England has received over 200% of its average February rainfall, with some areas experiencing a month's rain in 24 hours and landowners may be paid to let fields flood to protect towns. Pray for the farmers facing the challenges of caring for their livestock on land that is already inundated with snow now melting into saturated ground. Livestock have been lost. May God give them hope for the future. Pray for communities coping with the devastation of roads being cut off, cars under water, and railway lines under threat. Continue to pray for inner strength to fill those who have had their homes, businesses and possessions destroyed by flood water. Ask God to provide all the much-needed resources as (for example) Snaith Priory Church opens its doors as a rest centre, providing food, drinks and beds. Pray for all those working in the emergency services, repairing the infrastructure and building temporary flood defences wherever they are needed.

Reza Karkah, is an Iranian Christian living in Bradford with his wife Leigh and four-year-old daughter Bonnie. His bid for asylum has been rejected twice and he faces imprisonment, torture and separation from his English wife and child if the Home Office rejects his application again. Having re-launched his bid for asylum in the UK, he has good reason to believe he would be executed by authorities and exposed to vigilante violence if deported to Iran. His case is supported by the Christian Legal Centre and backed by expert witnesses. It exposes extraordinary assumptions made by Home Office officials that Reza, as a Christian convert, if deported to Iran would not face any risk of persecution. This is despite Reza’s Christian baptism alone being enough for him to be punished by death under Sharia Law. Since going public with his story, Reza's family in Iran have received threats on their lives.

Last year increased generosity from the public to food banks kept pace with the increased need for emergency food for people locked into poverty through benefit delays. Universal Credit is not the only payment with which people experience problems but key issues forcing people to food banks is the five week wait for a first Universal Credit payment. The charity said, ‘It is now time for our new Chancellor to do his part in the forthcoming Budget and match these acts of compassion by doing the right thing and putting money back into the pockets of people who most need support. It is in our power as a country to end the need for food banks. To reach that future, we need to make sure everyone has enough money for the essentials. The government’s first priority must be ensuring that our benefits system anchors us all from the rising tide of poverty by ending the five week wait for Universal Credit.’

In February 2019 the Church of England took a historic decision to have a loving, worshipping Christian community on every significant estate in England. That means offering enhanced support to existing churches and finding ways of planting new churches onto those estates from which they are absent. In 12 months they have been developing partnerships with people and organisations who share the Church’s commitment to renewing church life on the estates. These partnerships include other Christian denominations, mission agencies, Christian resource and training providers and the National Estates Churches Network which provides a support network and resources for estate leaders. During 2020 they will continue to use a range of written, spoken and social platforms to raise the profile of the ministry and attract able leaders to this work.

The Bishop-designate of Doncaster hosted a Wall of Hope in the cathedral over a three day period last year and was ‘overwhelmed’ by people’s response when over 10,000 people visited the wall to post a prayer. This year, Churches in Portsmouth Diocese are planning to host Hope Spaces in schools, village greens and shopping centres across the diocese during and after Thy Kingdom Come (21-31 May 2020), giving thousands of people who don’t know Jesus a chance to experience his love and hope for themselves. 41% of practising Christians say that a spiritual experience or an experience of the love of Jesus was a key influence in their coming to faith – so if we help more people to experience God’s love and presence, more of them will come to know him for themselves. To find out more about Hope Spaces click the ‘More’ button.

The International Justice Mission writes, ‘Praise God for 115 people rescued from bonded-labour slavery just this week! These children, women and men were rescued by IJM, our partners and local authorities from six brick kilns, a rice mill and several roadside cafes. All had been forced to work in gruelling conditions for the last 2 to 10 years. Instead of going to school, many of the children had grown up making bricks alongside their parents. We are so grateful for local officials who quickly took up cases from IJM and our partners, and how they treated the victims with dignity and respect. Please pray for follow-up in all these cases and for these families to resettle safely as they begin new lives in freedom.’

At the time of writing, intercessors have been praying since 6pm on Saturday 22 February and will finish at 6pm on Saturday 29 February. They are praying the Word of God without ceasing in pre-registered one-hour slots from Genesis to Revelation. There are also seven evenings of prayer, worship and encounter meetings during this period. The prayer focuses on unity (Psalm 33), healing of the nation and the land (2 Chronicles 7:14) and revival in South Africa and the nations (Habakkuk 2:14). On Saturday 29 February prayer and prophecy will focus on repenting on behalf of the nation for bloodshed, sexual immorality, idolatry, breaking covenant with God, witchcraft, etc.

One of the key prayer strategies for the Go2020 initiative is praying for five people in our circle of influence who don’t’ know Jesus Christ. Everyone can pray for someone! Who is someone in your workplace, school, neighborhood, or in your family? Start with a prayer list of 5. You might start with a simple prayer,

“Lord, lead me to five people for whom I can daily pray and then create opportunities for me to share with them the good news of Christ”

It truly is God’s desire that all be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth!  We all have people in our lives and spheres of influence who are unsaved and don’t know Christ.  We should be praying for them because we care deeply about them and because we know that God cares for them and wants none of them to perish—His desire is for all of them to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).  God always answers prayer when it is in accordance with his will and for his renown!  We don’t always know how or when he will respond, but we do know that he always acts in response to our prayers for others.  Our prayers are not in vain! His answers will always be for his glory, for our good and for the good of those we are praying for.  He is better than we think he is and doing more than we think he is doing!

“This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior,  who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3-4).

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Here are four claims I like to use in praying for the lost! 

1. Claim One: Open Doors …So opportunities will be opened to those who don’t know Christ!

“Devote yourselves to prayer…that God may open a door…so that we may proclaim…Christ” (Colossians 4:2-3, NIV).

2. Claim Two: Open Minds …So people will hear the Gospel with an open mind.

“I am sending you to them [the lost] to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light” (Acts 26:17b-18a, NIV). 23

3. Claim Three: Open Hearts …So unbelievers will invite Christ into their hearts.

“For God…made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of… Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6, NIV).

4. Claim Four: Open Heavens …So the Spirit of God will be poured out upon all flesh and men will be drawn to Christ

“Open up, O heavens, and pour out your righteousness. Let the earth open wide so salvation and righteousness can sprout up together” (Isaiah 45:8, NLT).

Here are some other important themes to focus on praying for your lost family members, neighbors, friends, or co-workers!

1. Ask God for the courage and power of the Holy Spirit to be an effective witness in your sphere of influence.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

2. Pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh! Pray for the Holy Spirit to convict the world in regards to sin, righteousness and judgment.

“ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2:17).

“And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:  concerning sin, because they do not believe in me;  concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer;  concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged” (John 16:8-11).

3. Pray for God the Father to draw all men to Christ through the power of the cross!

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44).

“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32).

4. Pray for God’s kindness to lead people to repentance.

“Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4).

5. Pray for the gospel to the Kingdom to be proclaimed throughout the world! Ask God to give you his compassion for the lost and to send forth laborers into the harvest fields of the world!

“And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.  When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;  therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:35-39). 

6. Pray that the Lamb who was slain would receive his due reward in the nations!

“And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation…   12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Rev. 5:9, 12).

“Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession” (Psalm 2:8).

7. Pray for mighty signs, wonders and miracles at the proclamation of the gospel!

“And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness,  while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:29-31).

8. Pray for God to remove the blindness from the enemy over the minds of the unbeliever that they will see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ!

“In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4).

9. Pray for the gift of tears, to cry out for the lost to be saved

“Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!  He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psalm 126:5-6).

10. Pray for the Knowledge of the Glory of the Lord to cover the earth!

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).

“All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you” (Psalm 22:27)

Dr Jason Hubbard - Executive Co-ordinator
IPC Connect

Let’s be encouraged and thankful as we reflect on some positive statistics and information that Nicholas Kristoff has compiled in the New York Times.

For humanity over all, life just keeps getting better.

If you’re depressed by the state of the world, let me toss out an idea: In the long arc of human history, 2019 has been the best year ever.

The bad things that you fret about are true. But it’s also true that 2019 was probably the year in which children were least likely to die, adults were least likely to be illiterate and people were least likely to suffer excruciating and disfiguring diseases.

Every single day in recent years, another 325,000 people got their first access to electricity. Each day, more than 200,000 got piped water for the first time. And some 650,000 went online for the first time, every single day.

Perhaps the greatest calamity for anyone is to lose a child. That used to be common: Historically, almost half of all humans died in childhood. As recently as 1950, 27 percent of all children still died by age 15. Now that figure has dropped to about 4 percent.

“If you were given the opportunity to choose the time you were born in, it’d be pretty risky to choose a time in any of the thousands of generations in the past,” noted Max Roser, an Oxford University economist who runs the Our World in Data website. “Almost everyone lived in poverty, hunger was widespread and famines common.”

But … but … but President Trump! But climate change! War in Yemen! Starvation in Venezuela! Risk of nuclear war with North Korea. …

All those are important concerns, and that’s why I write about them regularly. Yet I fear that the news media and the humanitarian world focus so relentlessly on the bad news that we leave the public believing that every trend is going in the wrong direction. A majority of Americans say in polls that the share of the world population living in poverty is increasing — yet one of the trends of the last 50 years has been a huge reduction in global poverty.

As recently as 1981, 42 percent of the planet’s population endured “extreme poverty,” defined by the United Nations as living on less than about $2 a day. That portion has plunged to less than 10 percent of the world’s population now.

Every day for a decade, newspapers could have carried the headline “Another 170,000 Moved Out of Extreme Poverty Yesterday.” Or if one uses a higher threshold, the headline could have been: “The Number of People Living on More Than $10 a Day Increased by 245,000 Yesterday.”

Many of those moving up are still very poor, of course. But because they are less poor, they are less likely to remain illiterate or to starve: People often think that famine is routine, but the last famine recognized by the World Food Program struck just part of one state in South Sudan and lasted for only a few months in 2017.

Diseases like polio, leprosy, river blindness and elephantiasis are on the decline, and global efforts have turned the tide on AIDS. A half century ago, a majority of the world’s people had always been illiterate; now we are approaching 90 percent adult literacy. There have been particularly large gains in girls’ education — and few forces change the world so much as education and the empowerment of women.

You may feel uncomfortable reading this. It can seem tasteless, misleading or counterproductive to hail progress when there is still so much wrong with the world. I get that. In addition, the numbers are subject to debate and the 2019 figures are based on extrapolation. But I worry that deep pessimism about the state of the world is paralyzing rather than empowering; excessive pessimism can leave people feeling not just hopeless but also helpless.

Readers constantly tell me, for example, that if we save children’s lives, the result will be a population crisis that will cause new famines. They don’t realize that when parents are confident that their children will survive, and have access to birth control, they have fewer children. Bangladesh was once derided by Henry Kissinger as a “basket case,” yet now its economy grows much faster than America’s and Bangladeshi women average just 2.1 births (down from 6.9 in 1973).

Yes, it’s still appalling that a child dies somewhere in the world every six seconds — but consider that just a couple of decades ago, a child died every three seconds. Recognizing that progress is possible can be a spur to do more, and that’s why I write this annual reminder of gains against the common enemies of humanity.

So I promise to tear my hair out every other day, but let’s interrupt our gloom for a nanosecond to note what historians may eventually see as the most important trend in the world in the early 21st century: our progress toward elimination of hideous diseases, illiteracy and the most extreme poverty.

When I was born in 1959, a majority of the world’s population had always been illiterate and lived in extreme poverty. By the time I die, illiteracy and extreme poverty may be almost eliminated — and it’s difficult to imagine a greater triumph for humanity on our watch.

By Nicholas Kristof, Opinion Columnist, NY Times

More at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/28/opinion/sunday/2019-best-year-poverty.html

Pray: giving thanks for the positive steps that are being made across the quoted areas including life expectancy, poverty, literacy, education, health and access to utilities.

Pray: that these advancements will not falter and that governments will continue to invest in improvements in the quality of life of their people.

The new coronavirus has been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization, as the outbreak continues to spread outside China.

"The main reason for this declaration is not what is happening in China but what is happening in other countries," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The concern is that it could spread to countries with weaker health systems. The death toll now stands at 170 people in China. The WHO said there had been 98 cases in 18 countries outside of the country, but no deaths.

Most cases have emerged in people who have travelled from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak began. However, there have been eight cases of human-to-human infection - in Germany, Japan, Vietnam and the United States.

Dr Tedros, speaking at the press conference in Geneva, described the virus as an "unprecedented outbreak" that has been met with an "unprecedented response". He praised the "extraordinary measures" Chinese authorities had taken to prevent it from spreading. "Let me be clear, this declaration is not a vote of no confidence in China," he added. He also said that there is no reason to limit international trade or travel to China.

Various countries have taken steps to close borders or cancel flights in recent days.

Coronavirus outbreak

Data based on the first 425 cases confirmed in Wuhan:

59 was the average age of those infected

89% were not hospitalised until at least five days of illness

56% of the cases were men

55% of cases diagnosed before 1 January linked to seafood market

Data Source: The New England Journal of Medicine

More info and analysis: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51318246

Pray: for those affected by this as-yet not fully understood strain of the Coronavirus.

Pray: that the spread of the virus will be contained.

Pray: for wisdom and insight for the medical researchers who are seeking both to build their understanding of the virus and the way that it mutates and to identify an effective inoculation and treatment.