33-year-old James Ward has a low IQ and mental health problems. In 2006 he fought with his father and was given a ten-month jail sentence. Unable to cope with prison life, he set fire to his mattress and was sentenced under Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP). An IPP is a sentence with no release date. All who know James believe he is not a risk to the public, he's just a risk to himself. He is suicidal, self-harms, and needs the right support. The Parole Board is now working to find James a hostel and mental health support. His sister said she had yet to speak to her brother about his release, and was unsure whether he even knew he was to be freed. She added, ‘I hope other IPP prisoners who are way over tariff can now also be released’. IPPs were abolished in 2012, but 3,000+ people are still serving them.
Missing people
15 Sep 2017
Over 335,000 missing person calls were made in 2015/16. One in every five had mental health issues. 3,000 people have been missing for over 10 years. Andrew Gosden is one of them. In 2007 14-year-old Andrew left his Doncaster home, boarded a train to London, and vanished. Andrew's family are haunted by thoughts of what might have happened to him in London. His father suffers from anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal thoughts. Police forces in England and Wales received one missing person call every ninety seconds last year. Margaret Cooper, from Huddersfield, has been searching since 2008 for her son Steven. She said, ‘It's not knowing, that's the worst thing’. On 29 August, a new project started in London using an online tool to link rough sleepers to Missing People databases. Teams will help homeless people who use Night Buses and Tubes as a place to sleep to find accommodation and access to support services, and reconnect them with family and friends. See
Christians in Parliament
15 Sep 2017
Rev’d Rose Hudson-Wilkin is a familiar figure around Parliament: leading daily prayers in the House of Commons Chamber, officiating at Wednesday’s Holy Communion, and providing pastoral care for Members and staff of both Houses. She is also available to discuss weddings and baptisms. Conservative MP Gary Streeter has been a Member of Parliament since 1992, and served as a minister under John Major. He specialises in international development, and is committed to supporting Christians across all parties to live out their faith in their work in Parliament. Labour MP Gavin Shuker previously served as shadow international development minister, and chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on prostitution and the global sex trade. Before being elected, Gavin was employed by his local church and worked in the community. Democratic Unionist Party MP Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP spokesman for defence and business issues, is a member of the UK delegation to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly.
Germany: election on 24 September
15 Sep 2017
Angela Merkel has been chancellor since 2005. Her Lutheran faith (she calls it an inner compass) expresses itself in her unflashy style and her instincts - debt is bad; helping the needy, good. She thinks ethically, not ideologically. ‘I’m a bit liberal, a bit Christian-social, a bit conservative’, she said in 2009. Her years in office have made her a familiar figure to Germans and to the world. However, Germany needs reform. The lowest-paid 40% of German workers are earning less than 20 years ago. Foodbank use is up. The rate of investment has been dropping since 2012. Bridges creak and potholed roads challenge even the best-engineered suspensions. The economically crucial car industry has been tainted, as has the country’s air, by emissions from the diesel engines it favours (a scandal it tried to cover up). Dirty coal is filling gaps left by closing nuclear plants, and the country’s carbon-dioxide emissions are up.
Pablo leads a small indigenous ministry. He says Syrian refugees are frustrated with Islam, and when we begin to show the love of God in our actions and tell them about God in the Bible, they say they had never heard anything like it. When they start coming to church one of the brothers begins visiting them in their apartment, and explains that, as Christians, they are expressing God's compassion and kindness. The refugees become Christian. Every six months the EU sends 150 refugee families to this ministry for assistance to get resettled. Every month its human and financial resources are stretched. But they do whatever God tells them to do.
France: Macron v unions
15 Sep 2017
French unions are famously radical and resistant to reforms. On 12 September rail workers, students and civil servants protested in cities from Paris to Toulouse against loosening labour regulations, seen as a key public test of the president’s reformist resolve. Police said there were 24,000 protesters in Paris; stone-throwing activists clashed with police, who responded with tear gas. Four thousand strikes were called around France by the country's biggest public sector trade union, the CGT. The numbers were, however, well below protests against another labour reform last year.
Caribbean: recovery after Irma
15 Sep 2017
Hurricane Irma only grazed Havana, but it remains largely still in the dark. It could take weeks for the power to be fully returned. The damage and loss across the Caribbean is immense. Pray for those who are now trying to return to some semblance of normality, as they pick up the pieces after the hurricane ripped through their homes and communities. Pray for well-thought-out networking between those who are working to deliver practical aid and counselling to survivors of this disaster. Pray for the availability and delivery of materials needed to reconstruct buildings. Pray for medical aid, to deal with the health issues arising from stagnant fetid water. Pray for the policing of areas where looting has been taking place. Pray for those who lived in the now non-existent fishing villages to have the help needed to restore their livelihood.
Myanmar: ‘ethnic cleansing' and mission
15 Sep 2017
On 11 September the UN human rights chief called the military operation targeting Rohingya Muslims ‘a textbook example of ethnic cleansing’, and urged the government to end its current cruel ‘security’ operations. High-profile individuals have publicly criticised Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi for doing virtually nothing to stop the killings and destruction in her country, and 400,000+ people have signed an online petition calling for her to be stripped of her award. Myanmar has a history of violence against minorities, including Christians. Many people are held captive by widespread drug use, spiritism, occult beliefs, and astrology. 84% of the population, including the Rohingya, have still not heard the name of Jesus. Even so, in recent years, there has been a growing openness to Jesus, especially among Buddhist monks. Prayers can change their physical and eternal reality. See