Throughout 2015 we often invited you to join us as we concentrated our praying into the Middle East. We trust you will agree that concentration needs to be intensified as we go into the New Year. Every day our media is reporting from the area on political upheaval, millions of displaced people, acts of terrorism, a generation of children and young people with no hope, and nation fighting nation.

In the first days of this year we see the breakdown in contact between Saudi Arabia and Iran; Riyadh and Tehran vying for religious and political influence in the region. This breakdown has serious consequences for the two countries as Shia and Sunni battle for supremacy. The consequences for the whole region especially Syria and Yemen are equally serious and of course sitting in the middle of all this waring is Israel. A destabilised Middle East will increasingly have global spiritual, political, social and economic repercussions.

At the same time we are receiving reports of increasing numbers of people in that region becoming followers of Jesus. Even in the face of severe persecution, both Sunni and Shia men and women of all age groups, often through dreams and visions, are willingly risking everything to follow the One who they met in their dreams.

So today we renew the call to pray for the Middle East and here are some suggestions for prayer for you, your prayer group and your church.

• We declare the sovereignty of Christ over the whole region.
• We declare God's love for every Middle East country and every person in those countries, including those who govern each nation.
• We pray for courage and wisdom for every Christian.
• We pray for God's mercy on the children and young people.
• We pray for every agency endeavouring to bring comfort, food and shelter to those in need.
• We pray for every peace maker.
• We bless those who persecute and pray they too will find Jesus the Prince of Peace.
• We pray, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done across the Middle East in 2016".

God is issuing a new call to pray in 2016. He is mobilising people across the generations and denominations; He is stirring a passion to pray for our communities, workplaces, towns and nations. The World Prayer Centre's national prayer conference, 7-9 March 2016, supports that mobilising call – it will be a time to review, refresh and revive your prayer calling. You may be an experienced prayer person, others will be new to prayer, others have a passion for evangelism, their community, for the weak or the vulnerable and see that prayer is needed if real change is to happen. We believe we are entering a period of harvest and intense spiritual warfare. It is also a time of acceleration – changes are happening at a rate that takes our breath away.

We are delighted to have Malcolm Duncan as our main speaker. He will focus on the role and calling of the watchmen in these changing times. Malcolm combines a deep biblical and theological understanding with a passion for God's Spirit and a watchmen's understanding of what is happening nationally. We will also be providing prayer briefings for the UK and internationally. Our prayer conference is evolving. This year, people will have the opportunity to attend a specialist workshop on subjects like praying blessing, prayer and prophecy, and being a watchman.

This is not just a teaching conference. We want everyone to be inspired by testimony of the tremendous things God is doing across the globe. We will worship, spending time in God's presence, praising and honouring him. We will pray – this conference has the authority to pray into national and international situations – to protect and bless, to release and bind. We will chat, exchange stories and leave inspired by God for the challenges ahead.

If you know anyone you think who would benefit from the conference, invite them to come. Help us to spread the word by sharing our posts, forwarding our newsletters and why not bring a friend!

Register for the conference and find out more details.

In December we issued a specific call to pray protection on our nation. We had heard from a credible source that there were a series of five terrorist attacks scheduled to hit five key English cities just before Christmas. We were keen to stress that the call to prayer was not simply because of the prophetic word but also because as watchmen we felt the nation was particularly vulnerable to terrorist attack over the entire Christmas and New Year period. Thankfully there were no attacks.

Was that due to our prayer or because nothing was ever going to happen? We can't say. What we do know is that we need to continue to be vigilant. ISIS is targeting the UK and has supporters in many of our cities and towns.

Isaiah 62 says "Upon your walls O Jerusalem I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent." Jesus says "What I say to you I say to everyone – WATCH" Mark 13: 37. So we encourage everyone to watch, to never be silent and to keep on praying. This is more than about terrorism. We are praying for SAFE HOMES - where children and families are protected, SAFE PLACES – for our schools, universities, churches to be protected, and SAFE CITIES – and towns and regions to be protected from attack, crime, despair. Out of this protection we can then pray blessing – for BLESSED HOMES, PLACES AND CITIES. 2016 is a year of prayer, a year of becoming more reliant on Jesus.