The situation continues to worsen inside the country, and the number of refugees are increasing everyday. It seems there is no end to this tragedy in sight. The Christians continue to face extermination attacks by islamic fighters and fleeing the country. Large parts of the infrastructure are being destroyed. The three largest cities, Homs, Aleppo and Hamma, are being completely destroyed. There is about 6.5million internally displaced people (IDP) and around 2.6million refugees. 9.3 million need humanitarian aid.
Pray for an end to the civil war in Syria. Pray for the refugees that they will be helped and touched by the love of God. Pray for 6.5million children affected by this war. Pray for s just government and for the church to stand these difficulties, and trials and to be a lighthouse during this time of turmoil.
Pray with us for a hoped-for prayer initiative there, May 27-30, for His unity, anointing and protection for the team and that the Lord will make them a great blessing and encouragement for the Syrian believers.
A call to prayer:
With Pentecost quickly approaching let us join in concentrated prayer and penance for peace in support of Pope Francis's Vatican prayer meeting with the Israeli President Peres and Palestinian President Abbas which will take place on Pentecost Sunday 8 June 2014 in the afternoon.
Let us also pray for a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church & for Christian unity.
Costandi Bastoli
Coordinator,
Disciples of Jesus Covenant Community
Blue Mountains Branch.
NSW Australia
+61 410 475 723
No matter your mother tongue, you can turn to God in prayer, confident that he listens, answersand acts.
And, sadly, no matter where you live in the world, you will be living near vulnerable children, who are at risk of abuse, neglect, disease or exploitation.
Children forced to the edges of communities, which are not safe or secure places for them to live, play or go to school.
On Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 June - hundreds of thousands of Christians around the world will be crying out in prayer in their own language to ask for a change of attitude and action by people in their communities towards children.
We hope that you and your church will join us for our World Weekend of Prayer campaign.
As well as a variety of resources in English, we now have translations available in 12 different languages, as wide-ranging as Arabic, Bahasa, French and South Sudanese.
Go to the translations tabs of www.worldweekendofprayer.com to download these PDFs.
Whilst there, be sure to check out our resources tab, which includes a resource guide, prayer-focused activities for all ages, a PowerPoint presentation and a theological reflection.
Click below to watch a two-minute meditation video, which is ideal for using in your church service on Sunday 8 June or with small groups.
The best way to stay up-to-date is by liking our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/WWPrayer
The vision and focus of the Global Day of Prayer has remained consistent: the glory of Christ and the blessing of the nations. As in earlier years, there are 10 days of guided prayers leading up to Pentecost Sunday. Then on June 8, Pentecost Sunday, Christians in nations all around the world will gather locally but pray globally in repentance and hope. Once again, "A Prayer for the World" will be part of the normal Sunday services on this day. The prayer takes about 5 minutes to pray together. Find all the details you will need at www.globaldayofprayer.com and for the USA at www.gdopusa.com/resources.
You can participate in the Global Day of Prayer in three simple ways: as a small group, as a church, or as a community of churches.
As a small group: Gather your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers or Bible study to join together for the ten days of prayer or just for Pentecost Sunday.
As a church: Encourage your church leadership to join in during Sunday services. Your congregation will be encouraged as they unite in prayer with millions of people around the world with "A Prayer for the World."
As a community of churches: Convene together as a community or group of churches. Well-organized gatherings can be a great way to keep the momentum of prayer sustained for your community in the coming days ahead. The Global Day Organizer Guide will help with ideas and suggestions
For Christ's glory,
Stephanie Tucker
Global Day of Prayer
866-711-GDOP
Note: Global Day of Prayer on Sunday will be live on GOD TV from 5-9pm Indian time (1:30-5:30pm SA Time see www.globaldayofprayer.com)
June 18-21, Skopje, Macedonia
There is consensus that at this time the Lord is looking down at the Balkans with a special favor. As the Lord is steering more people to pray fervently for the Balkans, we are seeing some great answers to prayer. One of those was after a short message in one church in Thessaloniki, where I spoke on having the mind of the Kingdom and not the mind of patriotism.
A few young men came after with tears in their eyes and asked for forgiveness because of the way they had been looking towards the other Balkan countries, and particularly ours. They have realized that they have been tools in the hands of the spirit of division. As a result of our coordinated prayers from both sides of the border with Greece, after many years, the railway line between Thessealoniki and Skopje will be working again.
There are a few more encouraging testimonies of what persistent prayer of an obedient church can accomplish. We have also seen the Serbian president Tomislav Nikolic publicly asking for forgiveness for what Serbia has done in the past (particularly in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina). We have seen the Croatian president coming for the first official visit to Serbia. We have seen the Bulgarian government asking for forgiveness from the Bulgarian citizens with Turkish nationality who were expelled from their homes during the reign of Todor Zivkov. Bulgarian government asked forgiveness from Czech Republic to forgive them for being together with Soviet army in the sixties when Prague's spring was extinguished.
All of these testimonies stir us up to make a European Trumpet Call. God has planted the desire in many prayerful people in Europe to have a European prayer event from 18-21 of June 2014. This will also be in commemoration of the 100 years from WWI. God delegated this huge task to us, and hopefully with many other volunteers we hope to see even up to 3000 prayerful people coming from all the European countries.
You are more than a welcome to come and be a part of this great European prayer Assembly. We believe that this event will cause a major breakthrough in the Balkans and from here in the Middle East (particularly in Turkey) and in Europe. We feel the Lord will restore the ancient wells of His glory and the Balkans will become once again a 'powder cake,' but this time, of His gospel, as it was in the time of the apostles.
Please will you consider to take part in prayer, participation and financial help. Please do hear again this Macedonian Call and respond as the apostle responded, in reward, this land had began to be his mission base for his future missions in Europe. We believe, it would become again.
On behalf of the coordination team for European Trumpet Call in the Republic of Macedonia
Pastor Venco Nakov
P.S. Please visit the website and spread the word around. Thank you. For more information or to register, here is the website: www.europeantrumpetcall.org
The presidential election's run off day is on 14th June. The Taliban have already pronounced that they will target everything and anything that has to do with the election. Unknown to the West there were 456 individual security incidents on the last election day April 5th. In spite of those facts the number of casualties were only minor and we trace this back to an increased prayer support. Thank you for having a part in it.
Just in the last day or so there was a suicide bomb attack on the frontrunner in the election, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah. Please pray for his protection and for his opponent Dr. Ashraf Ghani.
Again we need prayer covering for the 14th June, which will decide who of these two candidates will be the next president. Let us pray again most of all for peace and protection during this day and for a fair process of decision-making until the new president is sworn in at the first week of August. Pray that the defeated candidate will recognize the election and support the winner and pray for the new president to be able to keep the country united.
We just received this quote and are sure you will all agree:
The devil laughs when we toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.
(From friends who are concerned about Afghanistan)