The Maldives – Paradise without Christ

Pray for the island nation of the Maldives

“Have we done something wrong?” our Maldivian friends used to ask after we hadn’t managed to visit them for a little over a week. Maldivians (also called Dhivehis) are very hospitable, and our friends loved to serve tea and delicious food to us any time of the day and as often as we found time to come by.

The Maldives are a chain of 26 atolls with hundreds of beautiful islands southwest of India and Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean. They are a paradise for tourists, but behind the curtain of external beauty, there is much need and spiritual darkness. The Maldives are by law a 100{1ef34f8f1cacfdc6c19f5319e487deec2393c82eacea09a13da7feed1a24e305} Muslim nation without religious freedom. Corruption, divorce, abuse and drug addiction are widespread. Drug addicts and dealers may be sentenced to long terms in jail, but that doesn’t solve the problem.

Only very few Maldivians know Jesus as their Savior. After more than twenty years of Bible translation very few parts of the Bible are available in Maldivian (or Dhivehi). It has always been difficult to find native speakers who are able and willing to help with translation and proofreading due to fear, reservations towards the Bible or religious convictions.

Prayer Ideas

• Drug addiction devastates lives and families. Pray for those who suffer to experience real freedom in Christ and for that freedom to spread throughout the Maldives.
• Pray for more freedom in religion and opportunities to hear the gospel, such as in progress in translating the Scriptures.
• Pray that many Maldivians would come to know Christ as their Savior and Lord and a