Thanks for praying about the super cyclone that hit India and Bangladesh yesterday. The good news is that so far relatively few deaths have been reported, only about 80 in both countries. In 1970, 500,000 died in a less powerful storm and tidal wave, and in 1999 almost 10,000 died in India from such a storm, so this reduced death toll is something to be thankful for since it could have been much, much worse. The main reason is India’s east and Bangladesh’s south lie on the Bay of Bengal, an impoverished region of 500 million people that has seen 26 of the deadliest 35 cyclones ever recorded. However, at this time, hundreds of thousands have been displaced and billions of dollars of property damage has been caused that these two nations will now need to recover from. Both countries need to quickly restore electricity and telecommunications and deal with the agricultural harm that will may continue to plague the region. But to do that while fighting off a growing coronavirus outbreak will be “a herculean task” as one news source put it. Traumatized and needy people will now need to overcome their fears of the coronavirus to get the relief supplies they need. Let’s, therefore, pray for those who have lost their homes and livelihoods as well as for the relief and rebuilding activities that are getting underway. Pray that fear will be vanquished and that relief operations will be well coordinated and effective in getting help to those left suffering by this disaster. Again, may the Lord turn tragedy into hope and life more abundantly through many of those affected, largely Hindus and Muslims, coming to know Christ.

Burundi’s national election happened yesterday, but we will have to wait till early next week for results of the voting. Pray for patience by all and especially for honest counting of the votes so that there will be no fraud and that the election results will be accepted. In the 2015 election, 1200 people were killed in the accompanying violence, so let’s pray that this time God’s peace will be felt tangibly and that there will be no violence. Pray that He will clean house in the government, bringing in honest and good leaders. Also, may His people there stand in the gap in prayer and keep united, not allowing such ethnic or political divisiveness to affect their relationships as followers of Jesus.

The following articles will give you more background on the situation if you care to read them: 

Burundi awaits poll results as opposition alleges fraud  Africanews

Burundi vote stirs new violence, five years after bloody crackdown The New Humanitarian

Finally, let’s pray for all the nations recovering from the coronavirus shutdown- for national leaders to do what is right and wise and that all the 190 or so nations that have shut down businesses and confined people to their homes these past two months will be able to re-open quickly, wisely, and safely after this economically devastating lockdown. Pray for up to half the world’s work force, probably at least hundreds of millions, who have lost their jobs, businesses, and the means to support themselves and their families. Pray especially for the children who need to get back to resuming their education and attend school. What a huge catastrophe for our whole world...but God! “All things are possible” with Him. Let’s intercede and trust Him for a strong recovery in every nation by His grace and again may He turn this awful ordeal around for redemptive good for tens of millions to come to know the Savior even during this month of the Go 2020 paryer and mission effort to reach them!

Thanks so much for your prayers of faith that joined to those of many others He will use to move the mountains once again!

Yours in Christ,
John Robb
ipcprayer.org
go2020.world/prayer

English

Just happened to be up in the night here and got this urgent prayer concern from Bangladesh and India through a good friend. A huge cyclone is on its way to the eastern coastal area of these two nations and should be making landfall about now. One Christian leader describes a similar but weaker cyclone that hit the coast in 1970: "In one hour 500,000 people and two million cattle were killed by a storm surge fifty feet high that raced inland fifty miles. In those days there was no early warning system, and there were no roads. In the next six months another 500,000 died from pestilence and disease. Cyclone Bhola was the worst meteorological disaster in recorded history."

Now a cyclone twice as strong is speeding towards the same area where millions live in its direct course and some Christian mission leaders there report:

“Cyclone Amphan overnight strengthened and became a Super Cyclone, the "strongest storm ever recorded over the Bay of Bengal". It is heading like an arrow straight for the border of India and Bangladesh. Please pray.

Millions will be affected. And most all in the path of this dangerous storm are already under attack from the novel coronavirus. For those along the coastline, the only hope of survival is to crowd into the new storm shelters built fifty feet above sea level. But, social distancing there is impossible.

… At that time 400,000 Rohingya refugees had fled over the border to Bangladesh, fleeing persecution.

Sadly, this tragic genocide is ongoing, and now more than 1,000,000 stateless Rohingya are crowded in desperate conditions along the south-east border of Burma/Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Pray especially for the Rohingya to weather the coming storm...And, coronavirus continues to spread rapidly. We really must ask God to calm this storm before it comes ashore. Please do pray now! “

Here is a news clipping about this situation as well:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/bangladesh-india-brace-amphan-largest-cyclone-20-years-200520022755647.html

Let's do pray for this storm to weaken and not to bring the feared and horrific destruction and loss of life that was experienced before. Pray for people in the path of the cyclone to get to higher ground and safety in time. Pray for effective relief and rescue efforts where needed. May these dear people and their children be protected from both the storm and the coronavirus that they fear so deeply and through these crises turn to Jesus Christ and come to know Him.

Thanks for joining us in prayer.

John Robb / Dr Jason Hubbard
International Prayer Council

We want to personally thank you for your involvement in the World Prayer Together May 1st prayer event! Thank you for your anointed intercession, Christ-exalting worship, and your sacrifice of time, resources and mobilization of networks to bring all this together! We give God all the Glory! It was so incredible to see so many nations, denominations, and generations praying together in agreement for the gospel to be proclaimed to every nation!

We partnered together with Go 2020, a month-long prayer, mission and evangelism effort for the month of May that seeks to mobilize 100 million believers to pray for and reach one billion still unreached by the Gospel. We launched this Go2020 initiative with this online prayer meeting on May 1st with prayer and mission leaders throughout the world. Over 100 nations participated and it was translated live in 12 languages, with over 16 different media streams! The video is still active on the website www.worldprayertogether.com to watch and pray!

• 644,000 views (individual devices)
• 208,000 playbacks (most accurate number of those participating in prayer with us on the call).
• The broadcast was shared 1297 times on Facebook.
• The prayer service had a live chat stream on Facebook with over 4,000 comments
• 64 decisions for Christ including several rededications
• Several regional prayer and missions networks were mobilized throughout the world to pray for Go2020 on May 1st
• In Brazil they mobilized 85,000 to pray.
• Indonesia mobilized hundreds of cities to join in united prayer for Go2020 on May 1st.
• Both Nigeria and South Africa mobilized thousands to pray! Hundreds of thousands were mobilized to pray throughout India!
• Eric Watt director of RUN ministries reported, “every house church in our movement (1.8 million worldwide) called for prayer and fasting for the nations to know Jesus. We estimate this to be 38 million adults plus children praying in united prayer for Go2020 and the harvest”
• The Go2020 Children’s Network mobilized millions of children in prayer throughout the nations! This included on the call children from the Children's Equipping Center, an outreach of IHOPKC, Hadassah Lawson, a 13-year-old evangelist who led 2,000 people to Christ this last year, and a powerful young intercessor from the Royal Kids in India. We were also honored to have Stephan Paul Ocampo, and Sarah Mutya on the call with us, who mobilized the Global Uprising Young Adult movement to join us!
• Prayer was mobilized for the Unreached Peoples of the World. Jenny Oliphant reports, “From the first day of January 2020, there have been cycles of 40 days, to pray and fast for what God is doing Globally through the Go2020 vision. We have prayed daily for a people group where they have very little access to hear about and follow Jesus, we have linked arms with other global prayer initiatives occurring throughout the year, and also involved children and youth with a 40 days calendar. We will continue with the 5th season of 40 days on 10th June to "Conserve the Harvest",
• Season 6 in July and August will be a Children's edition. Go to https://www.go2020.world/en/prayer to download the prayer guide and also book a slot in the online Upper Room, to pray with your friends or team, https://www.aqueductproject.org/prayer-center"

The four-hour prayer service focused on prayer for those in our own communities who don't know Christ as well as the unreached people groups in the far reaches of the earth that are still prevented by linguistic, cultural and religious barriers from having a witness for Christ. The gathering was co-hosted by John Robb, chairman of the International Prayer Council and Jason Hubbard, executive coordinator of the IPC. Both are members of the Go 2020 Prayer Taskforce along with other leaders from many different prayer streams.

The World Prayer Together meeting brought together leaders such as Mike Bickle, founder of the International House of Prayer; Dick Eastman, Every Home for Christ; Reverend David Mohan, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God in India; Bishop Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer of the Redeemed Church of God in Nigeria; Bekele Shanko, Vice President of CRU and Global Church Movements Chairman, GACX; Austen Ukachi, director of MANI; Onassis Jeeveraj, Go2020 national director India; Ann Low, SE Asia Prayer Council; Rick Ridings, Succat Hallel in Jerusalem; Leslie Keegel, Global Chair of Foursquare; Brian Heasley, the International Prayer Director of 24-7; Lou Engle, the Send; Daniel Pandji, My Home Indonesia; Sarah Lee, All Nations Intercessors in South Korea; Yanira Gonzalez, leader of CLAMOR, the Latin American Prayer Council and many, many other leaders.

It was also a joy and honor to welcome two men of God from the Catholic charismatic renewal movement, Dr. Johannes Hartl from Germany and Johannes Fictenbauer from Austria who also led in prayer.

“This is an unprecedented hour for humanity. With the Covid-19 Pandemic, we face one of the greatest challenges of modern history. At such a time, Christians need to come together in prayer and reach out to others with Christ’s life-transforming Good News to those still without hope!” -John Robb.

Moving forward

· Let’s continue to pray and witness to five people in our circle of influence who still do not know Christ and keep on asking for a billion souls to follow Jesus in this coming decade! For more info on different prayer strategies as well as helpful resources for prayer go to https://www.go2020.world/en/prayer
· Let’s join in praying for the unreached peoples of the world through the 40 day prayer guide https://www.go2020.world/en/prayer and by finding national and regional lists of UPGs and resources for prayer and mission on www.joshuaproject.net.
· The next prayer call this month will be “One Miracle Night” hosted by the Jesus Film, a 24 hour prayer effort for the 48 Muslim majority countries, May 19th, 8am (EDT) – 20th 8am. The link for the broadcast will be here at www.youtube.com/user/jesusfilm and I attached the poster below!

“May the Lamb who was slain receive the due reward for his sufferings”

We are so honored you could join us. We love you and we bless you!

Dr. Jason Hubbard,
Executive Coordinator of the International Prayer Council
John Robb, Chairman of International Prayer Council
Werner Nachtigal (Global Outreach Day, Go2020)
David Demian (Watchmen for the Nations)

International Prayer Council
www.ipcprayer.org
Go 2020 Global Prayer Task Force
www.go2020.world/prayer

Watch the World Prayer Together Call again:
www.worldprayertogether.com

CoVid-19 is proving a disruptive, distressing, and divisive force throughout the world. How do mission-minded Christians respond? What happens to the Great Commission when the world is on lockdown? In this short e-book, Jason Mandryk, the author of Operation World, takes readers through a sweeping overview of the implications of the coronavirus for the global Church, and specifically, its impact on global mission.

In compiling this analysis, the Operation World team interacted with ministry and mission leaders in every region of the world, getting input on how to pray for different nations afflicted by CoVid-19 as well as strategic considerations from a wide array of missiological contexts.

Download the free EBook from Operation World.

English

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On Friday 1st May at 1pm, millions of believers will stand and pray together 'online' for every believer to be a witness and for a billion people to hear the Gospel during May 2020. Many of the prayer streams, so far embracing 145 nations and including International Prayer Connect, have come together to arrange this united prayer gathering. It will be led by ministry leaders from every region of the world, including some praying children as well. During this online call, we will pray together for the global harvest in the midst of this virus crisis.

Download as a Read & Print PDF

We are pleased to bring you IPC Connections for April 2020.

These are unprecedented times. All but 18 nations of the world are currently confronting the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. At the time of writing, there are over a million recorded cases and nearly 60,000 deaths. It is having massive health, social, economic and political impact.  The virus does not discriminate.  We are seeing some healthy younger people taken seriously ill and succumbing to the virus as well as a significant proportion of older and more vulnerable patients. 

The pandemic is affecting the Christian Church globally but we are heartened to observe that it is responding positively in lots of ways. It is continuing to share the message of hope that we all have in Jesus that overcomes fear.  As well as making a strong humanitarian response in many countries, the Church is adapting the way it meets - with many gathering online.  Our friend and colleague, Bennie Mostert from Jericho Walls, South Africa was just this week sharing with fellow ministry leaders about organised and spontaneous prayer mushrooming across South Africa with believers of all ages coming together and meeting online.  We are aware that this is happening in many other nations across Africa and the world too.  

Many Christian conferences and events that had to be cancelled have moved online to great effect!  The Watchmen Conference led by David Demian in South Korea met this last week with over 150,000 people from many nations clicking onto the online zoom meeting.  Watch it HERE.   We are invited to join a follow-up meeting entitled ‘Passover – Holy Alignment’ on 7th April.  Details HERE and more info below.

We are pleased to confirm that GO 2020 is still taking place in May 2020. Many hundreds of thousands of people around the world will share Christ amid the crisis. The principle remains the same: Every Believer is a Witness! But we will focus on online and media Gospel sharing.  Visit the Go2020 website for more and See the article below.

Watch the GO 2020 Video  |  Download the Brochure  |  Download the April Prayer Guide

A number of you were unable to join the IPC’s ‘GO2020 & Coronavirus’ Global Prayer Call this last week (Sun 29 March), due to a few technical hitches.  It was a good gathering with intercessors of all ages praying from every continent! We have edited the video of the meeting so you can watch what happened HERE.

In this edition of IPC Connections, we are bringing a number of important and perhaps sobering articles to pray into.  But we open with three editorial articles from IPC Colleagues which we trust will build you up and encourage you. 

Firstly, a video from Dr Jason Hubbard, our Executive Coordinator entitled 'Our Response to the Coronavirus pandemic' in which he shares a message of hope and assurance as he encourages us to faithfully pray in agreement and unity in the Lord's name and to expect great things.  May God's Kingdom be advanced amidst the challenges of this season that we are in. 

Let's individually and corporately renew our commitment to repentance and 'extraordinary prayer'. Please do take time to watch and listen to this powerful twenty minute message.

Secondly, Dr Leslie Keegel, global chairman of the Foursquare Church movement and a senior leader in the IPC, shares a prophetic word for the time that we are in entitled 'Just Stay Calm'. Let's take time to reflect and be encouraged by this dramatic vision that brings a fresh perspective on our current global situation that is prophetically pointing to a time of great harvest.  

The third editorial article is from our IPC colleague and West Africa Coordinator, Austen Ukachi on the theme of ‘Faith in Times of Adversity’. He writes as someone who knows the challenges of Africa intimately. Let's lock shields with our fellow believers, some of whom are facing unimaginable situations and stand against the powers of darkness and the covid-19 virus (Eph 6: 16-18).  Our God is an awesome God - Amen!

May we express grateful thanks to Andy Page and the IPC Editorial Team who put this email together each month.

Wishing you His continued blessings,

Jason Hubbard - Executive Coordinator
John D Robb – Chairman - International Prayer Connect

International Prayer Connections is produced and distributed freely each month to inform God's praying people around the world. We are grateful to those who have given generously to enable this to happen and continue to need such support for this and our other transformational prayer initiatives.

If you can make a gift towards our costs by giving to our funding arm, the Transformation Prayer Foundation, we would appreciate it. Please click here.