He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, from the River to the farthest parts of the earth. Psalm 72:8
Dearest Pastors and Signatories,
The Accord Movement is growing daily! In the last 3 weeks we have had over 10,000 people visit our website with an average of 103 people signing daily. There are now more than 418 Pastors who have signed on worldwide. The Accord is becoming more and more International. In my first update, people from 20 Nations had signed on as of today that number has more than doubled going over 50. The top 5 nations and provinces are:
TOP 5 NATIONS
- Nigeria - 85
- United States - 76
- United Kingdom - 72
- Australia - 11
- Ghana – 10
TOP CANADIAN PROVINCES
- BC - 1980
- AB - 295
- ON - 249
- MB - 164
- SK - 87
We have sensed that in order for this to become the global movement that we are sensing God wants it to be that we are needing to change the umbrella name to OneAccord.
BC will continue to operate under the name West Coast Christian Accord. But the movement will be called OneAccord from now on and the website will soon be converted over to www.oneaccord.one
We would hope to establish chapters across Canada and the world. I will be traveling to present OneAccord in Calgary and Edmonton early next month. Pastor Giulio will be presenting in Saskatchewan. I just now got off the phone with a key Pastor who was inquiring for Quebec. Bless the Lord. Ontario is right now in the planning stages for launching D21.
As we all know we are only days away from the municipal election. What I am finding is that there are so many people running in every municipality that people are genuinely confused about who is who, and their positions. NEWS1130 just sent out a voter position guide. I posted this on my own personal FB page - maybe you could too: https://www.citynews1130.com/2018/10/15/anti-sogi-endorsements/
You can also refer to letsvote.ca and elections.bc.ca
Over 3,199 committed Christians have signed the West Coast Christian Accord (WCCA), a declaration of covenant upholding Biblically-based truth on human identity, sexuality, marriage and the responsibility to protect all children.
For more information please contact:
Pastor Kevin Cavanaugh
Lead Pastor, Cedar Grove Baptist Church
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Pastor Giulio Gabeli
Lead Pastor, Westwood Community Church
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Pastor Paul Dirks
Lead Pastor, New West Community Church
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Asia Bibi, a young mother of five who has spent 8 years behind bars unjustly accused of blasphemy against Muhammad by Muslim neighbors, has now been finally acquitted by Pakistan's Supreme Court of the charges against her. Friends who monitor the situation there now write:
"This is indeed good news, but now Asia Bibi, her whole family and the whole Christian community need much prayer cover, indeed anyone involved in this case, the judges, the lawyers, also the government. Several groups have already sworn to take revenge on the Christian community. One of our team members in Lahore was visiting family across the city because of a death in her family. She is caught there and cannot return as there are threats of riots and people have been told to stay inside their houses."
Another ministry leader who has spent his life working in that region wrote: "This is an important time to pray for Pakistan for different reasons. Now the Christian community is in danger of getting attacked and the extremists want to see revenge, but we should also pray that the government would back up the decision of the Supreme Court. This was a very encouraging and courageous ruling. There are many others still in prison for the same wrong charges."
- Please pray that the police and authorities will be able to keep control of this situation and stop any rioting by the Islamic extremists of which there are many who will be very angry about this ruling.
- Pray that this court decision will not result in bloodshed which is always possible in this spiritual dark, majority Muslim country.
- Pray that the blasphemy law which enables such false accusations, often attended by terrible violence against the Christians, will be rescinded and others who have been imprisoned unjustly will be acquitted and released.
- Pray for His peace to settle over this land, for the protection and empowering of the Christian community, and that the oppressive spiritual bondage will be broken over Pakistan so that many of the majority will come to Christ.
More info: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46040515
The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Us
Awesome new book on prayer and mission by an IPC leader
“Dr. Leslie Keegel’s new book is full of signs and wonders and reads like the book of Acts!”-
John Robb, IPC Chairman.
Soft Cover - $15, Digital Download - $8
A Call for Patience and Persistence in Intercession and Mission
Our IPC colleague, Jason Mandryk, who has a global perspective on both the prayer and mission movements, gives a helpful and needed perspective that also underscores the importance of united, persistent prayer, which like snowflakes accumulating become more and more weighty and can be used by God to change even stubbornly resistant situations and conditions over time. Please let us know what you think.
The year is 1891. It is the First International Convention of the Student Volunteer Movement (SVM). Gathered in Cleveland, Ohio are 6200 fervent students; it is the largest student gathering of its era.
The rallying cry of this convention and indeed of the entire movement is “the evangelization of the world in this generation”, a cry that was repeated across the years to come.
The SVM had been formed specifically for the purpose of mobilising university students into world mission. The evangelistic crusades of D.L. Moody and the campus speaking tours of the renowned ‘Cambridge Seven’ were fresh in the public consciousness of Christians in America and Britain. In the 1890s, missionary leaders such as A.T. Pierson and A.B. Simpson were convinced that the world could be evangelized by the year 1900.
Yet, here we are, 127 years and several generations later, and the world is far from evangelized. Literally millions of missionaries sent across these years, billions of dollars donated, hundreds of Bible translations completed. And yet, 28% of the world can still be considered unevangelized - 2.1 billion people who do not have access to the gospel. What’s more shocking is that the world’s unevangelized population is actually increasing by over 50,000 every day.
During the heady and ambitious days at the turn of the century in 1900, when many thought the Great Commission was poised to be completed, the words of Gustav Warneck, ‘the father of missiology’, must have seemed a rather wet blanket: “Missionary results are not to be reckoned by years but by centuries.” His caution was echoed in 1912 by missionary statesman John P. Jones: “Let us not fall into the error of thinking that Christianizing the nations and bringing the world to the feet of our Lord is the task of a day or of a generation.”
An important lesson, to be sure, but what does this have to do with prayer and intercession?
We live in a fast-paced world. My ‘microwave generation’ expects immediate results for minimal effort. Businesses tend to think in quarterly profits and not long-term strategy. We grit our teeth in frustration if our favourite Netflix episode downloads too slowly or if the pizza takes longer than 30 minutes to arrive.
The stunning Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona, is one of Europe’s iconic buildings. Long queues of people wait to buy tickets to visit its interior every day. Work began in 1886, but it remains incomplete. When pressed on the seemingly interminable project timeline, the architect, Antoni Gaudi, retorted, “My client is not in a hurry.” As with learning a language, mastering an instrument, or building a deep relationship, we know that the greatest accomplishments and most beautiful achievements take time and patience. It is perhaps even more so for the things of God.
Breakthrough in world-changing, nation-shaking, community-transforming ways through prayer and intercession doesn’t happen overnight. This is true for prayer, and it is true for mission. The two are quite intimately and irrevocably connected, after all! Missions works, but it takes time. Intercession brings fruit, but persistence is required.
Hearken back to the year 1900 again. Christians in Africa, Asia, and Latin America (the main mission fields of those days) represented 17% of all Christians. Today, these continents represent 70% of all Christians. The difference is even more pronounced among evangelicals, where these regions account for nearly 80% of the global total.
How did such a monumental shift occur? How did the mission fields of the 1900s become the dynamic centres of global Christianity today? Precisely through the faithful, sustained efforts of missionaries and prayer warriors focusing on the regions for over a century and not giving up. Year after year, day after day, thousands upon thousands of saints, interceding for lost nations and tribes and going to live among them, shining the light into the darkness.
It’s a simple formula. Prayer + mission + time = breakthrough. There are always factors that prevent us from precise spiritual algebra - the fact that the remaining unreached groups are the hardest to reach, the fierce resistance of the Enemy, our own lukewarmness and disobedience, and the mysteries of God’s providence. But the gates of hell will not prevail! “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds.” (2 Cor 10:4)
As we feel our world accelerating into a future marked by uncertainty, we can reliably observe that God is accelerating His own agenda. There is much work to be done - over 7,000 unreached people groups still in need of missions breakthrough. But we can be greatly encouraged by the explosive multiplication of prayer and missionary sending movements from the Global South. Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria, Philippines, Ethiopia, China, Romania; nations that have for years been mission fields and the subjects of countless prayers are increasingly the powerhouses of global mission and intercession. Missions works. It just takes time.
In 1982, Brother Andrew (a.k.a. ‘God’s Smuggler‘) called for seven years of prayer for the Communist Bloc. Seven years later, the Berlin Wall came down, beginning a chain of events that saw the fall of the Iron Curtain and the opening of previously closed countries to the Gospel.
25 years ago, Christians around the world began to annually observe 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim world, in conjunction with the dates of Ramadan. Is it any wonder that in these recent years, we are seeing the greatest movement of Muslims to Christ in all of history?
Prayer works. It just takes time.
The mission base in England where I lived for years had beautiful gardens, containing many fine specimens of trees and shrubs from around the world. Among them was a particularly glorious Turkey Oak tree which rose to well over 100 feet in height. It towered over even other arboreal giants; it seemed invincible. One winter we had a particularly cold snap, punctuated by a rare night of snow. A thunderous crack had awoken a number of us in the night. The next morning we were shocked to see that the almighty oak had toppled. Its ancient heart had been revealed as weak and rotten, and the accumulation of snow had added just enough weight through that cold night to bring it crashing down. Which single, tiny snowflake had been the one that had sealed the oak’s fate?
Our prayers are snowflakes. In a cosmic sense, each prayer is virtually weightless, almost negligible. But their persistent, patient, nearly imperceptible but relentless accumulation will, in time, bring down even the mightiest of giants.
Jason Mandryk
IPC Leadership and author of Operation World, a global prayer handbook
The UN says Yemen is facing the world's worst famine in 100 years if the war continues
“Half the population of war-torn Yemen - 14 million people - are facing "pre-famine conditions", the UN has warned…
Medics say the number of deaths linked to food-related factors is rising.
Yemen has been devastated by a conflict that escalated in 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition intervened after the rebel Houthi movement seized control of much of the west of the country and forced President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi to flee abroad.
At least 6,660 civilians have been killed and 10,560 injured in the war, according to the UN. The fighting and a partial blockade by the coalition have also left 22 million people in need of humanitarian aid, created the world's largest food security emergency, and led to a cholera outbreak that has affected 1.1 million people…
Every day, 130 children under 5 were dying from extreme hunger & disease in #Yemen at the end of last year. Nearly 50,000 children during the course of a year.
https://t.co/elnwNGQJE6
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-45964795
Let’s pray for an end to the hostilities and the economic crisis in Yemen, for the return of peace to this long-suffering nation, and especially for the provision of food and other essential resources needed so desperately right now.
Iran was closer to developing nuclear weapons than was previously thought
“This is courtesy Barack Obama, who enabled the Iranian nuclear program to take a giant leap forward with his disastrous nuclear deal, a deal that John Kerry and the Western European “allies” are still trying to keep alive. That deal was, as President Trump said, the worst deal ever entered into by any American President. Get the details of just how bad it was, and how much more dangerous a place it made the world, in my book The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran.
“Think tank: Iran was closer to nukes than we thought,” by Yonah Jeremy Bob, Jerusalem Post, October 24, 2018:
Iran was closer to developing nuclear weapons than previously thought, according to a think tank report issued late Tuesday.
A report by the Institute for Science and International Security said that combining new information produced by the Mossad during its January raid on a Tehran warehouse along with satellite imagery “conclusively shows that the Parchin site did house high explosive chambers capable for use in nuclear weapons research and development.”
While the focus of the report is Iran’s activities up until 2003, the premise of the report and of the documents which the Mossad appropriated from a site in Tehran (which had not been disclosed to the IAEA) is that the tests performed mean Iran could be capable of building a weapon faster than previously thought.
There are unending debates about whether the Islamic Republic is currently around 12 months or closer to six months from being able to produce a nuclear bomb, if it chose to do so.
Iran has already overcome some of the obstacles to building a bomb which experts thought it had not yet overcome, based on the new report. This would shorten the countdown number.
Moreover, the report implies that based on photos from the Mossad appropriated documents, Iran has not accounted for complex equipment that would be used for the process of developing a nuclear weapon – meaning the IAEA should be confronting Tehran about where and whether it is hiding it….
The report said that the Mossad-obtained “nuclear archive shows that Iran conducted at Parchin more high explosive tests related to nuclear weapons development than previously thought…this work appears to have involved more than what the IAEA called feasibility and scientific studies,” as the IAEA asserted in a December 2015 report….”
Jihadwatch.org
Pray that the Iranians would be foiled in developing or getting access to nuclear weapons which would be extremely dangerous and destabilizing for our world. Pray for the overthrow of the tyrannical Muslim mullahs that dominate that nation and are the world most significant source of international terrorism. Pray also for the rapidly growing underground movement for Christ in that country.
Bringing Hope to the People of Iran
Calling all followers of Jesus Christ around the world!
On November 4, 2018, join Heart4Iran, multiple ministry partners, and thousands of Christian brothers and sisters worldwide to pray for Iran and bring hope to her people.
God is moving mightily in and through Iran, reaching millions of Persians with His love and truth. Together, we can continue sharing the Gospel with Muslims throughout this nation.
For years, the growing Christian movement in Iran has been largely ignored in the mainstream media, and Iran is consistently vilified by the Western world. But God is moving mightily in and through Iran, reaching millions of Persians with His life-changing, heart-transforming love and truth!
November 4, 2018, marks, to the day, the 39thanniversary of the hostage crisis in Iran with the U.S. Embassy. This is a critical time to come before the Lord in prayer alongside Iranian Christians and for the nation of Iran.
On the International Day of Prayer, a brand-new prayer program in Farsi will air on our partner stations, Mohabat TV, SAT-7 PARS, and Shabakeh 7. This insightful, heartfelt call to prayer will share why prayer is so important for the people of Iran, as well as specific prayer needs.
We will also be broadcasting the JESUS film and two other transformational videos. Our hope is that these moving productions will draw Iranians who don’t yet know Jesus Christ to seek Him. Please pray these four broadcasts will accomplish this goal – and that everyone who watches will be impacted by the truth of the Gospel.
Our ultimate goal is that thousands of men, women, and children will join us in prayer on this special day. Please visit roozedoa.com to learn more about the International Day of Prayer and discover prayer needs unique to Iran. Plus, you’ll be able to let us know you are praying and encouraging our Iranian brothers and sisters.
Ultimately, the mission of the International Day of Prayer is to pray diligently for and with the people of Iran and continue seeing lives impacted by the eternal Gospel throughout this nation.
Again, for additional information please visit: www.roozedoa.com.
International Day of Prayer: Pray for Iran November 4, 2018
Bringing Hope to the People of Iran Prayer Points
- Pray for peace across the nation of Iran and in her relationships with other nations.
- Pray for the Western world to see the people of Iran for who they really are as children of God, replacing any prejudices with Christ’s love and compassion.
- Pray that God would raise up and equip strong Christian leaders in Iran to help lead the house church movement. Pray for these leaders to walk together in unity.
- Pray that every Iranian follower of Jesus Christ will discover a house church where he or she can build relationships, study God’s Word, and grow in the faith.
- Pray for persecution of Christians to cease immediately.
- Pray for Christians to be brave and full of faith as they share the Gospel.
- Pray for God to open the hearts and minds of Muslims, preparing them to hear the Gospel and respond.
- Pray for Iran’s leaders and her people to experience the life-changing, heart- transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ.
- Pray for thousands – even millions – of Iranians to watch the broadcasts of the prayer program, JESUS film, and other transformational videos. Also pray they will hear and understand the truth of salvation through Jesus Christ and respond to it.
- Pray that every person in Iran will have access to a printed, digital, or audio Bible in their own mother tongue.
- Pray for God to hear us on this special International Day of Prayer, according to His will.
“Earlier this year we sent out a newsletter entitled "A Special China Issue," which told of the massive and brutal persecution of Christians underway in China. Many people were shocked by what we shared, and some even doubted if it was true, as other sources weren't reporting the trouble.
In the following months it became clear that God's people in China are not merely going through a regular season of hardship, but a major effort is underway to completely control the Church, backed by new technology that creates challenges to the Body of Christ that have never been encountered before. In this newsletter we will update you on the crisis in China, while attempting to answer some of the common questions people have asked.
What's the Latest News from China?
In recent months the government has markedly increased the pressure on Christians throughout the country. We received an unconfirmed report from a long-term China missionary stating that 314 house church Christians have been killed in recent months, and hundreds more are missing. Most house church leaders have gone into hiding and have disconnected their phones and other devices because of the incredible surveillance capabilities of the state.
Thousands of house churches (which are considered illegal in China) have been closed. Reflecting the actions of Mao's Red Guards in the 1960s, religious symbols such as crosses and Scripture posters have been torn down and replaced by flags of China or portraits of President Xi Jinping.
Note: Our website version of this newsletter includes several important links to articles and videos to help people understand what's going on in China and how best to pray. Please visit www.asiaharvest.org for more detailed information.
Links to articles:
Updated: Large Beijing house church banned as China continues Christian persecution
Inmates initiate hunger strike amid mass incarceration crackdown
China Uighurs: Xinjiang legalises 're-education' camps
Leave no dark corner
Some congregations have been ordered to sing the national anthem or other patriotic songs at the start of their services. Others have been ordered to install government facial-recognition surveillance cameras inside their worship halls, and those that have refused to comply have been forced to shut down.
Landlords who rent buildings to Christians are being heavily fined by the government, with new laws allowing fines of between 20,000 to 200,000 Yuan (almost US$30,000). This has created a climate of fear and suspicion, and thousands of fellowships have been forced out of the premises they were renting. On the streets, the police have the power to stop and search anyone they wish and to check their phones and other devices for content they deem a threat to society. These threats may include the presence of a Bible app or visits to Christian websites, or any communication considered unpatriotic.
The most severe persecution is occurring in the vast Xinjiang region in northwest China. In recent years a promising church movement had emerged among the Uyghur, Kazakh and Kirghiz people groups, but most of the church leaders have been arrested and taken to concentration camps in the desert. Reputable news organizations estimate at least one million people are being detained and tortured in those camps right now. Many suburbs in cities like Urumqi, Hami and Kashgar are now depopulated and countless buildings have been boarded up. Although this initiative was designed to target Muslims in border areas, almost all Uygur and Kazakh church leaders have also been taken away. The government doesn't care whether someone is a Muslim or Christian. It's all the same to them.
Spiritual Forces Behind the Persecution
While there are human reasons for the dramatic persecution, we should never lose sight of the fact that Satan and his fallen hosts hate God's people, and they never rest in trying to destroy them. We recently updated our Christian stats for all 2,866 cities and counties in China, and the end result was a marked increase since the last time we reviewed our figures. Currently, we estimate a total of 129.7 million professing Christians in China, of which 109 million are Evangelical believers. The Chinese government is fully aware of the explosive growth of the Church in China, and they are determined to stop it. They don't want China taking over from South Korea as the number one Evangelical country in Asia.
Political Ambitions
If you have read our Asia Harvest newsletters for some time you will know we don't usually mention politics at all, as our call is to equip the Church in Asia and not to be entangled by civilian affairs (2 Timothy 2:4). Our goal is not to favor one political system over another, but to see all people groups of Asia hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If one quote sums up what we think about politics, it would be this famous one from an economist in the last century: "Under Communism man oppresses man. Under capitalism it's the other way around."
To understand the human reasons of why China is so determined to destroy the Church, however, it's helpful to grasp the historical background behind China's geopolitical ambitions. Starting in the 1800s, China was dominated by foreign powers that carved up various parts of the country and exploited their natural resources. The Chinese consider this the darkest period in their history, and have labelled it "The century of humiliation." Chinese resentment and desire to revenge their "loss of face" runs deep. Japan was one of the foreign nations that dominated China during this period, inflicting shameful cruelties on the Chinese people. A few years ago a survey in China found that 82 percent of respondents said China should launch a war with Japan before the end of this decade.
In a bid to try to erase the painful memories of the past, China believes they have an opportunity to be the new world super-power, replacing the United States and the West. To achieve this lofty goal, President Xi Jinping has stopped at nothing to implement his "One Belt, One Road" initiative, which would result in China having the most powerful economy and military on earth. To help him succeed, earlier this year Xi was appointed ‘President for life'. Whereas often in the West we think in terms of months and years, the Chinese think in terms of decades and even centuries. They are not in a rush, and are determined to gradually work their way toward becoming the undisputed world power.
The Communist leaders trying so desperately to implement their global vision are God-hating atheists, and they are determined not to let anyone or anything stand in their way. They want absolute power over what people do, say and think, and Christians, Muslims, or anyone else who may pose a threat to their goals are being subdued, controlled, or eradicated. These are the reasons behind the current campaign to wipe out the Church in China. Mao tried to do this from the 1950s to 1970s, and Xi Jinping seems determined to finish the job that Mao failed to do….
Read the PDF Version of this Newsletter
Let’s continue to pray for a change of policy by the Chinese government that will permit religious freedom. Pray for the encouragement and strengthening of our brothers and sisters in Christ and that the Lord will use the persecution of His people to greatly expand the ministry of the Church and the turning to Christ even more huge numbers of this most populous nation.