Afghanistan: Magnifying Jesus as Lord
God is using Hazara Herald Ministries to draw Afghans and Iranians to the LORD. While their special focus is on the people of Hazaras, through the years Hazara Herald Ministries has been used of God among all the people of Afghanistan. Afghan Christian Television programmes are being used very powerfully by God's grace. Viewers can see and hear how people from all ethnic groups including Pashtoons, Hazaras, Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Turkomans are giving their lives to Christ on the live shows. Missionaries are coming back to England and telling amazing testimonies of God working among the Afghans through this and other global ministries. At the moment they are asking God for more technicians to help design Christian websites.
Teenage gangsters drawn to terrorism
Britain’s counter-terror chief, Mark Rowley, said he will fight for police to be kept on the beat, amid fears that budget cuts will see fewer officers gathering vital intelligence needed to thwart a growing tide of people trying to stage terrorist attacks. His comments came as he warned that hundreds of people who travelled to Syria to join Islamic State had returned to Britain, and there is a growing threat of attacks (several plots to kill were foiled recently). There are five Government counter-terrorism threat levels. They indicate the stages of security needed to protect our nation. They range from LOW - an attack is unlikely - through to SEVERE - an attack is expected imminently. The current threat level from international terrorism is SEVERE. Terrorism in the UK remains real and serious. An attack could take place at any time and any organisation could be directly or indirectly affected. See also
http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/
Britain’s counter-terror chief, Mark Rowley, said he will fight for police to be kept on the beat, amid fears that budget cuts will see fewer officers gathering vital intelligence needed to thwart a growing tide of people trying to stage terrorist attacks. His comments came as he warned that hundreds of people who travelled to Syria to join Islamic State had returned to Britain, and there is a growing threat of attacks (several plots to kill were foiled recently). There are five Government counter-terrorism threat levels. They indicate the stages of security needed to protect our nation. They range from LOW - an attack is unlikely - through to SEVERE - an attack is expected imminently. The current threat level from international terrorism is SEVERE. Terrorism in the UK remains real and serious. An attack could take place at any time and any organisation could be directly or indirectly affected. See also
Permission for court appeal for Christian parents
A Christian couple whose adopted children were taken into care have been granted permission for their case to be heard in full before the Court of Appeal. At the conclusion of a hearing Lady Justice Black ordered the case to proceed to a full hearing for a review as to whether the Family Court had taken the right factors into account when deciding the boys’ future, and whether they had given proper weight to the good parenting given to the children for three years prior to their forced removal. They had provided a loving home for the two boys who had come from highly traumatised backgrounds. The Christian Legal Centre said they are dealing with an increasing number of cases where children are separated from parents and because of the closed nature of the Family Court system it is difficult to expose such heartbreaking injustice. This has to change.
Church leaders ask for review of benefit sanctions
The leaders of four Protestant denominations have written an open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron urging him to review the benefit sanctions regime and to delay a decision on replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system. They also urge ‘assertive international action to uphold human rights and deliver humanitarian assistance in Syria’ and ‘action to make freedom of religion a human rights priority in all aspects of foreign policy’. The open letter was signed by leaders of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church. It says, ‘We hope and pray that as you make decisions about your programme for government, you will choose to offer the greatest support to those of our neighbours who are the weakest, the most vulnerable and the most in need of our help. Such policies will not always be popular, but they are necessary if we are to live out the common good.’
The authority of religious leaders has fallen
A YouGov poll of 3,000 adults found that the public are interested in religious leaders, but no longer give them the authority they used to possess. To influence people and make a difference in today's world, religious leaders have to possess personal charisma and an important post. They also have to show they have triumphed over personal struggle and strife of their own. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, was found to have made the ‘best contribution’ to moral and religious life in Britain. Pope Francis was joint second with the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. The British are particularly impressed by leaders who have made stands for the marginalised.
Calls for ‘Olive's Law’ after suicide of UK's oldest poppy seller
The suicide of a 92 year-old Christian woman, dubbed Britain's oldest poppy seller, has prompted calls for an ‘Olive's Law’ to be introduced, to curb unsolicited phone calls from charities looking for money. According to her family and friends, Olive was driven to her death partly because she was ‘exhausted’ by the constant demands of cold calls and direct mail from charities, many of which she had supported over the years. Now the Government is being urged to take action, by introducing a so-called ‘Olive's Law’. Labour MP for Bristol East, Kerry McCarthy, said, ‘We don't want to impede charities in their efforts to raise much-needed support, but if a law change is needed to stop vulnerable people like Olive being harassed, then so be it.’ The Institute of Fundraising Standards Committee said it will bring together representatives from across the charity sector to review the case.
No to police budget cuts – they’re vital to thwart growing terrorist threats
Britain’s counter-terror chief, Mark Rowley, said he will fight for police to be kept on the beat, amid fears that budget cuts will see fewer officers gathering vital intelligence needed to thwart a growing tide of people trying to stage terrorist attacks. His comments came as he warned that hundreds of people who travelled to Syria to join Islamic State had returned to Britain, and there is a growing threat of attacks (several plots to kill were foiled recently). There are five Government counter-terrorism threat levels. They indicate the stages of security needed to protect our nation. They range from LOW - an attack is unlikely - through to SEVERE - an attack is expected imminently. The current threat level from international terrorism is SEVERE. Terrorism in the UK remains real and serious. An attack could take place at any time and any organisation could be directly or indirectly affected. See also
“But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, “I am only a child.” …Now I have put my words in your mouth. See today, I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” (Jeremiah 1:7, 10)
“When God gets ready to do a new thing with His people, He always sets them a-praying!” – J. Edwin Orr, scholar on the history of revivals
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Thanks for your prayers of support for the Arab Europe prayer event which concluded strongly on Saturday. It was invigorating- with dynamic, Spirit-filled worship and faith-inspired praying together for all the nations of Europe where these Arab immigrants are now living. They came to understand that they are not refugees but sent by the Lord to pray and work for His restoration and revival of this continent that in the past has so much blessed the world through its strong spiritual legacy and now needs to recover that legacy with the help of these on-fire immigrant believers. Pray with us that they will be able to start prayer groups in their towns and unite with the nationals so that they can continue the process of united intercession they began in Wiesbaden.
Yesterday, Berthold Becker, founder of Intercessors for Germany, and I were in Hernnhut meeting with the church that has begun 24/7 prayer, renewing the practice of the Moravians and Count Zinzendorf who founded this place in the 18th century. As we worshipped, I noticed lovely young children, entering into worship with joy, and some were dancing freely in the presence of the Lord in front of us. The pastor then asked us to pray fatherly blessings over the whole congregation. Berthold and I felt moved to pray that from this fabled place a new and great revival would flow out to Germany and Europe.
Later, we stood amongst the 6000 graves of Zinzendorf and the godly saints who prayed in "the Lord's watch" (the meaning of Hernnhut in German) from 1727 for 100 years. Out of only 600 people in this small village, they sent 300 missionaries to the ends of the earth. I was overcome with weeping as they told me about the children of that day who went out in the fields in the night and cried out to the Lord as adults in neighboring homes tried to get them to shut up. However, they were irrepressible and kept on praying! Along with three Hernnhutter women, one of whom is with YWAM, we prayed for the children of Germany and for the raising up of a new generation like this former one.
These same Moravian children who cried out to God in the fields at night later went out as the first Protestant missionaries, many of them never coming back to their homeland but laying their lives down for the Lord among the unreached peoples. Others returned and are buried here as well. The women who were guiding us showed us their graves and those of the great and godly Zinzendorf and his family. This humble noble was the benefactor of the much-persecuted Moravians, followers of Jan Hus, the great reformer from Prague, a Pentecostal charismatic Bible teacher who was burned at the stake for his ministry efforts to bring reform and encourage the study of Scripture. As a child, Zinzendorf was deeply influenced by Francke and Spener who were leaders of the German Pietist revival, as well as by his own godly grandmother with whom he spent some years in this same area of Saxony.
I felt the Lord stirring me that this ground still has powerful, earned spiritual authority, so that like Jeremiah was called to do, they could pray, speaking out things that the Spirit puts in their mouths for the revival and transformation of nations and it will happen. This struck me, especially after Berthold shared with them that in 1989 he was here in Hernnhut leading a prayer gathering with hundreds of intercessors who proclaimed the end of the Berlin Wall from this part of East Germany. It came down that very time as they were praying this! A young woman who now has 5 lovely children and was one of those guiding us around, told us that she had been there as a nine-year old girl and witnessed what Berthold described. "History belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being!"
Today, we go to Berlin along with Sam Hofmann, a YWAM leader and colleague in many past initiatives to meet with prayer leaders there and also to pray for the government of Germany that has become so politically correct as to say that "Islam belongs to Germany" and to adopt sex education for little children, including introducing them to homosexuality. I am filled with indignation and revulsion. It is the same in the USA, the same wicked, perverted agenda that some in our own government are seeking to introduce to our nation while much of our “Christian majority” is occupied with our own comfort and entertainment. May the Lord shake us all out of our sleepy, complacent state to pray and prophesy to unjust, corrupted power like Jeremiah did!
Thanks for your continuing prayers as the Lord leads you for His revival, restoration and transformation to come upon Europe and other “developed” nations that have lapsed into paganism from the light they once knew.
John Robb
Chairman, International Prayer Council
Macedonia: a country on the brink?
Eight policemen and 14 gunmen were killed following a day-long gun battle in the Republic of Macedonia. Native Albanians from Kosovo are believed to be behind the violence, but on Wednesday the opposition claimed that the government orchestrated Saturday’s shootout. Many believe that ethnic tensions could destabilise the country. Macedonia now appears to be grappling with its deepest political crisis since gaining independence from former Yugoslavia in 1991. The tensions have been exacerbated by a number of factors. In 2001 the Albanian National Liberation Army demanded greater rights and autonomy for the Albanian minority. Since then, the country has been governed in a delicate power-sharing arrangement between Macedonians and ethnic Albanians, followed by a rising ethnic Macedonian nationalism. Last month EU envoys accused the government of leading the country towards disaster and urged those in power and the opposition to agree to a roadmap which would steer it away from ‘exploding.’ See also: