Introducing the Pray for the 31 Prayer Guide

On March 21, 2018, someone who had been studying the new idea of Frontier People Groups (FPGs) mentioned to a few prayer leaders the surprising discovery that half the population of all FPGs lives in just 31 people groups with populations of ten million or more.

“Thirty-one is a good number for a prayer guide,” someone observed. Prayer led to quick consensus, then further prayer and sustained collaboration in developing such a prayer guide.

Forty days later, to the day, volunteers had integrated feedback from a variety of prayer and mission leaders and sent to the printer the first edition of a prayer guide for the 31 largest Frontier People Groups.

Global interest was immediate and long before this first edition was back from the printer, volunteers were busily translating it into a half-dozen or more languages.

In subsequent months, a major revision and expansion were completed to form the prayer guide showcased here. To get the latest electronic copy, print copies, or to inquire about translations, visit Go31.org.

Here are some of this guide’s special features:

Inside the front cover is the listing above of the thirty-‐one groups, organized by region. Notice the concentration in South Asia, keyed to the numbered circles on the map shown on the opposite page.
Colored rings on the map, dots in the table, and banners over the profile show which people groups are Muslim (●) and which are Hindu (●).
The next page of the prayer guide distills the new pie chart (p. 8–9 of this MF) into one page:

Subsequent pages of this guide cover:
A brief overview of Frontier People Groups.
The key role of prayer in opening these groups to receive God’s blessing in Jesus.
The biblical basis and significance of pursuing gospel movements in prayer.
Prayer for the Bible to become fully available to all 31 of these people groups.
General prayer points for all FPGs.
Suggestions for involving kids and youth.

The main portion of the prayer guide is a separate page for each of the 31 groups, adapted from Joshua Project profiles, with:

a color map, picture, statistcs, and
background information and prayer points.

The back portion of the prayer guide includes:

Helpful definitions of key terms.
Introduction and map of the 400 largest and most influential FPGs, containing 90% of the population of all FPGs.
Charts showing the breakdown of all FPGs— by region and by religion.
Other prayer resources.