Central African Republic: Seleka v Christians
04 Nov 2016
One correspondent writes: ‘Seleka rebels have changed the course of CAR’s history, through sheer barbarity. Many people expected UN forces to put an end to the suffering, since there is no longer a national army to provide security, but there have been incidents where UN soldiers opened fire on protesters. Our part of town was deserted last night, everyone having fled. It's like being in a battlefield, with sustained gunfire and rockets exploding all around. In one district, there have been clashes between different factions of the Seleka, with leaders killing each other. It's like a story in the Bible where God caused the enemies of Israel to turn their swords against each other. But we do not despair! A number of teaching and training sessions have been held recently in different places, to strengthen the church. The latest was attended by hundreds of church leaders, Christian workers and government authorities. International speakers provided input. The work of rebuilding the CAR church on new spiritual foundations continues.’
Angola is situated in Southern Africa and is the seventh largest country in Africa. As a Portuguese colony, Angola did not encompass its present borders until the early 19th century, following resistance by various ethnic groups. Independence was achieved in 1975 under communist rule backed by the Soviet Union after a liberation war that lasted 14 years. That same year, Angola descended into an intense civil war that lasted until 2002. It has since become a relatively stable, unitary presidential republic.
The 4th April 2002 a peace agreement was signed between the rebel group Unita and the Angolan government, which ended decades of war that devastated the country, killed millions and robbed Angolans of any hope for the future. This was the result of a nationwide prayer movement, involving Christians and encouraged by the participation of IPC teams as part of prayer initiatives held within the country, involving churches and church leaders. Since then peace was fully established and there has been a great move to consolidate peace, stability, national reconciliation, and economic building.
Today, Angola´s economy is among the fastest growing in the world. Small holders and plantations that dramatically dropped because of the Angolan Civil War have begun to recover. The transformation industry that had come into existence in the late colonial period but collapsed at independence, has begun to reemerge with updated technologies, because a new class of Angolan and foreign entrepreneurs has emerged. Similar developments can be verified in the service sector.
In spite of this, the standard of living remains low for the majority of the population, life expectancy and infant mortality rates are among the worst in the world. Angola's economic growth is highly uneven, with the majority of the nation's wealth concentrated in a disproportionately small sector of the population.
Angola had a serious humanitarian crisis, as the result of the prolonged war, drought and minefields. Vast areas fit for agriculture were inaccessible due to the mines placed during the war. Since then, there have been tremendous efforts to clear vast areas for agriculture.
Although the country's economy has developed significantly since it achieved political stability in 2002, mainly thanks to the fast-rising earnings of the oil sector, Angola faces huge social and economic problems. These are in part a result of the almost continual state of conflict from 1961 onwards, although the highest level of destruction and socio-economic damage took place after the 1975 independence, during the long years of civil war.
However, high poverty rates and blatant social inequality are chiefly the outcome of a combination of persistent political authoritarianism, of "neo-patrimonial" practices at all levels of the political, administrative, military, and economic apparatuses, and of a pervasive corruption.
Now the country is undergoing a socio-economic crisis, due to the decrease of price of oil, the main commodity which granted hard currency. There is also a need to deal with cyclic crisis which are the cause of Angola´s reduced population rate apart from war, in proportion with the size of the country.
Politically, the new constitution, adopted in 2010, further sharpened the authoritarian character of the regime. It allows no presidential elections; the president and the vice-president of the political party which wins the parliamentary elections automatically become president and vice-president of Angola.
Roman Catholicism used to be the major religious group, but the 2014 census shows that protestant and evangelical groups have become the majority, and this trend shall continue growing due to the prayer and evangelistic zeal of these groups.
Culturally speaking, the main feature of Angolan culture is the ancestral worship with all its demonic aspects such as: dedication of streets and communities through names, dedicated lands and trees, curses due to sins of forefathers, idolatry, bloodguilt, cultural festivals, etc.
Our people have already witnessed the goodness of our God and what He did in 2002. They are sure that His Mighty Hand is able to change the prevailing situation and bring about transformation and healing, at the same time grant the continuation of consolidation of the already existing peace and reconciliation.
“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chr. 7: 14).
Based on this word, we are planning to build up the prayer movement, mobilizing the church, its leadership and intercessors. This move has already started with prayers for the church leadership, churches and existing intercessors to join the movement. Our wish and prayer is the establishment in Angola of a permanent ministry of Strategic Intercession so that the word of (Is. 62: 6-7) becomes a reality: “On your walls, O Jerusalem I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest, and give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem and make it a praise in the earth”. This, indeed requires a lot of prayer so that the Lord intervenes to bring about change of the prevailing situation and the setting up of solid teaching about Spiritual Warfare, which will grant the basis for continuation of the movement for the generations ahead. Please pray for us so that the Lord helps us attain what is in His heart for Angola and the people of Angola.
David Nkosi
October 21, 2016
- Pray for God to intervene bringing about spiritual unity and understanding among church leaders of various Christian denominations in preparation of the joint prayer effort for the nation.
- Pray for consolidation of the peace and reconciliation obtained in 2002 as the result of the Lord’s answer to prayer.
- Pray for our God’s Mighty Hand to intervene in Angola bringing about transformation and healing in all aspects people and nation life.
- Pray for the building up of a prayer movement, which includes churches, church leaders and intercessors.
- Pray for the establishment in Angola of a permanent Estrategic Intercession, according to (Isa. 62: 6-7), supported by a solid teaching on Intercession and Spiritual Warfare.
As someone who longs for and actively pursues peace, to join a march with thousands of women who share this passion was not much of a question for me. Despite never having taken part in a public march, this one, from the first time I heard about it seemed right. It was more than right; it was a hope inspiring journey for me. From early morning when I left my home to travel on a bus with women I’d never met to the end of the day when I arrived home near midnight on the same bus, this time with women whose names I now know and who I’ve seen both laugh and weep with happiness and hope, this was an extraordinary day.
The numbers who marched are disputed, but in the end, exact numbers are unimportant. What is important is that thousands of women (and hundreds of men) joined together to publicly proclaim their passion and commitment for peace – for a peacefully negotiated settlement to end the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
The morning events began near the Dead Sea at the baptismal site of Jesus at the Jordan river with a gathering of several (3-4) thousands from Israel and the Palestinian Authority. I met and exchanged greetings of peace with Arab Muslim women from Ramallah, Tulkarem, Bethlehem, Jenin, Hebron and their nearby villages who were bussed in with the full cooperation of the Palestinian Authority. I watched as Israeli Jewish women from all over Israel embraced their Palestinian counterparts, marched together and spoke words of peace to each other. I saw Christian Israeli Palestinian women, Jewish Israelis and Muslim women embrace. I heard their shared heartfelt words of peace.
We marched down a long hill and gathered at the Jordan to hear women speakers powerfully speak about peace, justice and equality for all. I heard the cry of thousands of mothers for a better future, for another way, for an end to violence, bloodshed, and terror. We raised our voices in Arabic, Hebrew and English singing a song especially composed for this event.: “From the West to the East, from the North to the South, hear the mother’s prayer, Bring down the peace, Bring down the peace.”
Then we traveled to Jerusalem where we were joined by thousands more, including over one hundred Druze women from the north of Israel. Still singing, we marched together through the streets of Jerusalem, three kilometers to the Prime Minister’s house, ending in a large rally in central Jerusalem. There we heard deeply moving personal stories of the quest for peace and its cost.
All the speakers, from across the wide spectrum of society, from the right and the left, Jews and Arabs, secular, religious, settlers, business women, mothers, politicians, young and old all spoke powerfully about an end to war, peace, justice and equality for all. We were encouraged, even exhorted, to continue, to be steadfast, to believe that we can make a difference; that together we can turn the tide away from war and violence. For the sake of our children, for the children of Israel and Palestine, for our shared future.
As a Messianic Jew in this gathering I could have felt very alone. To my knowledge, in the morning I was one of less than five from my community. In the afternoon and evening I don’t know if there were any from my community, but I never felt alone. I was with sisters who share my heart and God’s heart for peace. Again and again I heard the words “Blessed are the peacemakers” and from Psalm 34 “who is the one who loves life. . . let him turn from evil, do good, seek peace and pursue it.” Together, thousands of like-hearted people, we said no to despair and death and yes to hope and life. My joy in this day was colored with sadness for the absence of those from my community. Hope, together with longing, was kindled in my heart for my Messianic sisters and brothers to walk in solidarity with me and those many from among our people Israel who are seeking peace and pursuing it, together crossing every divide and difference the world can lay in our paths.
Lisa Loden
October 20, 2016
Please pray for the peace of Israel, those who are peacemakers, and the different ethnic groups that share His land
From Dick Eastman commenting on the impact of a worship-saturated prayer strategy for world evangelization before and after establishing the Jericho Center in Colorado Springs dedicated to this purpose:
Recently I was reminiscing on how fruitful the years have been since moving into The Jericho Center, which finally happened in the summer of 2003 (after 12 years of praying over the vision). The significance of this move was that it was done to greatly strengthen our commitment to the convergence of prayer and missions by saturating all our global outreaches in day and night intercessory worship. Several years later this included our building a two-story Wall of Prayer (see Isaiah 62:6-7) in a lower level of the Jericho Center consisting of 50 tons of imported Jerusalem stone from Israel. The wall features numerous prayer grottos named after the tribes of Israel where intercessors can come for prolonged times of personal prayer.
Especially noteworthy concerning the impact of this prayer on the harvest is that more people have responded to the Gospel and come to Christ through Every Home for Christ since that summer of 2003 than in all previous 57 years of EHC’s existence up to 2003. (This year—2016—is actually EHC’s 70th anniversary!) The ministry was born in Western Canada in October of 1946 through the ministry of Jack McAlister, a young 23-year old Canadian pastor who had just started a radio program asking listeners to help send gospel literature to the ends of the earth.
Before long, this led to establishing the Every Home Campaign’s (EHC’s) that included a strategy to map out a nation in such a way as to take the gospel to every home in every city, town and village—systematically. The first Every Home Campaign began in Japan in 1953. To date, four complete coverage’s of every prefecture and district of Japan, home by home, have taken place in Japan. Additionally, since 1953 home-to-home campaigns have been conducted by Every Home for Christ in more than 215 nations. To date, 3.8 billion gospel messages have been taken to 1.8 billion homes resulting in some 162 million decisions and responses to this home-to-home evangelism strategy.
Of significant note, and a testimony to the impact of a worship-saturated prayer strategy: for the 57 years (from 1946 to 2003, when EHC moved into The Jericho Center) the ministry processed a total of 29,892,782 followed-up decisions and responses. That’s an annual average of 524,434 for each of those 57 years. But from 2003 to the present (just 12 years), our decisions/responses totaled 132,098,317, or an annual average of 11,008,193 for just a 12-year time frame. What a miracle!
The same exponential growth is true of new Christ Groups (New Testament church fellowships) planted by Every Home for Christ. From 1965 when the Christ Group ministry first began in EHC up to 2003 (38 years), 58,172 groups were established, or an annual average of 1,530 for each of those 38 years. Then, from 2003 to the present (just 12 years), 228,662 new fellowships have been planted, or an annual average of 19,055.
In summary—decisions/responses were 524,434 annually before 2003 (for 57 years) and 11,008,193 annually after (for only 12 years). Christ Groups were 58,172 annually before 2003 and 228,662 annually after! This is truly a “God thing” and a true testimony to the impact of day and night prayer for the harvest!
The prayer of the Psalmist in Psalm 67:2 is certainly being answered in the global EHC ministry: “Send us out all over the world so that everyone everywhere will discover your ways and know who you are and see your power to save!” (The Passion Translation).
Dick Eastman
International President
Every Home for Christ
Let’s pray for the release of this sister in Christ, Asia Bibi. She was sentenced to death (hanging) in 2010 for insulting the Prophet Muhammad during an argument with Muslim women, which began over a cup of water. This is of course a very sad lie. The BBC says: Since the 1990s, scores of Christians have been convicted for desecrating the Koran or for blasphemy.
Let’s pray that she and the others would be released and that this Blasphemy Law would be abolished. By the way it was the present Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who introduced the Blasphemy Law during his rule in the 1990s.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37641354
A Pakistani Christian woman on death row for blasphemy has had her appeal adjourned after one of the judges refused to hear the case. The judge cited a possible conflict of interest in the case of Asia Bibi.
Hundreds of riot police had been deployed around the Supreme Court in the capital, Islamabad.
Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in Pakistan - critics argue laws are frequently misused to settle personal scores, often targeting minorities.
Asia Bibi was the first woman to be sentenced to death under Pakistan's blasphemy laws and her case is one of the most controversial. Asia Bibi has been on death row for nearly five years
She was sentenced to hang in 2010 for insulting the Prophet Muhammad during an argument with Muslim women which began over a cup of water. She denies the charge.
Thousands have protested against her and said they would kill her if she were ever released - including the imam in her own village. Her husband and four daughters live in hiding and say they have received many death threats.
Asia Bibi's death sentence had been confirmed by the High Court in Punjab province in October, although no date was set.
Coloradans will vote on an assisted suicide measure this November. Those who vote “Yes” are signing their own death warrants. In a recent article at National Review Online, George Weigel tells a chilling story about just how far the culture of death has advanced in some parts of the West. Three elderly parishioners at the Canadian church he attends during the summer were diagnosed with cancer. Now, that’s bad enough. But what followed was even worse. The first thing they were asked after being told their diagnosis was, “Do you wish to be euthanized?”
While this story should upset us, it shouldn’t shock us. Despite all the promises made by supporters of physician-assisted suicide, the so-called “safeguards” against pressuring vulnerable people to end their lives “have proved to be inadequate and have often been watered down or eliminated over time.”
Or, as Belgian law professor Étienne Montero observed, “What is presented at first as a right [to die] is going to become a kind of obligation.”
Thus, in fourteen years Belgium went from euthanizing terminally-ill adults, to killing chronically-ill adults, to offing adults who had lost their will to live, to finally disposing of children.
As Weigel’s story suggests, Canada seems literally hell-bent on catching up with Belgium in this regard. Physician-assisted suicide has only been legal there since this spring and it has already transformed the practice of medicine in Canada. And if some Canadian philosophers get their way, a willingness to kill your patients will be a prerequisite for practicing medicine in the Great White North.
Now it’s Colorado’s turn to play waiting room Russian Roulette. This November my fellow Coloradans and I will vote on Proposition 106, also known by its Orwellian title: “The End of Life Options Act.”
The supporters of the act, which is modeled on California’s recent legislation of the same name, assure voters that a vote for physician-assisted suicide is a vote for “compassion.” They assure us that it will remain limited to cases of extreme suffering.
But as Weigel points out, the language of the proposed act is “duplicitous.” It characterizes killing someone as “palliative care.” And it defines an “adult” as anyone 18 or older, which leads to the absurdity of not being old enough to drink but old enough to request assistance in killing yourself.
And in a backhanded admission of a guilty conscience, the deceased’s death certificate would list the cause of death as the illness they suffered from and not suicide.
If supporters of assisted suicide need to mislead and obfuscate about basic matters such as these, why should we believe their assurances that no one will be coerced into killing themselves? Little wonder that disability advocates oppose the measure.
Colorado history should also give us pause. Thirty-two years ago, then-governor of Colorado, Richard Lamm told a group of health-care lawyers that the terminally-ill elderly have “a duty to die and get out of the way” instead of trying to prolong their lives. He compared the fulfillment of this “duty” to “leaves falling off a tree and forming humus for the other plants to grow up.”
It would be foolish to think that the “right-to-die” won’t, much less can’t, one day become the “duty to die,” especially in an aging society where health care costs as a percentage of the GDP are projected to double over the next 25 years. By the way, also on the Colorado ballot this year is state-run healthcare.
The only way to prevent the “right to die” from becoming a “duty to die” is to reject the “right to die” from the start. Anything else places the most vulnerable—the elderly and especially the disabled—on an already well-greased slippery slope.
Unless the Lord returns, each and every one of us will die of old age, disease, or tragedy. And except in the case of tragedy, if the advocates of so-called compassion have their way, you, I, and our loved ones will end up facing the same question George Weigel’s fellow parishioners were asked: “Do you wish to be euthanized?”
Colson Center <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>, Oct 11, 2016
Pray that Colorado voters will reject this deceptive and ultimately death-dealing legislation. Pray that across the world, its people and governments will understand the threat to life it poses and come against this agenda of the one who hates all humans who are made in the image of their Creator
We continue to be very concerned about the thousands of people who have been living in flimsy shelters provided by the Red Cross after losing their homes in the flooding of the Tumen river the end of August. A close friend of mine shared with me recently that his mother and older sister lost everything when the flood washed away their home late at night. They have been living in a plastic shelter ever since. The authorities have promised to get everyone into new homes within weeks--a promise received with skepticsm. There are also rumours that people will be given new color television sets. However, the prevailing sentiment is that people are not interested in new TVs but want food and homes that won't fall down around them. The Army was sent into the area to rebuild but has become a threat to the very people they are supposed to help. In the meantime, the residents, themselves, are carrying the greater burden. Even the greater crackdown on crime is backfiring because of increased bribery. People are also upset that most of the funds, supplies and manpower allocated for rebuilding are going to the new showpiece Ryomyong Street in Pyongyang. Traders bringing in goods from China are also under pressure to provide "loyalty gifts" to help with that project.
Still life must go on in every sphere. The vaunted central planning of the Communist North Korean system has virtually capitulated as most state-run factories across the nation are operating in a de facto market economy. The market is also functioning in the area of news and entertainment as illegal make-shift media rooms are popping up all over. And, of course, the propaganda departments are going all out to paint a glowing picture of the North. Here is a an hour-plus-long propaganda video on YouTube exalting the Leader's accomplishments and his prowess as a commander and even a jet pilot. Meanwhile life for those who have come south--while not as dire as that which they left behind in the North--is not easy.
All in all, a lot for us to be praying for.
Remembering Our Brothers in Prison
It was a great honor for me to spend time with former NK prisoner, Kenneth Bae, last week. His first words to me were, "Thank you!" He said his mother had made him promise to thank me as soon as we had a chance to meet. He expressed deep appreciation to all of us who prayed so earnestly for him throughout his long imprisonment. He also shared with me about his new work in the US and South Korea with North Korean resettlers helping them adapt to life in the South and to work with others wanting to minister to them. We should continue to keep him in our prayers that the Lord strengthen and guide him in this new work and heal any lingering effects of his time in North Korean prisons.
We continue to pray for the pastors who are still imprisoned in North Korea. We pray for Pastor Hyeon Soo Lim of the Light Korean Church in Toronto, especially as we have received recent word that he has been hospitalized for deteriorating health. We also remember South Korean pastors Jeong Wook Kim, Kook Ki Kim and Choon Gil Choi and American Pastor Dong-chul Kim. We also lift up in our prayers University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier. Pray with us that they be released to their homes and families soon.
Ben Torrey
Director, The Fourth River Project, Inc.
Christian Persecution: China launches 'RELIGIOUS WINTER' in bid to DESTROY Christianity
“Christians in China face yet more restrictions. The communist party is attempting to silence the voices and movement of Christians throughout China. The restrictions begin next month, and any and all unauthorized religious activity will be suppressed, making house churches disband.
The ruling Chinese Communist Party is officially atheist with more than half of China’s 1.4 billion people not associated with any religion or belief.
One of the new rules says it will be an offense to “organize citizens to attend religious training, conferences and activities abroad,” “preaching, organizing religious activities, and establishing religious institutions or religious sites at schools,” and “providing religious services through the internet.”
In a bid for the new rules to be accepted, Xi Jinping’s government claims some of the restrictions are in the interest of state security. There will also be limits on accepting teaching posts in foreign countries and organizing religious activities in unapproved religious sites – allowing the government to monitor state-controlled churches and stamp out any underground movements.
There are five officially recognized religions allowed in China, and they are – Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism, and Protestantism. But, Christianity is not recognized, even though Catholicism and Protestantism are mentioned. Thereby proving the purpose of separating Church and State.
Please organize and pray for China, that the Democratic attempt to bring about the new rules is overruled by the people! The World can attack the Word all they want, but according to scripture:
Isaiah 40:8 GNV
8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever.
Setting the Precedent for the New World Order
China is an excellent example of the United Nation’s new agenda, titled the new global human order. Adopted September 16th, 2016, the United Nations officially announced it’s plan to build a New World Order and lead the world directly to communism.
Under the beginnings of a New World Order, with China as a leading example, the movement of Christians will be monitored, and house churches will be disbanded. Under the beginnings of the NWO, Christians will only be allowed to attend state-sanctioned churches, and state-funded pastors; all of which house the doctrine of the state before God.
The ideology is not new; it has been around for centuries but somewhere along the line – Christians forgot a leg of the true fight ongoing throughout the world, the silencing of Christianity.
At the beginning of the New World Order, it is entirely plausible to believe that the Holy Bible will not be considered state-sponsored unless the text is modified to meet the state’s requirements. Previous attempts can be seen in history when King James ‘authorized’ a single version of the Bible because it was a political and social necessity. King James issued over a dozen rules that the translators had to follow. King James disliked the Geneva Bible, the Bible used by the Puritans, because he believed that some of the commentaries in the margin notes did not show enough respect for kings. James’ new translation was to have no commentary in the margins…
https://freedomfightertimes.com/end-times/prophecy/china-religious-winter-destroy-christianity/
Pray for the strengthening of the Body of Christ in China and that the persecution they are experiencing will enable the church to grow even more and spread out throughout the various dialect groups and ethnic groups. Pray that government officials will also hear the Gospel and turn to the Lord