July 2014

My dear praying friend,

Often I think of you doing the most important work a Christian can do – praying for those living in dire physical, intellectual, and spiritual darkness.

This month we will be interceding for one of the most spiritually oppressive places in the world, West Africa – a region recognized for its lack of illumination not only in an electrical sense but also in a practical, spiritual sense. I remember meeting a woman in Liberia whose husband had been a high official at the early stages of the infamous Charles Taylor’s regime. When the husband perceived the direction the government was taking, including involvement in violence and other injustices against the people, he spoke up and was consequently ousted and then murdered. A price was also put on his wife’s head, and she had to flee with her kids and hide in the jungle.

She told me the story during a Project Hannah meeting in which we prayed for her and her family. But as Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, once said, “There is no pit so deep that the love of God isn’t deeper still,” that beautiful woman had experienced the redeeming and freeing power of God’s love and forgiveness.

West Africa is the birthplace of Voodoo and all sorts of unholy spiritual strongholds. So we are entering fierce spiritual warfare this month. Discouragement might settle in as you read this month’s prayer requests. We all are tempted sometimes to wonder how it is possible for us to handle such need and evil. Indeed, these powers cast deep shadows within these societies. But then, let’s not forget that Jesus, our Redeemer, IS the “light of the world,” that “where sin increased, grace abounded even more” (Romans 5:20)!  Remember that when Jesus comes into the lives of these victims of doom, He gives them a new heart, a transformed mind, a new identity. The shadows are swallowed up by His power and light, making them as bright as the noonday sun. His people become the “salt and light of the world”! I witnessed this transforming power in the heart of that beautiful woman. She knew that “greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

My friend, you and I can be channels of such miraculous transformation as we do this powerful exercise of prayer. Imagine! Our almighty God waits for our prayers. He loves to hear His people praying earnestly and with confidence in His power and grace. Prayer releases such miraculous intervention, for our Father of lights is listening. He will lift up the spiritual gloom of West Africa as He hears 40,000 intercessors praying through the requests during this month.

Thanks for persevering in standing in the gap for these broken and beautiful West African women.

Your sister and prayer partner,

Marli Spieker
Global Ministry Director/Founder
Project Hannah
TWR