Uganda: land theft
09 Jan 2020
When a woman’s husband dies, her neighbours and family often believe that she no longer has a right to the land. Albertina and her family fled to a refugee camp in Uganda’s brutal civil war. Her husband died there. All Albertina had left was her family and her piece of land. When she returned home, neighbours had stolen her plot and refused to move. For the poor Ugandans, a plot of land is where they farm and keep their family alive. Albertina’s neighbours violently threatened her, so she camped on the edges of her rightful property for the next eight years. Finally another widow told Albertina about International Justice Mission (IJM). IJM pursued her case, provided food for Albertina’s grandchildren, and guarded their hut. The fight for her land continues.
Australia: devastation not over
09 Jan 2020
Thunderstorms are bringing some relief for firefighters battling deadly wildfires across Australia's drought-parched east coast; also, authorities have worked to trace the source of the fires, arresting two dozen Australians for potential arson. Meanwhile, as the flames consume tens of thousands of acres, Christians are issuing a call to prayer. While the rain has brought welcome relief to Australian communities and the fire crews, the unprecedented devastation continues. Fires have consumed more than 32,000 square miles - eighty times more than the wildfires that swept through California in 2018. ‘While we were fighting the front of the fire to the south, it came in from the east,’ said Balmoral resident Justin Kam. ‘While we were fighting to the east, it came in from the west. You don't really have too much of a chance when that happens.’ Pray for thunderstorms to continue and winds to blow flames away from communities.
Worldwide: abortion largest cause of death
09 Jan 2020
Over 42 million abortions took place globally in 2019, according to the tracking service Worldometers. Once again abortion was the single largest cause of death across the planet, causing significantly more than half the total of all deaths worldwide. More than 190,000 worldwide abortions were recorded in the first two days of 2020. The true totals may be either lower or higher, however, as they rely on health and mortality statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO), which in turn uses estimates from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute. Worldometers found similar numbers last year, leading left-wing outlets such as Snopes to attempt to minimise the news, not by disputing the numbers but by arguing that abortion should not be considered a ‘cause of death.’ Scientifically speaking, however, it is a settled biological fact that the embryos and foetuses destroyed by abortion are living human beings.
Christians in New Year’s honours list
03 Jan 2020
Mike Pilavachi, Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin, and four Irish priests were all awarded the MBE in the New Year’s honours list. Pilavachi, who founded the Soul Survivor movement, has been honoured for his services to young people. Bishop Rose, who is now bishop of Dover after serving as chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons for nine years, was recognised for services to young people and to the CofE. The award also went to Northern Ireland's singing priests (Frs Eugene O'Hagan. Martin O'Hagan, and David Delargy) for their music and charity work, and to Fr Stephen McBrearty in recognition of his prison chaplaincy work. In addition, Wynne Roberts, a hospital chaplain, received the British Empire Medal for charitable services after raising £250,000 for charity since he began his Elvis tribute act six years ago.
Pakistan: police help Christian
03 Jan 2020
In a rare move, police stepped in to stop Muslims attacking Amir Masih, a Christian sanitation worker, after he was falsely accused of ‘blasphemy’. The charges were dropped immediately after police investigations found that the pages of the Quran which he had in his possession were found in a rubbish bag he collected from local homes as part of his duties. Amir took the pages to a Muslim-owned shop to confirm whether they were from the Quran, but was accused by the shop owner of being an ‘unclean rubbish collector’ and dragged to the local mosque. The imam made a loudspeaker announcement that ‘a blasphemous Christian had been stopped’, calling on other imams to punish him and burn local Christian homes. But police stepped in and saved him from harm and possible life imprisonment.
Intercessor Focus: praying for 2020
03 Jan 2020
Pray for Brexit leavers and remainers to end enmity and rebuild a genuinely United Kingdom. Boris Johnson has an 80-seat majority; may his government members speak with strong voices in Brussels and achieve God’s purposes for our nations. There is a possibility that we will leave the EU without a deal on World Trade Organisation terms. May we be philosophical: Britain has been through worse in the past and moved on. Many promises were made before the election. Pray for the new government to reignite the North of England while keeping to its promise not to increase taxes (see also next article). Pray for enough new houses to be built on brownfield sites to end the housing crisis. May the promised 31,000 nurses and 20,000 police officers be recruited, trained and used by God to build a safer, healthier society. Pray also for local elections on 7 May to bring people back to voting on local issues, not national ones.
Civil service changes
03 Jan 2020
Government officials could face exams in a bid to end an environment where civil servants change jobs regularly and ‘almost no one is ever fired’, in an organisation of which some say ‘failure is normal’. Number 10 is planning a string of changes to the structure of government, with several departments set to be merged or rebadged in the early months of Boris Johnson's administration. Rachel Wolf, the Tory manifesto author, said officials should expect to be kept on projects where they ‘know the background’. In a move that could anger civil service unions, she hinted at a ‘rethink of incentives, numbers and pay’ in the organisation. She is urging Downing Street to oversee a wider change in the organisation, saying civil servants were currently too focused on ‘stakeholders’ and not the public, with too many officials seeing special interests as their customers. For information about a government reshuffle, go to
British pastor and children drown
03 Jan 2020
Olubunmi Diya is mourning after her daughter Comfort (9), son Praise-Emmanuel (16), and husband Pastor Gabriel (52) drowned in a hotel swimming pool on Christmas Eve. Olubunmi said she believed something was wrong that must have made swimming difficult for them’, and that they were somehow dragged into the middle of the pool. The hotel owners issued a statement stressing that exhaustive investigations by the police confirmed that the pool was working normally and there was no malfunction of any kind. They also cited the police statement that ‘the tragic accident was due to the lack of swimming expertise of the victims’. Olubunmi said that they were able to swim. Her family is not satisfied with the idea that it was a simple accident, and may open a parallel investigation into the deaths.