The following is from a missionary working in Burundi: ‘I'm sitting in a café having a snatched lunch alone, and I'm crying. Our teams on the frontline urgently need more resources to help save lives. The sound of gunfire in the capital is normal now. Most people are petrified. Suffice to say, there's plenty to make one weep right now after last week's failed coup and the deteriorating political and security situation. My colleague M’s  3 year-old daughter is so traumatised by the shooting that every time she hears a gunshot she pees herself - she's now  peeing herself multiple times. C rings me, hunkered down in her hovel with her daughter and granddaughter, a gun battle going on outside. I would do anything for C, but I can’t swoop in through the bullets to save my dear friend. My widower buddy H tries to keep his six children's morale up, and L’s wife has just died in childbirth. He now has four starving children.’

The following comes from Radio 4’s Thought for the Day earlier this week. FIFA’s problems are part of global issues. Corruption conjures up images of people getting rich. But corruption often produces more poverty than wealth. The harmful effects of corruption are especially severe on the poor, who are hit by economic decline, are more dependent on public services and the least capable of paying the extra costs associated with bribery, fraud and the misappropriation of economic privileges. Countries that score badly on the World Bank’s Doing Business Indicators also score badly on the Corruption Perceptions Index, including Chad, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, all ranking in the bottom 15 countries on both tables. Tackling corruption requires a sharp change of culture. Just as corrupt countries find it difficult to attract investors then so too will FIFA find it increasingly difficult to attract sponsors. Perhaps those leading FIFA might take inspiration from Jesus, ‘there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance’.

Many Christian villages in central Nigeria were attacked and a number of people were killed in raids by suspected Fulani militants on Sunday (the Fulani, mainly Muslim, are one of the most powerful people groups in west Africa). Militants attacked 20 villages in the Agatu local government area of Benue state, killing more than 30 people. Many fled to displacement camps in neighbouring Kogi state. Meanwhile, in the Barkin Ladi area of Plateau state, militants attacked several villages in Dorowa. Nigerian military responded to the attack but ‘made no search nor any arrests’. As Boko Haram attacks gradually build up around the north-east states, Fulani terror activities are also on the rise in central Nigeria. Please pray now for our brothers and sisters in Christ, facing this new threat.

Financial stress has increased to 44% of the households in New South Wales as people spend more than they earn, according to a Wesley Mission report launched in Sydney. Almost four in ten or 1,022,010 households are now technically insolvent. Politicians of all persuasions draw the analogy between government and household spending and the need to balance the budget. Households are not balancing their budgets and the burden of debt is increasingly shifting from the public to the private sphere. The evidence from the Wesley Report suggests, ‘Financial hardship and financial anxiety are impacting the health, safety and wellbeing of individuals and their families.’