RFE/RL

“Rescue operations have begun to reveal the full scale of an Afghan earthquake that killed hundreds and caused damage across South Asia. Officials said that the death toll from the magnitude-7.5 quake that struck on October 26 was continuing to rise as rescuers reached remote areas. As of early October 27, the death toll had risen to more than 300, with at least 241 fatalities and 1,600 injuries recorded in Pakistan.

In Afghanistan -- where the Hindu Kush mountain range in sparsely populated Badakhshan Province was identified as the epicenter of the quake -- at least 115 had been reported killed and hundreds more injured.

Many areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan had already been deluged by two days of unseasonably heavy rain and snowfall, triggering mudslides when the quake and its aftershocks hit. Roads and bridges were washed out in mountainous regions, hampering search-and-rescue operations.

High casualties and extensive damage were recorded in areas of northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border, such as Khyber Pakhtunkwa Province's Swat and Chitral districts. A local official in the Chitral district told AFP that as many as 80,000 people there are without access to drinking water.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returned from a trip to the United States and traveled on October 27 to Khyber Pakhtunkwa Province, where at least 49 people were killed, to assess the damage. During a later briefing in the capital, Islamabad, he gave assurances that Pakistan was "capable enough to rescue and rehabilitate those affected by the earthquake."

Some 330 kilometers east of the epicenter, in Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan region, video images emerged on social media of a landslide near a popular suspension bridge:

In the garrison city of Rawalpindi, close to Islamabad, video showed a bridge swaying when the quake struck.

Pakistan’s powerful army has taken a lead role in responding to the crisis, with extra resources being sent to affected regions.

Thousands of people in the region, expecting aftershocks, reportedly spent the night of October 26-27 outdoors in near-freezing temperatures.

Afghan officials said at least 74 people were confirmed dead and hundreds more injured, with casualties reported from around half a dozen of the country’s 34 provinces. The Kabul government has called for international aid agencies to send help.

For Afghanistan, the challenge of mounting rescue operations will be made harder given the country’s relative lack of resources, difficult terrain, and the presence of anti-government Taliban insurgents in some of the affected areas.

The Taliban issued a statement saying its militants had been ordered to provide "complete help" to victims of the quake and to pave the way for access by rescue workers and aid organizations.

The Afghan government estimated that about 4,000 homes had been destroyed or damaged.

The quake was felt throughout South Asia, including the Tajik capital, Dushanbe; areas of southern Kazakhstan 1,000 kilometers north of the epicenter; and in India's capital, Delhi.

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, video showed a frantic street scene as the quake hit.”

Please pray for effective relief efforts and that those who have been affected by this tragedy will be brought to Jesus Christ through it all.

1. The Lord is guiding and blessing the UPrising: World Youth Prayer Assembly in South Korea where it will happen next year, July 26-30. A suitable venue near the DMZ has been offered for the WYPA with lots of possibilities for 2000 to 2500 participants with hotels 15 minutes away.   Young leaders there are on board and keen to move ahead and we hope to bring more senior leaders into the process as well. Please pray for the mobilization of the right youth, children and seniors from every region of the world to take part so that it will be truly global, intergenerational and tri-generational.

2. We need about $1 million USD to pull it off including in-country costs and for partial travel subsidies for those youth who need them. Please pray with us for the release of His abundant provision to happen now.

3. Please pray for Jonathas Abdou, a younger leader in Brazil’s prayer movement and new member of our IPC leadership who wants to mobilize youth there for the WYPA. He also wants to further develop a youth prayer movement for his large nation. 

4. About 25-30 younger and older leaders from the prayer movement will form the WYPA Exec Committee that will meet in Manila, The Philippines, this next week, Nov 3-6. We need to determine speakers and program for WYPA. Please pray for this process. Registration will begin Dec 1 so there is much that needs to be accomplished quickly. Please pray for His anointing, unity, clarity and wisdom for this program planning process and for the convener Jerome Ocampo and his team working on all these logistical issues. 

5. Other initiatives to pray for in 2015 or 2016:

• Arab and European prayer leaders, Switzerland, Nov 18-21
• Persian Gulf regional prayer initiative, Feb. 18-21, 2016
• Turkey national prayer initiative, May 18-21, 2016

6.  IPC website – pray with us for the effective launch of the new IPC website and server in the next couple of weeks.

7. Pray for the 24 members of the IPC leadership team as they lead various prayer initiatives in their regions and internationally that they will be always led of the Spirit and enabled by Him to do what they are being called to do. May they and their families be greatly blessed and be a thorough blessing to many others!

Thanks so much for your support in this way!

Please pray for a peace breakthrough

“Iran will be invited to participate in the Oct. 30 round of talks in Vienna on ending the conflict in Syria, a U.S. State Department spokesman said Oct. 27, Reuters reported. An unnamed official from the Middle East said Iran had already been invited by both the United States and Russia, and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian would attend the talks. The possible participation of Iranian Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was still under discussion, the official said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke with both Zarif and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry earlier in the day. If the Russian and Iranian efforts to stabilize al Assad's forces and restore their advantage on the battlefield prove successful, Damascus will be in a much more favorable position at the bargaining table.”

From Stratfor.com, OCTOBER 28, 2015

About 350,000 Syrian Christians have been forced to flee their homes. Many have been killed, sold into sex slavery, or forced into hiding. They are not going to U.N. refugee camps, where they often face further persecution, sources tell WND.

As U.S. and European leaders reach out with open arms to tens of thousands of Muslim refugees flooding into Europe, the groans of persecuted Christians in Syria, Iraq and Pakistan are increasingly drowned out.

President Obama announced Thursday that the U.S. will accept an additional 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year, on top of the 1,600 that have already arrived. The Syrian arrivals coming from United Nations refugee camps to date have been 95 percent Muslim.

When it comes to the plight of Christians, most of the voices of concern for “refugees” – whether they come from the EU, the White House, the Congress or in the media – fall silent, says a spokesman for the International Christian Concern.

The ICC posted an alert on its website Thursday that an estimated 30,000 Pakistani Christians have been forced to flee their homeland due to persecution from the Muslim majority in Pakistan. They are living in crude conditions in Thailand, Sri Lanka and Malaysia with little help from the United Nations or various international aid agencies. Christians in Pakistan are often jailed for their beliefs, their churches are bombed and their pastors killed. The president of Pakistan Christian Congress has urged the European Union, the United States, Australia, Canada and other countries to open doors to the persecuted Pakistani Christians. Nazir Bhatti, who launched the Pakistan Christian Congress in 1985 and was forced to flee Pakistan in 1998 after he challenged the nation’s Islamic blasphemy laws, has written leaders of the E.U., U.K., U.S. and other European countries asking that they receive Pakistani Christian asylum seekers, reported the website Christians in Pakistan.

Bhatti’s plea comes after the announcement from Prime Minister David Cameron that the U.K. will accept 20,000 Syrian refugees, while Germany is welcoming 800,000, Spain is taking 20,000 and France 24,000. President Obama has previously committed to taking 5,000 to 8,000 Syrians over the next year, but his administration announced today it is considering increasing that number by 10,000.

Refugees or migrants? Despite all of the attention being given to Syrians as “war refugees,” data from the United Nations refugee agency indicates that the majority may actually be economic migrants rather than true war refugees. The UNCHR data shows, for instance, that 75 percent of the so-called refugees flooding into Europe this year are men, and that only 51 percent are Syrian.

Bhatti has petitioned the leaders of U.K., Germany, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Romania, Hungry, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and other E.U. member states to give refuge to Pakistani Christian asylum seekers by allowing them easy entry into their countries.

Lord George Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, in a recent op-ed in the Telegraph, urged Britain to focus on taking Syrian Christians, saying they are the most vulnerable and repeatedly targeted victims of the Syrian civil war. While Carey said he welcomes Cameron’s announcement to take in more Syrian refugees, the most targeted refugees are being left behind to face their Islamic killers. “But the frustration for those of us who have been calling for compassion for Syrian victims for many months is that the Christian community is yet again left at the bottom of the heap,” Carey wrote.

Syrian Christians flee U.N. camps

According to the Barnabas Fund, which recently resettled some 50 Syrian Christian families in Poland, “Cameron’s policy inadvertently discriminates against the very Christian communities most victimized by the inhuman butchers of the so-called Islamic State,” Carey writes. Christians are not to be found in the U.N. camps, because they have been attacked and targeted by Islamists and driven from them. They are seeking refuge in private homes, church buildings and with neighbors and family.” This confirms reports that WND has previously published about the dangers Christians face in U.N. refugee camps.

‘Openly glorifying slaughter of Christians’

Carey argues that even though 100 years have past since the Armenian and Assyrian genocide, in which 1.5 million Christians were wiped out by Ottoman Muslims, the same genocide is being carried out today in the form of an ethnic cleansing of Christians in the region. “Christians have been crucified, beheaded, raped, and subjected to forced conversion. The so-called Islamic State and other radical groups are openly glorifying the slaughter of Christians,” he said.

Lord Carey further urged that Britain should make Syrian Christians a preference, “because they are a particularly vulnerable group. Furthermore, we are a Christian nation with an established Church so Syrian Christians will find no challenge to integration. The churches are already well-prepared and eager to offer support and accommodation to those escaping the conflict.”

Bhatti said Pakistani Christians suffering in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand and other Southeastern Asian countries have been waiting for years as their cases languish with the United Nations. They go “without any shelter provided by UNHCR, International Rescue Committee and other international NGOs, or any education for their children,” Bhatti said.

“Pakistani Christians are facing genocide in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” he said.

He said the notorious blasphemy law in Pakistan is used against Christians and any non-Muslim. To speak any truth from the Bible about Jesus Christ being the “Son of God,” or having “died on a cross” for mankind’s sins, is considered blasphemy by the Shariah courts. Wearing a cross around one’s neck in public can get you arrested and thrown in jail.

Congressman rebukes Obama plan to take more Syrians

Yet, among the 70,000 refugees taken by the U.S. this year, almost no Christians from Pakistan or Syria are included. Of the 1,600 brought from Syria since the start of that country’s civil war, 95 percent have been Muslim and less than 4 percent Christian. The administration, while heavily lobbied to accept more refugees, has also been warned by some in Congress that bringing in thousands of people from ISIS-controlled territory would pose a grave security risk.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee issued the following statement Thursday rebuking the Obama plan to allow a “surge” of Syrian Refugees into the U.S. “The president wants to surge thousands of Syrian refugees into the United States, in spite of consistent intelligence community and federal law enforcement warnings that we do not have the intelligence needed to vet individuals from the conflict zone. We also know that ISIS wants to use refugee routes as cover to sneak operatives into the West. I implore the president to consult with Congress before taking any drastic action and to level with the American people about the very real security challenges we face. It is heart-wrenching to watch innocent Syrians fleeing the violence in their country, and we can do more to help. But the best way to solve this crisis is at the source. The president needs to develop a real strategy for victory to defeat ISIS and remove Assad from power, which is the root cause of the problem. This is the culmination of a failed foreign policy to deal with the threats and now we have a humanitarian crisis on our hands.”

From World Net Daily http://www.wnd.com/2015/09/refugee-crisis-hits-prime-time-but-christians-left-out-in-cold/

Please pray that refugees who are Christians and are languishing in camps will no longer be left out in the cold but will be welcomed into other lands. Pray for European and American authorities to have compassion mixed with real wisdom to know how to go about dealing with the refugee crisis and to keep out any ISIS terroristic elements that are trying to infiltrate this massive flow of refugees into the West.

“A little before midnight on Saturday, a crowd of around 700 gathered in an old industrial warehouse a few blocks from the Detroit River for what they’d been told was the “largest public satanic ceremony in history.” Most of them professed to be adherents of Satanism, that loosely organized squad of the occult that defines itself as a religious group. Others came simply because they were curious. After all, Satanists exist in the popular psyche as those who casually sacrifice goats and impregnate Mia Farrow with Lucifer’s child; if this ceremony was indeed unprecedentedly big, who knew what could be in store?

Read more: The Evolution of Modern Satanism in the United States

The reality of the event — and of the contemporary Satanic movement at large — was tamer, and, if the Facebook pictures speak the truth, harmlessly festive: a cross between an underground rave and a meticulously planned Halloween party. They were there to publicly unveil a colossal bronze statue of Baphomet, the goat-headed wraith who, after centuries of various appropriations, is now the totem of contemporary Satanism. The pentagram, that familiar logo of both orthodox Satanists and disaffected teens, originated as a rough outline of Baphomet’s head.

The statue itself is impressive: almost nine feet tall, and weighing in at around a ton. The horned idol sits on a throne adorned with a pentagram, but it is the idol’s wings, and not his chair, that curiously evoke the Iron Throne from a certain celebrated HBO fantasy series. He has the jarring horns of a virile ram but the biceps of a guy who lifts four or five times a week. His legs, which are crossed, end not in feet but in hooves. It might seem more menacing if not for the two bronze-statue children standing on either side of him — a girl on his left; a boy on his right; both are looking up at him earnestly.

“Baphomet contains binary elements symbolizing a reconciliation of opposites, emblematic of the willingness to embrace, and even celebrate differences,” Jex Blackmore, who organized the unveiling, told TIME late Sunday night. In a sense, the statue is a stress test of American plurality: at what point does religious freedom make the people uncomfortable?”

http://time.com/3972713/detroit-satanic-statue-baphomet/

Pray for the overthrow and discrediting of Satanism in the USA and the breaking of its influence wherever it is operating. Pray that those involved in it will wake up to the horrific delusion and danger of this negative, destructive movement, repent and be set free by the love and power of Christ.

Thank  you  so  much  for  the  prayer- backing  during  the  time  in  Iraq. As  I  shared  with  some  of  you,  the  bomb blasts  and  suicide  bombings in Baghdad have  been  reduced  from   20 to 30 per day  in  2014   to  3 to 5  a  month now. In Erbil,  there have been no  reports  of  explosions  since  a  long  time.

The prayer initiative meetings  finished  well  with  an  amazing  prophetic  time  on  the 16th  morning  and  repentance  and spiritual warfare  on  the  16th  night. One  evening  a  phone call  came  from  10  young  Kurds  who  had an  encounter  with  Jesus  and  believed  in  HIM. The  reports  from  participants  about  the  harvest  that  has  started  among internally displaced people  and  Muslim - IDPs   as  well  as  Syrian  refugees  have  been  amazing. A  team  from  MHOP   has  gone   regularly  to  a  camp  of  Muslim  refugees and  found  so  many  people  who  had  a  vision  of  Jesus. Those  from  Catholic / Chaldean / Syrian / Orthodox / Armenian / Assyrian  background IDPs  are  totally  open  as  well  to  the  Gospel  and  are  coming  to  faith. It's  an  ocean  of  people  in  endless  refugee - camps  who  are  just  waiting  for someone  to  bring  them  Jesus  in  the  midst  of  their  sufferings.

During  a  meeting  of  Muslim background believers,  leaders  came  to  the  conclusion  that  there  are  more  MBBs   now  in the  Middle  East / North Africa  than  all  other  believers  together. We  had  to  acknowledge  that  ISIS  has  driven  the  multitudes  into  the  arms  of  Christ.

The sad part:  from  approximately  12  churches   in  Erbil  there  are  no  reports  of  any  unity, even  between  two  churches  and  extremely  little  prayer. In  Baghdad  as  well,  very  sad  to  find a   total  lack  of  revelation  about  the  need  of  unity  and  very  little  prayer. The  good  thing  is  that  Muslim background leaders  are  in  unity!!!!

So  God's  own  arm  is  bringing  Him  victory!   Isa.  59: 16

(From a Colleague in the prayer movement who facilitated times of prayer training for the believers in Iraq earlier this month)

Please pray for His unity among all who follow Christ in Iraq, that their hearts, especially of pastors and leaders would be softened and that they would begin to stand together in prayer for their nation and the driving out of ISIS. Pray too for those who were trained that they will put it into effect in their lives and that they will be used of the Lord to train and encourage others so that a strong, united prayer movement can arise in this much besieged and divided nation. Also, pray that these vast millions of Iraqi and Syrian refugees will be able to hear the Gospel with many of them coming to know the Lord who cares for them.

The African Union Mission in Somalia, better known as AMISOM, has launched a renewed offensive against al Shabaab. Despite achieving major successes with the liberation of Mogadishu in August 2011 and Kismayo in September 2012, the

Somali military and AMISOM failed to eradicate the jihadist militant organization. Sustained ground operations and the targeted killings of its leaders by U.S. airstrikes damaged the group, but al Shabaab is still dangerous. As well as conducting direct attacks, the group routinely interdicts the movement and supply lines of African Union forces with guerrilla-style operations. The African Union is drawing on new resources and capabilities in an attempt to defeat al Shabaab, or at least render the organization ineffective.

The fight will not be easy, however. AMISOM forces have suffered setbacks in the past, being forced to conduct tactical withdrawals from untenable positions in the face of al Shabaab attempts to dislodge them. A June 26 attack on an African Union base in the village of Lego inflicted a notable defeat on AMISOM forces, highlighting a major problem facing African Union forces as they expand their area of operations. While typically able to defeat al Shabaab in conventional head-on battles, AMISOM forces become overstretched as they project into the expansive reaches of southern Somalia. They lack the necessary resources to secure lines of communication over land and, as a result, frequently have to withdraw from newly liberated areas to protect their own personnel.

The nature of AMISOM's limitations is not lost on military commanders. In an attempt to prevent further embarrassments, major efforts to stabilize the situation are underway. The most immediate is the launch of a major offensive against known al Shabaab strongholds. Known as "Operation Jubba Corridor," separate maneuver elements converged on the city of Baardheere on July 22, successfully routing its militant defenders. Baardheere had been under al Shabaab control for six years and has served as a refuge in the fertile valley region.

Even though the Baardheere offensive was successful, it will not necessarily prevent continued al Shabaab operations. The militant group has already been forced to stop depending on territorial control; its guerrilla and terrorist attacks have become its most potent tool against African Union forces. Denying al Shabaab refuge in the Juba valley will contribute to the gradual decline of the militants' capabilities. The more territory AMISOM forces liberate, however, the more resources they will require to patrol and secure those areas. That said a weakened al Shabaab poses less of a threat to extended positions than before.

Please pray for the African Union forces to prevail over the Islamic terrorist al Shabaab group that has caused so much destruction and death in East Africa. Pray for wise strategy, determination and the resources the AU needs to finish this campaign and clear the region of this scourge.

From Fait Non-Accompli AUG 3, 2015, VOL. 20, NO. 44 * BY William Kristol 

"The Iran deal turns out to be so no good, so very bad, so awfully ugly, that there is a chance-an outside chance-that a congressional process accepted by the [U.S.] administration because it seemed to virtually guarantee the deal's survival might actually kill it instead.

The administration is pulling out all the stops. The left is mobilizing. Pressure is being applied. But what's striking is how many congressional Democrats are balking. Serious Democrats look at the deal-at its failure to stop Iran's nuclear program, at the weak verification provisions, at the precipitous and massive sanctions relief-and can't quite believe the horror the administration is asking them to approve.

The public can't quite believe it either. The Pew poll this week had those Americans who knew something about the deal-a strikingly high 79 percent of the public-disapproving 48 to 38 percent. When has this happened before? A president signs a deal that purports to limit arms and reduce the risks of war, he makes his case to the American people against scattered voices of criticism and dissent-and he doesn't even start out ahead. A Washington Post poll that framed the deal in a way more favorable to the administration had only 56 percent approval. Most analysts experienced in these kinds of fights expected the deal to start out way ahead in public opinion, and then perhaps face some erosion as the debate proceeded. Instead, opponents are at least even at the start. And, by the way, the critics are so far handily winning the debate on the merits.

Still, is it really possible that over a dozen Senate Democrats and almost 50 House Democrats will defect from the president and vote both to disapprove and then to override his veto? Yes. It's possible, if not yet likely. And the possibility will grow if opponents energetically press their case. They will need to explain, among other things, that the sanctions regime isn't doomed if the deal is defeated. It is true that some damage will have been done by the United Nations action. But a Congress that insists on retaining U.S. sanctions will leave the next president-whether a Democrat or a Republican-with a chance to marshal the international community to continue the pressure on Iran and perhaps to negotiate a better deal.

Meanwhile, what about that U.N. vote? Congress owes it to the American people to disapprove the deal because it is bad and dangerous, but also precisely to establish the principle that the American people are the masters of American foreign policy, not the United Nations."

Please pray that the U.S. Congress will be able to overturn the recent nuclear deal if it will endanger the Middle East nations along with other countries by giving Iran, the world's leading sponsor of terrorism, over 100 billion in sanctions relief as well as a path to the development and deployment of nuclear weapons. This is a crucial matter of international security.

This animation showcases how the children of the Bible not only influenced their generation, but ours as well. Children have more potential than society today recognizes, but God has never forgotten the children. He gave them parts to play throughout the Bible and it is time for the body of Christ to wake up and invest in children's lives and futures.