“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” – John 1:5
We are journeying to a dark place. But penetrating the heart of darkness is something our God knows about. Christ dealt it the deathblow. Still, He has given us the privilege of struggling and doing battle against the darkness in His name and on the behalf of our imprisoned fellow man. The people of Madagascar are in danger of their lives. They are held captive by famine, poverty, taboos and the dark powers of this world who wish them nothing but death.
I don’t want to be vague about this: Satan and the demons he commands are real and they really hate God and His creation. That’s us and that’s the people on Madagascar. Satan works by attacking us with lies, fear, and shame and they are all visible in Madagascar. But we Christians are not helpless. We are called to stand against and fight Satan! As Doug and I go out, we go as Christian soldiers empowered by Christ’s death and the Holy Spirit’s life within us. Because of this, we know we are more than conquerors. We go to set the captives, those who walk in fear of taboos, those who have not heard the name of Christ, those who will die eternally if we do nothing, we go to set them free by the power and in the name of Jesus Christ–Savior, Lord, and King!
But we cannot do it alone.
This is a battle. No one ever goes into battle alone. We need you who are here on the homefront to constantly be supporting us through prayer. The fire of the gospel will be fed through the fuel of prayer. I firmly believe that God called me not merely to involve me in this war but to involve you as well. You have the chance to fight for something. Please help us fight this war! By praying, you are blessed with the opportunity to make an eternal impact. Your prayer will save lives.
Are you in?
If so here’s the plan . . .
“There is a general kind of praying which fails for lack of precision. It is as if a regiment of soldiers should all fire off their guns anywhere. Possibly somebody would be killed, but the majority of the enemy would be missed.” – Charles Spurgeon
I firmly agree with Mr. Spurgeon. When we pray we want to aim for particular targets. Now this is only possible with specifics, and specifics in war only come through direct intel.
That is our job. We provide the intel, you provide the firepower (technically God is providing the power but think of yourself as the gun through which God is firing lethal bullets at Satan and his army and things start getting a lot cooler).
I will be doing my best to provide you with the most specific, direct, up-to-date details I can in order that you can pray most effectively.
Maybe this doesn’t sound all that important to you. I’m sorry–it is. It is as important as a life.
“None can believe how powerful prayer is, and what it is able to effect, but those who have learned it by experience.” – Martin Luther
I so want you to join us on our journey. As I’ve said, we need you. You have a chance to learn by experience how powerful prayer is.
I pray you will.
Baker Storycraft 
Thank you for reminding me how significant PRAYER really is! It is a matter of life and death.
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Nathan (brother),
I want you to know that you are in my prayers daily as I ask God to prepare you for this great journey, and that He will do a mighty work in and through you that you may touch the lives of the people of Madagascar. My heart is saddened in that you will be so far away, for so long, but that is only my own selfishness. It is going to be hard not to pick up the phone and call you on a whim. Know that Jared and I love you dearly, and think the world of you. Know that we will be reading your blog and sending you mail. SO MUCH LOVE COMING FROM ME TO YOU!
Love, Lindsay (sis)
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So much love felt. Thanks sis!
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Nathan
I’m here and praying. Praying for your journey, praying for the people you will be in contact with to have open ears and hearts so that they will be set ‘free’from their bondage and know the love of Christ as we do, and thanking God for the many blessings that you will receive.
Ms. Jo
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This is a great use of imagery, Nathan. God has created you an actor since birth, and your experience is again uniquely helping people connect to God. I have an image now, of me as a gun, and God holding me, bullets coming out through my hands folded in prayer, aiming RIGHT at Satan and the ropes that Satan has used to bind these poor, unknowing victims in Madagascar. I love it. I never thought about the futility of my general prayers and how they lack specificity. So please, let us all back home know exactly what we need to be praying for! I do not want y’all going there in vain!!! Thanks Nathan!
Cindy, Doug’s aunt
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Hello Nathan,
My wife and I are in South Africa right now serving with YWAM.
We just had a time of worship and intercesion for Madgascar with our school. I wanted to pass the notes onto you sice your actualy over there and they may be of some encouragement.
Here are the words and scriptures that we felt God pointing out to us:
Psalm 96
Isaiah 9:6 & 7
Luke 19:9-10
Psalm 51
Isaiah 60: 1-3 & Jeremiah 31: 33-34
John 17:22
Jeremiah 29
Jeremiah 3:13
Against distrust among people.
For the Churches to be unified under one banner.
For them to follow the example of Fiji.
As we spent our time in prayer these were the verses and words that came up. Our leader for this prayer time was a lady from Madagascar. We also prayed for the various unreached people groups that are there.
Stay strong in Christ!
In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom
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That’s awesome! Please continue to pray for the unification of the churches here. So much of the gospel progress here depends on that unified front and vision. My team here works with the Mahafaly people group and we appreciate all those prayers. I’ll be lifting up you guys in SA as well. Thanks for the encouragement.
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