Nicole Gallwey said the people group she serves is Muslim, and they love being Muslim.
And she loves them and wants them to know the love of Jesus instead.
That’s why she left Alabama nine years ago to live among them in the Middle East.
“They love being Muslim, but many of them don’t really know what their religion teaches besides the basics of how to pray and fast,” Gallwey said of her people group, the Pearl people.
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But she said God has provided several ways for her International Mission Board team to reach the women, who rarely leave their homes, she said.
“We have a health education team that visits people with diabetes and other chronic illnesses to teach and encourage healthy habits,” Gallwey said. “A few doctors and a physical therapist from a local hospital partner go with us to treat women in their homes.”
Healthy habits
She and her teammates have also started exercising with the women and cooking healthy food together.
“While we are in the home, we tell the women and children a series of Bible stories that help them understand the nature of God and man’s relationship with him and how Jesus puts everything right again,” Gallwey said.
The men on her team have also been meeting with a small group of Pearl men to read the Bible, and God is working in their hearts, she said.
Beginnings of God’s work
“It’s a long road to faith for them. There is one man who our team prayed for for years who was an alcoholic and abusive to his wife and children who has recently professed faith in Christ,” Gallwey said. “He will need lots of patient and loving discipleship, but we rejoice over the beginnings of God’s work in his life.”
Gallwey is among 3,515 IMB missionaries around the world who are supported by the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering each year. All the LMCO goes straight to missionaries who are making disciples and multiplying churches among unreached people groups. A number of those missionaries — like Gallwey — are from Alabama.
This year’s Week of Prayer for International Missions, set for Dec. 1–8, kicks off the season of the LMCO, which this year has a national goal of $205 million and a goal of $12 million for Alabama.
“I’m very thankful for the LMCO because the funds allow [our] team to both live in and travel to places where unreached people live,” Gallwey said. “Because we are so well supported, we can focus all our energy on the missions task, knowing that our financial, physical and medical needs are taken care of.”
She said she is also thankful for the offering because it reminds her “how many other Christians are deeply committed to the Great Commission and that there are many people faithfully praying for me and God’s work here.”
Prayer needs
She asked for prayer for God to give her team creativity and endurance as they share the gospel over and over with the Pearl people they know and for God to open inroads into new communities yet to hear the gospel.
For more information or to download resources like videos, social media graphics, posters and bulletin inserts, visit imb.org/lottiemoon.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Names have been changed for security reasons.
Week of Prayer for International Missions is Dec. 1–8
Day 1 — The Great Pursuit in Senegal
Even though Moses is afraid of water, he and his wife Beth continue to travel by canoe to reach the unreached living on the islands of the west African country of Senegal.
Day 2 — The Great Pursuit in Central Asia
During their two decades in Central Asia, Gary and Ann Warrior have seen people turn to Christ, and that isn’t stopping now — people are still desiring to be baptized.
Day 3 — The Great Pursuit among the Deaf
Two years ago, there was no church-planting movement among the Deaf of Slovenia. But now with a Slovenian Sign Language translation of the Bible, IMB missionaries are seeing the Deaf respond to the gospel.
Day 4 — The Great Pursuit in Brazil
When Danilo Miranda was growing up in Brazil, he was discipled by an IMB missionary. Now he is one himself and spends time training churches in Brazil to be healthy and send missionaries around the world.
Day 5 — The Great Pursuit on Southeast
Asian Islands
On the Southeast Asian islands where David and Regan York serve, there are a lot of obstacles, including a variety of religions and treacherous travel through jungles. But the Yorks are committed to seeing healthy churches planted and multiplied.
Day 6 — The Great Pursuit in Northern Africa
Jay and Ella Janill serve in an area where they need security guards and a trekking guide to travel safely into the mountains. But they have seen God at work as they’ve shared the gospel — including the salvation of one of their guides.
Day 7 — The Great Pursuit in South Asia
As a missionary explorer, John Pratt prays for God to show him how to find the people groups he’s looking for. On one occasion, God led him to a man fishing by the water, and so far he and six others from his people group have prayed to trust in Christ.
Day 8 — The Great Pursuit in Europe
Ginny Wheeler has seen God use her nursing skills in Greece in ways she never would’ve expected. Most recently, she’s been able to mentor a young Greek nurse and help her catch a vision for reaching refugees with the gospel through meeting medical needs.
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