Join us November 8th to 22nd 2020 in 15 days of prayer for Hindus all over the world!

The 2020 Hindu Prayer Guide - November 8th – 22nd 2020

The annual Hindu World Prayer Focus is calling Christians and churches worldwide to take 15 days to learn about and pray for our world’s over one billion Hindu friends.

That period also encompasses the significant Hindu Festival of Light (Diwali). The informative prayer guide booklets will help Christians to know how to pray for the people(s) growing up within this major and very diverse world religion.

Diwali (or Deepawali) is known as the Festival of Lights, and is one of the most important annual celebrations for Hindus, lasting about 4-5 days. While (similar to Christmas celebrations in the Christian world) it has historical and religious roots, Hindus celebrate it by lighting and displaying rows of small oil lamps, participating in family gatherings, consuming special sweets and watching fireworks.

It is not our intention with this prayer focus to disparage India or the Hindu religion in any way. We recognize that both are far too complex and too full of great traditions to simply or easily condense, explain or take lightly within a mere booklet.

At the same time, as Christians, we long that all the world’s people(s) will have an opportunity to freely see, hear and understand the grace of God incarnated in Jesus Christ.

To this end we inform ourselves, pray for and want to support opportunities to make that grace known also within the world’s Indian and Hindu communities. Get your copy of the 15 Days Hindu Prayer Guide now and join with us!

15 days  |  32 pages  |  1,000,000,000 Hindus worldwide

Download the Guide HERE: https://pray15days.org/

A huge worldwide GO2020 prayer and worship gathering entitled: Repentance, Reconciliation, Revival and Reaching All. Many prayer networks and streams joined us, embracing 123+ nations and including International Prayer Connect, came together to arrange this United event.

It was led by ministry leaders from every region of the world.

Download the Programme with links to each section and timings.

Sow into the World Prayer Together Global Prayer Call with a donation: https://www.gofundme.com/f/world-prayer-together-september-19th-2020

More info at https://www.ipcprayer.org/world-prayer-together.html

#worldprayertogether #go2020 #globaloutreachday #10days #thereturn  @GlobalOutreachDay   @The Return ​

A new charge against Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman jailed in Iran, is "a new stage in a long-running political game", her husband Richard has claimed.  "She is clearly being held as a bargaining chip," Mr Ratcliffe said. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is nearing the end of her sentence for spying charges, which she denies. But on Tuesday, she was told she would face a new trial. The Foreign Office said British officials will try to attend the trial. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in Tehran in April 2016. She had been visiting her parents with her young British-born daughter, Gabriella, who is now six. The dual national was sentenced to five years in prison over allegations of plotting against the Iranian government - although no official charges have ever been made public. Gabriella has now returned to the UK. Mr Ratcliffe said his wife and other dual nationals are being held hostage because Iran wants the UK to pay a decades-old debt (£400m) over an arms deal that was never fulfilled.

Antarctica’s ‘Thwaites Glacier’ which is a thousand miles from the nearest research base, has been investigated by scientists from the British Antarctic Survey. The glacier is melting rapidly due to warmer water entering the glacier via huge oceanic channels 600 meters below the surface. This glacier, roughly the size of Great Britain, already accounts for 4 per cent of world sea level rise each year. The accelerating meltdown of the most vulnerable glacier in Antarctica would add over 25 inches to global sea levels - inundating coastal areas and cities such as London and New York.

Talks are now set to begin in Qatar this week, aiming to put an end to two decades of war and the loss of thousands of lives in Afghanistan. They were meant to begin in March, but instead were held up for months by wrangling over a prisoner exchange plan.  The final batch of 400 Taliban prisoners were released last week clearing the path for these talks. The next stage of the process, talks between the Taliban and Afghan government, or "intra-Afghan negotiations", will revolve around an actual "peace deal". Officials, and indeed ordinary Afghans, hope a ceasefire can be agreed although, until now, the Taliban have seemed determined to continue fighting until their demands are met. They see violence as their best form of leverage, and are cautious of allowing their fighters to lay down their weapons, in case it becomes difficult to redeploy them or they drift towards rival militants in the Islamic State group. Negotiators will also try to establish some kind of agreement on a political future for the country. The task seems daunting. How to reconcile the competing visions for the country? On the one hand the "Islamic Emirate" that the Taliban adhere to, on the other, the more modern, more democratic Afghanistan built over the past two decades.

Pastors around the world are facing destitution and even starvation because of the devastating impact of Covid on church tithes. Churches in countries that rely on cash tithes are forced to close their doors, Many pastors are struggling to feed themselves, let alone give anything to those turning to them for help. Wage earners are unemployed or unable to work due to the pandemic. In India, finding alternative sources of income has been virtually impossible for some of the pastors. Relief distributions are carried out by local administrations but Christians are ignored for being Christians.  Sub-Saharan Africa reported similar situations. Pastor Adane in rural Ethiopia said Covid had affected all church income streams, making it impossible to pay staff. He said, ‘Because of Covid-19, the church is in great trouble’.

Commissioner of Public Lands said new fires are starting   in every corner of the state.  60+ hikers and campers were rescued by military helicopters.  A fire in Southern California was sparked by a smoke-generating pyrotechnic device used to reveal a baby’s gender. That fire is only 7% contained. Hundreds of homes have been lost. From California to Minnesota millions are choking and wheezing from toxic smoke blanketing the area and blocking sunshine. Pray for those with chest complaints struggling to breath. See also

They are the first cases to be detected among Syrians living in Jordan-based refugee camps, the UN refugee agency in Jordan said on 8th September ‘It is a reminder that everyone has been affected by this epidemic, and solutions must be addressed through international solidarity and cooperation.’ At the time of writing the two affected refugees have been transferred from the Azraq camp to the Dead Sea Isolation Site. Testing plus isolation procedures are being implemented for all individuals who have been in contact with them. The Azraq camp is Jordan's second-largest with almost 37,000 refugees. Jordan hosts over 1.2 million Syrian refugees, including 650,000 registered with the UN. To date, the kingdom has reported 2,478 coronavirus cases and 17 related deaths.

Jesus Christ, awesome King of the Universe, is connecting His Body as never before and you are invited to World Prayer Together - a global online prayer experience of repentance, reconciliation, revival and reaching all with His Gospel. Ministry leaders representing 10 world regions will ‘stand in the gap’, identifying and confessing major corporate sins that characterize their regions as those from other regions empathize and pray for revival and mission breakthroughs for each of those regions. Participants will be led in worship and celebrate His forgiveness by taking communion together globally, and then, since this is also the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah), we will blow shofars or other indigenous instruments all around the world at the same time!  Details to connect to the call www.worldprayertogether.com. Please pass this invitation on to others in your networks, churches and prayer groups, so they can also join in this magnificent flowing together of His people.