Albania and the banks operating in the country are not endangered if Greece goes bankrupt. This was the statement given by the Governor of the Bank of Albania, Gent Sejko. He said that there will be a decrease of remittances and trading exchanges, but the Albanian market has come across to these effects since the start of the Greek crisis. In addition, Sejko highlighted that the Greek banks operating in Albania are not in danger of any collapse, because they are not part of Greek banks.
This is your chance to stand in prayer for our nations. Online bookings are now closed but you can still book by phone on 0121 633 7393. Come and join with brothers and sisters in Christ at the ICC in Birmingham this Saturday, 4 July, and pray for revival. ARE YOU READY FOR REVIVAL? Revival has to start in our hearts first. As TRUMPET CALL 2015 approaches, the team at the World Prayer Centre have a growing sense of excitement and expectation. It will be a momentous day - a memorable meeting with God. Yesterday, they had a word about rain clouds on the mountains. Read more at http://www.worldprayer.org.uk/event-registration/?ee=15 and pray with us.
Travel info: allow plenty of time to park, walk to the ICC, find the venue and get yourself prepared for this time with God. Please be aware that access to the car parks around the ICC is more difficult than usual due to significant city centre roadworks. Find out more and where to park at the link below.
Iraq: Shiite expansion
03 Jul 2015
Arab Shiites cannot be ignored thanks to the rise of the Shiite political identity in Iraq, establishing a bridge between Iranian and Arab Shiites. The Gulf States are concerned about the growing influence of Shiites in neighbouring countries, expressing their fears of the relations established between the Shiites of Iran and Iraq and their own Shiite communities. Shiites have long-standing historical ties with Iran’s Shiites on one side, and with Arab Shiites in other Arab countries, such as Kuwait, Bahrain and Lebanon. The most important and oldest Shiite religious institution, the Najaf Seminary south of Baghdad, brings together Shiite clergy from the Indian subcontinent to Iran and the Arab world. This major force poses a challenge to the Sunni regimes in the Arab world, especially in countries neighbouring Iraq and Iran. The challenge is not only religious differences. The ‘Saudi Cables,’ made public on 19 June by WikiLeaks, revealed the Arab regimes’ concerns over the rise of Shiite identity in the region.
China: Abandoned children
03 Jul 2015
Four children were found dead last week in southern China. The police said they had been living alone and killed themselves by ingesting pesticides. Their tragic deaths lay bare the tough ordeal facing a third of children in the Chinese countryside, forced to fend for themselves when their parents leave to work in the cities. The four brothers and sisters, aged between 5 and 13 years, had been fending for themselves for several years. Their mother had abandoned them and their father had left their home to work in a city 1,400 kilometres away. In a goodbye letter, the eldest wrote that he could no longer stand the pressure of looking after his brothers and sisters while studying at the same time, as his dad had wanted. Currently six million children have been left to fend for themselves - that’s one-third of China’s rural child population.
Four months after he was taken captive by IS fighters in north-eastern Syria, 70-year-old François Sawa was safely released and is in good health. Meanwhile In Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, Christian families are fleeing their homes after horrific fighting killed at least ten people, most of them children, and injured a further 150 . A few days later, two Armenian Christian men were killed in a mortar explosion in Aleppo. One was a visiting pastor from Armenia who had arrived only two days earlier. ‘All our congregation members are in agony,’ said Barnabas Fund’s partner on the ground in Syria, as he relayed the news. With fighting coming from four fronts, thousands of Christians have fled the city in terror. There are between 45,000 and 90,000 Christians living in Aleppo, down from 465,000 in 2010. IS forces have again attacked the north-eastern city of Hassake as well as the northern city of Kobane on 25 June.
Israel: Arson attack on Galilee church
03 Jul 2015
A suspected arson attack on a church on the shores of the Sea of Galilee has left two people injured and caused serious damage. An elderly monk and a German volunteer needed hospital treatment for smoke inhalation after the attack on the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes in Tabgha village. There was minor damage to the main worship hall but other areas were badly affected. No one has been arrested in connection with the blaze, but sixteen Jewish ‘youths’ were taken in for questioning before being released. In April last year, young Jewish extremists desecrated crosses and an altar at the same church. Graffiti painted inside the church during the attack earlier this month read, ‘The false gods will be eliminated.’ The Galilee church was built in the 1980s on the site of ancient places of worship that commemorated the spot where Jesus fed 5,000 people with the loaves and fish.
A spokesman for the arm of IS in Tunisia, which has pledged allegiance to the main extremist IS group, had warned British and western tourists last month in a tweet not to go there for their summer holidays and that they were planning an attack. It said the warning was aimed at countries taking part in the coalition against IS in Iraq and Syria. ‘To the Christians planning their summer vacations in Tunisia, we can’t accept u in our land while your jets keep killing our Muslim Brothers in Iraq & Sham’, it said (Sham is the word usually translated as ‘the Levant’). ‘But if u insist on coming then beware because we are planning for u something that will make you forget #Bardoattack.’ The reference to the coalition is significant because one witness to the shootings said the attacker, Seifeddine Rezgui, told him to ‘get out of the way’ as he was looking for ‘British and French’. Britain and France have both joined the coalition against IS. See also: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/tunisia/11704849/Tunisia-attack-gunman-told-local-worker-Im-not-here-to-kill-you-as-he-tried-to-protect-British-tourists.html
A new record in Bible translation may have been set in 2014 for the highest number of new translations published in one year. According to the Global Scripture Access Report, last year there were complete translations in 51 languages spoken by more than 1.3 billion people. Some were launched in countries facing significant challenges. In Nigeria the Bible Society launched four new translations, one being the Bura Bible, which was launched despite a Boko Haram bomb attack on the translation office. All of these were first-time translations, potentially giving 2.1 million Nigerians access to the full Bible in their heart language for the first time. Liberia also faced enormous difficulties, losing more people to Ebola than any other country, but the Bible Society launched two first-time full Bible translations. The Bible in Kpelle and Southern Kisi, spoken by nearly a million people, arrived at a time when people needed God's Word in their language more than ever before.