Gabon

Challenges for Prayer

Despite Gabon being wealthy in resources, many Gabonese continue to dwell in poverty. This is largely due to decades of neglecting the nation’s infrastructure and to prevalent corruption that prevents the country’s wealth from trickling down to all. Women and children are vulnerable to poverty through lack of education and social mores; exploitation and trafficking of children are particularly evil situations. Pray for righteousness to prevail over those seeking to gain profit at the expense of others.

Spiritist beliefs and practices (such as Bwiti syncretism) are widely observed and deeply pervasive in much of Catholicism, other Christian groups and Islam. This continues to cause many to fall back on fetishes, hallucinogenic drugs, ancestral spirits and dependence on the medicine men who have held them in bondage for generations. Secret societies are common; many government elite, police officers and members of the army participate in often-bloody nighttime rituals including witchcraft and black magic. Christians who refuse to participate in these “harmless clubs” can be refused academic or professional advancement.

     For an additional 6 Challenges for Prayer see Operation World book, CD-ROM, or DVD-ROM.