Momena's story

Day 4: Pray for the Word to spread

More than half of all Hazara live in some of the most inaccessible mountains in the world. In addition to their geographical isolation most Hazara are illiterate, unable to read the written Scripture. Pray for the development of an oral Bible so the Hazara can hear the Word of God in their heart language for the first time. Pray for the good news to spread across the mountains into every Hazara village.

Momena's story

Momena* and her sisters thread their way home along a mountain path, worn smooth over the generations. Their daily chores, like their traditions have hardly varied in centuries. Days are full of hard work—gathering wood, weaving woolen rugs, tending sheep, cooking over open fires, carrying water. But Momena lives for the evenings, when stories fill the still night air.

Everyone gathers around when the story-teller begins to weave a tale. Returning travelers are heartily entertained in return for news of the outside world and a good story from their journey. In an illiterate community, all of the important elements of faith, culture and history are passed along through repeated stories. Stories bind the community together.

Momena can't read. Written words are mysterious, and inaccessible to her. Everything Momena knows about the world and her place in it she draws out of a story. Stories are her education.

Each year, Momena looks forward to the special celebrations, called eids. During eid, the elders and mullahs (priests) tell stories of great spiritual leaders and of past events that give meaning to the traditions practiced today. They breathe life into history.

Momena loves the stories. As she sits on the ground with her legs crossed and her back straight, she closes her eyes and lets the mullah's voice sketch the characters of the story in her imagination. She weeps as she listens, yet again, to the story of Hussein, who was betrayed and martyred. She doesn't know that there was another man who was betrayed by those he loved and brutally murdered by those he came to save. She doesn't know that this man tasted death, but then defeated it by rising from the dead. She has never heard his story.

How will Momena hear the most important story in history—the story of God coming to earth as a man to bring salvation to the Hazara?

Pray that the Hazara will have access to the gospel in a form they can understand and pass along.

Pray for the Hope for Hazara radio program, which is broadcast into the mountains of Afghanistan to be funded and sustained.

*Use Ezekial 34:11 and Isaiah 55:11 to pray that God's Word will reach His sheep and they will know Him as their Shepherd!

*Names have been changed to protect individuals. Photos do not represent the individual described in the story.

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