A Regent University dean is giving thanks to God for sparing 22 members of his family from a deadly tornado that destroyed his home in Texas last weekend. Dr Mitch Land is dean of the School of Communication and the Arts. He was in Texas for the holidays, celebrating with his mother, children and grandchildren. While he was at the airport to pick up family members, the tornado hit their home in Rowlett. He described how they survived. ‘All 22 of them crammed inside the hallway between the kitchen and the garage, and my son-in-law hovered over my 82 year-old mother to shelter one of his six children. Doors tried to fly open from the garage and the older grandchildren held on for dear life to those doors.’ Dr. Land said the children and parents cried out to God as the winds tore the roof from their home and gave thanks when the twister left.

Recently the United States Air Force Academy received a complaint about its football players kneeling in prayer. They would pray in the end zone before or after their games against other teams. Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said it was outrageous to allow a football team to engage in massive orchestrated sectarian Christian prayers right before kickoff for the world to see on television. He called it ‘a monstrous travesty and brutal breach of federal constitutional law and Department of Defense/Air Force regulations.’ An inquiry was initiated, which found the football players' actions to be consistent with Air Force guidance on the free exercise of religion.

Throughout 2015 we often invited you to join us as we concentrated our praying into the Middle East. We trust you will agree that concentration needs to be intensified as we go into the New Year. Every day our media is reporting from the area on political upheaval, millions of displaced people, acts of terrorism, a generation of children and young people with no hope, and nation fighting nation.

In the first days of this year we see the breakdown in contact between Saudi Arabia and Iran; Riyadh and Tehran vying for religious and political influence in the region. This breakdown has serious consequences for the two countries as Shia and Sunni battle for supremacy. The consequences for the whole region especially Syria and Yemen are equally serious and of course sitting in the middle of all this waring is Israel. A destabilised Middle East will increasingly have global spiritual, political, social and economic repercussions.

At the same time we are receiving reports of increasing numbers of people in that region becoming followers of Jesus. Even in the face of severe persecution, both Sunni and Shia men and women of all age groups, often through dreams and visions, are willingly risking everything to follow the One who they met in their dreams.

So today we renew the call to pray for the Middle East and here are some suggestions for prayer for you, your prayer group and your church.

• We declare the sovereignty of Christ over the whole region.
• We declare God's love for every Middle East country and every person in those countries, including those who govern each nation.
• We pray for courage and wisdom for every Christian.
• We pray for God's mercy on the children and young people.
• We pray for every agency endeavouring to bring comfort, food and shelter to those in need.
• We pray for every peace maker.
• We bless those who persecute and pray they too will find Jesus the Prince of Peace.
• We pray, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done across the Middle East in 2016".

God is issuing a new call to pray in 2016. He is mobilising people across the generations and denominations; He is stirring a passion to pray for our communities, workplaces, towns and nations. The World Prayer Centre's national prayer conference, 7-9 March 2016, supports that mobilising call – it will be a time to review, refresh and revive your prayer calling. You may be an experienced prayer person, others will be new to prayer, others have a passion for evangelism, their community, for the weak or the vulnerable and see that prayer is needed if real change is to happen. We believe we are entering a period of harvest and intense spiritual warfare. It is also a time of acceleration – changes are happening at a rate that takes our breath away.

We are delighted to have Malcolm Duncan as our main speaker. He will focus on the role and calling of the watchmen in these changing times. Malcolm combines a deep biblical and theological understanding with a passion for God's Spirit and a watchmen's understanding of what is happening nationally. We will also be providing prayer briefings for the UK and internationally. Our prayer conference is evolving. This year, people will have the opportunity to attend a specialist workshop on subjects like praying blessing, prayer and prophecy, and being a watchman.

This is not just a teaching conference. We want everyone to be inspired by testimony of the tremendous things God is doing across the globe. We will worship, spending time in God's presence, praising and honouring him. We will pray – this conference has the authority to pray into national and international situations – to protect and bless, to release and bind. We will chat, exchange stories and leave inspired by God for the challenges ahead.

If you know anyone you think who would benefit from the conference, invite them to come. Help us to spread the word by sharing our posts, forwarding our newsletters and why not bring a friend!

Register for the conference and find out more details.