Nigeria: Blasts rock Nigeria's northeast
A state police chief, said on Tuesday that members of a Muslim group locally known as Boko Haram detonated bombs at two police stations and at St Patrick's Church in the city of Maiduguri killing up to eleven people. The multiple blasts come a day after motorcycle-mounted gunmen shot dead a cleric from a rival sect. The police also blame Boko Haram for killing the cleric on Monday at his home because he had been critical of Boko Haram's violence. Boko Haram has pushed for the implementation of sharia in Borno State. The group has vowed to keep killing people believed to support the establishment until sharia is adopted alongside other demands.
Pray: for tensions to be calmed, fear to be removed, and Boko Haram to be lessened in influence. (Ps.140:8)
More: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/06/201167223659877448.html
Uganda: 'Nodding disease' blights children
A mysterious disease, which has no cure, is affecting growing numbers of children in Northern Uganda, Sudan and Tanzania. It is referred to as 'nodding disease', and has confounded the World Health Organisation. One of the first symptoms is that children appear to be falling asleep - their eyes close and head droops, even though they may not be tired. It frequently causes them to lose consciousness then they fall and injure themselves. Children affected are mostly between the ages of five and fifteen. They are more likely to die young because, after loosing consciousness, they have horrific accidents such as falling into cooking fires or drowning. Other symptoms are losing cognitive ability and stunted growth. Some children are abandoned by communities unable to afford to care for them. Experts are at a loss as to what causes the degenerative disease.
Pray: God will reveal the root cause of this disease and break its stronghold over the children. (Ps.3:8)
Kyrgyzstan: Injustice may spark fresh violence
Failure to deliver justice for last year's killings of civilians in ethnic clashes in Kyrgyzstan could spark more violence, Amnesty International warns. In a report released ahead of the first anniversary of the 10 June unrest. Amnesty urges Bishkek to ‘establish the truth about what happened’. 470 people died in four days of clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in the south of the country, hundreds were injured and thousands of houses destroyed. The violence followed weeks of turmoil after the ousting of then President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April 2010’s uprising. Amnesty International urges the Kyrgyz government to punish the perpetrators of last year's violence. ‘Failure to bring those behind the violence to justice could provide fertile soil for future turmoil and human rights violations,' said Amnesty's Europe and Central Asia director. Ethnic bias and corruption are behind the pervading impunity in Kyrgyzstan. Pray: for a rebuilding of trust between the ethnic groups, and for justice to be seen to be done. (Ps.103:6)
EU to rule on Christian discrimination cases
In a significant legal development, the European Court of Human Rights has requested that the British Government state whether they believe that the rights of Christians have been infringed in recent cases where individuals have been penalised for expressing their faith in the workplace. The request has come because legal action is being taken by four Christians who argue that their rights have been infringed. The four Christians are: Gary McFarlane, a counsellor who was sacked by a counselling service for saying that he would not give sex therapy to homosexual couples (See PA5310); Shirley Chaplin, a nurse who was banned for wearing a cross around her neck (See PA1510); Nadia Eweida, a British Airways employee who was prevented from wearing a cross; and Lillian Ladele, who was disciplined by Islington council for refusing to conduct civil partnership ceremonies for homosexual couples. The cases have been viewed by the European Court as being of such importance that they merit further investigation. Pray: that this development will lead to the law being changed to protect those who wish to practice their faith. (Ps.5:11)
EU to rule on Christian discrimination cases
In a significant legal development, the European Court of Human Rights has requested that the British Government state whether they believe that the rights of Christians have been infringed in recent cases where individuals have been penalised for expressing their faith in the workplace. The request has come because legal action is being taken by four Christians who argue that their rights have been infringed. The four Christians are: Gary McFarlane, a counsellor who was sacked by a counselling service for saying that he would not give sex therapy to homosexual couples (See PA5310); Shirley Chaplin, a nurse who was banned for wearing a cross around her neck (See PA1510); Nadia Eweida, a British Airways employee who was prevented from wearing a cross; and Lillian Ladele, who was disciplined by Islington council for refusing to conduct civil partnership ceremonies for homosexual couples. The cases have been viewed by the European Court as being of such importance that they merit further investigation. Pray: that this development will lead to the law being changed to protect those who wish to practice their faith. (Ps.5:11)
European official says 105,000 Christians martyred yearly
This shocking figure was disclosed by Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne, representative of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians, at the ‘International Conference on Inter-religious dialogue between Christians, Jews and Muslims.’ The conference on peaceful coexistence between religions was hosted by the Hungarian government as a highlight of its EU presidency of the European Union. ‘Every five minutes’, Introvigne said in his speech, ‘a Christian is killed for his faith.’ The figure does not include the victims of civil wars, or wars between nations, but only the people put to death because they are Christians. ‘If these figures are not cried out to the world, if this massacre is not stopped,’ Introvigne continued; ‘if it is not recognized that the persecution against Christians is the first worldwide emergency with regard to religious discrimination and violence, dialogue between religions will only produce wonderful symposia but no concrete results.’
Pray: for Christians worldwide that God would protect and uphold them in times of persecution. (Ps.91:11)
More: http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=10555
European official says 105,000 Christians martyred yearly
This shocking figure was disclosed by Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne, representative of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians, at the ‘International Conference on Inter-religious dialogue between Christians, Jews and Muslims.’ The conference on peaceful coexistence between religions was hosted by the Hungarian government as a highlight of its EU presidency of the European Union. ‘Every five minutes’, Introvigne said in his speech, ‘a Christian is killed for his faith.’ The figure does not include the victims of civil wars, or wars between nations, but only the people put to death because they are Christians. ‘If these figures are not cried out to the world, if this massacre is not stopped,’ Introvigne continued; ‘if it is not recognized that the persecution against Christians is the first worldwide emergency with regard to religious discrimination and violence, dialogue between religions will only produce wonderful symposia but no concrete results.’
Pray: for Christians worldwide that God would protect and uphold them in times of persecution. (Ps.91:11)
More: http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=10555
Your prayer support will be all-important to the planning of this event which is intended to be a “new paradigm” for an international congress—carried out Acts 13-style—incorporating listening to God, united prayer, and strategic implementation of world-impacting action that proceeds out of that encounter with the Lord and one another.
Prayer Concerns:
1. Please pray for the eight planning task forces: Program, Logistics, Mobilization (including the Media Strategy Group), Finance, Registration/Website, Youth, Children, and Prayer Support. We need to be led of the Lord, given His creative, anointed ideas, and to all do our work diligently, joyfully, and unitedly.
2. This will not be just another prayer conference. The word “world” adds a great deal of complexity and challenge to the planning process since we hope to have 5000-7000 ministry leaders from all 220 nations. Please pray for excellent organization on the part of the Indonesians and Koreans who are co-hosting the event, for the International Coordination Team, and for the right people from every nation to hear about the WPA and be able to come to Jakarta for it.
3. The WPA Concert of Prayer in Indonesia this year on May 17, 2011. This will also serve as preparation for the WPA that is one year to follow. Please pray for further guidance, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and unity.
4. Some organizers that are key to the WPA process are: the Indonesian and Korean national committees who will co-host the event and the WPA International Coordination Team (14) that provides overall oversight. Please pray for His guidance, protection, and provision for each of us. The spiritual battle, as you can imagine, is intense.
Here are the two Scripture passages that have particularly inspired us in arranging the WPA:
• The Church Becoming United—that all followers of Christ may be one so that the world may believe. (John 17:20-26)
• Our World Being Transformed—that “the earth may be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea”. (Hab.2:14)
Thanks so much for your gracious help through prayer that will mean so much, not just to those of us doing the planning and organizing, but also to our world that will be affected by the World Prayer Assembly.
Please also help us get word of the WPA out to “ministry leaders of influence” who will represent the “seven mountains” of society (Arts/Media, Business/Marketplace, Church, Development of the Poor, Education, Family, and Government) who should be part of the WPA. Again, for more information, please have them see www.worldprayerassembly.com where they can also register their interest in participating.
300 local church leaders and 50 internationals in prayer ministry will gather at the Hallelujah Church in Seoul to pray for breakthrough in the deliverance of North Korea from its decades-long oppression and suffering at the hands of the Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il regime.
The current situation in North Korea cries out for such an international prayer initiative like this. These are some of the ways it has been described in the media and by those who have been there as eyewitnesses:
• “Largest prison camp in world”
• “Worst human rights violating country”
• “Worst persecutor of Christians”
• 4 million North Koreans have died of starvation since 1995
• Economy “literally collapsed, operating at about 20%” due to adherence to juche central planning failures
• Famine again stalks the land
• 500,000 fled to China for survival, mostly women and 80% of them raped and sexually trafficked
• 1 million killed in concentration camps with cruel brutality
• North Korean people are “the most isolated, most persecuted, and most suffering”
Please join us in fervent, faith-filled, ongoing prayer for North Korea until it is liberated.
“Only four months after the people of south Sudan overwhelmingly voted to secede from Khartoum's Islamic Republic of Sudan - and six weeks before the independence day of July 9 - a resumption of Sudan's civil war is threatened by north Sudan's military occupation of the disputed territory of Abyei and its calls to remove southern soldiers from Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile. Sudan's ethnic and religious divisions coincide in all three borderland territories, with a Muslim nomadic population that looks to the north's capital of Khartoum while Christian and animist farmers are drawn to the south's Juba.
According to the security arrangements in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), both northern and southern soldiers are supposed to patrol the contested border territories. A week ago, southern military forces in the disputed Abyei region attacked UN forces escorting northern troops. Though the Juba government apologized, Khartoum made the attack the pretext for militarily occupying the territory, setting off large refugee flows out of Abyei.”
(John Campbell, CNN, June 1, 2011)
Please continue to pray for a peaceful transition towards the independence of South Sudan next month and for a good relationship to develop with the government in Khartoum with whom they will have to live amicably as their northern neighbor.