How amazing that the Lord chose Mary, possibly as young as 14 or 15 years old, to be the mother of Jesus. God in fragile human form in the hands of a teenager! In turn, Jesus himself mentored young people as his disciples. Amazing! We also must raise up young people as leaders, empowering them to fulfil their purpose in Christ.

(Written by Phil Timson, HOPE Youth Director)

Many believe this election is a key step in God’s plans for our nations, and are expecting a great move of God with a time of harvest. The election comes four days after Pentecost - the celebration of God’s Spirit breaking out. God is placing an opportunity in our hands to bless the UK. Please encourage your friends and church to pray. Just as the political parties stir people up to canvass and promote their issues, we should be encouraging people to pray. Every election is contested spiritually, and this is no exception, Satan will be resolute in resisting God’s sovereign purpose. God calls us to partner with Him to bless where we live locally and bless our nations. We need to pray for God’s sovereign will and purpose. Pray also for the Christians standing for election to know His peace, and walk close with Him in this busy and demanding time.

Justin Welby had a 'profound sense of grief and sorrow' after listening to Palestinian Christians’ testimonies of living with a concrete separation wall near Bethlehem. He said, 'You cannot come and hear the testimonies I heard, you cannot hear from the people who live here, without your heart becoming heavier and heavier, more and more burdened, with that sense of people whose history has led them to a place where all they have known is disintegrating.' He also commented on Donald Trump’s possible role when it comes to bringing peace between Israel and the Palestinians. He said, 'We know from history in this region that determined leadership by the president of the USA, together with patient working by lots of other people in the background, often unknown, can tip things very, very decisively - it has done so in the past.' See also:

An Al Quds Day march will be held in London on 18 June. This is a day chosen by the late Ayatollah Khomeini to call for Israel to be destroyed. Previous marches have seen displays of support for anti-Semitic Hezbollah, causing great distress to Jewish communities. A Friends of Israel group in North London is encouraging people to email the mayor of London and ask him to take action on this issue. The military wing of Hezbollah is a terrorist group, but the political wing is not. However it is widely recognised that they are one, controlled by a single command structure and sharing the same flag. Hezbollah operates terrorist cells in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and targets Israeli and Jewish communities around the world.

A campaign to encourage conversation about mental health among children and young people will be piloted in three Welsh schools, with others to follow. It will raise mental health awareness through a programme (using lottery funding) which works with pupils, teachers and parents. One in ten young people experiences mental health problems, with the associated stigma and discrimination often making life even harder. The scheme will work closely with schools to help young people develop the confidence to talk more openly about mental health - at school, with friends, or at home. When Laura was seven or eight she realised that hearing voices was not something everyone experienced, so she kept it a secret and her mental health got worse. At the age of 15 she told her mum; she says that talking saved her. Now she has support from family and friends.

The Secretary General of the UN used a London platform to encourage the UK to continue to work with the organisation. Mr Guterres spoke as the United Nations Association (UNA-UK) launched its manifesto for the 2017 general election. The executive director of UNA-UK said, ‘What happens in other countries increasingly matters to our lives. It is time to put foreign policy at the heart of the election and put the UN at the heart of foreign policy. Peace and security, migration, human rights, the environment, the UN, Britain's role in the world - these issues are bigger and more important than party politics. We need to build a cross-party consensus around them. Our manifesto calls on all political parties to commit to placing the UN at the centre of an outward-looking British foreign policy.’

Voice for Justice hope to raise 20,000 signatures on a petition calling on the National Union of Teachers to withdraw its motion to promote teaching lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT+) issues to children, starting at nursery. The first paragraph of the petition says, ‘The current campaign actively to promote LGBT+ issues starting at nursery is part of an ideological agenda to undermine and ultimately destroy the traditional values on which our society is based. While lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults may see the cultural and social normalisation of their sexual preferences as top priority, we maintain that to force such consciousness onto children, who by definition lack the emotional maturity to assimilate and process such behavioural “norms”, is a form of child abuse. This will inevitably encourage them to experiment with behaviours that wouldn’t normally occur at such an early age, but which carry the potential for enormous and long-lasting harm, both physical and mental.’ See also Prayer Alert world article 7, below.

A conference for prayer and mission leaders from across Europe is happening right now (4 to 14 May) in Herrnhut. They are evaluating the current position of mission to the unreached peoples of Europe and praying strategic, informed prophetic prayers for breakthrough. Pray for even more anointing of prophetic sensitivity on these leaders in the last few days of the conference. Pray for a mighty move of His Church moving forward with the gospel as a result of this event. May the prayers of God’s people pave the way for the gospel to be preached, with power and miracles following, in every European language and dialect. Pray for all the networking and connections that have happened through the course of this conference to be acted on with Holy Spirit anointing. It is crucial that these delegates connect more deeply and purposefully. May fruitful networking birth new initiatives this week through closer linking of the prayer and mission movements.

An intercessor writes: ‘Since the 1989 fall of communism, Poland has experienced unprecedented growth and prosperity. For example, during the 2008-2014 economic crisis, a time of turbulence for the world economy, Poland’s GNP (Gross National Product) grew by 25%. The prime minister during that period was Donald Tusk, now president of the European Council. Since the change of power the situation now needs much prayer. People now running the country have already destroyed the constitutional court, public media, and integral parts of our educational system, to mention just a few. We are heading towards a big crisis both economically and politically, potentially with some serious social unrest.’

An intercessor writes: ‘The way that people can pray and support us in Spain is by expressing interest in our 365 Prayer Initiative, and praying for it. This is the 9th year of the churches in Spain praying day and night in a coordinated way. We are working to strengthen the stakes of our tent, and we appreciate every prayer and word of encouragement that we can get. We feel that if the Church is praying, the political and social issues will all fall into place. So please pray for this army of prayer warriors in Spain, and for us as we lead it. The rate of unemployment is 22%; among the young people under 25 years the rate is over 45%. Our GNP is at 3.2%, higher than the average in Europe. Nevertheless, the economy of Spain is in a gradual growth.’