Israel’s sitting prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, for the second time since April 2019, has been unable to form a coalition government. He returned his mandate to do so to President Reuven Rivlin on Monday 21 Oct. 2019.

Rivlin has since called on Netanyahu’s rival, Benny Gantz, who heads the Blue and White bloc, to try and form a coalition of at least 61 seats in parliament over the next 28 days. It is widely held that Gantz will be unlikely to fare any better than Netanyahu. If he does fail to form a government, an unprecedented third election in one year will take place in 2020. 

The prime minister claimed in a video statement that he tried to bring Gantz to the negotiating table to “prevent another election,” but said Gantz “refused time after time.” (JNN)

PRAYER REMINDER: INTERCEDE FOR ISRAEL’S NEW GOVERNMENT TO BE EFFECTIVELY FORMED SOON:

Once again, the call goes out for intercessors and prayer groups to intercede in this vitally important issue. Pray that Israel's leaders will be able to form a strong and stable government and that a third national election, will be avoided. The damage to Israel as a result of soon repeated elections would be immense.

The direct cost alone would be approximately 700 million shekels, a sum that equals the entire annual budget of the Science Ministry. The indirect price-tag for going back to the polls again would cost the Israeli economy more than 2 billion shekels. This would only be part of the consequences of such an outcome lengthening the current political impasse.

For close to a year now Israel has been unable to carry out important procedures. Senior officials in the various ministries have said the government is “treading water.” They report that new programs cannot be approved, serious processes cannot be conducted and long-term plans cannot be adopted.

The Ministry of the Economy cannot progress with reforms to lower the cost of living. The Interior Ministry is holding back major projects needed by local authorities. The appointments of senior officials – judges, the police chief – are frozen. Diplomatic processes with a direct impact on Israeli security, such as President Trump’s peace plan, have been deferred. Everything is on hold. (JNN)

Source: www.visionforisrael.com

More at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50167387

Indigenous tribes see the Catholic church as a key ally in the ecological fight – and an unprecedented synod is focused on how to stop the destruction.

by Dan Collyns in Puerto Maldonado

A hundred years ago the Harakmbut people were nearly wiped out.

Inhabitants of a vast jungle region where Peru intersects with Brazil and Bolivia, the tribespeople were enslaved by rubber barons and murdered en masse, only surviving thanks to the help of Dominican missionaries.

Now a new threat of extinction looms, and once again they are appealing to the Catholic church.

As wildfires and de-forestation drive the Amazon rainforest towards a tipping point beyond which it cannot recover, Yesica Patiachi, a Harakmbut leader from Peru, is heading to Rome to take part in an unprecedented synod of Catholic bishops from across the region.

Although she is not a practising Catholic, the 32-year-old schoolteacher sees the church as a key ally to save the rainforest.

“Eden is here in the Amazon and we are destroying it,” she said. “We cannot pray to God when we are destroying his creation.”

Starting on Sunday, bishops from the nine South American nations that share the Amazon will meet in the Vatican to try and muster the spiritual and earthly forces to pull the world’s largest rainforest back from the brink of destruction.

One of the synod’s organisers, Father Peter Hughes, said the three-week gathering would set out a new view of ecology based on Christian faith in God as the creator of a “common home”. Hughes said the Catholic church should firmly place itself alongside the region’s indigenous people and defending their territorial rights and way of life.

“The life of the [Amazon] people is intrinsically, inherently part of the territory. If the territory is injured, the people are injured,” he said.

Organizers insist that the church is not simply fighting for its share in the market of souls. Cardinal Claudio Hummes, the president of the synod, said this week that the Amazon was facing a crisis in which ecological problems were inseparable from social issues.

To find a solution, the world must hear “both the cry of the earth and that of the poor”, he said.

Additional reporting by Angela Giuffrida in Rome

From https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/05/amazon-rainforest-catholic-church-synod-vatican

Pray: that the plundering and destruction of these natural resources will stop.

Pray: for the voices of the indigenous people to be heard and acted upon.

Pray: for the people of the Amazon region whose lives and livelihoods have been affected.

This is now the third year of Stop Child Witch Accusation’s (SCWA’s) Standing in the Gap annual prayer campaign for children accused of being witches.

Multiple thousands of children worldwide experience unspeakable abuse because they are perceived to be witches. But we give thanks to God that we are beginning to see change as the understanding, attitudes and practices of those in churches and local communities are being wonderfully transformed through Bible-based teaching and training, and the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit.

God is also graciously responding to the prayers and intercessions of our praying friends, bringing longed-for breakthrough that goes above and beyond human effort.

Thank you so much for joining us in this year’s Standing in the Gap prayer campaign, as we pray over the next three months for God to bring even greater breakthrough into this issue and for his deep healing and restoration to impact communities affected by it. To help guide your prayers, here is the link to the second prayer bulletin: https://stop-cwa.org/posts/prayer-campaign-3b

Let’s continue to pray with expectancy at what God will do through our prayers, by his grace and to his glory!

Pray: For all children to be able to live, learn and grow freely, without dark influences on their lives.

Pray: That any powers of darkness and malevolant spiritual influences will flee from these precious Children of God, in Jesus' name.

Pray: Protection over the vulnerable and those who seek to advocate for them.

Global Outreach Day is a Global Missions Network that calls the Church worldwide to focus on praying and sharing the Gospel with the un-churched in the month of May each year.

This coming year, May 2020 the vision is to mobilise 100 million people in united prayer. 

We are calling this initiative Go2020!

Already, Christians in 250,000 churches across 140 nations are part of this global outreach strategy to pray and witness towards the fulfilment of God's great commission.

IPC's Exec and Leadership Team member, Tom Victor and a number of colleagues will be taking part in the upcoming World Evangelical Alliance General Assembly (WEA). Thousands of leaders representing national church networks in 130 nations will gather in Jakarta, Indonesia from November 7th-13th 2019. 

Please pray for them as they share the GO2020 vision and the GO2020 Kids vision in different plenary sessions and seminars.

Pray: for Werner Nachtigal and Beat Baumann, Go 2020 Global Leaders, as they network with others at the WEA.

Pray: for Bishop Efraim Tendero, global leader of the WEA as he encourages his colleagues to participate in Go 2020. Bishop Efraim is a big champion of Go 2020.

Pray: for Tom Victor as he works with others at the WEA to mobilize for Go 2020 Kids.Pray: for Candy Marballi as she teaches the Prayer Covenant for Children at the WEA.

Pray: for Rick and Becky Olmstead as they lead a 4 to 14 Window Workshop at the WEA.  Pray for them also as they provide overall leadership to the 4 to 14

Window Global Movement.

Pray: for God to raise up strong Go 2020 Kids national and regional leadership teams to mobilize and implement the vision around the world. Write down the revelation and make it plain on tables so that a herald may run with it. (Habakkuk 2:2)

Pray: for God to anoint key leaders in technology and communications as we work on the digital platform to empower children to become Go 2020 Kids.

Pray: for God to raise up and call to himself millions of children around the world as “prayer filled - multiplying disciples” for Go 2020 Kids. Jesus told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Luke 10:2)

More info and sign up for GO2020 at: www.go2020.world/prayer

Let’s also be lifting up Dick Eastman who is a keynote speaker at the WEA - for favour with his Oikos strategy as they contend to see the gospel reach every home in every nation in the next 20 years!

We pray also for John 17 unity and oneness across the leadership of the WEA, the nations and the generations that will be attending!