National Prayer Network of Pakistan Report
The National Prayer Network of Pakistan (NPNP) in collaboration with Local Churches and Ministries was able to arrange eight events to celebrate the Global Day of Prayer this year. Four events were held for adults and four evens for children were also held.
GDOP EVENT FOR CHILDREN IN ISLAMABAD:
Each year the National Prayer Network of Pakistan holds a Global Day of Prayer event in the capital of Pakistan, following the tradition and keeping in mind the importance of holding event in Islamabad. On 18th May, a prayer event for children was organized in partnership with Shine Kids Ministries and Shine Society. The event was held in a marginalized community area. The Children were taught about the importance of having a relationship with the Father Lord through prayer, how this relationship would be maintained, improved and fostered and what taints this relationship. Creative praying methods were practically demonstrated and practiced. Along with that, children prayed using maps on local, national and international prayer points of the GDOP.
GDOP EVENTS LAHORE 19th May 2013
Lahore is the 2nd largest metropolitan city in Pakistan; we were able to hold four events in Lahore. Three events focused on children and one general event was also held.
GDOP PRAYER EVENT FGA CHURCH BAHAR COLONY, LAHORE
A prayer meeting was held at the FGA church on 19th May, more than 300 Intercessors, pastors, evangelist’s and leaders attended this meeting. People were blessed by the prayers, and city prayer leaders and pastors committed that they would continue to gather in prayer all the year around and not just on events like GDOP and the recent Election Prayer Campaign. One of the most important things was the move of the Holy Spirit that made it possible for 17 ministries/churches to collaborate in the GDOP event, an important breakthrough which shows the work of the Holy Spirit in breaking down denominational walls. The participants prayed in details on the GDOP prayer points and experienced an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
GDOP PRAYER EVENTS FOR CHILDREN IN PRAYER LAHORE
Three events were organized with the partnership of Shine Kids Ministries. The children were encouraged to pray and taught the importance of corporate prayer and various methods of prayer. The young teachers who led the sessions were recently trained at the Children in Prayer Network (CIPN) Sunday School Prayer Training Camp in April. These teachers very amicably used their newfound knowledge of creative praying and guided the children to pray and develop a relationship with the Father Lord.
GLOBAL DAY OF PRAYER EVENTS SINDH
Three meetings were arranged by the National Prayer Network of Pakistan Team in three different cities of Interior Sindh...These meetings were very blessed many participants were blessed with the Holy Spirit. 8-10 people dedicated their lives to the Lord and received water baptism after the meetings. The Holy Spirit moved so powerfully in these meeting that many could not stand on their feet. The meeting witnessed some intense intercession and prayer.
As we think of North Korea these days, are hearts are heavy with thoughts of the sentencing of Kenneth Bae to 15 years of "hard labor" and the repatriation of nine refugees taken in Laos and returned to China from where they were then sent back to the North. Here's an article about Ken Bae's sentencing and his efforts to share Christ in North Korea. The case of the "Laos Nine" is generating anger among activists and, a bit surprisingly, in China as well. Here is a picture of that includes the group ranging in age from 15 to 23. (http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk03100&num=10617)
We are also concerned for the people in North Korea these days who have been struggling with a whole series of mobilizations ranging from being called up to "prepare for war", to the spring "rice planting battle" and a number of other special projects as well. These mobilizations interfere with ordinary life, which is difficult enough as it is--especially things like getting food.
The closing of the Kaesong Industrial Complex has also added its share of problem, especially for the 53,000 North Korean workers who no longer have jobs. Of course it has also been a big blow to the South Korean companies that invested there and have lost their assets and income. The longer it stays shut, the less likely these companies will be to risk future investment as well. Closed for 60 days as of June 1st, there doesn't seem to be any likelihood of it opening soon.
The North has been making some noises about inviting managers back to Kaesong and possibly rejoining the Six Party Talks again, but the South Korean government is having a very hard time taking any of this seriously.
While all of this is going on, there are many signs that ordinary people in North Korea, especially in Pyongyang, are looking more and more to South Korea for the latest trends and fashion ideas…
Special Announcement: We would like to encourage you to actually take a trip to North Korea and pray in the land. You can do it! That is, if you have a non-South Korean passport. Krahun Tours is a tour company based in the Rajin-Sonbong region of North Korea that wants to encourage Believers to come in, see and experience North Korea first hand and pray for the nation. It is perfectly safe. Really. You don't need to worry about getting into trouble. Check out their website at krahun.com/visit-dprk.
Ben Torrey,
Director
The Fourth River Project, Inc.
By two local believers. June 4th, 2013
Today is the fifth day of protests in dozens of cities throughout Turkey. The demonstrations began at Gezi Park in Istanbul where dozens of people had been protesting government plans to remove the park to make way for a possible shopping mall. The park is a well-loved green space with some trees that were apparently planted during the era of Ataturk in the early 20th century. The original protests were generally peaceful and environmentalist in nature, but there was already a political element given the park's renown and the current government's "moderate Islamist" stance. Secularists in Turkey are normally supporters of Ataturk and his reforms and they are often at odds with the Islamists.
The police responded to the demonstration with a show of force, moving people out of the park and using tear gas and pepper spray. Word of the excessive force used by police spread quickly and images of clashes between protestors and police flooded Twitter and Facebook. Thousands of people in Istanbul were moved to action to express solidarity with the protestors at Gezi Park, and the police escalated the situation with increasing violence, including street tanks, water cannons, and more gas cannisters.
People in other cities, also outraged at the police response to the demonstrations, began to take to the streets. The protests were quickly broadened to include expressions of discontent with Turkey's current government, particularly the perceived strong-handed control being wielded by prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish police forces. Crowds in more than 20 of Turkey's 81 provinces participated in the protests. People began calling for the prime minister to resign, and graffiti related to Erdogan and the police began to appear throughout the country.
The protests have grown in intensity and clashes with police have become increasingly violent. Several political parties and causes are riding the wave of public discontent and attempting to coopt the demonstrations. And as the crowds are increasingly emboldened the destruction that they are causing also increases. It seems that the protests are losing some of the public support because of the lack of a clear message and the damage that people are seeing on the street.
These events have been a wake-up call to the ruling party and there will have to be an ongoing effort to win back the confidence of the people. Erdogan's initial statements were dismissive of the protests as he defended the actions of his government and the police. And now he is out of the country on a scheduled diplomatic trip to North Africa. The deputy prime minister made a statement, today, however, apologizing for the excessive force used to quash the initial protest at Gezi Park. This is an obvious sign that the government is now being forced to reconsider Erdogan's dismissive approach…
June 5, 2013
We wanted to let you know about the recent events in Turkey and ask you to join us in prayer. The protests are still going on 78 cities with different intensity. The hardest ones are in Istanbul, Izmir, and Ankara. The protest is against the intolerance and dictatorship of the government. The people who are protesting want the government to respect their rights, instead of keeping to change the laws to control their lives. There has never been such a protest before in Turkey. The protesters are mainly college students and elderly people. They just sit, walk, sing, and talk. There is no violence or resistance on their side when the police beat them up to arrest them. They even clean the mess and bad graffiti about the prime minister every morning until 4:00PM! It’s amazing! People just want to be free from the dictatorship of the government and live in real democracy, not on paper, and they do it with a very civilized and loving attitude. They even serve food and drink to the police who are attacking them with gas bombs, water tanks, etc.
We were hoping that people would not die, but one person was killed by the police in Ankara and another in Antakya during protests. The prime minister started to threaten indirectly by saying that he has been holding 50% of his people not to get involved and do something against the protesters. He’ll probably announce what he will do on Saturday and if he releases that 50% on the protesters, a civil war will start and many people will die. Please, pray with us (and even fast if you can) that God will resolve it before many people die. May His will be done and may we believers be ready to be used by Him as He works in His sovereign ways.
Let’s join our brothers and sisters in Turkey in praying for their nation at this crucial time in its history.
(The following article was published in the Asia (print) edition of The Economist May 11, 2013 and shared with us by the Malaysia Prayer Fellowship.)
Malaysia’s General Election, Tawdry victory, The government scrapes home—allegedly aided by vote rigging
ON MAY 5th Malaysia’s Barisan Nasional coalition, led by the prime minister, Najib Razak, was re-elected for the 13th time in a row. Barisan won a majority of seats in parliament, 133 out of 222, against 89 for the opposition, a three-party coalition called Pakatan Rakyat and led by Anwar Ibrahim. The turnout was a record 85%. And so the same government which has ruled Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957 is set for another five years in office.
Within Barisan, the overriding sense is of relief. It did slightly better in terms of seats than some had predicted. Scratch the surface, however, and in almost every respect this was a lamentable result for the ruling coalition, its worst ever. Not only did it lose a further seven seats to Pakatan, but it won with only 47% of the popular vote. It is further evidence of how the electoral system is skewed in Barisan’s favour, allowing it to stack up seats in the rural Malay heartlands with far fewer voters than Pakatan needs to win seats in more urban areas. In many places the opposition increased large majorities. For instance, in Penang in the north of the country the Barisan defeat was so humiliating that its candidate for governor, Teng Chang Yeow, resigned from all his party posts. Several government ministers lost their seats.
Most striking was that ethnic Chinese (about a quarter of the population) shifted their votes away from Barisan towards the opposition. The Chinese party of the Barisan coalition, the Malaysian Chinese Association, won just seven seats, down from 15, whereas the opposition’s mainly Chinese Democratic Action Party (DAP) picked up ten seats, for a final tally of 38.
Mr. Najib, unwisely, spoke of a “Chinese tsunami” breaking over his Barisan coalition. He has only his party to blame. The United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) dominates the Barisan coalition and appeals mainly to ethnic Malays and other indigenous groups who make up two-thirds of the population. UMNO ran a nasty, divisive campaign in the heartlands. This shored up its base of rural Malay voters, known as the bumiputra (“sons of the soil”). But it also alienated Chinese and other voters, already tired of the cronyism and corruption associated with affirmative-action policies that favour Malays over other ethnicities in business, education and the civil service.
So, despite professing to promote a multi-ethnic Malaysia, Barisan’s election strategy has left the country more divided than ever, both along ethnic lines and between urban and rural areas. The Malay press has not helped, with headlines asking “What more do the Chinese want, as it ethnic Chinese acted ungratefully towards Barisan…
Yet the result will not be the only dent in the government’s authority. So too will be the manner in which it was gained. Barisan starts all elections with incumbent advantages, including a slavish state media, tons of cash and constituency boundaries drawn in its favour. On top of that, allegations of dirty campaign tricks abound. “Phantom voters”, for example, appear to have been bussed into marginal constituencies to boost the Barisan vote. Nurul Izzah Anwar, Mr. Anwar’s daughter, contested one such seat in Kuala Lumpur. She and her supporters met several Bangladeshi workers who had been brought into the constituency to vote. She won, but only just…
Mr Anwar claims that fraud cost him the election. On May 8th. he and followers staged a big protest rally against the result. His claim is almost certainly an exaggeration. Still, the bitterness engendered by the vote will persist. “National reconciliation”, which Mr. Najib sees as the way to heal the wounds, looks a way off.
Pray for the healing of Malaysia’s political, social and religious divisions and for the raising up of strong indigenous church movements in all the diverse people groups of this multi-cultural nation.
Pentecost Day in Jordan will be on June 23, but at the School we already had Pentecost! It was our prayer that everyone will receive a new wine from the Lord. On the first day, God gave a vision: the outburst of wine, like a tsunami. Indeed, He poured out the spirit of prayer and intercession. Hallelujah!
The School was intended for those who attended the School of Prayer I last year. Wonderful things happened after the School last year. The house church in Damascus started everyday Prayer Meeting at 6 am (“What else can we do but to pray?” they said). In Jordan, small prayer groups started in different place, we call it Tower of Prayer… It is very encouraging to see more women are burdened to pray.
19 women were together for 2 full days. Among them were 6 Syrians and 1 Egyptian. It was a mix feeling to be with the Syrians. Surely we identify ourselves with their tremendous suffering but at the same time we marvel at God’s faithfulness, how He protects, provides and sustains His children in Syria. The war is getting worse but up to this point, none of the believers get hurt or killed. Two MBBs joined us, one from Syria and the other one from Jordan. The youngest of us is 16 years old and the oldest is over 60 but everyone wants to be trained in prayer!
On personal level, the Lord really encouraged and empowered the women. God blessed with the Word of knowledge for every woman when we prayed for them individually.
As a group, we interceded for the churches, then for Syria, Egypt and Jordan. We actually had travailing prayers for the nations. It was VERY powerful! The women travailed with whole heart and full strength. One intercessor from Jordan, she has been praying for Syria. When we circled the Syrian women to pray for them, the intercessor from Jordan shouted and cried out loud, she said something strong came out of herself and she prayed like never before to push back the power of darkness over Syria. The Egyptian woman was surprised of how she could pray like that for her nation. All prayers are intercession in righteousness as we repent, we confess the sins of the nations and we accept His forgiveness. Then we declare His sovereignty over the nations before we resist the power of darkness over every nation.
We believe, with such tears and intercession, the Arab World will never be the shame again! Especially there will be more prayer efforts going on. Psalm 126:5-6. After the brokenness in the spirit, humbly came before the Lord, He restored our joy. There was a fresh new spirit of joy upon everyone. The women continued to sing praises to the Lord until later in the night.
All glory to God! Thank you very much for your partnership in prayer for this event. You share the victory.
Ester
On behalf of the Team
June 9, 2013
The "INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF PRAYER-LINKING THE ISLANDS" in Queensland, Australia is officially launching the first National House of Prayer in Melanesia, in Honiara in the nation of Solomon Islands from July 10th-14th, 2013.
Delegations from five Melanesian nations of Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu and the two western nations of Australia and New Zealand and representatives from US, Africa & Asia will attend this historical event to pray, worship and celebrate with the church, the government and the people of Solomon islands on this great Kingdom Advance occasion.
The Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, Honourable Gordon Darcy Lilo will officially launch this SOLOMON ISLANDS HOUSE OF PRAYER on Sunday 14th at the National Stadium at Lawson Tama and his government will officially sponsor the International Leaders Breakfast, Prayer and Seminar on Saturday 13th July at the Solomon Kitano Mendana Hotel... The vision of SIHOP is to encourage Prayer, Worship and to do Mission together as One Nation, One People, One Church and One Government under ONE GOD, THE LORD ALMIGHTY.
Prayer Requests:
- Pray for God’s manifest presence to be upon this gathering and that God’s name be honoured and be glorified.
- Pray for all the speakers for this four days of ministry activities in Honiara.
- For the seven nations that are currently part of this ‘IHOP-LINKING THE ISLANDS’ Prayer Network.
- For the development of the new IHOP-Linking the Islands’ base in Queensland Australia where God has recently and miraculously provided a large property for this ministry.
Brother Roy Funu
Founder/Visionary of IHOP-LINKING the Islands
UNITED STATES v. WINDSOR, EXECUTOR OF THE ESTATE OF SPYER, ET AL. Click for PDF version. (http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-307_g2bh.pdf)
The Supreme Court's ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act provides some clarity about a fast-growing practice for banks: financial planning for same-sex couples. (http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/wall-street-doma-decision-93213.html)
The country's highest court handed down a landmark opinion on a section of the law that denies married homosexual couples the same federal rights and benefits as married heterosexual couples. For example, under DOMA, homosexual couples cannot file joint federal income tax returns, do not receive Social Security survivor benefits and cannot access federal estate and gift tax marital deductions - all important issues that factor into married couples' long-term financial planning.
Pray that our nation does not continue down this Sodom and Gomorrah path of destruction. Pray that sound voices of logic and reason would align with God's Word on the subject of homosexual sin. Pray that those who advocate the sin of homosexuality would bend their knees to the Lord's sovereignty and that the Lord would deliver their souls from the death-grip of Satan's domain while there is yet some time to do so. Pray, too, for God's mercy on the U.S., and that a heaven-sent, widespread revival will sweep through the Church in America and bring many to repentance and a true heart-change on these deeply divisive issues.
"You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination." (Lev. 18:22)
"If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltness is upon them"
(Lev. 20:13)
"But God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He love us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) . . ." (Eph. 2:4-5)
Capitol Hill aides spent their Memorial Day weekend scanning hundreds of pages of documents related to the IRS scandal in order to prepare their bosses for what will inevitably be a frantic month of June involving multiple simultaneous investigations into government wrongdoing. By the time lawmakers return to session next week, at least four different investigations will be underway. As The Daily Caller has reported, at least five different IRS offices including Cincinnati, Ohio; Baltimore, Maryland; Chicago, Illinois and El Monte and Laguna Niguel, California improperly targeted conservative nonprofit groups for extra scrutiny between 2010 and 2012.
Give thanks to God for bringing these questions to the light of inquiry so they can be examined. Pray that all corruption would be exposed and dealt with in a fair and equitable manner. Pray for the restoration of a rightly balanced Internal Revenue Service.
From: “Focus on the Family” (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)