word of God reviving each individual there will be no revival of the church. My appeal to you to READ the ENTIRE BIBLE is an urgent cry for the necessity of spiritual revival among us.

We are also praying, building an awareness for the world in need. Since beginning of October we prayed for 11 countries (for calendar check the Newsletter*).

Today, on Sabbath we pray for Australia, where Adventist population is same as in Argentina (for which we prayed last week) and the USA, the birthplace of Adventism. Australia had produced many leaders for our world-wide church and is leading today in use of technology for Adventist communication. Yet, the secular influence is also growing. The young generation is disconnecting from the heritage of faith. Australia is also similar to Canada by its immigration trends. Growing immigration brings unreached groups of people from Asia. Both Buddhist and Muslim population is growing rapidly. Pray for Christian to share the Gospel with new arrivals.

Sunday we will pray for Austria (these are different countries!!! Even though some folks confuse these names!). Austria is a European country under Catholic influence. The state church still charges “the church tax (1% taxable income)” from people’s salaries. This and prominent sex scandals among the clergy both contribute to breaks from the church. Immigrants from the Middle-East constitute 15% of population currently unreached by the gospel.

Azerbaijan is a former Soviet Republic with rich ancient history and heritage. Currently the country is mostly Muslim and people groups are unreached by the Gospel. Adventist presence is very small, less than 1 in 12,000. The church had suffered persecution even recently. Pray for liberty for the Gospel sake.

One of the countries to pray for this week is Christian and well saturated by Adventist presence. Bahamas has 5% of population attending churches on Sabbath. However in the economy stimulated mostly by tourism, materialism deeply affects all levels of society. The staggering wealth of foreign residents and tax shelters display a different world from the average Bahamian, not to mention the even poorer Haitian immigrants. Pray for social righteousness.

On Wednesday we will begin to pray for Bangladesh for 7 days. The country is half size of Michigan state with population of 165 million! A home to Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu tribes 88% of people groups are unreached by the Gospel! Christians constitute less than 1% of population. Adventist church is growing rapidly, and now 1 out of 5,000 is worshipping on Sabbath. Yet it is a challenging field for mission outreach. Pray for mission pioneers.

All these are God’s harvest field, for which the labourers are needed. Pray the Lord of the Harvest to make you a labourer!