October 2003

Did you know that the Kingdom of God will not grow except through PRAYER? The unreached will never hear the sweet name of Jesus without the labor of someone's Spirit-led prayers. Regardless of how things may appear on the surface, nothing of eternal value is ever released without somebody, somewhere PRAYING. Thank you for taking time each day to pray for the Zerma People.

Wednesday, October 1 -- Please pray for Adama, a lady at the prison in Niamey. Pray that she will continue to be open to talking to Charity about her life, as well as spiritual things. Pray that Charity would reflect God's love to her and portray how God is alive and desires a relationship with her!

Thursday, October 2 -- Being in the U.S. has been a special time for Don and Teresa Bolls, a time to be with family and friends sharing with churches and others who support the Zerma work. Part of that special time involves the ease of communicating with family and supporters. A recent phone call revealed son Matt and his wife Christie will be expanding their family! God has
answered many prayers - Praise the Lord with us for this news of a child on the way. (as excited as Matt is - Teresa is surprised it was not announced on CNN!!)

Friday, October 3 -- This weekend (October 3-4), Teresa Bolls will be speaking at a WMU spiritual retreat. Pray that she will let the Lord guide her as she shares and draws from her experience in working with the Zerma people. Pray that the women would hear the Lord's message and that they would have a deeper relationship with the Lord as well as a more rounded prayer life.

Saturday, October 4 -- Pray for Aissa, a Christian lady at the prison. Pray that she would understand more each day about God's love and that her faith would be strengthened.

Sunday, October 5 -- Pray for all of our missionaries to have wisdom, guidance, and strength as to the use of their time and resources. Pray that their daily lives would demonstrate complete trust in God to reveal His will and provide for their daily needs.

Monday, October 6 -- Please pray for Charity as she seeks ways to build relationships with women in Niamey. Pray that the Lord would lead her to women who will enjoy building a new relationship and who desire to learn about God's Word.

Tuesday, October 7 -- Don Bolls is in a bit of withdrawal having not gone to jail in almost 5 months! Pray especially for the few Christians at the prison in Ouallam and others where Don has ministered several years.

Wednesday, October 8 -- Please pray for the work being done on the Zerma radio program. Pray that work with translating, typing, correcting and testing will continue to move forward. Praise the Lord that there are other Christian groups who want to help get it on the radio as soon as possible! Pray that this program geared toward Muslims would go forth and spread quickly, that many may hear the Good News!

Thursday, October 9 -- Pray for Ali. After much perseverance he has learned to read Zerma and has spent much time pouring over the Zerma Bible. He is struggling between knowing what scripture teaches about being reconciled to God and yet observing Zerma Christians who often act in a way contrary to what scripture teaches. His family are strong Muslims so he knows the price he would pay for becoming a Christian.

Friday, October 10 -- Pray for Rick Leavitt today. He has spent the month of September working out in the desert. Pray that he will continue to find quality time with the Lord and in the Word.

Saturday, October 11 -- Please continue to pray for the village of Waru. Pray that as Charity makes visits that God's love would shine through her and that others would see God in her life! Pray that during her visits there that she may continue building relationships with the women. Pray too that their crops would produce a great harvest of food for them that will last until next year's harvest.

Sunday, October 12 -- Phil Cain will be traveling to Nigeria October 12-19 to participate in a missions conference sponsored by the Nigerian Baptist Convention in cooperation with the IMB. (Nigeria, our neighbor, has thousands of Baptist churches). This will be a unique opportunity to challenge and invite Nigerian churches and their members to become in our work with the Zerma people. They hope to have representatives from at least 500 churches there--maybe as many as 1000. Pray for Phil as he shares his vision for the Zerma and pray that God would raise up many prayer advocates among these churches as well as individuals who will come as missionaries, helping us share the gospel with those who have never heard

Monday, October 13 -- We praise the Lord for our new prayer supporters. Don and Teresa have been sharing about the work among the Zerma in many churches in the United States and there have been several individuals as well as churches to sign up to join the Zerma Prayer Team. We thank the Lord for all of our prayer supporters and thank you for being a part of the team - with the goal of getting the good news to the Zerma people, and to the uttermost parts of the earth

Tuesday, October 14 -- Please pray for Faith as she continues to build relationships with the people of Torodi and the adjoining village of Sance. Pray that her eyes would be open to seeing what opportunities may be there for sharing God's Word and his love. Pray that people would be open to hearing what she has to say and that God would speak mightily through her.

Wednesday, October 15 -- Spend some time today in prayer for the Mark Ledlow family. Mark is in the middle of building a new home in addition to his duties as business manager for Niger. Pray that he will be patient as he deals with attempting to acquire materials to complete the job.

Thursday, October 16 -- Although less than 1% of the population of Niger is Christian, many people even now are seeking the path to God. Pray that these people would find the true path through access to God's word--that those who can read would find it in written form and those who can't would be able to hear it through audio cassettes, radio programs, or by word-of-mouth.

Friday, October 17 -- Continue to remember the Niger Pepper Project. Extensive rains have damaged part of the harvest. Local farmer misunderstanding and mistrust has damaged even more. Pray for Ibro as he still tries to make a "go" of the pepper business, use it so that many others have a better income and have a chance to show Christ in it all.

Saturday, October 18 -- Please pray for the deaf Believers of Torodi. Pray that their faith would continue to grow and that their excitement about their relationship with Christ will never die! Pray that they will continue to be bold in sharing about what God has done in their lives.

Sunday, October 19 -- Pray for those who are suffering persecution--not that the persecution would end, but that through the persecution they would remain faithful to God and come to know Christ in a deeper and more intimate way. Pray that their faith in the face of adversity would serve as a testimony to those who are lost.

Monday, October 20 -- There are many Zerma people who do not live in the Zerma heartland or even near it. Pray for those that live away, even in distant countries including the U.S. that they may come into contact with others that know Christ and will share that with them.

Tuesday, October 21 -- Pray for a small group of believers in the village of Zontondi. Pray that they would become rooted and grounded in the faith, that they would be bonded together through Christ, and that they would have a bold and a clear witness to their families and neighbors.

Wednesday, October 22 -- Pray for Jeremy and Stephanie Ledlow and this year in school. The school is always in need of additional faculty, and that is hard on all the students. PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!!! Pray for them as they continue the transition to this much smaller school and the adjustments to new friendships, again.

Thursday, October 23 -- Pray for Bethany, one of Stephanie's friends in Niger. She has had many health problems and some of them seem to be severe. Pray that her family will have the strength to deal with them and that Bethany would have relief from the pain. (Bethany is feeling better but they are still doing some tests to try and find out what is going on in her head. As of right now they have not sent her back to the states but it is still a possibility. Thanks so much for the prayers.)

Friday, October 24 -- Pray that God would send strong and committed Zerma Christians to Ali who could model living as a Christian in this Muslim culture. Pray that Ali would have the courage to take that step of faith and give his heart to Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Saturday, October 25 -- Pray for the country of Niger. The President is not in good health and if he were to pass away we could have quite a bit of problems with people trying to fill his position.

Sunday, October 26 -- Pray for Moussa and his wife Kadija and their 3 children. Moussa had 2 children die of malaria this past year and it has been very hard on the family

Monday, October 27 -- Pray for Hasane as he continues to study God’s word. Hasane received Christ last summer and continues to grow. He is also witnessing to his brothers who are interested in following Christ.

Tuesday, October 28 -- Ali is Hasane’s brother. He is interested in becoming a Christian. His biggest problem is that he has seen how some “Christians” in the past have acted and says he does not want to make a decision until he knows he can follow Christ completely. Pray for Ali.

Wednesday, October 29 -- Pray for Deanna and Mark Ledlow as they seek what ministries God wants them to continue in and new ones to start.

Thursday, October 30 -- The rains have been good this year and it looks like most people should have a descent harvest “Praise God”. Because of the good rains the mosquitoes have been bad so they have had a lot of Malaria this year in Niger.

Friday, October 31 -- Pray for Ibro and Raschida and their daughter Amy as they continue to follow Christ.