How to Pray for West Africa in 2007

Missionaries need much prayer support to enable them to minister more effectively in new and diverse cultures.

• Ask God to give IMB workers strength to face spiritual warfare and other daily challenges.
• Pray that they will acquire proficiency in the languages needed to share the Gospel with people around them.
• Petition God to put a hedge of protection around those who work in difficult conditions.
• Most of all, pray that these cross-cultural witnesses will exhibit the love of Christ and an unrelenting passion for reaching the lost peoples of West Africa.

New West African believers need your continuing prayers to help them face many challenges in their new walk with Christ.

• Pray that new Christians throughout West Africa will show increased spiritual growth and maturity.
• Ask God to give them boldness and zeal as they witness to their family members and others in their communities.
• Pray that God will give them courage and perseverance in the face of persecution.

West African Baptist Conventions need strong leaders with a fervent passion and a broad vision for reaching lost people groups, both locally and around the world.

• Ask God to call out and guide West African Baptists who will lead their congregations to be cross-cultural witnesses.
• Pray that West African Baptists will demonstrate increased reliance on God to provide everything needed to accomplish the task God has entrusted to them.

Unengaged people groups desperately need a Christian witness. Satan is not willing to easily let go of these people groups that he has had in his grasp for centuries. This year, many people groups in West Africa will hear a clear presentation of the Gospel for the first time.

• Pray that "the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored..." (2 Thessalonians 3:1).
• Ask God to tear down the strongholds of Satan and to prepare the fallow ground for the seeds of the Gospel.
• Intercede for the messengers who will bring a Christian witness - IMB workers and other evangelical missionaries, Baptist church teams from the USA, and West African believers.

Pray that Southern Baptists will accept the challenge to co-labor with IMB missionaries and West African Baptists to overcome a multitude of religious, cultural, social, and geographical barriers as they make Christ known among the peoples of West Africa. Please make a commitment today to pray regularly and faithfully for the lost peoples of West Africa throughout 2007.