PGOW: Kenya

by: Laura Leigh Robson


Our passion is to display Christ and treasure Him above all things.

“God isn’t looking for people of great faith, but for individuals ready to follow Him“ — Hudson Taylor

People Group:

Garreh of Kenya

The Garreh people of Kenya mainly live on the boarder of Kenya and Somalia, Africa. They practice Islam, although not very devoutly, and are considered a subgroup of Somalians because of language differences and some conflict. These tall and slender people are nomadic herders. Living in movable huts made of wood and animal hides, the Garreh move depending on grazing and water. Caste systems are prevalent in this society with distinct male and female roles. Polygamy is practiced, where males have up to four wives. Families live in villages with the huts facing each other to watch and protect the people within.

Prayer Points

* Pray for an ending of the drought 

* Increase of sufficiency of the health care clinics.
* Ask the Lord to call people who are willing to go as medical missionaries.

* Pray that the hearts of the Garreh people will be softened to the message of the Gospel and that the Holy Spirit will continue to work in their lives.
* Ask God to raise up believers and followers of Jesus to minister to the Muslim people of Garreh

* Ask the Lord to raise up strong local churches in this region of Kenya

source:http://www.joshuaproject.net/people-profile.php?peo3=11827&rog3=KE

Missionary Biography: William Carey

http://www.thetravelingteam.org/?q=node/109

More Information:

http://www.operationworld.org/

God's Portfolio

Imagine someone entrusted you with their stock portfolio.  Their entire future rests in your hands.  Do you sell their stocks, pay all the capital gains, take losses in order to get out, and bury the rest so that no one will know where it is and it will be safe?  We’ll come back to this in a minute.

Now what about our “stuff”? Why do we spend our lives piling up “stuff” and then allow this “stuff” to control our lives?  Abram in Genesis 15 says to God, “God, Master, what use are your gifts as long as I’m childless and Eliezer of Damascus is going to inherit everything?”  Abram is so short-sighted that he cannot imagine that God has a greater plan for him.  He is mad at God, in his short-sightedness, for not giving him someone that he sees fit to inherit his “stuff”.

God then takes Abram outside and says to him, “Look at the sky.  Count the stars. Can you do it?...”  

In my words, “Abram, shut-up!  Get out of your little box - your limited thinking.  Stop worrying about your “stuff” - your one son that can take care of your “stuff” for just one second.  Now look up.  How many stars are there?  Oh there are too many to count?    (I would’ve thrown something in here about how “I put those stars there,and I put you in this place, and I’ll take you out of it faster than...” but God didn’t say that so I digress...)  Then be quiet and listen for a minute, I’ve got something to say...”

God then continues, “Count your descendants!  You’re going to have a big family, Abram!”  God has plans that Abram could never imagine.  He could not understand that God wanted to not only give him one son, but so many children he could never count. Abram was too worried about what would happen to his stuff.

So back to that stock portfolio.  God has entrusted you with his portfolio.  With his entire Kingdom?  Are you willing to step out of your little box and limited thinking?  Are you willing to stop operating out of fear?  To realize that God’s portfolio isn’t just money or “stuff”?  Are you willing to realize that the God of everything, the one who created everything, the one who is Lord over all and “put those stars there” is trusting YOU with his most precious treasure.  Are you going to doubt God’s faith in you to take care of His treasure, and bury it in the ground?

Matthew 25:28-30 (MSG) says, “Take the thousand and give it to the one who risked the most.  And get rid of this ‘play-it-safe’ who won’t go out on a limb.  Throw him out into utter darkness”

God wants us to stop living for our “stuff” and in our worldly means.  To get rid of the part of ourselves that wants to ‘play-it-safe’.  Forget about your “stuff” and what’s going to happen to it after you’re gone, and step outside and look at the countless stars in an infinite sky.  The God who put those stars there loves you, and has trusted you with a treasure so precious He came here to die for it.  Now, what are you going to do with it?

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People Group of the Week: An Introduction

By: Laura Leigh Robson

Genesis 12:1-2 shows us that Abraham was blessed to be a blessing to the whole world.   Jesus tells us in Matthew 24:14 that “ this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come”. Revelation paints a picture that people will stand before God. People from every nation, tribe, people and language will praise God. Why? Because God is a God who longs to see all people come to Him, find satisfaction in Him and praise Him. 

Revelation 7:9 is not a reality yet. There are people in the world who do not know Christ, and those who do not have any access to the gospel or the name Jesus. Most of these people live in the “10/40 window”. This is a general region that is 10 and 40 degrees above the equator and spans from Africa to Japan. The people living in this region believe 5 main religions: Tribal/ Animalistic, Hinduism, Chinese/ Ancestor worship, Islam, and Buddhism. Of the 7 billion people in the world, about 88% of the unreached people live in this area.

This week's PGOW:

Bengali of Burma (Myanmar)

These are Muslim and Hindi people who live in Bangladesh and Burma.  They are a hard working people who strive for excellence. Most of the homes are within villages and are raised so that when monsoon rains come, they are stable. The main crop grown there is rice. Most marriages are arranged and there are separate roles of men and women in the culture. The Bengali culture also is marked by a similar caste system like India. Mostly Muslim, the people hold to Islamic values. 

Prayer Points

• Pray for an opening of spiritual understanding among all Bengalis. 
• Ask the Lord to call people who are willing to go to the Bengal region and share Christ with the Bengalis. 
• Pray that the small number of Bengali Christians will be a light for the Gospel in this area. 
• Ask God to raise up Christian medical teams, businessmen, and teachers to take the Gospel into this region. 
• Ask the Holy Spirit to soften the hearts of these Hindus and Muslims towards Christians so that they will be receptive to the Gospel. 
• Ask the Lord to raise up strong local churches in the Bengal region

http://www.joshuaproject.net/people-profile.php?peo3=10790&rog3=BM

More Information:

http://www.operationworld.org/

http://www.thetravelingteam.org/team_resources

Making (New) Disciples

Did you know that as churches age, they become far less able to make new disciples?  According to statistics provided by Dr. F. Belton Joyner, it takes 72 people (on average) to make 1 new disciple in congregations that are 10 years old or older.  72:1!  For congregations between 5-10 years old, the number jumps up to 17 people per new disciple; And for 1-2 year old congregations, the ratio is 2 people for one new disciple!  It seems that George Hunter was on to something when he said that the most efficient way to make new disciples is to plant new congregations!

Combine this with the reality that there are fewer churches per people in the United States than 100 years ago and we have a problem.  According to Hunter,  there were approximately 27 churches for  every 10,000 people in 1900 compared with 12 churches for every 10,000 people today.  The number is even less in our cities, where currently 85% of the population resides.

So the church today seems to be at a crossroads.  I don’t think the answer is to sit around and lick our wounds, reminiscing about the glory days.  Instead, we should be focusing our efforts on proactive measures to build bridges to those who are living far from God.  As Mike Slaughter suggests, “…if we are not giving birth to new churches, we will become irrelevant to the next generations.”

What I sense in the church today is that there is a grass-roots effort to return to this missional mindset.  It seems that God is raising up new leaders with a passion for reaching the unchurched by starting new movements and planting new churches.  Jesus told us that His church would prevail, and we know that it will, so my prayer is that God will continue to fan the flames of passion to see the church thrive into the next generations!  Will you join me?

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