In August one hundred women will gather in Eldoret and Meru, Kenya. These women are wives of pastors and missionaries, the support behind the public face of native missions. They don’t often get much attention, but for a few days they will get all the attention from a Ministry Mates Matter (MMM) team. Advancing Native Missions sends these MMM teams of staff and volunteers to encourage and refresh women who face many hardships without relief. God esteems such women as ‘far above rubies.’ Ministry Mates Matter teams travel around the world to encourage the unsung heroines of missions - native missionary wives and women in ministry. These women are the forgotten ones.

A private member’s bill to legalise same sex marriage is expected to be presented to Federal Parliament in the week beginning Monday 10 August. In response to this move Christian ministries and organisations are asking Christians across the nation to defend their faith and make a visible statement to Australia’s national leaders of their desire for the definition of marriage to remain as being between a man and a woman. Christians are asked to say ‘Thank you with Flowers’ to Australian PMs who are valiantly defending the existing Biblical Covenant of Marriage between a man and a woman. Flowers are used to express thanks for life from the heart and Christians are going to take steps to set in place a carpet of flowers at Parliament House, Canberra on 10 August as a united expression of prayer and thanks to our Prime Minister and those supporting traditional marriage in Parliament.

United Nations human rights experts, the European Union, UK, US and others have expressed concern regarding the detention of over 200 lawyers and activists in China since 10 July. (See Prayer-Alert 15July)
On 16 July, five UN independent experts called on the Chinese authorities to stop harassing and intimidating lawyers and their colleagues, stating that ‘Lawyers are essential to ensure the rule of law; they need to be protected not harassed’. The British Embassy in Beijing expressed deep concern about the detentions. The US strongly urged China to release all those who have recently been detained for seeking to protect the rights of Chinese citizens. Last week, the UK’s Law Society wrote to the Chinese Premier raising concerns about the situation. The US Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said the ‘wave of repression constitutes an undeniable setback in US-China relations’.

Last month we reported on a Canadian Church having very little information about their founding pastor, Hyeon Soo Lim, detained in North Korea since early March. On 2 August North Korea released video footage of him confessing that he had committed crimes against the state. Dressed in a dark blue suit and tie Lim appeared to be reading from a script. ‘The worst crime I committed was to rashly defame and insult the highest dignity and the system of the republic.’ Last week he appeared before the media confessing to crimes aimed at overthrowing the state and was quoted saying he had travelled to North Korea in the guise of humanitarian work to gather information that he used outside the country to drive the regime to a collapse. Lim, a Canadian citizen, has over the years visited North Korea and established an orphanage and a nursing home.

Christians forced to flee Islamic State last year are still living in refugee camps and losing hope of ever returning home. Mosul-born Chaldean Catholic Sahar Mansour is now living in the refugee camp at Ankawa after being driven from his home by militants last year. There are more than 1,700 Syriac Catholic families living in the camp, ministered to by priests including Father Bashar Kthea, who himself fled from Qaraqosh last August. Qaraqosh was once home to Iraq's largest Christian community. It was overrun by Islamic State jihadists in 2014. Writing on behalf of Father Kthea to Catholic News Service Mansour said there is growing discontentment and frustration in the camp, particularly among young people for whom there are few prospects. ‘The majority of the young people are thinking not to stay in Erbil anymore and they do their best to flee,’ Sahar said.

Last week there was a gay pride parade in Jerusalem. An orthodox Jewish man rushed into the parade and stabbed six people, wounding two seriously and one very seriously. The Supreme Court ordered that some homes built illegally in Beit El (Jewish settlement in Samaria) should be destroyed. This took place on the anniversary of the expulsion of the settlers from Gaza. Riots ensued that pitted Jew against Jew. On Monday a delegation of Jewish and Muslim religious leaders convened outside the Department of Pediatric Intensive Care at Sheba Medical Centre, to pray for the well-being of the victims of the Jewish firebomb terror attack on a Palestinian family last Friday morning. Also far-right activist Meir Ettinger was arrested for heading a cell planning to commit a series of violent acts against Palestinians. As part of the plan he branded ‘the revolt’ which would light the flames of conflict and anarchy in Israel. See also: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4687342,00.html

According to state-conducted research, widespread fracking and fracking wastewater injection have transformed the state of Oklahoma from a place that had an average of two tiny earthquakes a year to the most seismically active area in the United States. In fact, the massive surge in fracking-related quakes has even alerted Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) as to the existence of many formerly stable and dormant underground faults that it didn’t previously know existed. EcoWatch reported, ‘Oklahoma was never big earthquake country but in the last six years their numbers have surged, going from an average of two a year over 3.0 magnitude to 585 last year, surpassing California as the US’s most seismically active state.’ The state of Oklahoma has even set up its own earthquake website, whereon it states this rise in seismic events has the attention of scientists, citizens, policymakers, media and industry. After 35 fracking earthquakes rocked Oklahoma in the first week of July the state has had more pressure than ever on it to put a damper on the cause before things get out of hand.

On Sunday General Nshimirimana's pick-up was hit by two rockets and sprayed with automatic gunfire - days after President Nkurunziza was declared winner of a controversial election and months of fierce government crackdowns on opposition and an attempted coup. General Nshimirimana was behind the crackdown on protests and foiling the coup attempt. A source in the presidency said, ‘The situation is very serious, the general was essential, we are trying to manage a difficult situation. Our boys want to take revenge. You cannot imagine what the General represented for us.’ Another top pro-Nkurunziza general said, ‘They have declared war and they will see what they get. Then a second assassination on Monday of human rights defender Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa (one of the last remaining human rights activists working during the crisis) has increased risks of a new season of war. Targeted killings have been part of the landscape recently, but none as high-profile as these two, and arms are proliferating among civilians, with shooting through the night in many neighborhoods.