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Why not give a gift subscription to a pastor or friend? qPlease send a gift subscription of the Global Prayer Digest to: Name: Address: [Do not print] City/State/Zip: Phone: qPlease send a gift subscription of the Global Prayer Digest to: Name: Address: Replace with the City/State/Zip: Phone: cover PDF Front Cover of second month [Do not print] Replace with the cover PDF Editorial OCTOBER 2016 Feature of the Month RECORDS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS Frontier Ventures Dear Praying Friends, 1605 East Elizabeth Street Pasadena, CA 91104-2721 Tel: (626) 398-2249 [email protected] Have you ever looked over EDITOR-IN-CHIEF the tropical waters during Keith Carey a bright, sunny day? It is ASSISTANT EDITOR so bright that you are often Paula Fern forced to close your eyes; WRITERS you must view darkness, you Patricia Depew can’t take in any more light. Patti Ediger In our natural spiritual state, we are much like this. Wesley Kawato Ben Kluett We can only take so much of the light of truth. Arlene Knickerbocker Esther Jerome-Dharmaraj It is much like what we see in 2 Chronicles 7:1- Christopher Lane 3, NIV. “When Solomon finished praying, fire Annabeth Lewis Karen Hightower came down from heaven and consumed the burnt Ted Proffitt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lydia Reynolds Jeff Rockwell LORD filled the temple. The priests could not Jean Smith enter the temple of the LORD because the glory Jane W. Sveska of the LORD filled it. When all the Israelites saw Chun Mei Wilson DAILY BIBLE COMMENTARIES the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD Keith Carey above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with David Dougherty their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and Robert Rutz gave thanks to the LORD, saying, ‘He is good; his CUSTOMER SERVICE love endures forever.’” Dan Eddy Lois Carey The fire provided the light, and the children of GRAPHICS Israel could see and experience His glory. They Garrett Inouye responded by worshiping and giving Him thanks. PRINTER As you pray for the unreached Muslim people Diversified Printers , La Mirada, CA groups of southern India, Sri Lanka, and the WEB SITE Maldive Islands, pray that they will see and re- www.globalprayerdigest.org spond to His light. Each day our Bible verses will ISSN 1045-9731 reflect this theme. Contents of the Global Prayer Digest © 2016 Frontier Ventures In Christ, 1605 East Elizabeth Street Pasadena, CA 91104 Contents of this booklet may be reproduced if appropriate credit and Keith Carey, editor-in-chief, GPD subscription information are given. For subscription information, call (626) 398-2249. For comments on content, call (626) 398-2241. 46 Editorial Feature of the Month Pray for a Church Planting Movement Among Every Muslim People in Tropical South Asia Arabian Bay of Sea Bengal Andhra Pradesh Karnataka K er Tamil Nadu ala SRI LANKA 47 To Help You Pray Better The Maldives: A Land Where the Gospel is Viewed as a Threat —by Wesley Kawato f you look at a globe you could easily miss the Maldive Islands. They are so small that maps often don’t include them. This former British protectorate is located in the IIndian Ocean, just south of Sri Lanka and southern India. The Republic of the Maldives includes a grouping of 1200 islands with a total land area of 300 square kilometers. Only about 440,000 people live on these islands, making the Maldives one of the smallest countries in the world. Hundreds of cities in our world have a larger population than this entire country. Yet their capital, Malé, packs so many people into so few acres that the Republic of the Maldives is the second most densely populated island nation on Earth. Why care about a nation that is so small? We who follow Christ care because God cares. No people group is exempted from the reach of the loving-kindness of Jesus Christ. Maldivians live under subjection to spiritual forces and spirit beings that are in rebellion against Christ. Before He returns, we must pray them into His kingdom. And His word Background 48 The Maldives clearly tells us that there must be some from every tribe, tongue, and nation worshipping Him before He returns. After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9-10, NIV). From Buddhism to Islam People from Sri Lanka and what is now southern India settled the Maldive Islands prior to the 5th Century BC. These early settlers were Dravidian goddess worshipers and Buddhists. Around 1153 AD a Muslim missionary named Abu Al Barakat sailed to the Maldives and converted almost the entire population to Sunni Islam. No one knows how long it took him to do that. We also don’t know if all of these conversions were sincere. It is possible that small groups of people continued to worship as Buddhists in secret, at least for a while. Such secret worship ended when a group of Buddhist monks, who had refused conversion, were beheaded. Most of what we know about Barakat’s activities comes from the writings of Ibn Battuta, who visited the Maldives in the 1340s. That was about 200 years after these events had taken place. By then the activities of Abu Al Barakat may have become semi-legendary. But what’s important is that each year, on the first day of the Islamic month of Rab’ al-thani, the Maldives celebrates Conversion Day. This national holiday reminds the people of the Maldives of the reputed collective decision in A.D. 1153 to embrace Sunni Islam. This event affects the psyche of the Maldives to this day. Yet pre-Islamic beliefs don’t die out easily in this island nation. One observer who lived there for years points out that people get dogmatically attached to various forms of folk Islam that violate the teachings of the Qur’an. Today the local people in the Republic of the Maldives are almost entirely unreached by the gospel and uninterested in spiritual answers that could lead to salvation and an abundant life. continued on next page 49 The Maldives Colonial Powers and Rocky Democracy During the 1500s Portugal briefly ruled the Maldives. A century later the Maldives became a Dutch protectorate. The British expelled the Dutch in 1796, and these islands more or less maintained internal autonomy. In 1887 an agreement with the British brought formal recognition of the Maldivian statehood with protected status under Great Britain. That year the Maldives became a British protectorate. The British allowed an Islamic sultan to rule the Maldives. At first the sultans were absolute rulers. They could do anything that didn’t offend the British. In 1953 the British established a republic in the Maldives, including a written constitution and election of a president and parliament, but these institutions quickly collapsed. By early 1954 the sultan had regained absolute power. In 1965 the Maldives became independent. In 1968 the sultanate was abolished and a second republic was established. In 1978 Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was elected the country’s president.