Praying for Unreached People Groups
Jie Sun /
Tuesday, October 4, 2022
When COVID-19 hit Canada in March 2020, our church (Starlight Mandarin Chinese Congregation at the Ellerslie Road Baptist Church in Edmonton) went online, and our pastor started the “Starlight Repentance and Revival Morning Prayer Altar”.
Prayer Meeting
As a congregation, we gather to pray every morning from 6:00 - 7:00 am through Zoom meetings. The prayer meeting is structured in three parts, each about 20 minutes: worship, scripture reading/sharing, and praying. Scripture reading/sharing and praying are in small groups of four people. We prayed through the New Testament in 2020 and early 2021. Then we continued to pray the Old Testament scriptures.
Because it is online, the Starlight Morning Prayer Altar has attracted people from different parts of the world and inspired the establishment of new morning prayer altars such as Calgary Unity Morning Prayer Altar, prayer altars in Northern California USA, Cambridge UK, etc.
Prayer for Unreached People Groups
In May 2021, we started to pray for the Unreached People Groups for the second hour of our prayer meeting on Saturdays.
We prayed for the 31 largest Frontier People Groups (FPGs). The total population of these 31 FPGs is over 900 million and consists of 11.7% of the world population. Among these 31 FPGs, there are 18 Muslim groups and 13 Hindu groups. The 31 FPGs cover the countries of India, Pakistan, China, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Morocco, Nigeria, and Algeria.
After praying for the unreached people groups for over one year, doors of sharing the gospel with the unreached people groups are opened for us from both far and near.
In the summer of 2022, several members from our congregation had the opportunity to share the gospel with the unreached people groups in Asia and witnessed over 500 baptisms. Through this evangelism opportunity, we truly felt that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Locally, in Edmonton, members of our congregation are taking initiatives to reach people from different cultural backgrounds in our community. One sister in our congregation had over 10 classmates from Muslim backgrounds this year and she reached out to her classmates through various activities such as helping with schoolwork, giving out bread and seeds of flowers and vegetables, writing cards with encouraging scripture verses, organizing social gatherings, etc. She continued to reach out to her classmates through Zoom meetings even after the class was finished.
A Vision for all Nations
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our congregation was mainly focused on sharing the gospel with people from our cultural backgrounds.
Now, our pastor has set the vision for our congregation of covering all nations with the glory of God. The corporate prayers at our morning prayer altar are transforming our congregation into a missional church with a vision for all nations.
This article was written by Jie Sun, who attends Starlight Mandarin Church in Edmonton, Alberta.
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