Displaying items by tag: Europe

A legacy of brokenness endures from the days of Ceausescu’s regime, a moral vacuum filled with every kind of social evil. Substance abuse, prostitution, pornography, human trafficking, and challenges to child welfare are widespread. Romania has one of the highest abortion rates in the world, with three or more abortions for every child born. Poverty is still common, with widespread unemployment and economic instability, caused to a large degree by rampant and entrenched corruption. Divisions in government reduce its effectiveness; major strides forward are needed in its legal, education and health care systems as well as police and local administrations. Pray for leadership to have the wisdom to chart the right path and the integrity to implement the right policies. Few pastors have a theological library. Pray for Christian publishing houses and distribution networks to establish a viable, indigenously-funded Christian literature ministry and for more locally written material to be available.

News from across Europe in recent years has been bleak at times. Politicians and pastors have been investigated for ‘hate crimes’ simply for teaching or quoting from the Bible. We have seen medical professionals lose their jobs because they did not want to be complicit in practices that went against their consciences, and we have seen families risk losing their children because they sought to bring them up in accordance with biblical principles. Christians who fled persecution in the Middle East found themselves facing harassment and oppression in European refugee camps, painfully similar to what they left behind. Attacks on churches have risen; last year, in France alone, on average two churches were desecrated every single day. Our God of redemption can turn things around; pray that He speaks to those who are persecuting Christians, like Saul, that they may come to know Him for themselves. May He comfort all who are suffering persecution across Europe.

The EU squandered millions on overseas projects last year, including paying for broken toilets in Haiti and providing computer systems for empty offices in Jamaica. Auditors examined the EU’s £138 billion annual budget. The budget for aid and overseas projects was around £720 million in total: 3% of this was misspent on items such as a Mozambican radio drama series. They found that a further £4 billion was misspent because the EU Commission had sometimes ‘assumed’ that cash was spent within the rules. The UK pays £9 billion to the EU annually, and the bloc is demanding £39 billion in a Brexit divorce bill - even if there is no deal. Tory MP Nigel Evans said, ‘While we’re in the EU, we have little control over how this money is spent. In fact, it looks as if no-one is in control.’ 2.6% of the EU’s total budget was misspent last year, up from 2.4% from the year before.

Catalonia is a semi-autonomous region in north-east Spain whose history dates back almost a thousand years. The wealthy region has 7.5 million people, with their own language, parliament, flag, anthem, and police force. It also controls some of its own public services. Catalan nationalists have long complained that their region sends too much money to poorer parts of Spain, as taxes are controlled by Madrid. Last October about 90% of Catalan voters backed independence, in a turnout of 43%. Recently Spanish police arrested 9 Catalan independence activists in Barcelona. They face charges of rebellion, terrorism and possession of explosives used in bomb-making. They are associated with the Committees for the Defence of the Republic (CDR), a network of radical groups that advocates direct action to secure independence from Spain. CDR has previously blocked major roads and railway lines. Police believe the activists plan to carry out sabotage and violent attacks on the anniversary of the referendum on independence.

For years Albania was closed to the gospel. Many see concentrated prayer and intercession as major reasons why it is now open for ministry and scripture translation is being undertaken. There are three complete translations of the Bible in Albanian; one literal, one paraphrased, and one Catholic. The NT has been retranslated into modern Albanian, and a new OT translation is under way. Pray for accuracy, timely completion, and widespread use of the Scriptures. Religious literature from many faiths flooded the country after Communism fell. Christian books are now published there, but there are very few Christian bookstores. Pray for the impact of useful Christian books and literature, and outlets for their circulation.

13,000 people are crammed into a facility designed for 3,000. The UN has called for migrants to be transferred immediately from the squalid Moria camp on Lesbos to the mainland after a fire killed a mother and child. Lesbos lies in sight of Turkey’s coastline. As quickly as people are transferred to Greece’s mainland, more asylum-seekers arrive from Turkey. On 29 September a blaze consumed shipping containers where families are housed. A woman and child died in the fire, and 17 people were hurt. Clashes erupted between migrants and police, who fired tear gas to control the chaos. Humanitarian organisations condemn the conditions at the camp, where many are sleeping in tents in olive groves. Pray for the police and authorities to respect and care for migrants who have covered dangerous terrain to get as far as Greece, and then been made to live in conditions described as ‘critical’.

A prayer walk along the former east-west border is being undertaken by German intercessors, from 3 October to 9 November, with the slogan ‘From a lifeless divide to a new lifeline’. The walk will take place along two routes, one from the north and one from the south, to a central meeting point. Its aim is to thank God for freedom and unity, and to pray for further reconciliation and understanding between former East and West Germany.

Protests against President Macron and globalisation, neoliberalism, corruption, labour code reform and high taxes have been happening weekly by the ‘yellow vest’ movement since 17 November 2018. They have attracted hundreds of thousands of people across France - constructing barricades, lighting fires, breaking windows, and blocking roads in a choreography of street demonstrations amongst fumes of the various gases and car explosions / fires. Black Bloc activists added violence to the yellow-vest protest march, and 120 arrests were made by police. In January 2019 counter-demonstrators emerged, identified by their red scarves, denouncing the rebellious climate and verbal abuse created by yellow vests. Each Saturday there are also anti-Semitic expressions by extreme groups of radical Islamist or anti-Zionist and on 20 September climate change and pension reform caused disruption elsewhere in the French capital.

Italian authorities have closed roads and evacuated mountain huts after experts warned that part of a glacier on Mont Blanc could collapse. About 250,000 cubic metres of ice are in danger of breaking away from the Planpincieux glacier on the Grandes Jorasses peak. The mayor of the town of Courmayeur said global warming was changing the mountain. The Mont Blanc massif, with 11 peaks above 4,000m, is Western Europe's highest mountain range. Experts say it is impossible to predict when the glacier could collapse, as it goes through a period of major change due to climate factors. Earlier this month, dozens of people took part in a ‘funeral march’ to mark the disappearance of the Pizol glacier in north-east Switzerland. It has shrunk to a tiny fraction of its original size, losing 80% of its volume since 2006. See also ‘USA: UN general assembly’ in this week’s world section.

It smells of mud and damp. Mattresses, household appliances, chairs and broken tables are tossed outside on almost every street hit by last week’s worst storm in 140 years. Residents in Orihuela, one of many towns isolated by floods, couldn’t leave their homes for four days, fearing currents would drag them away. ‘We lost the car from the garage. We had food in the freezer, but people needed it and the emergency military unit took it.’ Pray for the areas still completely flooded and without electricity or water. Pray for the 3,500 who were evacuated, now returning to overwhelming destruction. €75 million was released to repair roads, bridges, homes, farms, schools, hospitals, health centres and businesses. ‘We cannot remove their suffering, but we can help them recover’, said regional president Juanma Moreno.