A two-year study by Pew Research of 199 countries and self-administering territories found Islam to be the world's most common state religion, and listed ten non-religious nations that are hostile toward Christianity and other religions. Most countries do not have an official or preferred religion: of the 43 nations which do, 27 follow Islam. Thirteen states have Christianity as their official religion, two have Buddhism, and one has Judaism. The study said that there are nine officially Christian countries in Europe, including the UK, Denmark, Monaco, and Iceland. The others are Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Tuvalu (in the Asia-Pacific region). Only Zambia in sub-Saharan Africa is officially Christian.

On 6 October, Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, and Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, will meet India's prime minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International, a human rights group, urges the EU leaders not to 'turn a blind eye' to the rising persecution of Christians and Muslims in India. 'How many more victims of government-condoned violence against Muslims and Christians will the EU tolerate before it puts the issue on the agenda with Prime Minister Modi?’ No person should live in fear of being killed, tortured, or oppressed because of their religious beliefs. The persecution of religious minorities in India has become worse under the government of the BJP, which is the political arm of the nationalist Hindutva movement. The party has been accused of inciting hatred and riots against religious minorities, including Christians and Muslims.

For your average child, these words mean a sad farewell to the summer and a reluctant hello to homework. But for 12-year-old Noeh in Iraq, school is something he longs for.

Noeh’s family were displaced three years ago when Islamic State (IS) seized control of their village near Mosul. The terrifying threats of IS sent the entire village running for their lives. Since then, the villagers have been living as a displaced community, supported by their church leader Father Thabet, and Open Doors partner organisations in Erbil.

A few months ago, they were able to celebrate the liberation of Karamles, but most won’t be able to return for some time. IS fighters set fire to all 800 homes upon their retreat, severely damaging most, and razing about 100 of them to the ground. With no easy access to water and electricity, the job of rebuilding is an uphill struggle. “We start with the houses with the least amount of damage,” says Father Thabet, “But our budget is limited and the government is not helping us.”

The government wants children to go back to school – but that’s not possible yet, either. The cracked cream-coloured walls of Noeh’s old classroom still stand, but there’s rubble everywhere and weeds peeping through the floor. Worse than that, IS may have hidden bombs there.

“Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners,” says Lamentations 5: Written in the 6th century BC, these words could have been uttered by any number of displaced peoples in Iraq today. Christians and other minorities feel unsafe in their own land. It’s not just new homes they need. It’s a new environment. In order to return to their villages and towns, Father Thabet says, “We will need international support and protection. That is the only way our future as Christians in this country can be guaranteed.”

Noeh’s family can pay tribute to the faithfulness of God in their period of exile. Thanks to the prayers and gifts of Open Doors supporters, they and thousands like them have received practical aid are now looking to the future with faith. But they need the church in the UK, Ireland, and around the world, to speak up for them. That way they can rebuild their homes, their lives and their beloved nation – and Noeh can get back to school.

Please pray:

• for the rebuilding of Karamles, giving thanks for God’s faithfulness to Noeh’s family and community
• for increasing peace, stability and for pressure on the government, through the petition to bring a positive future for Christians in Iraq
• that the body of Christ around the world will stand in solidarity with their brothers and sisters, bringing hope to the Middle East.

You can hear more stories of faith from the Middle East and pray with others for persecuted Christians around the world at Open Doors celebration in Birmingham on 14 October: Standing Strong. For more information and to sign the global petition, go to www.opendoorsuk.org

Years ago I heard Sir Steve Redgrave talk about his decision to return to rowing for one final gold medal. They started their preparation when he and Matthew Pinsent made the hard decision that their previous best performance from the last Olympics would not be good enough to win gold in the next. They needed to get better.

As God moves in His Church, we need to recognise that we need to improve and in many cases we need to repent. Matthew writes about Jesus starting his ministry, “From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near’”. It was a Kairos moment – Jesus moves into a new season, the waiting was over.

We believe it is a Kairos moment for our nation, the waiting has stopped. It is time to change. Jesus tells the people of Israel to turn from sin and turn to God. His message starts with His people. The Old Testament refers to repentance over 1000 times; again it is primarily a call to God’s own people. They use the Hebrew word shuv, which means to turn around. Jesus uses the Greek word metanoia meaning a change of mind, or re-think.
God is challenging us to go deeper with Him. We were with a group of national prayer leaders recently. God told us we needed a deeper understanding of the work of the cross in our lives. We need to truly die to ourselves if we are to move to deep oneness with Jesus. I know I have a range of ‘old me’ issues that need crucifying and God is saying “it is time”. We need to move to a new level. We repent by turning away from what is holding us back and turning to Jesus so we can run the race (or row the boat) He has set before us. Here are five specific turn away challenges.

Turn from fear - many of us carry fears. They may be fears of what others will think, fears around our finances, fears about doing things in public etc. None of these fears are from Jesus, He gives us wisdom. They are holding us back – it is time to turn.

Turn from disunity - we can often embrace disunity. We criticise this person, fall out with another, we stand on our high horse, or don’t like that person’s theology. In short we can be very judgemental and it is time to turn.

Turn from unbelief – we can all fall into the disbelief trap. We may have prayed for things where we saw no change and the enemy loves to tell us it is a waste of time to pray for healing, for this person to come to the Lord, for our church to see a deep move of God. The enemy imprisons us with lies which undermine our faith. We need to be free of these lies - it is time to turn.

Turn from prayerlessness – this can be a huge challenge for people of prayer because we look at wrong measures. It is easy to find people who pray less that you, with less faith, with less standing on the Word of God and that makes us think “I’m not doing too badly really”. We need to keep pushing ourselves on, in particular to go deeper with Jesus with a prayer life inspired by Him and filled with the things on His heart. It is time to turn.

Turn from sin – from our wicked ways. Galatians 5:16 – 26 gives us a good starting point. Paul says the works of the flesh are plain to see – anger, selfishness, jealousy etc. We live in a corrupting world where so many temptations are thrown at us it is easy to lose our moral compass. John Wesley and friends set up a Holy Club with a self-audit asking questions like “Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?” We need to ask God to highlight our sins, bring them into the open that we can pray for change. It is time to turn.

Repentance and turning start with us because we should be the very first people to give testimony to God’s wonderful mercy and freedom.

Steve Botham, Director World Prayer Centre