The International Prayer Council, a team of 25 leaders of major regional and international prayer initiatives and movements and who together lead International Prayer Connect, has decided to call those who lead prayer networks and ministries at the national, regional and international level together for a unique time in the presence of the Lord for united prayer, learning from one another, and planning strategies for the future of the international prayer movement.

This will be the first time we have met in this way since the launch of the IPC, a network of prayer networks that was conceived just after 9/11 in 2001 and formally launched by international prayer leadership in 2002. It was called “Globalizing Prayer, Transforming our World”. Almost 300 prayer network and ministry leaders gathered near Cape Town, South Africa, to connect with the Lord and one another across the nations. It was a magnificent time of establishing relationships and regional networks that continue to be used by God to bring transformation to our world. This is the link to the video if you have not seen it. IPC Prayer Globalizing Prayer Transforming Our World https://youtu.be/5ZYVFLML1sU

We will gather at Herrnhut, the Moravian center for prayer and mission that was the site of revival in the 1700s and the beginning of a 24/7 prayer chain that was used of God to send out the first Protestant missionaries to the unreached peoples around the world. Indeed, in accordance with the Moravian watchword, 'May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of his suffering'

For this reason, we plan to include some key mission leaders who can share the status of mission to the unreached peoples of our day along with up to date information and research so that we can see a closer, more integrated linking of the prayer and mission movements . That is so crucial to bring back the King. Jesus said that He would not return until all the nations (ethne= ethnic groups) have had the gospel of the Kingdom proclaimed as a witness to them (Matthew 24:14). It is therefore crucial that these movements connect more deeply and purposefully.

A related emphasis will be on strategic level prayer for the breaking of strongholds that hinder people from seeing the light of the glory of Christ and that represent barriers both to the spread of the Gospel and social and political transformation.

We will also give a major focus to the Next Generation, the raising up of youth and children through prayer and those initiatives that currently focus on them.

There will be times of waiting on the Lord together with a prophetic sensitivity to what He is saying to the prayer movement of our day and how we can move forward together into that desired future He has for us as brothers and sisters in Christ. We will learn about various models of prayer ministry that He is blessing around the world and will have time to develop strategic plans together in His presence, much as we did at the launch of the IPC in 2002 when almost 300 prayer network leaders gathered near Cape Town, South Africa.

Please note. You may have already heard about another gathering to be held at Herrnhut focusing on prayer watches that will happen three months after the IPC gathering. So there is no confusion and misunderstanding, it is not connected with the IPC; however, they are fellow ministry people and friends that we pray they will have a blessed and fruitful event as well.

Please do pray about coming to Herrnhut, May 8-11, and mark your calendar for next year. We will fly into Prague, the Czech Republic, and have buses arranged to take us all to SE Germany where Herrnhut is located. More details will be forthcoming in the next couple of months.

John Robb

IPC Chairman

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• The New Wave is flowing! This time it reached a high water mark as many of you were praying for the recent Global Proclamation Congress for Pastoral Trainers in Bangkok, Thailand, June 15-22. We felt those prayers in powerful ways as 2,573 delegates gathered onsite representing 101 of the 112 registered nations. 872 more wanted to attend but in some cases were denied visas after multiple attempts. But many of these and others will be part of the GProCongress community going forward as the Congress was simply the launch of a larger initiative to connect, unite and strengthen the 2.2+ million pastors serving Christ’s Church around the world. Lausanne, the WEA, CRU and several other groups were global advocates and collaborators for this historic gathering. Prayer became the priority for the Congress as our first evening plenary session focused solely on praise and prayer. Daniel Pandji, who helped lead the World Prayer Assembly in Indonesia, was asked to facilitate this special evening. He asked me to join him as an East West expression of the global prayer movement. Dr. Leslie Keegel from Sri Lanka also led in prayer as well as Pastor Kosum who chairs Thailand National Prayer Network. The night felt like a reboot of the World Prayer Assembly as about 200 Indonesian leaders and many others from around the world participated. 

• Of the many global mission and prayer gatherings I’ve attended, there has never been the levels of Kingdom connections that took place in Bangkok. Delegate after delegate commented on how God had connected them in amazing ways with new friends and ministry colleagues for the advance of His Kingdom. Because the delegates represented pastoral trainers at both the formal (think seminary and Bible colleges) as well as the informal (think church planting networks in places like China), the potential to impact the health of the global Church was significant. I’m convinced your prayers and those of the delegates and their Personal Intercessory Teams, including our amazing on-site prayer team, caused this incredible outpouring of God’s Spirit, His favor and His grace on the Congress. We also watched as prayer leaders and networks came together, including a key statewide prayer leaders from Bangalore, India, who shared with Daniel how they are implementing the “My Home” concept across their state.

• Our convener, Dr. Ramesh Richard, likes to says, “Healthy pastors produce healthy churches and healthy churches produce healthy communities.” But we know that, “Praying pastors are healthy pastors.” This was the specific focus you helped bring to the Congress as our GProCongress Prayer Working Group was tasked with helping to create a “culture of praise and prayer” in both the personal and corporate lives of the pastoral trainers and the tens of thousands of pastors they will mentor. Several of you are part of this Prayer Working Group. It is our hope that many more will join us as we work to identify the best prayer catalysts, tactics, practices and resources to help the global pastoral community embrace prayer as the first priority in their personal and corporate ministry lives. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for your prayers for the Congress. Thank you for all you are doing to advance a culture of prayer around the world. Let’s continue to pray that God would pour our His grace and favor upon pastoral trainers and pastors - so that His global Church would be known as a house of prayer for all nations. Here’s a few pictures and one small link for you to view the Congress activity.

https://vimeo.com/171802425/62d52e2190

Pakistan and Afghanistan are two different countries today. In the past it was one area of the world with many of the same people groups and people speaking the same language.  Even today, it is a very fluid often non-defined border.  We have referred to this area as under the spiritual principality of the “Prince of death.”  When it comes to terrorism these two physical countries need to be seen as one. What happens in one affects the other and vice versa. To bring terrorism down it will have to be dealt with in both countries.  To accomplish

anything, both countries are going to have to deal on the physical level with the issue of terrorism at the same time; and stop terrorists from going across this fluid border and then blaming the other country. But to accomplish this the “Prince of death” must be dealt with in the spiritual realm. It is a spiritual battle. And this is why we come to you again and again asking for your prayers.

Afghanistan 

Pray for President Ashraf Ghani. Even his enemies say "he is incorruptible" and "he wants to transform the country." This is very important for the future development of this country plagued by corruption. Yet he has few admirers. He suffers from cancer and many experts don't expect Ghani to complete his term which ends in 2019. So let us pray that in spite of all opposition he will have the strength and support to lead the country. Also, pray for the unity of the president Ghani and his CEO Abdulah-Abdulah. The strong division between the president and his followers and the CEO and his supporters in the parliament has paralysed the government. They often oppose each others decisions which paralyses the country’s development

Pray for Christian Workers and local believers in the country during the fasting month of Ramadan and for protection and extra strength as often increased attacks have happened during this time. Many are being threatened at this time.

Muslims are especially open to the spiritual realm as they seek God in a special way during the Fasting Month. Pray for visions and dreams and supernatural encounters with Jesus so that they may come to know him as their Saviour. May the Lord also move in special ways among many Afghans, also influential people in government, religious and tribal leaders and even Taliban.


We pray for the leaders of the Taliban and their allies that the Lord would touch their hearts and change them. But if they want to continue to cause death and destruction, we also pray that God would judge and overthrow them. Many have been either captured by the government or killed. Please continue to pray specifically for these leaders who hold a lot of power and control in these demonic and violent movements that their influence would be broken:


Here are their names:

Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, Leader of the Afghan Taliban, elected a few day after a drone killed his predecessor Mullah Akhtar M Mansour. 

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradarr, one of the founders of the Taliban. Said to be the deputy leader of the Taliban

Mohammad Nabi Omari, Minister of Communication and listed as a member of Taliban leaders.


Mullah Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin, leaders of the Haqqani movement that works closely with the Taliban. Are considered most dangerous and cruel.

Gulbuddin Hekmaatyar, leader of this movement Hizb-i Islami, another very violent movement in alliance with the Taliban and Al Q*aida


IS or ISIS is also now fighting in Afghanistan. So far no united leadership. After it became know in July 2015 that Mullah Omar, the founder of the Taliban had died in Pakistan, a power struggle ensued among the Taliban leaders and many opposed the appointment of Mullah Mansoor. They started fighting each other. After Mullah Mansoor was killed the same happened again. Also the Taliban and their allies are in a bloody power struggle with the IS/ ISIS.

            Let’s pray for the disruption and overthrow of these violent Islamic movements that seek to destroy the government of Afghanistan and enforce again a reign of terror.

            Matthew 12:25  Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.

   2 Chr 20:22  As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.

  23  The men of Ammon and Moab rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another.

Pakistan- In the last couple months, God’s sent people in mission after mission have been refused visas.  Even those who are medical (where this has never happened before) are being asked to leave.  Christian organizations such as schools that affect the whole population are having to close down. PRAY for denials to be reversed as they are appealed. PRAY for favor in the eyes of authorities who make these decisions. Nationals say that when missionaries are thrown out, the persecution level for Christians will greatly increase.  PRAY very directly for a reversal of these visa refusals and granting of visas.  Visas are just one example but many other things are happening very rapidly. Pray the devil and his legions will be stopped. Prayer is the only hope for seeing reversal of evil in this country and people coming to Christ.

Several months ago it was reported that the Pakistan government had decided to go after terrorists in the central part of the country. This was a very important decision because this is where terrorism originated and many are trained. This seems to be losing momentum. The Pakistan military is carrying out a massive effort to bring down terrorists along the Afghanistan border. PRAY this might be coordinated with Afghanistan so the terrorists cannot move back and forth across the border to escape. PRAY for [ Raheel Sharif, head of the military, to push this forward. PRAY for those who would try and stop him from doing this. He is a good man.

Pray for this month of Ramadan, the month of fasting, which started June 6th.  When you are living in the midst of this you can feel the presence of demonic powers rising. PRAY that people’s eyes might be opened and drawn from darkness to the one who gives light. PRAY against attacks when they get double merit for doing it this month.   PRAY for visions of Christ and people to meet the one who gives true salvation.

Please pray for a massive project to reach those who live in darkness in these two countries.  Pray for those who will be involved, for wisdom, contacting the right people, and interest on their part. We must look at Pakistan in a new way. One out of 13 unreached people are in Pakistan. * On the persecution scale the situation in Pakistan is becoming rapidly worse. In 2003 Pakistan was rated at # 59, a couple years ago it was rated at # 15, and this year it is rated at # 6. As an example of this, at Easter over 80 people were killed as they celebrated Easter.  I would encourage us to adjust our prayers and spend more time praying for this part of the world. PRAY for each people group project that is worked on. That groups and churches might be found to pray for them.  Only through prayer will it be completed, and only through prayer will people listen and accept Jesus Christ.

We are at a historical moment as a nation in the UK. We may be entering a long period of political and economic uncertainty. We also believe we are at a very significant moment spiritually. Jesus is Sovereign – 'In Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities and authorities – all things were created through Him and for Him.' Colossians 1:16.

In the WPC team some of us backed Remain, others backed Exit but all of us are united in saying we have prayed for His will to be done and we have a deep peace that it has been.

We have prayed so often for God's Spirit to break out. There have been extraordinary signs of this as God visits towns and cities, stirs up prayer and uses ordinary people to take the gospel on to the streets, into the schools, workplaces and universities. So this is a time for renewed prayer for the protection and blessing of our United Kingdom and for Europe.

Here are some prayer points – please use them so we can stand united praying to see God move in our nation and in Europe.

• Whether we voted in or out we declare, “You are Sovereign, Lord, over our nation and over the nations.
• We pray for wisdom for all our political leaders. We pray for grace, and integrity for every Christian MP that they will hear God's voice and be people of influence. We pray for people of God's appointment to lead our political parties and our nation.
• We pray for the Bank of England and City of London – protect us from people of evil intent, greed, theft and corruption and give real wisdom and integrity to those who manage our finances.
• We pray for unity in the Church. After this intense debate may we accept that people with different opinions to us are welcome and loved in the Body of Christ. We pray that the Church will be agents of reconciliation.
• We pray for Your church – that in these uncertain times it will know You are our rock in times of trouble and live and proclaim the good news of the Gospel in villages, towns and cities across the nation.
• We pray blessing on Europe, that the Gospel will flood the nations, remove the barriers and make the way for His kingdom to come to every nation on our Continent.

Ian Cole

World Prayer Centre

Birmingham, England