Syrian church leaders have called for a day of prayer for their country and its people on Saturday 11th May. Primarily, they are calling for prayer for peace to be restored to their country, enabling all Syrians to live in harmony within their own country.
As violent conflict continues, there are no precise figures for the number of those killed (most estimates state 70,000 or more), injured, internally displaced within Syria or who have fled to neighbouring countries and beyond. It is generally reckoned that over one million have left and at least another million have been internally displaced, all from amongst a population of approximately 23 million. Atrocities have been committed by many parties.
During 2012 there was a subtle shift in how Syrian church leaders typically interpreted events. Claims of the deliberate targeting of Christians for religious reasons increased as the year progressed. Initially, most were careful to stress that there was little religious targeting. However, church leaders are increasingly fearful of the growing extremist elements within the opposition movement (e.g. Jabhat an-Nusra), and fearful that a Sunni take-over of power in Syria would lead to greater restrictions on Christians. Some fear that the Iraq scenario (involving increased levels of sectarian attack and corresponding flight of Christians) could be replicated in Syria. Church leaders have called on Christians not to leave, acknowledging that significant emigration had already occurred.
Fears within Christian communities have increased following the kidnapping of two priests (Michel Kayyal of the Armenian Catholic church and Mahar Mahfouz of the Greek Orthodox church) on 9th February and the subsequent kidnapping of two bishops (Yohanna Ibrahim of the Syriac Orthodox Church and Boulos Yaziji of the Greek Orthodox Church) on 22nd April.
Syrian Christians request that we join with them in prayer, asking that:
a. Violent conflict will end, and reconciliation processes will begin.
b. Those bereaved and traumatised will know the healing touch of Jesus.
c. Those displaced will know the provision and protection of the Father; and those supporting them will know the wisdom and enabling of the Spirit.
d. Those from all communities who have been kidnapped, including the two bishops and two priests kidnapped, will be released unharmed soon.
e. Unity amongst Christian communities will be strengthened and that Christians will know the Lord's equipping as they respond to the overwhelming needs around them.
f. All those choosing to use violent methods will know the Spirit's conviction of sin and respond to the Father's offer of forgiveness and new life in the Son.
"We recently had a camp for about 25 young people. During one of the prayer meetings, the Lord Jesus’ presence by His Holy Spirit was keenly felt! Praise the Lord, we prayed in our Lord Jesus’ powerful Name for several people, and they were strongly delivered from the evil spirits of witchcraft and sorcery! Young people began to come forward to ask for prayer for commitment and consecration to follow and serve the Lord Jesus! It was a very moving and beautiful time in God’s presence.
Please pray:
1. For the young people to continue to grow and be disciples of our Lord Jesus for His glory.
2. For our nation - wide emphasis in the Churches, to reach out to the young people of Algeria and help make them Jesus’ disciples and servants in the coming months and years, amen!"
Excellent prayer material for Algeria:
www.30-days.net/muslims/muslims-in/north-african/algeria
During May a group of several hundred Algerian church leaders and workers will be meeting for training and encouragement. Please lift them up as they meet. Ask God for covering and protection. Ask God to fill them with vision and love for their nation. Pray for provision of all their needs. Ask God to guard unity and to give them unity of purpose. May God bring all His plans and purposes from this gathering.
“Pakistan will hold parliamentary elections May 11 -- the first vote held after a democratically elected government completed its five-year constitutional term. This democratic consolidation comes as the country faces the worst crisis since the secession of East Pakistan in the form of a ferocious jihadist insurgency. The vote comes amid economic difficulties and a major wave of jihadist attacks designed to undermine the democratic process targeting both secular and Islamist politicians campaigning for office. It is also the first election in which the emergence of a third national force, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, is seen as highly likely…
To the extent that opinion polls can be relied upon, the election will produce a much more fragmented legislature than the outgoing one, but conservative right-wing nationalist forces will dominate the new legislature. Regardless of its composition, the next coalition government will be tackling two core issues: security and the economy. Its policies will be greatly influenced by the regional security environment being shaped by the drawdown of NATO troops from neighboring Afghanistan…
The 2013 parliamentary elections thus represent the first time that the country will undergo a democratic transition of power. This consolidation comes amid Pakistan's largest crisis in decades. In the nearly 12 years since the United States invaded neighboring Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 attacks, Islamabad has seen its writ being eroded by an insurgency waged by Pakistani Taliban rebels who, unlike their Afghan counterparts, subscribe to the transnational jihadism of al Qaeda.”
Please pray for this important nation of South Asia to be delivered from radical Islamists and for good and honest people to be elected into office and to govern with integrity and care.
Get Ready for the Harvest
How to evangelize?
On this day, millions of Christians will share the Gospel, many of them for the first time. No matter how experienced you already are, everyone can still learn and improve. Start to prepare your church, home group and yourself for this special day of outreach. It's not difficult…Everyone can learn how to speak to people and lead them to Jesus.
Everyone can reach someone.
Everyone has something to give.
Everyone can learn how to do it.
Here you will find three practical and comprehensible teachings that will help you:
“Everyone can reach someone!” Training booklet with practical instructions how to talk to people and lead someone to Jesus Christ. Download pdf (many languages) http://www.globaloutreachday.com/resources
What is our message? You are the messenger! Do you know the message?
http://www.globaloutreachday.com/resources
Principles of communication – You have the best message! Learn how people will listen to it!
http://www.globaloutreachday.com/resources
What are you doing on May 25th?
In the weeks before May 25th
- Pray for power and boldness to be a witness.
- Pray for open hearts and divine opportunities to talk to people about Jesus.
On May 25th: Reach out to at least one person with the Gospel.
There are unlimited possibilities for doing this.
One on One - Invite someone over for a cup of coffee and tell him about Jesus.
Two by Two – Meet in your church and split up into small teams. Then go two by two to reach the people where they are – on the streets, in the market places, in hospitals, etc.
Care and Share – Do something good for someone and then share the Good News with him.
You will find many more ideas about how to evangelize on a special page on our website.
http://www.globaloutreachday.com/getinvolved#node-232
Watch the video:
Well, by now, I think most of you will have seen that things are cooling down considerably here on the Korean Peninsula. The celebration of Great Sun Day in North Korea--Kim Il Sung's birthday on April 15th--went off in a rather subdued manner. Many people were expecting a major missile launch to coincide with the holiday but nothing like that happened. Since then rhetoric in the North has been a bit toned down as well. Of course, they may well decide to launch one or more test missiles whenever they like so it could happen even as this news is going out. However, I personally believe that Kim Jong Eun is deliberately backing down from his most belligerent stance…
Yet while all this is going on we continue to be concerned about and pray for Kenneth Bae. The latest development is that he is slated to be tried before North Korea’s supreme court for plotting to overthrow the government. Many North Korea watchers find the charges against him to be very cloudy and are wondering what the North is really up to…
So, do continue to pray for the situation in the North. We are not particularly concerned about immanent war, but we are concerned about the people who are affected by all that is happening.
“One of the most shocking aspects of Mexico's drug cartels is the use of teens and young children for smuggling, thievery, and even assassinations. This is happening not only in Mexico but north of the border as well.
Teens are sometimes offered as little as $50 to act as drivers for the cartels or the local gangs who support them. For example, Texas officers caught a 12-year-old boy in a border county driving a stolen pickup truck containing more than 800 pounds of marijuana. Just this week the US Border and Customs Protection reported that four teenage girls between 15-17 years of age were caught smuggling bundles of heroin at the Arizona 1-19 checkpoint south of Amado.
Agents say cartels are increasingly using teenagers under 18 because they can hire them for a fraction of the cost of experienced smugglers and hit men and because minors are likely not to be prosecuted or to receive only a slap on the wrist.
Sadly, transporting drugs is not the worst of it. Criminal organizations are hiring and training minors as contract killers. The tortured and slain body of a 13-year-old who confessed to his involvement with ten murders for Los Zetas was found in March, apparently as a statement that the boy's narco bosses weren't too happy with his confession. Recently two teen girls—one 13 and the other 15, hired by the cartels—confessed to gunning down a man.
The April 11, 2013, AZ 10K reported that Mexican drug cartels, whose operatives once rarely ventured beyond the U.S. border, are dispatching some of their most trusted agents to live and work deep inside the United States—an emboldened presence that experts believe is meant to tighten their grip on the world's most lucrative narcotics market and maximize profits.
We can be sure the tactic of luring children and teens into crime will become a greater threat not only in border cities but within cities in the heart of the U.S. Police encourage parents to keep a close watch on their teens and to talk to them and explain how cartels and gangs exploit teens.
It is time for the Church to take our place and stand as "Watchmen on the Wall" for our children and for the future of our nation.
PRAY:
• America is the world's number one consumer of drugs. Our nation's drug habit is destroying an entire generation. God, have mercy! Bring our nation to repentance.
• Ask God for the protection of the hearts and minds of young children and teenagers who are being lured into trafficking drugs and/or sex. (Psalm 91).
• Turn the tide of the breakdown of the family, the results of which make our children vulnerable to being lured into the trafficking world.
• Continue to pray that any illegal activity will be made known to the proper authorities and arrests will be made without incident. (Matt. 10:26)
• For the toppling of the cartels and their infiltration into the United States.
Praise!
Just following last week's AZ 10K call to prayer for the capture of cartel members within the US, the Arizona Republic reported that on March 25, eight people, including a former Sinaloa cartel member, were arrested in Litchfield Park on suspicion of involvement in a drug deal gone wrong. They were planning to purchase 180-pounds of marijuana, said Officer Chris Hegstrom, a spokesman from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. The suspects were wearing police body armor, badges, ballistic helmets, and a Phoenix Police Department patch during the crime. Detectives also discovered large amounts of cash hidden in a wall, several weapons, police badges and other law enforcement identifiers, Hegstrom said.
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A week and a half ago BridgeBuilders gathered some 200 determined Christians to pray in Douglas, Arizona, that what was hidden in darkness along the Douglas/Aqua Prieta region of the border would be brought to the light.
We prayed for God's protection over law enforcement and that drugs, weapons and sex trafficking would be brought to a halt. Again God gave us a huge victory with the capture and arrest this Tuesday of the father-in-law of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman!
Mexican Federal Police arrested without a shot fired, Ines Coronel Barreras, 45. Coronel was detained in Agua Prieta, just across the border from Douglas, Arizona, along with a 25-year-old son and three other men. Interior Deputy Secretary Eduardo Sanchez said on Tuesday, “This arrest delivers a personal blow to the most wanted man in Mexico."
Coronel is the father of Guzman's third wife, Ema Coronel Aispuro, who married the notorious drug lord in 2007 in a mountainous town in Durango State.
The US agency said Coronel "plays a key role" in the Sinaloa drug cartel led by Guzman. We praise God for this major victory; however, we do not let up in our calling out to Almighty God to continue to uncover the hidden things along our border and in our state and to dismantle the devastating criminal activities brought into Arizona. It is our heart to continue to believe God to keep our families, children, schools, businesses, and communities safe.
http://borderissues.us/2013/05/01/mexican-police-arrest-drug-lords-in-law/
Recently, Planned Parenthood®, the nation's leading abortion seller, held its annual national conference. And for the first time in history, a sitting president delivered the keynote address.
President Obama was not subtle in his support for the organization that already receives more than $500 million a year from taxpayers en route to committing one-third of the nation's abortions. He spoke against reasonable restrictions to abortion, including state laws requiring parental involvement for minors and informed consent for adults. These "absurd" protections, he said, make "you want to make sure you're still living in 2013”…
Obama praised Planned Parenthood® with an unqualified endorsement but has totally ignored the criminal murder charges against Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who is standing trial on multiple counts of murder in the deaths of babies born alive after abortions as well as one pregnant woman.
This is the same president who has disregarded religious freedom, requiring non-profit organizations, charities and for-profit business owners with strong religious beliefs to pay for contraceptives and possible abortion-causing drugs in employee healthcare plans.
Obama says pro-life forces want to return the nation to the 1950s. While that certainly was not a good time for the civil rights of African Americans or workplace opportunities for women, it was a much better time for survival if you were a preborn baby. It was a time when we didn't abort a million of our children each year, when women weren't widely exploited by pornography, when sex trafficking was unheard of and divorce was rare.
The president ended his speech by saying, "God bless you" to Planned Parenthood®. Let's pray that God will so radically impact the hearts of our leaders that our prevailing policies will protect the innocent and restore religious freedom—so that our nation can once again be one that God can bless.” Please pray for the protection of the unborn children. Satan wants to rob them of life in the womb when they are most defenseless. Each one of these children has the wonderful potential God, their Creator, has put within them.