February 20, 2018 – Please pray for Djibouti
Djibouti is a country located in the Horn of Africa on the Gulf of Aden and the Bab-el-Mandeb, at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east.
Djibouti is strategically located near some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, controlling access to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. It serves as a key refueling and transshipment center, and is the principal maritime port for imports from and exports to neighboring Ethiopia.
Djibouti is a multi-ethnic nation with a population of over 942,000 inhabitants. Arabic and French are the country’s two official languages. About 94% of residents adhere to Islam, which is the official religion and has been predominant in the region for more than a thousand years. The remaining 6% of residents are Christian adherents.
Islam entered the region very early on, as a group of persecuted Muslims had sought refuge across the Red Sea in the Horn of Africa at the urging of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. In 1900, during the early part of the colonial era, there were virtually no Christians in the territories, with only about 100 – 300 followers coming from the schools and orphanages of the few Catholic missions in the French Somaliland. The Constitution of Djibouti names Islam as the sole state religion, and also provides for the equality of citizens of all faiths and freedom of religious practice.
The Diocese of Djibouti serves the small local Catholic population, which it estimates numbered around 7,000 individuals in 2006.
The above are from en.wikipedia.org. These statements have not been fact-checked and are only used here to help us gain a better understanding of this nation.
Djibouti does not provide an open invitation to Christianity as we can see from the statics listed above. The nation needs our prayer for their eyes and ears to become open to the Gospel. Peace is foreign to many religions in the world. They are based on the efforts of humanity to appease a god who is non-existent.
Here are a few thoughts on how we can pray for Djibouti.
1. Pray for those few within the nation who are committed believers in Jesus to faithfully share the Gospel in love.
2. Pray for the local pastors to be encouraged to serve and love a religious nation that does not know Jesus. It is a daunting and difficult task to serve when the opposition to Christianity is the lifestyle of much of the nation.
3. Pray for a breakthrough and for a spiritual awakening will sweep across this nation. Recently I have read reports of some in Islam are turning to Christianity because Christianity offers peace in a world shaken by terror.
