IJM supported Mumbai authorities in rescuing five girls and young women from a small, cluttered apartment where they were being repeatedly sold for sex. Police have also arrested a 35-year-old woman suspected of exploiting these victims to a network of private customers. She would secretly share images of the girls to potential customers over social media and then, based on the customer’s selection, force the girls to come to her home on demand. The girls and young women she abused lived nearby in the community. The police concentrate on traditional red-light areas, brothels and lodges to find and protect minors, and consequently traffickers have attempted to operate only through close networks and unassuming homes to avoid being caught. We can thank God for the rescue of these girls: may they speedily recover in the safe environments now being provided.

From the vanishing Solomon Islands to the burning Amazon rainforest, mothers speak up from danger zones. Alice, in Brazil, fears for her two-month-old son: ‘It is hotter than when I was a child, and I don’t know how it will be when he grows up. There is more pollution, he’s already having breathing problems. I am privileged to live in this paradise, but I look around today and fear that we are losing it.’ Baby Rafsan lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the most overpopulated city in the world. His mother said, ‘We fear for our futures but not enough to quit using cars to save the climate'. By 2050 one in seven people will be displaced by rising sea levels - that’s 18 million people. Bangladesh will not exist in 100 years if carbon dioxide emissions remain the same. ‘My baby should not be wearing a mask’, said a mother in Delhi.

Large navy vessels will watch at chokepoints while smaller vessels will patrol key transit lanes, and airborne assets will monitor traffic in the Persian Gulf. This stems from a new coalition officially launched on 7 November from its Bahrain headquarters. It will protect shipping in the troubled waters after a string of attacks that Washington and its allies blame on Iran, threatening the world’s oil supply. Iran denies responsibility for the attacks, and has put forward its own proposals for boosting Gulf security - that pointedly exclude outside powers. The new mission, dubbed Operation Sentinel, will see vessels escorted through the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic chokepoint at the head of the Gulf and the main artery for transporting oil. Australia and the United Kingdom are the main non-Gulf countries to have sent warships to escort shipping. The newest member, Albania, joined on 6 November.

A group of pastors and faith leaders had an exclusive meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House on 29 October. During that meeting, Trump asked the pastors to lay hands on him and pray. The meeting, according to several pastors, involved discussions of the president's accomplishments on behalf of evangelical Christians, including defending religious freedom, battling opioid addiction, reducing abortion, and nominating conservative and pro-life supreme court judges. Soon afterwards, several leaders posted photos of the meeting and prayer. Some praised the president's pro-family and pro-biblical values, while others offered prayer against what they see as unjust impeachment hearings.

The mission of an evangelism boot-camp will be to equip, train, and launch radical evangelists, whose hearts burn to touch the world with the Gospel, onto the front lines of the harvest field. The first ever bootcamp by Christ for all Nations will launch in January 2020. This six-month intensive training is a fast track to the field which will open the door for Christians to preach the gospel in Africa alongside a gospel crusade team. Not for the faint of heart, this programme will include rigorous components of study and service. In only a few months participants will be prepared mind and spirit to fulfill the plans that God has for them to reach the lost! This first training school is limited to only fifty students. But its launch will be a step to an extended school coming soon, with additional training requirements for work in the field. 

Passion for the Nation reminds us that ‘the favour that brings promotion and power does not come from anywhere on earth, for no one exalts a person but God’ (Psalm 75:7). Pray that every political party will be filled by gifted people on whom God’s favour rests; men and women of righteousness and integrity, who will know, experience and be guided by heaven’s wisdom and truth, aligning this nation with Kingdom purposes and plans. We can declare that God’s light will shine into every dark place, and we speak God’s plans for good over every other agenda, in the name of Jesus. The Evangelical Alliance has launched a prayer series entitled ‘Praying ahead of the general election’. CARE has recently gone live on a bespoke election website, EngaGE19. The World Prayer Centre team have invited Christians to join them at PrayerShift on 9 November, Watch and Pray on 25 November, and intercession on 12 December. See

A plural, sustainable and diverse media is vital for a healthy democracy, but the UK has just three companies dominating 83% of national newspaper circulation. Last year a survey of 250 political articles and news segments from the largest (online and television) providers revealed that the anchors made 29 false statements or claims, a further 66 clear instances of misleading or distorted coverage including misquotations, reliance on single source accounts, omission of essential facts or right of reply, and repeated value-based assumptions made by broadcasters without evidence or qualification. In total, a quarter of the sample contained at least one documented inaccuracy or distortion. At this time of election media fervour, please pray for an end to the overwhelming imbalance of news reporting that this survey reveals. Pray for improvements and changes to be made in reporting so that the UK communications environment functions in the public interest. See also the next article, Christians in media.

The media influence people, shape worldviews, and can ultimately bring about change in society. While the world gets constantly bombarded by images and messages that distort God’s truth and shift people further from Him, Christians in the media desire to see them used to bring about positive changes. Alan Rusbridger, for twenty years editor-in-chief of the Guardian, recently warned, ‘We are, for the first time in modern history, facing the prospect of how societies would exist without reliable news’. Christians can pray for restraints to be put on technology owned by individuals with particular agendas. Pray for an end to false revelations and closely guarded secrets being spread at the click of a button. May dangerous misinformation be blocked by up-to-date infiltration technology. Pray for authors, anchor men and women, researchers and recorders to be true to the facts and avoid fake news stories. May quality news reporting and higher ethics be established across all media outlets.

Each year the Hope for the Countryside partnership hosts a day to gather those with a heart to see a fresh move of the Holy Spirit across all of rural England. The next one is on Saturday 16 November in Sutton Lanes End Macclesfield, from 10.00 am to 3.00 pm. This is very much open to all who live in our cities and towns as well as in the countryside! Come and join us to worship, learn and pray together - or give some time to pray wherever you will be. Download a flyer for more details: With Brexit postponed, and its implications for farming still unclear and uncertain, farmers are even more anxious about what might be ahead. They are also divided as to what they believe is best for farming’s future, The NFU said a no-deal Brexit would be catastrophic, but a September poll showed over 40% of farmers favor this outcome.

Children’s panels recognise that offending behaviour is usually a sign of other problems. The panel system was introduced in Scotland in 1971, with a wholly different approach to supporting children in crisis. They focus on welfare and protection. There are no juvenile courts, unless the case involves homicide or rape, which go into the mainstream legal system. There are no prosecutors or police officers sitting in, even though 75% of cases are referred by the police. The panel members are not judges or magistrates, but trained volunteers who act as the child’s guarantors, often directing social work departments and schools to put in place tailored support and services. Nearly 3,560 children went before a children’s panel last year. Hearings are not interested in innocence or guilt, but only in the young person’s welfare; they listen really hard to the young person, to the family, and to the professionals. Then they decide whether the young person needs the protection of the law.