Indonesia: earthquake,tsunami, volcano eruption
05 Oct 2018
Air traffic controller Anthonius Agung died after waving out the last flight from Palu airport on 28 September (see). He was one of the first casualties of a disaster that has taken at least 1,407 lives, injured many thousands more, and left most of the 350,000 residents homeless when a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck the island of Sulawesi. It triggered a ten- metre, 400mph tsunami that dragged cars, trees, houses, boulders, logs and mud inland. Three days later, Mount Soputan erupted, spewing ash clouds that make air flights hazardous. Clinics have no power and low medical supplies. Many communities have received no aid at all; other areas are experiencing looting. The tension is palpable with fights breaking out for food. Unless the government and agencies can deliver aid, there is a risk that tensions could spill over. Bridges must be repaired and roads restored before essential aid can reach points of need. Boats from other islands are delivering food, water and medicine.
Indonesia: Christian agencies join forces
05 Oct 2018
Four leading Christian humanitarian organisations are joining forces in a fundraising campaign to try and help survivors of the Indonesia earthquake and tsunami, as authorities fear the number of fatalities, casualties and people displaced will rise in the coming days. See Tearfund is also working with Indonesian churches still looking for whole families and congregations and burying their dead. Rev Krise Gosal said, ‘Survivors are hungry, babies are crying for milk. We asked church networks to share the burden by donating food, tents and funds and they are uniting with one heart to express their solidarity with Palu, Donggala, and Sigi.’ Christian agencies have deployed emergency doctors, nurses, an orthopaedic surgeon, and a team with a midwife to affected areas. A possible 1.5 million people could have been affected. The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has also opened an Indonesia appeal.
The foreign minister of Dominica, Francine Baron, addressing the UN General Assembly on climate change, stressed that it is a global responsibility. Ms Baron noted that the global community has neither implemented plans for the 2015 Paris commitments nor mobilised the agreed $100 billion annually to assist the most vulnerable against harmful climate change effects. ‘While we have failed to live up to these commitments, Arctic ice shelves continue to melt at an alarming rate, oceans continue to get warmer, hurricanes and storms continue to develop and threaten our countries, drought becomes more severe, and flooding more pronounced.’ Last year Hurricane Maria brought Dominica to its knees. Immediately afterwards, ‘our people raised their battered and wounded selves, and began the daunting task of search and rescue, clearing roadways and moved into rebuilding mode.’ The cost of rebuilding a nation is far more than a small country like Dominica can meet single-handedly.
On 28 September, the IDF neutralised 100+ explosives thrown at them by over 20,000 people rioting at five locations along the Gaza Strip frontier. At the border fence protesters, encouraged by Hamas, burned dozens of tyres, using the thick black smoke as a screen to throw rocks and explosives at Israeli troops. IDF soldiers responded with tear gas and gunfire ,and Israeli aircraft carried out two airstrikes on Hamas positions in the Strip. A statement said, ‘With armed terrorists only minutes away from Israeli families, it is the IDF’s duty to protect them’. A tweet said, ‘Imagine a mob of 20K people, throwing bombs & grenades, attempting to reach your home. The people of southern Israel don’t have to imagine; this is happening right now, regularly, on Israel’s border with Gaza.’
Palestine: Gazans protest against Hamas
05 Oct 2018
Virtually all media outlets are unaware of the protests in Gaza by opponents of Hamas. Palestinian media in the Strip do not dare to publicise the underground protests against the terrible injustice imposed on Palestinians by Hamas since it took control of Gaza by force in 2007. Al-Monitor has learned that recently dozens of Palestinians have demonstrated in different refugee camps, claiming Hamas had taken the Strip back to the Middle Ages and accusing leading Hamas officials and activists of corruption and of favouring their supporters over the general population. They called on Hamas to take care of its people or ‘disappear’. A few waved signs against what they termed Gaza’s ‘dictatorial regime’. Similar protests took place in 2017; they were violently suppressed by Hamas security forces.
Caribbean: surge in Venezuelan asylum seekers
05 Oct 2018
Until a week ago, Enrique Ceballos was a high court judge in Venezuela. Now, because of threats around his work as a judge, he is waiting on a plastic chair outside an NGO-run registration centre for asylum-seekers in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, along with his wife, son, and daughter. ‘I needed to rule in favour of the government,’ he said. ‘It’s really difficult to work like that.’ Over 1.6 million Venezuelans like Ceballos have left the country since 2015, leaving behind a crumbling economy and a political crisis that has triggered shortages in food and healthcare. Hundreds of thousands are in Colombia, others in the Caribbean - a few kilometres from Venezuela’s coast. Venezuelans are often helped to apply for asylum and to integrate by Christian NGOs, as the soaring numbers have taken small island governments by surprise.
USA: refugee numbers reduced again
05 Oct 2018
A maximum of 30,000 refugees will be allowed to resettle in the United States in the next fiscal year. The new ceiling marks a dramatic decrease from this year’s 45,000-person cap, which had also been a significant reduction from previous years. Evangelical and Catholic advocates for refugees were quick to argue that reducing the number of refugees allowed into the USA is a continuation of a series of unprecedented attacks on American values and on the humanitarian nature of the refugee resettlement programme; they said it falls far short of helping the large number of vulnerable people around the world. This argument over quotas comes as the number of displaced people worldwide reaches a record high. UNHCR said there are 68.5 million displaced people in the world today, more than 28 million of whom are considered refugees or asylum-seekers. The Trump administration says Christians in Iraq face genocide; yet only 18 have been allowed to resettle in America this year.
“God’s glory is the perfect harmony of all his attributes into one infinitely beautiful and personal being.”- John Piper
Everything God does is for his glory, which includes missions. It is humbling to know that God has calledus to partner with Him to ensure that his glory covers the whole earth as the waters cover the sea. Andone way we can achieve this is through prayer. God’s ultimate desire is that “the earth will be filled withthe knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” (Habakkuk 2:14 NKJV)
For this goal to be achieved, two things must be done. First, we must “Go” to the nations. The more wesend committed men and women to go in the name of the Lord, the more the knowledge of God’s gloryincreases and extends all over the earth. Secondly, we must pray for God to send out the men andresources needed to “Go” to the nations. Prayer must precede the “going” before God’s ultimate goal,which is, to see his glory cover the whole earth will be achieved. Prayer paves the spiritual highway forthe going into the nations.
Prayer is necessary to actualize the goal of missions because in prayer we tap into God’s omnipotencefor wisdom and strength to achieve his purpose on the earth. When we pray for missions, we submitourselves to God who owns the work of missions. As Piper wrote, “Prayer is the essential activity ofwaiting for God — acknowledging our helplessness and His power, calling upon Him for help, seeking Hiscounsel. Since His purpose in the world is to be exalted for His mercy, it is evident why prayer is so oftencommanded by God. Prayer is the antidote for the disease of self-confidence, which opposes God’s goalof getting glory by working for those who wait for Him…God is not looking for people to work for Him,so much as He is looking for people who will let Him work for them. The gospel commands us to give upand hang out a help-wanted sign (this is the basic meaning of prayer). Then the gospel promises thatGod will work for us if we do. He will not surrender the glory of being the Giver.”
THE ROLE OF MAN
Some have asked, does man have a role to play in the extension of the glory of God on the earth? Isn’tGod sovereign? Is he not omnipotent? Does he need the help of a fragile creature like man, to make hisglory known on the earth? The answer to this question is a big “yes”. God needs a person. God hascommitted himself to work with a person in the advancement of his purpose on the earth. Prophet Isaiahaddresses this issue in Isaiah 66:18-20, he said, “I can see what they are doing, and I know what they arethinking. So, I will gather all nations and peoples together, and they will see my glory. I will perform asign among them. And I will send those who survive to be messengers to the nations—to Tarshish, tothe Libyans and Lydians (who are famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to all the lands beyondthe sea that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. There they will declare my glory to thenations.” (Isaiah 66:18-19 NLT)
Another text that supports the involvement of man in the task of making the glory of God known in thenations is Psalm 72. This Psalm is about the universal reign of an earthly king believed to be Solomon. Itis also believed that this earthly king under reference prefigured Jesus Christ whose glory would coverthe whole earth. The kingly Psalm ends with these words, “This ends the prayers of David son of Jesse.”(Psalms 72:20 NLT). But what were the prayers David made for the reign of Solomon? They include hisenduring reign and the spread of his glory. David’s prayers are contained in the whole Psalm, especiallyin verses 17-19, “May the king’s name endure forever; may it continue as long as the sun shines. May allnations be blessed through him and bring him praise. Praise the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alonedoes such wonderful things. Praise his glorious name forever! Let the whole earth be filled with hisglory. Amen and amen!” (Psalms 72:17-19 NLT)
Thus, from the above two texts, we see that man shares in the responsibility of making the glory of Godknown to the nations. As earlier stated, one means of achieving this is through prayer. David prayed forthe glory of the king to be felt among the nations.
NEED FOR PRAYER
Unfortunately, among all the activities needed to actualize God’s ultimate goal, prayer is the least done.We do not lack in ideas, we do not lack in vision and strategy, we do not lack in mission programs, whatwe lack is a fervent, effective and sustained prayer for missions. Wesley Duewel once said, “The greatestlack today is not people or funds. The greatest need is prayer.”
STATISTICS
It is said that there are about 12,000 people groups on earth, some of which have heard the Gospeland developed movements to Christ; others have still not had that opportunity. About 5500 UnreachedPeople Groups still do not have an indigenous movement of believers with numbers and resources toreach their groups (less than 5% Christian). An even needier subset- 4700 “frontier” or least reachedpeople groups are less than 0.1% Christian. Effective prayer is indispensable if we are to complete such a vast task of reaching the remaining unreached peoples with the gospel.
WE MUST BE STRATEGIC IN OUR PRAYERS
To extend God’s glory to the ends of the earth, our prayer must be intense, consistent and sustained.Our prayer must also be strategic. Strategically, we must target the unseen powers that have held swayover the lives in each Unreached People Group.We must strategically target the barriers that inhibit the efforts to reach the remaining unreachedpeoples in our prayers. These barriers include cultural and spiritual strongholds; the physical barriers;
the communication barriers; the geographical barriers; the religious barriers; the economic barriers; andthe political barriers.
Prophet Isaiah reveals what would happen when we intentionally pray to break down these barriers. Hesays the veil that is over the nations would be broken. “And He will destroy on this mountain the surfaceof the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.” (Isaiah 25:7 NKJV)There is no question that the remaining UPG are all locked up behind spiritual barriers that keep themaway from the light of the gospel. Paul, like Isaiah, agrees that these veils or strongholds could bebroken off the minds of people so that they can embrace the light of the gospel. “Casting downarguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thoughtinto captivity to the obedience of Christ,” (II Corinthians 10:5 NKJV). May the Spirit of prayer be pouredout on the Church so that we would be able to complete the remaining task among the UnreachedPeoples of the earth.
Austen C. Ukachi
IPC West African Regional Co-ordinator.
Co-ordinator, Strategic Prayer Network Co-ordinator, MANI