This discussion thread is for prayers for specific diaspora people groups.
It will be updated at least monthly for the next year or so with specific requests.
Answers to prayers will be posted when we find out about them :)
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On April 14, hundreds of young women taking a physics exam in northeast Nigera were abducted. Although dozens escaped their captors, reports are that the other 250 or so have been sold into marriages to Boko Haram militants hiding along or just beyond the border. The northeast region of Nigeria has now been in a state of emergency for one year due to Boko Haram’s violent insurgency. The UN estimates 57,000 Nigerians have fled to Niger, Cameroon and Chad in the past year.
Ask our Heavenly Father to stretch His hand to bring these young women healing and return them to their families. Pray that by God’s grace the militants would resist the enemy’s schemes and embrace Christ. Ask God to strengthen Nigerian followers of Christ so that they may persevere in their faith, extend grace and forgiveness, and pursue peace. Pray that God will reveal Himself to many Nigerian refugees and their new neighbors through dreams and visions.
(Information gathered from UNHCR, AlJazeera)
There are about 150,000 Tibetans living in diaspora, mostly in India, a significant number in Nepal and the US, and smaller numbers scattered elsewhere. Most notable among them is the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists and the former political leader of the Tibetan government in exile.
Pray for Tibetans to find their identities as God’s beloved children and seek His kingdom and righteousness above all else. Ask the Lord to send Light into the hearts of Tibetans, including the Dalai Lama, so that they may experience truth and reconciliation in place of deceit and bitterness. Pray that recently completed Bible-based resources in Tibetan languages will be available worldwide and that God’s Word will accomplish His purposes. Pray that Christ-followers will welcome Tibetans living in diaspora with the sacrificial love.
(Statistics gathered from Wikipedia)
The Tuareg form a cluster of unreached people groups totaling nearly 3 million people primarily in Saharan Africa with a significant minority in France. The Tuareg are traditionally nomadic and many continue to cross the boundaries between Niger, Mali, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. Almost all Tuareg are nominally identified as Muslim; in practice, most are more concerned with protection against evil spirits than in observing the Five Pillars of Islam.
As the Lord blessed and made Himself known to Jacob, a wandering Aramean, may the Lord reveal Himself to the Tuareg nomads. Ask God to send dreams and visions to key leaders and people of peace within each Tuareg community so that they may learn of the Name that is above all other names. Pray that followers of Jesus in the countries where Tuareg travel will make the most of every opportunity to share Christ with them. Pray that the Lord will send forth laborers to live and move among the Tuareg.
(Information gathered from Wikipedia and Joshua Project.)
[Also not technically a people group - sorry!]
Athletes from over 100 countries are scheduled to participate in the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia from February 7-23. While the majority of spectators are expected to be Russians, tens of thousands of people are traveling from around the world to watch the Games in person. Millions of others will watch on their TVs, computers and mobile devices. Some Christ-followers are visiting the resort city of Sochi with the purpose of sharing the good news of God’s salvation in an area with little evangelical witness.
Praise our Creator, who made each of us and has gifted certain individuals to display strength, agility, and beauty with their bodies. Ask God to grant physical protection over the athletes, spectators and the city of Sochi during the Olympics this month and the Paralympics in March. Pray for athletes who follow Christ to give glory to God through their behavior, words and performances. Pray for those who do not follow Christ to realize the importance of seeking imperishable crowns. Pray that God will use the Olympics and Paralympics to provide many opportunities to share Truth, to build redemptive relationships among the peoples there, and to mobilize prayer for Russia and participating countries. May the Peace of the kingdom of heaven advance among the nations.
(Information from www.sochi2014.com and Wikipedia)
(Technically, not a people group but these are people in diaspora who have been in the news recently.)
On Christmas Eve, a Russian ship carrying 52 scientists, journalists and tourists in addition to its 22 crew members got stuck in Antarctic ice. After Chinese and Australian icebreakers and a French research vessel were unable to free the ship, the Chinese vessel’s helicopters transferred the passengers onto the Australian vessel. As of the time of this writing, a US icebreaker was heading to try to free the Russian and Chinese ships from the ice.
Praise God for the cooperation among the almost 30 nations with citizens in Antarctica. Pray that the 37,000 tourists and the two to five thousand scientists and crew members will know the physical and spiritual protection of the Lord. Ask the Lord to provide lay leaders among the scientists and crew members to make disciples of many nations. Pray that the seven church buildings in Antarctica would be known as houses of prayer to the Triune God.
(Information from CNN.com and Wikipedia)
Last month, Typhoon Haiyan / Yolanda hit the Philippines and left thousands of people dead, tens of thousands more wounded and millions without homes. People from all over the world have provided assistance. Remittances have increased from the ten million or so Filipino workers abroad, joined by donations from the larger non-migrant Filipino community. Dozens of countries as well as international organizations are contributing to relief efforts.
Please continue to pray that those affected by the typhoon would have their physical, emotional and spiritual needs met, by God’s grace. May God be glorified even in the midst of national pain and hurts. Pray that many of the internationals with NGOs will hear the good news of Jesus from local believers. Ask God to bring comfort to Filipinos working abroad whose families and friends have been affected. Pray that this disaster will provide the scattered Filipino Church with more opportunities to share their faith and hope with co-workers, bosses and neighbors. Let these brothers and sisters be like Nehemiah, who prayed fervently for his homeland and whose favor with the king facilitated the restoration of his beloved city for the glory of God among the nations.
Centuries ago, the Romani (also known as Roma) began slowly migrating from northern India across the Middle East and North Africa, reaching Europe by the 1300s and spreading from there to the Americas. The Romani are now the biggest ethnic minority in the European Union; they frequently face discrimination for jobs, education and health services and have been stereotyped as thieves and kidnappers. This last month saw a Romani girl in France removed from a school field trip in order to be deported and two incidents – one in Greece and the other in Ireland – of the removal of a young pale blond girl from a dark haired Romani couple. DNA tests showed the girl from Ireland to indeed be the daughter of that couple while the girl from Greece was actually the daughter of a Romani couple in Bulgaria.
Praise God that there are at least a few evangelical Christ-followers among almost all of the Romani groups around the world. We praise God in particular for the Filadelphia movement among the Spanish Romani, which according to Operation World is the largest evangelical body in Spain. Pray for the good news of Jesus to spread through the Romani communities and thus throughout many countries. Pray for churches throughout Europe in particular to demonstrate this good news by extending compassion and grace to the Romani around them. Pray that Christ-followers will lead their countries to end discriminatory practices against the Romani and to reject the outright hatred of this group loved by God.
(Some prayer points adapted from Operation World.)
Recently, the treatment of 1.2 million migrant workers in Qatar has drawn attention due to the deaths of 44 Nepalis in nine weeks over the summer. The preparations to host the FIFA World Cup in 2022 have created many construction projects which are using a labor force of migrant workers. Most of these workers are from India and Nepal. The conditions in which these migrants live and work have been deemed by some critics as modern day slavery.
Please pray that the migrant workers in Qatar would be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve as people made in God’s image. Pray that they will know the Lord’s protection and come to worship Him as their ever-present refuge. May the Lord Jesus visit these workers in dreams and visions to offer hope and relief. Ask God to move in the hearts of Qatari employers and government officials to pursue better living and working conditions for these laborers. Pray that God will also bring comfort to migrant workers in other countries facing harsh treatment whose stories are not yet known.
According to Operation World, the Rohingya are “one of the most neglected and unwanted peoples on earth.” The United Nations has called them “one of the world’s most persecuted minorities.” Almost completely Muslim and speaking a language related to one spoken in Bangladesh, the Rohingya have been denied citizenship in their homeland of Burma (Myanmar). After the Burmese army’s began various tactics to drive out unwelcome “foreigners,” many Rohingya fled to Bangladesh and Thailand over twenty years ago, only to face malnutrition, violence, and even incidents of being forcibly put out to sea.
According to Scripture, the Lord Jesus ransomed with His blood “people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:8) – including Rohingya. Pray that this neglected, “unwanted” and country-less people will know that God demonstrated His great love for them through Jesus’s death on the cross. Ask God to reveal Himself to many Rohingya through dreams and visions as One who sees and hears them and as One who identifies with their sufferings. Ask God to use the Church to deliver the Rohingya from the spiritual, physical, social and political oppression they face and to bring them the hope of “a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16).
Beginning in early 2012, Mali experienced about 18 months of violent instability due to an armed rebellion, a military coup, infighting among the rebels, and the involvement of foreign forces. A ceasefire was declared in June 2013 and the first round of presidential elections was held in July. Because there was not a clear winner in the first round, Malians voted on the two leading candidates in August. During his swearing-in, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita declared his desire as president to bring reconciliation throughout the country.
Pray for President Keita to be a wise leader and an instrument to bringing long-lasting peace and stability. Pray that as the over 1 million Malians living in diaspora observe what is happening in their home country, they will discover the God of all comfort, the Prince of Peace, is not far from them. Ask Jesus, who was a refugee as a young boy, to reveal Himself to the nearly 150,000 Malian refugees currently in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. Pray for Christ-followers serving the Malians in Paris and New York City to see much fruit.
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