Angola is situated in Southern Africa and is the seventh largest country in Africa. As a Portuguese colony, Angola did not encompass its present borders until the early 19th century, following resistance by various ethnic groups. Independence was achieved in 1975 under communist rule backed by the Soviet Union after a liberation war that lasted 14 years. That same year, Angola descended into an intense civil war that lasted until 2002. It has since become a relatively stable, unitary presidential republic.

The 4th April 2002 a peace agreement was signed between the rebel group Unita and the Angolan government, which ended decades of war that devastated the country, killed millions and robbed Angolans of any hope for the future. This was the result of a nationwide prayer movement, involving Christians and encouraged by the participation of IPC teams as part of prayer initiatives held within the country, involving churches and church leaders. Since then peace was fully established and there has been a great move to consolidate peace, stability, national reconciliation, and economic building.

Today, Angola´s economy is among the fastest growing in the world. Small holders and plantations that dramatically dropped because of the Angolan Civil War have begun to recover. The transformation industry that had come into existence in the late colonial period but collapsed at independence, has begun to reemerge with updated technologies, because a new class of Angolan and foreign entrepreneurs has emerged. Similar developments can be verified in the service sector.

In spite of this, the standard of living remains low for the majority of the population, life expectancy and infant mortality rates are among the worst in the world.  Angola's economic growth is highly uneven, with the majority of the nation's wealth concentrated in a disproportionately small sector of the population.

Angola had a serious humanitarian crisis, as the result of the prolonged war, drought and  minefields. Vast areas fit for agriculture were inaccessible due to the mines placed during the war. Since then, there have been tremendous efforts to clear vast areas for agriculture.  

Although the country's economy has developed significantly since it achieved political stability in 2002, mainly thanks to the fast-rising earnings of the oil sector, Angola faces huge social and economic problems. These are in part a result of the almost continual state of conflict from 1961 onwards, although the highest level of destruction and socio-economic damage took place after the 1975 independence, during the long years of civil war.

However, high poverty rates and blatant social inequality are chiefly the outcome of a combination of persistent political authoritarianism, of "neo-patrimonial" practices at all levels of the political, administrative, military, and economic apparatuses, and of a pervasive corruption.

Now the country is undergoing a socio-economic crisis, due to the decrease of price of oil, the main commodity which granted hard currency. There is also a need to deal with cyclic crisis which are the cause of Angola´s reduced population rate apart from war, in proportion with the size of the country.

Politically, the new constitution, adopted in 2010, further sharpened the authoritarian character of the regime. It allows no presidential elections; the president and the vice-president of the political party which wins the parliamentary elections automatically become president and vice-president of Angola.

Roman Catholicism used to be the major religious group, but the 2014 census shows that protestant and evangelical groups have become the majority, and this trend shall continue growing due to the prayer and evangelistic zeal of these groups.

Culturally speaking, the main feature of Angolan culture is the ancestral worship with all its demonic aspects such as: dedication of streets and communities through names, dedicated lands and trees, curses due to sins of forefathers, idolatry, bloodguilt, cultural festivals, etc.

Our people have already witnessed the goodness of our God and what He did in 2002. They are sure that His Mighty Hand is able to change the prevailing situation and bring about transformation and healing, at the same time grant the continuation of consolidation of the already existing peace and reconciliation.

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chr. 7: 14).

Based on this word, we are planning to build up the prayer movement, mobilizing the church, its leadership and intercessors. This move has already started with prayers for the church leadership, churches and existing intercessors to join the movement. Our wish and prayer is the establishment in Angola of a permanent ministry of Strategic Intercession so that the word of (Is. 62: 6-7) becomes a reality: “On your walls, O Jerusalem I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest, and give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem and make it a praise in the earth”. This, indeed requires a lot of prayer so that the Lord intervenes to bring about change of the prevailing situation and the setting up of solid teaching about Spiritual Warfare, which will grant the basis for continuation of the movement for the generations ahead. Please pray for us so that the Lord   helps us attain what is in His heart for Angola and the people of Angola.

David Nkosi

October 21, 2016

1. Pray for God to intervene bringing about spiritual unity and understanding  among church leaders of various Christian denominations in preparation of the joint prayer effort for the nation.

2. Pray for consolidation of the peace and reconciliation obtained in 2002 as the result of the Lord’s answer to prayer.

3. Pray for our God’s Mighty Hand to intervene in Angola bringing about transformation and healing in all aspects people and nation  life.

4. Pray for the building up of a prayer movement, which includes churches, church leaders and intercessors.

5. Pray for the establishment in Angola of a permanent Estrategic Intercession, according to (Isa. 62: 6-7), supported by a solid teaching on Intercession and Spiritual Warfare.

As someone who longs for and actively pursues peace, to join a march with thousands of women who share this passion was not much of a question for me. Despite never having taken part in a public march, this one, from the first time I heard about it seemed right. It was more than right; it was a hope inspiring journey for me. From early morning when I left my home to travel on a bus with women I’d never met to the end of the day when I arrived home near midnight on the same bus, this time with women whose names I now know and who I’ve seen both laugh and weep with happiness and hope, this was an extraordinary day. 

The numbers who marched are disputed, but in the end, exact numbers are unimportant. What is important is that thousands of women (and hundreds of men) joined together to publicly proclaim their passion and commitment for peace – for a peacefully negotiated settlement to end the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

The morning events began near the Dead Sea at the baptismal site of Jesus at the Jordan river with a gathering of several (3-4) thousands from Israel and the Palestinian Authority. I met and exchanged greetings of peace with Arab Muslim women from Ramallah, Tulkarem, Bethlehem, Jenin, Hebron and their nearby villages who were bussed in with the full cooperation of the Palestinian Authority. I watched as Israeli Jewish women from all over Israel embraced their Palestinian counterparts, marched together and spoke words of peace to each other. I saw Christian Israeli Palestinian women, Jewish Israelis and Muslim women embrace. I heard their shared heartfelt words of peace. 

We marched down a long hill and gathered at the Jordan to hear women speakers powerfully speak about peace, justice and equality for all. I heard the cry of thousands of mothers for a better future, for another way, for an end to violence, bloodshed, and terror. We raised our voices in Arabic, Hebrew and English singing a song especially composed for this event.: “From the West to the East, from the North to the South, hear the mother’s prayer, Bring down the peace, Bring down the peace.”

Then we traveled to Jerusalem where we were joined by thousands more, including over one hundred Druze women from the north of Israel. Still singing, we marched together through the streets of Jerusalem, three kilometers to the Prime Minister’s house, ending in a large rally in central Jerusalem. There we heard deeply moving personal stories of the quest for peace and its cost.

All the speakers, from across the wide spectrum of society, from the right and the left, Jews and Arabs, secular, religious, settlers, business women, mothers, politicians, young and old all spoke powerfully about an end to war, peace, justice and equality for all. We were encouraged, even exhorted, to continue, to be steadfast, to believe that we can make a difference; that together we can turn the tide away from war and violence. For the sake of our children, for the children of Israel and Palestine, for our shared future.

As a Messianic Jew in this gathering I could have felt very alone. To my knowledge, in the morning I was one of less than five from my community. In the afternoon and evening I don’t know if there were any from my community, but I never felt alone. I was with sisters who share my heart and God’s heart for peace. Again and again I heard the words “Blessed are the peacemakers” and from Psalm 34 “who is the one who loves life. . . let him turn from evil, do good, seek peace and pursue it.” Together, thousands of like-hearted people, we said no to despair and death and yes to hope and life. My joy in this day was colored with sadness for the absence of those from my community. Hope, together with longing, was kindled in my heart for my Messianic sisters and brothers to walk in solidarity with me and those many from among our people Israel who are seeking peace and pursuing it, together crossing every divide and difference the world can lay in our paths.

Lisa Loden

October 20, 2016

Please pray for the peace of Israel, those who are peacemakers, and the different ethnic groups that share His land