Pray for Dagestan

Kamiila was born into a large Muslim family in Dagestan, a mountainous region in Russia that has traditionally been one of the least-receptive places to the gospel. Even as a young girl she was headstrong and independent, refusing to do her namaz (prayers).

Her father told her that Allah would severely punish those who disobeyed him. This caused Kamiila to question if God was really like her father. “If he is like that, then I don’t want to believe in such a God!”, she thought.

When Kamiila was 12 years old, she saw a woman sitting on the seashore reading a book so she approached her and asked, “What is the name of the book you are reading?”

“The Bible,” she replied.

That stirred something in Kamiila’s heart, and from that moment on, she desired to have a copy of her very own.

Kamiila grew up, married, and had three children. Yet she never stopped searching for truth. Her husband let her decide whether she wanted to show her devotion by covering her head but Kamiila was tormented by whether Allah required it. At that moment, she cried out: “God, I don’t know who you are! If you hear me, show yourself to me just once, and I won’t ask you for anything else!”

That night, a tall man in white clothes appeared to Kamiila in a dream. He didn’t have to identify Himself. She immediately recognised Him as Jesus, and in His presence, she felt as light as a feather. She woke up and began to look again for a Bible. Three weeks later, she was sitting in a church with tears flowing down her cheeks as she held the book that she had dreamt of having for decades.

How to Pray

• Pray that Dagestani seekers like Kamiila would have access to Scriptures in their language.
• Ask God for protection on the believers and the small house churches they gather in.
• Pray for a radiant Dagestani church to reach out to other Caucasian peoples and share Jesus with them.