We are now on a relief mission in Kachin State, Northern Burma, and here there is no ceasefire. During the training of the new teams, we could hear shells explode as the Burma Army shelled villages nearby with 105 Howitzers, 120mm and 81mm mortars. Over 50,000 people remain displaced, and during this mission, we saw over 12,000 of them in eight different sites…Attacks have slowed down this month to three in our area, and one we witnessed, but there are still over 110 Burma Army battalions operating in Kachin State…
What can we do? For us it seems we can do very little - but those little things we can do, we do with all our might. We pray with and for the IDPs; we run a Good Life Club program of songs, health and spiritual teaching for children and skits and games for the families; we hand out sports equipment for schools to teachers and t-shirts for the kids, and set up a mobile clinic to treat basic ailments and pull teeth as needed; we interview the people here and send their stories out around the world; we go near to and recon Burma Army camps to monitor their activity and put a light on their actions. During this mission, we visited IDPs near towns as well as in the jungle and spent most of our mission on foot to reach different communities, document destroyed villages and report on the Burma Army activities…
We did multiple recons of Burma Army camps, usually only able to get no closer than one kilometer away, but sometimes we were able to move within 200 yards of their camps. We took photos of the Burma Army as they occupied the ground that belonged to the Kachin people and as they sat in dominant positions overlooking villages, towns, bridges and the Taping River dam they had taken. Even as we observed them, I felt sorry for them: they looked hungry, unkempt and not motivated. Their mission is not a noble one, and I believe they know it. So we crawl as close as we can, document as much as we can, and even though sometimes we do not want to, we pray for them. All of us are in need of redemption and while we stand with the oppressed, we know the line between good and evil runs between each heart, not between people. We also pray for ourselves to not be wounded, captured or killed as we do this…
I write this from a small dilapidated bamboo hut on the edge of a town ransacked and burned by the Burma Army, and it is clear that the situation in Burma is not simple. In Burma there is more than one government. There is the central government, and there are many representative ethnic governments. While positive changes have occurred, there are still attacks and oppression. We had a very good meeting in March with representatives of the central government, and we felt mutual warmth and a shared sincerity for change, but on the ground in some areas we see other realities as well: children killed, homes destroyed, churches desecrated, people fleeing. As changes occur in Burma, how can people under oppression and attack be helped in a more comprehensive way? What do you do when oppression which is destructive to both oppressed and oppressor goes on? We thank you for your part in standing with and helping those who are in need and not yet free. While giving thanks for the signs of liberalization and reconciliation that have been reported on in the past months, let us continue to pray for His healing and transformation of Burma and for the ministry of Dave Eubank and other believers who are interceding and serving inside the nation.
Here is another report for prayer from local prayer leader friends in another area of Burma:
Thank you so much for all your concern and prayer for Myanmar. I would like to update the situation in Rakhine State.
More than 50 people have been killed and 54 wounded in the communal clashes, state media said on June 16. A total of 5280 houses were burnt including 9 Buddhist monasteries, 7 Mosques, and a school building. Nearly 31,900 people from both sides are being housed in 37 camps across Rakhine. According to UN, around 90,000 people fled including those who are in the camps. The Government as well as the local authorities and those who are helping the IDP said there is a huge need for humanitarian help (food, clothing, etc.) right now.
Those who remained in the Rakhine state capital, Sittwe, slowly started coming out on the streets after tensions between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingyas appeared to have eased after five days of rioting, torching houses, and knife attacks. Praise the Lord! We are witnessing God’s intervention. The situation is under control.
However, it is very important to pray that this conflict (between Buddhists & Muslims) would not be spreading to other parts of the nation. The U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, Tomas Ojeas Quintana, said the escalating violence in Rakhine state represented a “serious threat to the country’s future”. “It is a threat to Myanmar’s democratic transition and stability,” Ojea Quintana said in a statement issued in Geneva.
Some people firmly believe that there are some who do not like the country’s democratization and reforms taking place in the nation, who caused to spread the spark to the whole Rakhine, and are wanting to see spreading the whole nation. Please continue to pray that the Lord who has answered our prayer by starting a good work in reforming our country will continue to do it until we see revival and transformation and His glory fully manifested. Pray that the Rakhine Buddhists and the Muslim Rohingyas will experience God’s love, God’s provision, and they will get saved.
Thanks so much for all your prayer support. May the Lord bless you all,
A Burmese couple in prayer ministry.
We thank you for your faithful prayer for India! It is a huge, diverse country, full of contradictions. In spite of official freedom of religion and the fact that the Hindu fanatic BJP party has been pushed from power in the central government, the persecution of Christians continues to be of great concern. When the Hindu fundamentalistic BJP party was governing at the center, they had to at least make the appearance of tolerance, but once in power in regional or state governments, they are resorting to open persecution to push their ideology through. For the Hinduvata, to be Indian is to be Hindu. There is no room for either Christian or Muslim.
Anti-conversion laws exist in 7 states: Himachal Pradesh, Rajastan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Orissa and Aruanachal Pradesh. Severe persecution is reported in Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
Pray for the body of Christ in India; there are very strong, alive and active churches! Pray for them to continue to be strong and courageous. Pray for them to be able to make the push into the last unreached corners of their nation.
The protest movement against Omar al-Bashir is growing – fast – and it needs the world’s support. Some excerpts from an article by Amir Ahmad Nasr
June 26, 2012
“The past decade has been a roller-coaster ride for the Sudanese citizens. From the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur to the ethnic cleansing campaign targeting the Nuba people to the violent border clashes that accompanied the separation with South Sudan, this nation has witnessed hell. At least 200,000 people have lost their lives, and 2 million more have been displaced in Darfur alone, according to conservative U.N. estimates. Hundreds more have died during the recent border clashes between the two Sudans, and thousands have been driven from their homes.
But now there is a glimmer of hope. Daily growing protests against President Omar al-Bashir’s regime are spreading demographically and geographically, along with calls for strikes and civil disobedience. The spark was the government’s June 18 announcement of a new round of austerity measures, including massively unpopular cuts to fuel subsidies. The most dramatic protests have so far occurred in Khartoum’s al-Daim neighborhood, where police used extreme force and obscene amounts of tea gas in an attempt to suppress the demonstrators. In an example of the defiant mood taking over the streets, the protesters responded by burning a police truck.
As the fear barrier crumbles, Sudanese have a chance to topple Bashir and his National Congress Party (NCP) cronies – and to build a better future for their country.
It is important to understand why Sudanese would risk their lives to oppose Bashir. The narratives peddled by some commentators about the country’s recent conflicts – that they are between “Arabs versus Africans,” or “Muslims versus Christians” – are not only unhelpful, they are wrong. These characterizations have neither benefited the international community nor the diverse citizens of Sudan – including the Arabs and Afro-Arabs of the North who felt alienated by it and who have been violently oppressed for decades.
John Garang, the late southern Sudanese leader, made a crucial contribution to framing the situation as it atually is: A struggle between Sudan’s diverse population and Omar al-Bashir’s heinous dictatorship, which uses religion and tribalism to divide and control. “The Northerners are suffering too,” Garang said in one speech. “This is the problem of governance in Khartoum.”…
“It is not secret that Bashir’s Islamist regime, which seized power in a military coup on June 30, 1989, and hosted Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s before kicking him out only under withering international pressure, has a long list of bloody failings. But it just may be the worsening economic situation, which seems to have been the last straw for a growing number of non-ideological citizens of Khartoum, that could end his grip on power. The recent austerity cuts have been particularly painful in a country already suffering from inflation that hovers over 30 percent and which lost more than 70 percent of all its oil revenues upon South Sudan’s independence.
The recent demonstrations in Sudan’s capital are different than previous student-led protests. They have been strategically dispersed – relatively small crowds have spread out in numerous locations throughout Khartoum, stretching and exhausting the security forces’ resources. Demonstrations calling for the fall of the regime erupted in university campuses as well as in Wad Nubawai, al-Sajjana, Bahri, Jabra, al-Kalaakla, and Um Badda, among other neighborhoods and areas in the capital.
Unlike in the past, the protests were not just led by students but also by older folks and Sudanese women and mothers. There were also coordinated protests in other towns and regions throughout Sudan such as Kosti, Sinnar, and the northern parts of the country…
So far the response by the government, its armed thugs, and the NISS has been predictably brutal. In addition to tear gas and rubber bullets, student activists have reported being attacked by pro-government “militias” intent on breaking up the protests. It will likely get more violent. Yet despite the mass arrests of protesters…the demonstrations are continuing and intensifying.
The world has long struggled for a solution to the seemingly endless humanitarian disaster in Sudan. The protesters’ victory would represent a way forward. With Bashir and the NCP battered and gone, the door to change will open up in Khartoum – and a new, more responsible government could lead to better policies toward South Sudan and Darfur. Better leadership could bring the kind of peace that will finally ensure economic development in both Sudans – fueled by their bountiful oil reserves – and also open its doors to foreign governments and international oil companies seeking to invest and grow.
The Sudanese street has shown its resolve loud and clear. Time is now of the essence, in light of the protests’ building momentum and worsening crackdown. There isn’t a moment to lose: The international community must do its part to help Sudan achieve a better future. Let us please support the Sudanese struggle for liberation from this dictatorial oppressive and genocidal regime by our prayers!
Eritrea has been described as “the North Korea of Africa” because of the harsh, brutal treatment of the Christians by the dictatorship there. Christian Solidarity has produced the attached video about the suffering of a pastor who escaped to tell what conditions are like for fellow believers still imprisoned there. Please watch and pray for these dear people and that the government would be reformed or if need be overthrown.
“To east concerns about the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power in the Arab World’s most populous country”, the new Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi “Has backtracked on many of his previous extreme positions and reached out to liberals and to Egypt’s Christians. But at the same time, Morsi is pressing the military to give back some of the power it grabbed for itself over the last few weeks and probably hopes his conciliatory rhetoric will help him succeed. Observers inside and outside of Egypt are now watching to see how much power the Egyptian military will cede to Morsi and whether the Muslim Brotherhood has in fact really changed.”
From: LIGNET (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
We need to pray that President Morsi will follow through and act sincerely in regard to reaching out to more liberal elements of the population and especially to the Christians. Pray for religious and political freedom to be maintained and to increase under his leadership.
According to Newsmax.com, “The United States has quietly moved significant new military forces into the Persian Gulf to discourage an Iranian response to new sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic. The American moves are designed to deter Iran from any attempt to shut the Strait of Hormuz and to increase the United States’ ability to strike into Iran if necessary…
A European Union oil embargo meant to pressure Iran over its nuclear program came into effect on Sunday, and on Monday, Iran announced it would consider legislation to disrupt marine traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. The legislation calls for the Iranian military to block any oil tanker on its way to countries that no longer buy Iranian crude because of the embargo. Please pray that Iran will back down and give up its suspected intentions to build nuclear weapons in order to threaten Israel and the West.
Prayer is requested concerning the Iranian government's campaign of intimidation against Christians and Churches.
We regret to report that one church has been forced to close. On Tuesday 5th June the Assemblies of God church in Tehran's Janat-Abad suburb was told to cease all activities, and threatened with the confiscation of its building.
Recall that in early May leaders of another Assemblies of God church in Tehran were ordered by the Ministry of Intelligence to submit the names and ID numbers of all members. Church leaders provided a list of names and ID numbers of church members who had given their consent, some of whom have subsequently been pressurised by the authorities.
Recall also that, since early February, two other legally recognised churches in Tehran have been ordered to stop holding Farsi-language services on Fridays, and that several members of Anglican, Presbyterian and Assemblies of God Churches have been arrested. Two of these are among at least 20 believers (most from Muslim backgrounds) who are known still to be detained.
Iranian Christians supporting these believers thank us for our prayers. They request our continued intercession asking that:
a. The closure order will be reversed and other restrictions on churches lifted.
b. All Christians in Iran will know the protection of the Father, comfort of the Son and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
c. They will be able to meet for worship, prayer, Bible study and fellowship with like-minded believers.
d. Those believers currently detained will know the presence and peace of Jesus and be released soon.
e. Church and fellowship group leaders will know the Spirit’s discernment and wisdom
f. All officials involved will love mercy, act justly, learn about Jesus and choose to follow Him.
Dear Intercessors,
Greetings from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Few churches have come together to form the Global Partnership for Church Unity to pray and work together as One Body, Various Congregations.
Every second Saturday of the month, we intercede for the nation, region and nations going through difficulties.
At the beginning of 2013, we’re arranging the:
1st UAE National Prayer Summit 2013 of the Global Partnership for Church Unity
ONE BODY, DIVERSE CONGREGATIONS INTERCEDING TOGETHER
Abu Dhabi
Saturday, 26 January, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
@ Evangelical Community Church, Main Chapel
We would like to invite anyone in the region to join us either by sending a representative or encouraging their groups to pray together with us on January 26, 2013. Would it be possible for you to publish this through your network and partnerships?
Blessings and prayers.