Response to Las Vegas massacre
Taylor was attending the concert at the Mandalay Bay casino when a gunman killed 59 and wounded 527. He said that prior to the shooting he was an agnostic but, ‘In a fight or flight situation you just take it to God and hope that you can make it,’ In the midst of tragedy and fear, not knowing where to flee to, with bodies everywhere, his faith was renewed. The National Day of Prayer president said, ‘The massacre has more to do with the fallenness of mankind than where God is. God is with the people of Las Vegas. He is with everyone who has suffered. We must trust Him, even when we see things like this occur and we have no idea why someone would do it. We are living in days like none before and being called back to God through every terrible event we are observing around the world. The Church must call out to God together.’ See
USA: gun culture
In the South, the rifle-bearing eagle insignia of the National Rifle Association is seen everywhere, and support of the Second Amendment is as common a topic in country music as sweet tea and tailgates. The bond between the NRA and country music spurred the formation of an entire branch of the gun lobbying group, prompting a series of concerts and events sponsored by the organisation and headlined by country stars to bring the two entities together formally . But the Las Vegas mass shooting at a country music festival has rocked some of the most ardent supporters of gun rights. Country guitarist Caleb Keeter, who performed at the festival, wrote on Twitter, ‘I've been a proponent of the Second Amendment my entire life, until the events of last night. Now I cannot express how wrong I was.’
Myanmar: persecuted minorities
The ruling military changed Burma’s name to Myanmar in 1989. At that time thousands were killed when a popular uprising was suppressed. The military still hold the upper hand. Ethnic Rohingya people in Myanmar face genocide. Violation of human rights is part of a pattern of religious-based persecution in south and south-eastern Asia. There are eight officially recognised ethnic races in Myanmar, speaking four different languages. While the majority of citizens are at least nominally Buddhist, some of these ethnic groups are predominantly Christian. Minorities in Myanmar experience discrimination, forced conversions and violence. Christian communities are targeted with abuse, even though on paper they are citizens and entitled to live there. The Rohingya are not registered citizens, and the government is making them leave. Prior to the recent military crackdown, almost one million had already fled in the past few decades. Some who reached places like Thailand were held for ransom, caught in sex trafficking, or murdered.
Guinea: religious freedom and other challenges
Every October, Window International Network intensifies prayer for the 10/40 Window, and profiles a different country each day. On 6 October the focus is on the peaceful country of Guinea where people live on less than $1 a day, despite the country’s wealthy resources. At least half a million Guineans protested against government corruption last year, denouncing supposed economic mismanagement by their president. Ethnic tensions increased, with the country divided along equal-sized tribal lines. Hundreds of thousands of refugees from Liberia and Sierra Leone have added to the strain. Low incomes and a poor economy create a challenge for those seeking help from a poorly-equipped health care system. Christians are not persecuted in this mainly Muslim country, but believers are starting to lose the religious freedom they once had, especially in major cities. Also, pray for a Godly transformation of the media and entertainment industries, which are highly influential but lack wholesome messages.
Dominica: a nation in ruins
Despite being susceptible to devastating weather, the island of Dominica has a thriving banana industry that drives much of the economy, but not one tree, village, street, or person was spared the terrifying effects of Hurricane Maria. One of several devastating hurricanes in the Caribbean in September, Maria blasted the tiny island as a Category 5 storm. Communications are down. Drinking water is scarce. Over fifteen were killed and many more injured. Many say the devastation on this island is worse than a war zone. Dominica does not possess the means or infrastructure to rebuild after such a catastrophe. Though the majority claim Christianity (primarily Catholicism), nominalism is rampant, yet we praise God that evangelicals have experienced great growth, from 2% of the population in 1970 to 17% in 2010!
Ten non-religious countries hostile to Christians
A two-year study by Pew Research of 199 countries and self-administering territories found Islam to be the world's most common state religion, and listed ten non-religious nations that are hostile toward Christianity and other religions. Most countries do not have an official or preferred religion: of the 43 nations which do, 27 follow Islam. Thirteen states have Christianity as their official religion, two have Buddhism, and one has Judaism. The study said that there are nine officially Christian countries in Europe, including the UK, Denmark, Monaco, and Iceland. The others are Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Tuvalu (in the Asia-Pacific region). Only Zambia in sub-Saharan Africa is officially Christian.
India’s prime minister and human rights
On 6 October, Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, and Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, will meet India's prime minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International, a human rights group, urges the EU leaders not to 'turn a blind eye' to the rising persecution of Christians and Muslims in India. 'How many more victims of government-condoned violence against Muslims and Christians will the EU tolerate before it puts the issue on the agenda with Prime Minister Modi?’ No person should live in fear of being killed, tortured, or oppressed because of their religious beliefs. The persecution of religious minorities in India has become worse under the government of the BJP, which is the political arm of the nationalist Hindutva movement. The party has been accused of inciting hatred and riots against religious minorities, including Christians and Muslims.
Back to School
For your average child, these words mean a sad farewell to the summer and a reluctant hello to homework. But for 12-year-old Noeh in Iraq, school is something he longs for.
Noeh’s family were displaced three years ago when Islamic State (IS) seized control of their village near Mosul. The terrifying threats of IS sent the entire village running for their lives. Since then, the villagers have been living as a displaced community, supported by their church leader Father Thabet, and Open Doors partner organisations in Erbil.
A few months ago, they were able to celebrate the liberation of Karamles, but most won’t be able to return for some time. IS fighters set fire to all 800 homes upon their retreat, severely damaging most, and razing about 100 of them to the ground. With no easy access to water and electricity, the job of rebuilding is an uphill struggle. “We start with the houses with the least amount of damage,” says Father Thabet, “But our budget is limited and the government is not helping us.”
The government wants children to go back to school – but that’s not possible yet, either. The cracked cream-coloured walls of Noeh’s old classroom still stand, but there’s rubble everywhere and weeds peeping through the floor. Worse than that, IS may have hidden bombs there.
“Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners,” says Lamentations 5: Written in the 6th century BC, these words could have been uttered by any number of displaced peoples in Iraq today. Christians and other minorities feel unsafe in their own land. It’s not just new homes they need. It’s a new environment. In order to return to their villages and towns, Father Thabet says, “We will need international support and protection. That is the only way our future as Christians in this country can be guaranteed.”
Noeh’s family can pay tribute to the faithfulness of God in their period of exile. Thanks to the prayers and gifts of Open Doors supporters, they and thousands like them have received practical aid are now looking to the future with faith. But they need the church in the UK, Ireland, and around the world, to speak up for them. That way they can rebuild their homes, their lives and their beloved nation – and Noeh can get back to school.
Please pray:
- for the rebuilding of Karamles, giving thanks for God’s faithfulness to Noeh’s family and community
- for increasing peace, stability and for pressure on the government, through the petition to bring a positive future for Christians in Iraq
- that the body of Christ around the world will stand in solidarity with their brothers and sisters, bringing hope to the Middle East.
You can hear more stories of faith from the Middle East and pray with others for persecuted Christians around the world at Open Doors celebration in Birmingham on 14 October: Standing Strong. For more information and to sign the global petition, go to www.opendoorsuk.org
TIME TO TURN IN THE CHURCH
Years ago I heard Sir Steve Redgrave talk about his decision to return to rowing for one final gold medal. They started their preparation when he and Matthew Pinsent made the hard decision that their previous best performance from the last Olympics would not be good enough to win gold in the next. They needed to get better.
As God moves in His Church, we need to recognise that we need to improve and in many cases we need to repent. Matthew writes about Jesus starting his ministry, “From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near’”. It was a Kairos moment – Jesus moves into a new season, the waiting was over.
We believe it is a Kairos moment for our nation, the waiting has stopped. It is time to change. Jesus tells the people of Israel to turn from sin and turn to God. His message starts with His people. The Old Testament refers to repentance over 1000 times; again it is primarily a call to God’s own people. They use the Hebrew word shuv, which means to turn around. Jesus uses the Greek word metanoia meaning a change of mind, or re-think.
God is challenging us to go deeper with Him. We were with a group of national prayer leaders recently. God told us we needed a deeper understanding of the work of the cross in our lives. We need to truly die to ourselves if we are to move to deep oneness with Jesus. I know I have a range of ‘old me’ issues that need crucifying and God is saying “it is time”. We need to move to a new level. We repent by turning away from what is holding us back and turning to Jesus so we can run the race (or row the boat) He has set before us. Here are five specific turn away challenges.
Turn from fear - many of us carry fears. They may be fears of what others will think, fears around our finances, fears about doing things in public etc. None of these fears are from Jesus, He gives us wisdom. They are holding us back – it is time to turn.
Turn from disunity - we can often embrace disunity. We criticise this person, fall out with another, we stand on our high horse, or don’t like that person’s theology. In short we can be very judgemental and it is time to turn.
Turn from unbelief – we can all fall into the disbelief trap. We may have prayed for things where we saw no change and the enemy loves to tell us it is a waste of time to pray for healing, for this person to come to the Lord, for our church to see a deep move of God. The enemy imprisons us with lies which undermine our faith. We need to be free of these lies - it is time to turn.
Turn from prayerlessness – this can be a huge challenge for people of prayer because we look at wrong measures. It is easy to find people who pray less that you, with less faith, with less standing on the Word of God and that makes us think “I’m not doing too badly really”. We need to keep pushing ourselves on, in particular to go deeper with Jesus with a prayer life inspired by Him and filled with the things on His heart. It is time to turn.
Turn from sin – from our wicked ways. Galatians 5:16 – 26 gives us a good starting point. Paul says the works of the flesh are plain to see – anger, selfishness, jealousy etc. We live in a corrupting world where so many temptations are thrown at us it is easy to lose our moral compass. John Wesley and friends set up a Holy Club with a self-audit asking questions like “Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?” We need to ask God to highlight our sins, bring them into the open that we can pray for change. It is time to turn.
Repentance and turning start with us because we should be the very first people to give testimony to God’s wonderful mercy and freedom.
Steve Botham, Director World Prayer Centre
Send forth Your light and Your truth!
How often have we proclaimed this word of the Lord over our land – and that God has answered! At the German Prayer Conference in Berlin, from September 1 to 3 , weexperienced the revelation of God’s light and truth in aspecial way! This helped us to recognise the influence of thespirit of the age on our thinking and to be released from it.
True repentance begins with a change in our thoughts(“metanoia” in Greek). The word of God is our guide andhelp: “We demolish arguments and every pretension thatsets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we takecaptive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”(2 Corinthians 10:5).
Pray: Let us continue to pray in faith for our land: “Send forth your light and your truth, let them guideme, let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.” (Psalm 43:3). -RS
Universities and centres of further education
In the coming months after the prayer conference we wantto concentrate on how we can make a change in our way ofthinking in our society. The Holy Spirit wants to bring abouttransformation in our society and culture. God wants topermeate our education system to break the power ofungodly ideologies and thought structures. Our thinking isalways subject to the influence of the “spirit of the age”.
Knowledge is never neutral and unbiased, but formedaccording to prevailing and generally accepted beliefs.Nowhere are the thoughts and actions within eachgeneration so strongly moulded and influenced as withinour universities and other centres of further education.
Many of the 2.8 million students today will one day be ourleaders and will in many ways influence all areas of sociallife: justice, business, philosophy, education, theology,literature and politics. For too long the thinking of the ’68movement has been influencing all of these areas. The Spiritof God wants to permeate the centres of thoughtformationin our land once again. In past centuries God has inspiredmany in our universities to take his kingdom into the world.
God is the source of ideas and solutions to all questions inlife. He has all the help and answers that our land sourgently needs. But we also need creative thinkers with aservant’s heart who together with the Holy Spirit candevelop innovative ideas and influence thought withinGermany for the good of our land. God is the one who givespeople the gifts, talents and grace to be a blessing to theworld. Germany has often been known as the “land of poetsand thinkers” and is very open to new ways and ideas.
May the Holy Spirit come into our universities and centresof education to renew our way of thinking and bring forthnew life in our land.
Pray:For a transformation in the ways of thinking in oursociety in a move to draw us closer to God.(2 Corinthians 10:4-5)
Pray: For a movement of the Holy Spirit in our universitiesand other centres of thought formation. (Acts 4:29-31)
Pray: That creative thinkers will be inspired by the Holy Spiritto find answers and solutions for the needs of our land.(Daniel 1:7,20; Proverbs 3:5-6)-AS
Formation of a new federal government
The German Federal Parliament was elected four years agoon September 22 , 2013, but the election of the federalchancellor did not take place until December 19 , 2013.There is no deadline for this election in the Germanconstitution. Protracted considerations as to which partiesshould form a coalition and the difficulties in thenegotiations towards a coalition agreement delayed theformation of a new government. This can definitely happenagain if one believes the opinion polls. As this prayer letterwas being written, the result of the new elections onSeptember 24 was not yet known. Angela Merkel recentlystated regarding the election: “Until Sunday evening I canstill do something, then I am constrained to remain passive
Afterwards we just have to wait and see. It is like waiting for your school report card.” But what happens next? Many questions must be answered in Berlin: which parties areable to form a coalition? What positions (ministers, state secretaries...) does each party get? Who are standing for these positions, which political wings within the parties will be involved, which federal state interests must be considered? How many women should be included? Who will be vice-chancellor? All these decisions will determinethe direction of our country for the next four years.
Pray:That God lifts up and brings down people during theprocess of forming a coalition and the new Germanfederal government. (Luke 1:51-52)
Pray: That trustworthy, visionary and God-fearingparliamentarians will fill the important positions ingovernment (in the foreign ministry, for example).(Proverbs 8:15-17)
Pray: For the coalition agreement; that the needs of ourpeople and the role of our country with regard toEurope, Israel and the world will be Spirit-led andguide us into the future to the praise of God’s Name.(Romans 15:8-12) -JB
Family-related policies
Family-related policies in Germany have been subject tofundamental changes for some years as the meaning and role of marriage, family and parenthood have beenredefined without regard to traditional Biblical values.
Marriage has lost its exclusive status as a covenant betweena man and a woman by the introduction of “marriage forall”. The term “family” has already for a long time not beenregarded as exclusively reserved for “a father, a mother andtheir child(ren)” in accordance with God’s order in creation.
Parenthood was also redefined by the decision of theconstitutional court (2013) to the effect that legalparenthood and fatherhood can also exist without abiological or traditional family relationship to the child. Atthe same time the state took over more and more duties toeducate and raise children disregarding traditional familyresponsibilities.
Under new buzz-words and catch phrases such as “marriageand career compatibility”, “partnership-life” (replacing“family-life”), “well-being and equal-opportunities forchildren”, etc., the number of children under 3 years of agein some form of state care country-wide rose from 14% in2006 to 33% in 2015, and the number of mothers of 2 to 3year olds in a gainful occupation rose from 42% to 58% inthe same period. The place of the family in the traditionalBiblical sense as the very original core element of oursociety has in the past years been eroded step by step anddeprived of any significance. Let us pray that we will see amajor change in family-oriented policies as the next federalgovernment in Germany is built, with completely newappointments in the ministry for families, women, seniorsand young people!
Pray:For God-fearing personnel to be appointed in the newministry for families. (Psalm 111:10)
Pray: For a complete turn-around in the family-related policies in our land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)
Pray: That for the sake of their children mothers will not want to work and will receive support from the state. (Psalm 127:3)-TF
Anew reformation
The ten year programme of events within the Lutheran Church which started in September 2008 (“Luther-Dekade”in German) and the final year of commemoration of theReformation come to an end on October 31 , 2017.
Countless events, exhibitions and writings will have beendedicated to this anniversary, half of the city of Wittenbergrenovated, and Luther will have been disputed, pulledapart, held in somewhat high esteem and celebrated. Bythe end the numbers of visitors at church conferences andworld exhibitions will remain well under expectations andthe positive outcome that was anxiously awaited will feelmore like a depressive hangover. What will remain from theanniversary of the Reformation?
As the official activity in the past years comes to an end, thefaith for a new reformation has grown. Under the title “NewReformation” thousands of young Christians met in June inPrague and prayed in expectation for a reformation thatdoes not divide us but rather unites us in Jesus Christ andbrings millions back to Him. We believe that we stand onthe threshold of a new reformation that will once againbind the church to the Word of God, as first happened 500years ago, and from there bring a change in our society andthroughout Europe. And that the cloud of witnesses fromthe reformers and generations before us will stand with usbefore the throne of God and pray that the spiritualinheritance of the church in Germany will now be restored.
Pray: That on this 500 anniversary the doors will be openedfor a new reformation in Germany. (Psalm 24)
Pray: Lord, take back the lordship over your church of the Reformation! (Matthew 16:16-19)
Pray: For visible unity between the churches, for healing and reconciliation. (John 17:20-23) -KH
The German-Israeli Parliamentary Group
The basic function of parliamentary groups in the GermanFederal Parliament is to maintain mutual contacts withother national parliaments in the world. In the newlegislature period, the German-Israeli Parliamentary Group,as all the groups, will be rebuilt from the newly electedmembers of parliament. In the last legislature period therewere about 50 members in the group, representing allparties within the parliament. Membership is voluntary andthe parliamentarians are united by their interest in Israel.
They deal with general aspects of German-Israeli relations,work to provide clarification on Israeli issues to parliamentand the media, and are important contacts for the Jewishcommunity in Germany. As a counterpart in the IsraeliKnesset there is an Israeli-German Friendship Group ofIsraeli parliamentarians.
The work of the German-Israeli Parliamentary Group hasparticularly caught the attention of the general public, notleast because of the dedication of the chairman Volker Beckof the Greens Party, who will no longer sit in the newGerman parliament. Let us now pray for a Spirit-ledcomposition of parliamentarians in the next German-IsraeliParliamentary Group.
Pray:Thanks for the friendly connections between theGerman and Israeli parliaments. (Psalm 133:1)
Pray: That the Spirit of God will call dedicated people intothis German-Israeli Parliamentary Group and that theywill be a true voice for German-Israeli friendship.
Pray: For the new chairman to be influential and dedicated. (Psalm 119:30) -RS
Keep praying: Relationship between Germany and Turkey
The relationship between Germany and Turkey gets worse day by day. Increasingly German citizens are findingthemselves under interrogation, arrest and detention. Thearbitrary arrests have led to travel warnings. The Germangovernment now takes the position in the European Union that it would be right and proper to break off membershipnegotiations with Turkey. This however must be a majoritydecision. At this time there is no majority. The negativeinfluence of the Turkish Islamic Institute for Religion whichis controlled from Turkey comes more and more into thepicture. See also: “The Turkish Islamic Institute for Religion (Ditib)” in the prayer letter from November 2016.
Pray:For the re-evaluation of the relationship betweenGermany and Turkey in accordance with God’s plans and purposes. (Proverbs 2:6) -RS
Dates for your diary
01.10 International Day of Prayer for the Peace ofJerusalem (Robert Stearns - Eagles Wings).
31.10 Reformation Day in Germany.
God’s blessings from Rosemarie Stresemann and Team