Report points to decline in belief
A new report from the University of Chicago has shed light on the growth of atheism in Europe. The report from the university’s National Opinion Research Center (NORC) also found that belief in God is stronger among older people than younger generations. The findings were based on an analysis of surveys conducted in 30 countries in 1991, 1998 and 2008. Countries with the largest atheist populations tended to be in north-west Europe or former communist states while countries with fewer atheists tended to be in the developing world, with the exception of the US, Israel and Cyprus. Sweden, Latvia, Denmark, Britain and Norway had some of the highest proportions of atheists. The study found that belief in God had decreased in most countries although it added that the declines were ‘quite modest especially when calculated on a per annum basis’.
Pray: that the fire of the Holy Spirit would fall across Europe bringing new life to God’s church. (Ez.9:9b)
More: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/report.points.to.decline.in.belief/29724.htm
Report points to decline in belief
A new report from the University of Chicago has shed light on the growth of atheism in Europe. The report from the university’s National Opinion Research Center (NORC) also found that belief in God is stronger among older people than younger generations. The findings were based on an analysis of surveys conducted in 30 countries in 1991, 1998 and 2008. Countries with the largest atheist populations tended to be in north-west Europe or former communist states while countries with fewer atheists tended to be in the developing world, with the exception of the US, Israel and Cyprus. Sweden, Latvia, Denmark, Britain and Norway had some of the highest proportions of atheists. The study found that belief in God had decreased in most countries although it added that the declines were ‘quite modest especially when calculated on a per annum basis’.
Pray: that the fire of the Holy Spirit would fall across Europe bringing new life to God’s church. (Ez.9:9b)
More: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/report.points.to.decline.in.belief/29724.htm
Please keep praying for the WPA! Your prayer support will be all-important to this event which is intended to be a "new paradigm" for an international congress-carried out Acts 13-style-incorporating listening to God, united prayer, and strategic implementation of world-impacting action that proceeds out of that encounter with the Lord and one another.
WPA Prayer Concerns
We are now less than two weeks from the World Prayer Assembly. Your prayers have been a sustaining and encouraging force for us. We know that without your support in this way, we could be dead meat in the spiritual battle that rages against us and this "once in a generation" gathering of praying people from around the world.
Here are some causes for thanksgiving to God and continuing key issues in prayer we hope you can focus on with us now and during the WPA:
1. God has answered your prayers for people to hear His voice and come to the WPA. There are now about 6000 registered to take part! Much of this wave of registrations has flowed in to our Jakarta office in the last month.
2. The Lord has been providing funding as it is needed. There is still about $400,000 needed to help hundreds of children, youth and adults with subsidies for their accommodations and ground transport and in some cases with partial travel help. Please pray that donors will respond now and provide the rest that is needed. A colleague is asking for 100 people to each give $4000. If the Lord moves your heart to help, please let us know.
3. Pray for the many speakers, facilitators and worship teams that they will be anointed and prepared to play their part at the WPA. We want to follow a new/old paradigm of letting the Lord guide and speak as He did in Acts 13 to the five leaders at Antioch. Pray that we may have special wisdom and sensitivity to know how to do this effectively in both the plenary and track sessions.
4. The Indonesian national committee needs our continuing prayer as they seek to bring together the very challenging and detailed logistics- hotels and other accommodations, ground transport involving many buses and program details. It is a huge undertaking- please pray for them regularly.
5. The May 17 national stadium event will link the 100,000 participants live to 362 cities within Indonesia with an estimated audience of 5 million as well as many millions of others throughout the world through satellite TV and Internet streaming. Please pray for an anointed, powerful program that is being developed now, for excellent collaboration with Christian and secular media outlets, and that all the technical aspects will work flawlessly.
6. Pray for unity, love and humility among the Indonesian committee and our international coordination team. Pray for excellent security, both spiritual and physical, to surround the venues, hotels and ground transport. We all need His protection both physically and spiritually as we move into these last weeks and during the WPA as well. The evil one wants to hinder such a global prayer tsunami from happening, of course, and we must not underestimate his resolve to disrupt it.
7. Of course, finally, pray that the WPA will be mightily and wonderfully used of God to fulfill His purposes and to be a vehicle for world revival and breakthrough in mission.PrayEphesians 3:20 and Habakkuk 2:14 for it!
Thanks so much for standing with us for this "once in a generation" event.
Yours in Christ,
John Robb (on behalf of the WPA International Coordination Team)
Twelve years ago, Objectif France began mobilizing intercessors to pray for France to awaken, in order for it to enter into its destiny, to be able to testify with the power of God’s love. Our perseverance has not been in vain: in twelve years, the spiritual atmosphere in France has changed and a thirst for God has increased. The Christians are not inactive: we see houses of prayer and adoration opening with a perspective of 24/24; a generation is rising up in the country, full of passion for Jesus and a desire to serve Him. The Church is rediscovering the love for the Kingdom of God!
With intercessors from about 70 countries receiving our guide (translated into English), join us in our desire to blow in the fire of revival. Together, from April 7th to the 29th, we call France, “its admirable light” with a strong manifestation of His Kingdom and His Justice.
To get the prayer guide:
• In English, it can be downloaded for free from the website: www.ccfof.org
• In French, and we hope in Spanish, it can be ordered on: www.objectiffrance.fr
The week of April 9 – 15 has been designated by a number of prayer networks as week of prayer for Mauritania. We'd like to encourage all who have a heart for Mauritania and its people to organize prayer gatherings for Mauritania during that week. Prayer topics for each day of that week will be sent out by April 3. There will be 3 days of intensive prayer and fasting April 12 - 14.
Please pray for the Lord's help and grace in all the preparation for this dedicated time of prayer for Mauritania, and that He would raise up many intercessors around the world to pray for Mauritania and its people throughout 2012 and beyond.
In recent weeks, a number of individuals who pray regularly for Mauritania have sensed the Lord urging prayer for humility, confession, repentance and unity on three levels:
1. among all those who are committed to praying for it – That we would guard our hearts and be quick to confess any sin or seek forgiveness and work to restore broken relationships so that nothing would hinder our prayers. We sense the most important preparation for the week of prayer in April is our own humility, purity and right relationship with the Lord and one another
2. among believers in Mauritania – May the Lord pour out His grace and kindness in the lives of believers in Mauritania, leading them to recognize, confess and repent of any sin in their lives, including deeply entrenched sins that are "strongholds" in the culture - including love of money, pride, deception or manipulation, racism, occult practices, sexual sin. Pray for healing of divisions and unity among believers. Pray for God's "rain" in their lives, softening hard hearts and refreshing and renewing those who are weary and dry.
3. Prayer for conviction of sin, confession, and repentance within the country as a whole: In studying the ministry of John the Baptist, we are reminded that before Jesus began His ministry, there was a large movement of confession of sins and repentance throughout Judea and Jerusalem. John was called to "prepare the way" for Jesus to come, and calling people to confession was a key part of that preparation. Pray for God to pour out the Holy Spirit in Mauritania, convicting Mauritanians of their sin and helping them recognize that they are sick, in need of a savior to heal and restore and reconcile them to God.
Key Scriptures: Mark 1:1-8; Luke 7:27-30; Mark 2:16-17; Malachi 3:1-3; John 16:7-11
"Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate." – Anonymous
Let’s TEACH our Children to pray! Let’s pray FOR the Children of this world!
"For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger, and you invited Me in, naked, and you clothed Me, I was sick, and you visited Me, I was in prison, and you came to Me...”Matthew 25:35-45
There are 2.3 billion children on earth under age 15 and they represent the largest unreached people group in the world. Boys and girls in the 4/14 Window is given priority because they are more open and receptive to the gospel than older youth and adults. Nearly 85% of people who make a decision for Christ, do so between the ages of 4 to 14!
For this reason you are invited to participate in the Global 4/14 Day – a day of prayer and fasting for children aged 4 to 14 – on Saturday, April 14, 2012.While adults are registering for the Global 4/14 Day, ARISE is inviting CHILDREN to gather for prayer in every time zone of the world at 4:14PM (local time zone) on 14 April 2012 to unite in praise and worship, stand in the gap for their generation and to commit themselves to be a generation set apart for God.
For more information please visit the website www.kidsarise.com or contact Gwen De Rozario at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Billions of children around the world are growing up without the basic needs they are entitled to. For example: Education, Safety, Advocacy and Health. To pray for them effectively please visit VIVA –together for children and diarize the date for the World Weekend of Prayer for Children at Risk 2 – 3 June 2012.
Sudan: Christians request our prayers
On 21st April the Anglican Church in Sawafi was attacked by a mob, provoked by a radical Imam. Security forces stopped the mob, then some found an alternate route and ransacked and burnt down the building. Also on 21st the Gereif West Bible School in Al-Gereif, was badly damaged in an arson attack by a Muslim mob. They had received threats of violence in late March and early April. Churches on the site as well as the Bible School were damaged in the attack.Office equipment, library resources and students' personal belongings were destroyed. On 19th April in Burri 130 South Sudanese university students were detained and given seven days to leave Sudan after being accused of celebrating South Sudan's invasion of the Heglig oil field. The students denied that they had held any such celebration. Sudanese Christians give thanks that nobody was injured in the recent attacks.
Pray: Christians in Khartoum will know the peace, presence and protection of Jesus, and His enabling to live without fear; and for detained students to be released and know the Spirit's guidance and wisdom.
China: Plans to 'eradicate house churches'
China has begun a campaign to eradicate house churches within ten years. Last September a secret document was issued by the Chinese authorities aimed at 'completely eradicating house churches' in three phases. (1) from January to June 2012- investigate house churches and create files on them. (2) to 'clean up' those churches within 3 years. (3) completely wipe out the house churches within 10 years. In December 2010, 'Operation Deterrence' was launched and Government officials were to 'guide' Christians attending unregistered churches to worship in government-approved Three-Self churches. At the same time, they were to break up larger churches, such as Shouwang Church in Beijing into smaller groups. Shouwang has been forced to hold services in the open-air since Easter 2011, and worshippers face surveillance and arrest. • Please pray also for Shouwang Church in Beijing, whose members faithfully meet outside in all weathers, under surveillance and at risk of arrest. Ask that God would embolden and protect them.
Pray: against the increase in persecution of house churches and for God to bless them with continued growth. (Is.65:22-24)
Mali: Christians forced to flee the north
Government forces collapsed in the north following the coup, allowing separatist and Islamist rebels to seize control of the country’s three northern regions. Around 215,000 people have been displaced from their homes, many of them crossing into Burkina Faso and Mauritania. Many Christians have sought safety in Mali’s capital, Bamako, where they are being fed and sheltered by a network of churches. A Barnabus Fund contact in Mali reports that churches in the towns of Gao and Timbuktu were destroyed in the takeover, with the congregations abandoning their homes and fleeing south. ‘Horrible crimes have been made against the population – massacres, rape of women, obligation to wear the veil, chasing Christians,’ the source reports. The plight of refugees was being compounded by the existing food crisis in the Sahel which has seen the cost of basic foodstuffs double.
Pray: for those providing homes, corn, rice and medicine to hundreds of Christian refugees to know God’s enabling power and provision. (Ps.111:5)
More: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/christians.forced.to.flee.northern.mali/29746.htm
Saudi Arabia: Reaction to Grand Mufti declaration
On the 18th March Prayer Alert reported that the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, the highest official of religious law in the region, declared that it is necessary to destroy all churches. This shocked many Christians in the Arabian Peninsula and other parts of the world, but was not widely reported in the Western press. The Grand Mufti quoted Muhammad’s deathbed statement, ‘There are not to be two religions in the Arabian Peninsula.’ Some fear this could incite Muslims beyond the Arabian Peninsula to violence against Christians, since Christianity is already forbidden in the Arabian Peninsula and no churches exist there. The implications of the Grand Mufti's words could result in banning churches in Yemen, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates, say observers. These countries presently allow expatriates to worship in compounds. The Grand Mufti’s statement calls for these nations to follow the Arabian Peninsula’s example and outlaw Christianity. Also in Kuwait there are fears of a ban on new churches and tougher blasphemy penalties. See:
Pray: for fthe Grand Mufti to retract his declaration and that churches in the Arabian Peninsula will not be impacted by his statement. (Ps.103:6)
More: http://win1040.com/blog/2012/04/24/grand-mufti-declaration-and-reaction/