Israel: state inquiry into Meron crush
07 May 2021
45 people were crushed to death and over 150 sustained injuries in Israel’s deadliest civilian disaster when a stampede broke out at a densely-attended celebration. Search and rescue authorities struggled to evacuate trapped people after some revellers slipped on steps, causing dozens more to fall over and be crushed. The police commissioner said the handling of the site was deeply flawed. On 3 May the Knesset held a memorial for the 45 victims of the Meron disaster. Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the special session. He was moved by his hospital visit to the injured, saying that Israelis, Jews and Arabs alike, have shown mutual responsibility and a huge heart in their response to the tragedy. ‘The families are not alone, and this is the most important thing.’ He vowed that the government would help them. and the incident would be investigated from every angle.
Global: fourth week of Ramadan
07 May 2021
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern and western India are some of the most dangerous places on earth to be a Christian. Over 325 million Muslims call this region home. If anyone chooses to follow Christ, they face intense opposition, even death. However no nation is closed to prayer. No people are outside his reach. And absolutely nothing is impossible with him. Muslims have spent four weeks fasting, praying and doing good deeds to be closer to God. They are looking for assured salvation. Pray for the Holy Spirit to meet their needs and for Jesus to permeate every unreached corner of the nations, including large industrial cities and rural tribal areas (especially in western south Asia). Pray for grace and love to extinguish all unbelief in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Pray for the Christians living in Muslim communities to have the courage to continue to follow Christ regardless of intense persecution and to share God’s grace and love.
17-year-old Hereiti lives on the largest of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. She says the ocean is the ‘lifeblood’ of her community, and that when it is ‘healthy’, the people are too. But she worries that rising sea levels and pollution are threatening the health of the ocean. ‘Life Below Water’ is goal 14 of the UN’s sustainable development goals, a set of targets announced in 2015 to transform lives around the world by 2030. The UN wants to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, and significantly reduce marine pollution by 2025. In 2015, world leaders agreed to 17 global goals (officially known as the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs). Five years on, there is more work than ever to do. Reaching these goals has the power to create a better world by 2030, through ending poverty, fighting inequality, and addressing the urgency of climate change. See
Burkina Faso: more attacks generate more fear
07 May 2021
The army in Burkina Faso needs to contain spreading violence by al-Qaeda and IS. More than thirty men, women, and children were killed by 100 rebels burning down homes and shooting people trying to escape. Survivors are praying for peace and are very afraid. One week earlier two Spanish journalists and an Irish conservationist were killed, and a soldier went missing when an anti-poaching patrol was ambushed by rebels. Another 18 people were killed in a different village. Last year the government enlisted volunteer militiamen to help the army, but they incurred retaliation by the rebels attacking them and the communities they helped. Armed groups have driven religious and ethnic tensions between farming and herding communities in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger to boost recruitment among marginalised communities. The UN said worsening violence has led to one of the world’s most acute humanitarian crises.
China: Early Rain Church’s continued persecution
07 May 2021
Two and a half years after Chinese authorities arrested Pastor Wang Yi and over a hundred members of Early Rain Church, the congregation is still being harassed for following Christ. Last November elder Yangquan Li was detained for worshiping online from his home; local officials cut off his utilities and internet service. His landlord was also forced to evict him and his family, and they are now closely monitored by police. They are asking Christians to pray for them and for the church. ‘We pray that we depend on God when we lack, because apart from Him we have no good thing’, Yangquan said. ‘We pray God makes us put our trust in Him at this difficult time. We pray the Holy Spirit fills us to respond to our situation with gentleness and respect.’ Despite ongoing persecution, our Christian brothers and sisters in China continue to share the gospel with their neighbours.
We are pleased to bring you the May edition of IPC Connections.
As we write this introduction, several of us have just arrived at International House of Prayer, Kansas City who are hosting World Prayer Together on Saturday 1st May. This 2-hour online prayer and worship gathering launches GO Month, and includes prayers for the unreached across China, India and the Middle East.
The event is being led by a group of highly respected prayer ministry leaders from around the world and is being broadcast from IHOPKC and GODTV globally at 7.30pm in each region.
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Join World Prayer Together | GO PRAY
Saturday May 1st at 7.30pm in your region:
CLICK HERE 7.30PM SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
CLICK HERE 7.30PM DELHI, ASIA
CLICK HERE 7.30PM LONDON, EUROPE
CLICK HERE 7.30PM JHB, AFRICA
CLICK HERE 7.30PM NEW YORK, USA
Click your nearest city link above to Watch for free online
Also watch on Digital TV + GODTV APP
View on YouTube anytime from 7.30pm (UTC+1) May 1st
ABOUT US | PRAYER GUIDE | DONATE | FLYER | GO MONTH
May 1st will be English language. The event will be re-broadcast
online in multiple languages on May 7th at 12:00HRS UTC.
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Full details follow below and at www.worldprayertogether.com
In his Editorial article this month, Dr Jason Hubbard shares how the prayers and lifestyles of an eighteenth-century migrant community affected the shape of world mission with such an impact that they still inspire and encourage the Church today? Read this inspiring story about the Moravians below.
We continue our series of introductions to the IPC Council members with a profile of our friend and colleague, Onassis Jeevaraj. Onassis is based in Chennai, India and has been with IPC since 2005. He is an Exec Team member who also leads and represents IPC in South Asia. He is a humble and gracious man of God with immense giftings. Do read his testimony.
India is very much in the news at present. We have all seen in the news the shocking and desperate situation that their health services are facing in the light of the overwhelming number of covid cases that are reaching out to them for medical treatment. We are sharing below a prayer report from Rev George Henman from Delhi which can be echoed by our colleague, Onassis and many of our other contacts in India. They very much need our prayers and our practical / financial help at this time.
Whilst there is encouraging news in terms of the development and rolling out of the covid vaccine, the covid-19 pandemic has impacted many areas of life. We are highlighting a few of those impacts in this edition of Connections.
Thank you for continuing to partner with us in mobilising and informing united prayer across nations, denominations, movements, and generations for the fulfilment of the Great Commission.
May we express grateful thanks to Andy Page and the IPC Editorial Team who put this email together each month.
We hope you can join us on the World Prayer Together programme Saturday!
Every blessing,
Jason Hubbard - Director
International Prayer Connect
Please use this link if you would like to sow into IPC’s ministry with a donation
Disclaimer…
The views and opinions expressed in IPC Connections and the articles on our website are those of individuals and our partner organisations. They do not necessarily represent the policies or views of IPC or its individual leaders.
We aim to respect the diversity within the prayer movement and yet embrace our unified calling to mobilise prayer for the nations. (2 Chron 7:14) If you wish to discuss the appropriateness of any articles, please contact us.
How could the prayers and lifestyles of an eighteenth-century migrant community affect the shape of world mission with such an impact that it still inspires and encourages the Church today? I’d like to share this compelling real-life story with you. It’s changed my life and my prayer is that it will change yours too!
On May 1st, we will be airing a unique program on GOD.TV across the world. World Prayer Together | GO PRAY is a worldwide gathering to pray for huge numbers of people who will be sharing the Gospel with their friends, family, colleagues, strangers, whoever they are guided to - during the month of May 2021.
It’s part of a big international movement originally called Global Outreach, now called GO Movement. Our motivation is from Jesus’ words in the Bible - Luke 10 verse 2: He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.
This is where the incredible story of the Moravian’s comes in…
Many of us have been inspired by the story of the Count Nicholas Ludwig Von Ziinzendorf and the Moravians. Fleeing persecution, the Moravians established a community of believers in 1722 on Zinzendorf’s estate in Saxony, Germany. They named this place Herrnhut, which means ‘The watch of the Lord’. It is considered by many today to be the birthplace of Protestant missions and continual 24/7 prayer.
On August 13, 1727, the young community experienced a mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God during a communion service. It was described as a ‘baptism of love’ where the love of God was shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit and spilled out in ‘love for another.’ An unction of the “Spirit of God” fell upon them to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. This has been referred to as the Moravian Pentecost.
After this outpouring of the Spirit of God, the Lord spoke to Zinzendorf from Leviticus 6:13 that the ‘fire should never go out on the altar.’ In response, they began a prayer vigil that continued day and night 24/7 for 100 years. Under this canopy of united, strategic and sustainable prayer, God marked 300+ missionaries and sent them out to the nations of the earth, establishing over 5000 missionary settlements. Some of these missionaries were even willing to sell themselves into slavery to reach the slaves of the West Indies with the gospel. Their mission was simple: ‘one on the field, one at home, one to pray and one to go.’
What motivated the Moravians to pray day and night for 100 years and go on Gospel mission was the absolute worth of Jesus as the Lamb of Glory! The watchword of the Moravians was this “May the Lamb who was slain receive the due reward for His sufferings.” They would often declare, “Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow Him.”
It’s my heart’s desire that as we pray, God would give us a piercing revelation of the Lamb of God. The Father is always looking at the wounds of his Son, and I believe he is asking the church today, “When will you give my Son the due reward for his sacrifice?” He is all-deserving of all of our worship, all of our obedience and all of our affections. May our hearts bleed for the one who bled for us! And at the end of the day, may we join with the chorus of Heaven and sing and declare, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Rev. 5:12, ESV)
During World Prayer Together | GO PRAY may we follow in the footsteps of the Moravians, cultivating day and night prayer in each of our communities and boldly sharing our faith with the lost. Let’s pray that the missions movements around the world become more prayer devoted and the prayer movements around the world become more missional!
Let's ask the Lord for a fresh burden for the lost and broken of our world. If Jesus were to come back today, 5 billion people on the planet would be in hell, suffering and separated from the presence of God forever. To grasp this, if each person (5 billion) were lined up toe to toe, they would be lined up around the globe 37.9x. Real people with real families. During World Prayer Together | Go Pray, may God grant us his burden and a fresh boldness to be witnesses like he did the early church!
“And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31)
May every believer be a witness. Everyone can reach someone and together we can reach the world!
Let’s keep the fire burning!
Dr. Jason Hubbard – Director
International Prayer Connect
Watch the inspiring ‘Reaching the Unreached’ video filmed in Herrnhut Germany:
Short (3 mins)| Full (9 mins)
Watch the World Prayer Together | GO PRAY Video
World Prayer Together | GO PRAY airs at 7.30pm in each GOD.TV region on Saturday May 1st. Links to each broadcast and a free downloadable prayer guide are available from www.worldprayertogether.com
Continuing our series of articles introducing you to the leaders at IPC, this month we would like to introduce you to Onassis Jeevaraj.
Onassis serves on the Executive Team and Council of International Prayer Connect and is responsible for raising a strong prayer network in 8 South Asian countries. He has been associated with IPC since 2005, identified and encouraged by our previous Chairman, John Robb and given responsibility to facilitate prayers in the South Asia region since 2008. He conducted the Global Children in Prayer Summit in Chennai in 2008, (45 nations and 200 delegates participated in this summit). Onassis also facilitated the South Asia Prayer council conferences in Sri Lanka and Nepal.
Onassis was born in the city of Chennai (Chennai is the city where one of the disciples of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Thomas, was martyred.) His parents were nominal Christians and were not church goers. He used to go to church once in a while and had no knowledge of Jesus until he received the Lord as his personal savior when he was seventeen years old.
Onassis also serves as the India National Director for GO MOVEMENT. His job is to envision the body of Christ, with the need to go for one-on-one Evangelism, ‘each one reach one’. He travels across the nation of India to meet with leaders / bishops / overseers of different denominations and to encourage churches to reach the nation. His journey with God has been an interesting blend of learning stewardship and applying the Kingdom principles through the Marketplace and also through being an ordained minister.
WINDOW INTERNATIONAL NETWORK - www.win1040.org
Onassis’s journey in Window International Network started when he first attended their global prayer summit in East Malaysia in 2006. Now he is part of their network as a prayer mobilizer and trainer. 10/40 nations (those between 10 and 40 degrees north latitude) consist of 69 countries, close to 4 billion people, yet 90% of these nations have not been reached by the gospel. As Chief Executive Director, he has social media and reporter teams that inform readers and contacts as to what is happening in the 1040 window. They regularly send Emergency Prayer Alerts and daily updates of prayer targets covering the 1040 nations. He also takes teams to do prayer journeys to the most vulnerable countries as first-hand experience of prayer walking and intercession.
Tell us a bit about your story of what you did previously and how you got into prayer ministry?
At the age of 19 years, I committed to be a full-time servant of the Lord and involved myself in the local church as a Sunday School teacher, Youth Minister, leading many young people to the Lord. At the same time, I managed my own Electrical Contracting company for 12 years with a successful career. I was huge tither and giver to missions. However in the years 1990-2000, business was challenging and I suffered losses and rising debts, and I had to ask several people to support me financially. I made a commitment then to leave the business only when I had settled all my debts. After 3 months, God miraculously blessed my business beyond my understanding and I paid all my outstanding debtors, earned the good will of my market and clients and was again very successful. In the year 2001 at the peak of my business career, I heard the audible voice of the Holy Spirit, telling me it was time to move to full time ministry. I quit in the year 2001 and closed my company. I was ordained as Pastor of Prince of Peace Ministries in Chennai.
In 2002I had an opportunity to meet Brother Patrick Joshua (a renowned Mission and Prayer Leader in India) and to steward for him during his prayer ministry assignments. One day he said that the Lord had told him that Onassis is the person who will assist him to initiate and network the churches in India for Prayer. Hence, National Prayer Network was born. I had hardly travelled outside of my city before 2002! God now helped me to pioneer National Prayer Network, connecting leaders of different denominations, missions, NGO’s , other prayer networks, business networks and to spark prayer by traveling to more than 400 cities and 30 plus nations. I led many National and International Prayer Initiatives, Conferences, Prayer Rallies, fasting Prayers, Prayer Walking, Teaching, and preaching in 100’s of churches across the nations.
Tell us about your family.
My wife's name is Joyce Esther, we have been married for 23 years and are blessed with 2 sons. Solomon is 22 years old and Simeon is 20 years. Solomon is completing his master’s degree in Human Resources and will soon pursue his carrier in HR. Simeon is in his second year studying Engineering. Both live in Chennai, India.
Tell us about what you do to relax... any hobbies or sports?
I love traveling to new places and meeting new people. I like to spend time traveling alone and speaking to God. I get relaxed when I help someone in need. My favorite sport is Cricket - I support Chennai Super Kings.
Who was the most inspirational mentor to you, and why?
Brother Patrick Joshua (pictured right). He saw the call of God on my life, introduced me to the churches and gave me the platform to minister to big church leaders. I learned first-hand lessons in simplicity, patience and faith from this man of God.
What is the biggest challenge you are facing at the moment? How are you dealing with it?
The Covid surge in India is very alarming. The government is doing its best, but the nation is facing one of its worst humanitarian crises in the history of our nation. We have lost many pastors and some of them their spouses. We need more prayers. I am trying to help many of them practically and financially at this juncture. The situation is almost overwhelming.
What’s your favorite scripture, and why?
Phil 4 :7- Peace of God and 2 Corinthians 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” The unending grace of God and His unconditional love is the foundation of my life, But for His grace and grace alone.
What advice would you give to someone considering getting involved in prayer?
- Prayer ministry is not a stage. It is done in close quarters, one may not get the credit, but then you will have the satisfaction of doing what God wants you to do.
- One needs to have a big heart to accept all kinds of people for mobilizing united prayer.
- One should sacrifice their Ego.
- The attitude of John the Baptist is one to hold on to - Let me decrease and Christ increase.
- Work hard and leave the rest to God.
Onassis’s Other Story: www.saathchalo.org
Along the streets of Kolkata near Kali Ghat, a little girl’s eye caught my attention. I was there working and did not realize until I had seen this for myself that this little girl, who couldn’t have been more than 12 years old, was working too. She looked away immediately. As I kept walking, I kept turning around to look at what was going on. There were about 6 other little girls too. They were being accosted by men – large, burly, and rough. I kept walking, feeling helpless, unknowing as to what these men who, perhaps were fathers themselves, were doing. I heard that they were expected to service 20 customers during the weekend alone. I felt I had let that little girl down. I have replayed this a million times in my head, but I’ve also seen this repeated in real life as I traveled across our country and the world from Egypt, Lebanon, Afghanistan, South Africa and in several cities in India, the same stories are repeated. Girls, women, helpless, hapless crying for restoration of dignity, freedom and hope. A life – that’s a dream.
From the desperation of that helpless moment grew an inspiration for action – to do something about it – I knew that no woman or child should be violated. I also knew I could never counter this alone. Did you know, next only to the arms and drugs industry, trafficking is the most profitable business in the world?
The Kolkata episode was not a beginning, but it helped me understand what my purpose in life was – to see that every human being lives the life that they’ve been created to live – well, full of hope and opportunity. The desire to see people live to their potential was tempered from a very young age. I would always be moved deeply when I saw a poor person. I couldn’t do anything then.
Though we live in a free nation, the question remains are we really free? On the other, if freedom is for all, why do we still exploit our women and children? Why are families still living in slavery? Why does bonded labor and exploitation still exist? In a country that boasts of the top 5 richest Indians having half of the nation’s wealth, why is it difficult for us to alleviate poverty?
Saath Chalo seeks to bring together those that are asking similar questions and believe that we can end trafficking and bonded labour. The answers pop up as we come together and stand with each other, walking alongside those that have been affected and impacted by these horrific experiences. Saath Chalo is a movement – of students, of youth, of corporates, of business houses, of people like you and me - that will be a voice – a voice for those that are exploited, made vulnerable, oppressed and with no dignity. It will come along and be a bridge to restore hope and dignity, in their walk towards justice and regaining their destiny.
More info at: www.saathchalo.org
Onassis Jeevaraj – Executive Council Member
International Prayer Connect
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