Displaying items by tag: Asia

Poetry is significant in Arabic culture, and Christians in the Arabian Gulf are using it to communicate with Arabs about Jesus. Through a series of short films, local believers from a Muslim background are writing and filming poems to communicate the life-changing power of Jesus in their lives, using a medium that their audience respects and understands. ‘Historically, when Arabs lived among other lands, they didn’t know if someone was a true Arab,’ says Basma, a local believer and poet who is one of the producers of the series. ‘When in doubt, they would often test someone by asking him to recite poetry. If his poetry was good, they knew he was a true Arab’ Many Arab Muslims perceive Christians representing a ‘Western’ culture. By speaking about their newfound faith through poetry, Christian converts are removing the stereotype and showing it is possible to be a Christian without abandoning their cultural heritage.

‘A’ woke up to the sounds of someone burning her house down. She grabbed her baby son and escaped. This was one of many hardships she had faced since deciding to leave her tribe’s traditional religion and follow Jesus. Laotians believe Christianity is an American religion. When someone in the community becomes a Christian, the community worries that the spirits they worship will be offended, and that the community might also suffer ill-effects as a result. ‘K’, his wife and daughter were recently evicted from their home by their eldest son. ‘K’ is a Christian leader of a church that he planted years ago after moving to the unreached region as a missionary.  ‘K’s son despises his parents’ faith and drank and used drugs. He demanded his inheritance from his father and said that the house should be his portion.  K and his family now live under a roof in a rice field.

An award-winning professor and author of four books on North Korea says that not only is North Korea’s current instability, violent attitude and weaponry, including missiles a threat to Asia, United States, key regions in the Middle East and Africa, but there is also the threat that North Korea’s collapse could unleash a variety of their military systems into the black market for sale to Iran and Syria. He, and others, believe that the two ways to contain this threat are tactical and strategic. A tactical approach would be an increased ballistic missile defence system providing a realistic umbrella against nuclear attack. The strategic way means going after banks and front companies globally where Pyongyang launders the dirty money it uses (much of it gained from military proliferation). It is important to note that when it comes to targeting North Korea’s dirty money there are mafia-like illicit financial networks in Singapore, Malaysia, Africa and China.

Churches must be officially registered with the authorities. A recently passed new law  guaranteed religious freedom, but vague legislation banning religious activity that could ‘harm social order and/or national unity’ appears to give authorities freedom to crack down on religious freedom where it is deemed to be against the interests of the state. Vietnam’s communist government considers Christianity an opponent to the one-party state. Christians are facing harassment and violence. Gangs of nationalist youths have terrorised a Christian community in Song Ngoc, attacking a church and homes and targeting Christian business owners. Weeks of intimidation and low-level violence carried out in an orchestrated manner is being ignored by police. Church leaders helping impoverished local fishermen in a legal case following a marine pollution disaster have appealed to the authorities. Pray for church leaders to have strength as they stand against the government for the rights of poor fishermen.

Metal detectors placed outside a holy site in East Jerusalem brought long-existing tensions to a boiling point. Viewed as an Israeli attempt to assert control over the site, Palestinians responded with protests, boycotts, and even deadly clashes. This all came after the killing of two Israeli policeman by Israeli-Arab gunmen. Israel's compliance in removing the detectors will not bring lasting peace. There is no end in sight to the conflict. Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, and Iran continue to threaten their existence. Every human attempt at reconciliation in the region has failed. Yet God is moving on both sides of this conflict. He loves Israeli Jews and Arabs and is actively drawing them to Himself. The number of Messianic Jews is rising dramatically, and the Christian Church in Israel is largely Arab. The peace and reconciliation Jesus offers transcends any man-made division. Peace in Israel rests in Him alone.

God is advancing His Kingdom in Turkey, despite last year’s attempted coup and the president’s cruel retribution on his people. Christian media are reporting more and more Turks having vivid dreams of Jesus. Christian prayer groups are springing up, people watch Christ preached on the Internet and respond. New Christians are evangelising openly to friends on the Internet. May God give protection, wisdom and boldness to the new converts living in dangerous areas.

Palestinian women are scoring a sweet victory against gender discrimination in the West Bank by breaking with tradition and working alongside men at the largest pastry factory in Nablus. They are ignoring prejudices and competing with men for jobs that traditionally belonged to men. However the women only earn half of the amount of the men, even though they have proved to be more competent than the men. Now the factory, supported by women’s rights organisations, plan to provide pastry courses for other women who want to work.

My word …will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.  Isa 55:11  

TRANSLATION OF THE SCRIPTURES

This is one of the areas that the devil tries the hardest to stop. People come to believe through God’s Word.   It is very hard to sustain a church (new believers) unless they have the Word in their own language. Those doing this work are asking for prayer for each of the groups they are working in.

Translation is being done for 15 different groups, some are large groups, others are smaller.  In two of the groups each time a project like this was started the devil blocked it.

PRAY

• Pray that the work might not be blocked by the evil one by sickness, death, family problems, or in any other way.  
• Pray for heath for all those involved
• Pray for those teaching them how to do this work, that they may be able to stay in country and not lose their papers
• Pray for those learning to learn quickly and well
  
  • Persistence - this is a long process
  • Completion of each project

JESUS FILM PROJECT

The translation of the film for Muslims.  Changes are being made on physical things in the film that are offensive to them (like Jesus going into the temple with shoes on, hand actions, etc). Some of these changes could cost up to a million dollars, but the suggestions have been well received. Then language is needed that is acceptable and not offensive.  Pray for this huge project   Pray for wisdom from God to see and make the right suggestions.

STABLE GOVERNMENT  

The Prime Minister is being accused of money laundering and corruption (he has been thrown out twice before for this).  Opposition parties are against him. A high percentage of the lawyers are against him.  It has been on the floor of Parliament again and again, and is supposed to come up for the final time on the 17th. PRAY God’s will:  If he is thrown out who would take his place?  It would probably be much harder for Christians and foreign workers.

Thanks for PRAYING for PAKISTAN!!

The NEW annual Hindu World Prayer Focus calls Christians and churches worldwide to take 15 days October 8-22 to learn about and pray for our world’s over one billion Hindu friends. That period also encompasses the significant Hindu Festival of Light (Diwali). The informative prayer guide booklets will help Christians to know how to pray for the people(s) growing up within this major and very diverse world religion.

Diwali (or Deepawali) is known as the Festival of Lights, and is one of the most important annual celebrations for Hindus, lasting about 4-5 days. While (similar to Christmas celebrations in the Christian world) it has historical and religious roots, Hindus celebrate it by lighting and displaying rows of small oil lamps, participating in family gatherings, consuming special sweets and watching fireworks.

It is not our intention with this prayer focus to disparage India or the Hindu religion in any way. We recognize that both are far too complex and too full of great traditions to simply or easily condense, explain or take lightly within a mere booklet.

At the same time, as Christians, we long that all the world’s people(s) will have an opportunity to freely see, hear and understand the grace of God incarnated in Jesus Christ. To this end, we inform ourselves, pray for and want to support opportunities to make that grace known also within the world’s Indian and Hindu communities.

Won’t you join us? For more information and a short introductory video www.pray15days.org Already in a growing number of languages/nations, if you don’t see yours, why not offer to translate and/or distribute in yours? Email+ This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We are sharing this word about North Korea, from Rick Ridings who many readers will remember from the World Prayer Assembly:

My friend Dutch Sheets sent out a call to prayer and prophetic word concerning North Korea yesterday on July 7th.  That same day, I was with a team at the border of North Korea to pray.  I had been speaking for a conference in Seoul, and the Lord had spoken beforehand to go after my speaking to the DMZ, the “Demilitarized Zone” along the cease-fire line that became the border with North Korea. I have ministered in conferences in South Korea many times in the past seven years, but never felt I had a release from the Lord to go to the DMZ.  But this time, I felt a compulsion to go there for a specific ‘prophetic action’.

We went as a group of five, including a pastor who had escaped from North Korea, and who leads a church in the area near the DMZ.  Two other local Korean pastors joined us there, making a team of seven praying on 7.7 on the Gregorian calendar and during the year 5777 on the Hebrew calendar.

I felt strongly that I was to drop a plumb line there, and proclaim from Isaiah 28:14-18 over the regime of North Korea.  These verses speak of floods of water ”overflowing” hidden lies, exposing them and sweeping them away.  It says that the flood will come in waves like a whip against those evil rulers, and annul their covenant with death.  

When I proclaimed the same verses in Washington, D.C., in January 2016  (Patti and I were leading worship in “David’s Tent”, a place of 24/7 worship and prayer at the base of the Washington Monument), I stated that flooding would happen in Washington as a sign that the Lord would do this spiritually.  Immediately afterward, heavy rains started, and the next day the Washington newspapers reported flooding there, and soon after that many political secrets were exposed.  

The same thing happened along the DMZ region bordering with North Korea!  As I finished proclaiming these spiritual floods to expose the lies and sweep away the North Korean regime, a heavy downpour of rain started (during a time they had been experiencing unusual drought), and the next day, the news reported flooding in that area along the DMZ.

I had taken a small piece of the Berlin Wall that I threw over the barbed wire face declaring that the same LORD who brought down the Berlin Wall and Soviet communism in a sudden surprise, would bring down the barrier between North and South Korea to reunite them and bring healing to the Land.

I was in prayer conferences in Germany during the time preceding the reunification of Germany.  I had heard their sincere confession of the sins of their forefathers and their nation towards the Jewish people.  And we proclaimed at that time, as they had humbled themselves in many corporate gatherings and confessed the sins of the nation (as in 2 Chronicles 7:14), that the LORD would heal their divided land as He promised.

I have now been in, and know of, many conferences where South Koreans have confessed the sins of their nation, and felt this was the time I was to proclaim that the LORD has heard and will bring about the reunification of Korea with a sudden event. Only afterward, did I find out that Dutch Sheets had sent out on the same day we prayed at the DMZ (July 7th) a prayer alert where he explained that he had recently prophesied in South Korea that “…the man-made barrier between North and South Korea would be removed, and the rebirth/rebuilding/ restoration of all of Korea would happen so amazingly fast that it would be a sign and a wonder to the world”.

I believe that Satan would love to use North Korea to bring great devastation upon the world, and to hinder the LORD’s calling on all of Korea to be a great missionary sending nation, especially impacting the Middle East.  But our God is greater!  Let us pray for His plumb line of justice and righteousness to continue to be extended over North Korea, for His floods to expose their regime’s lies, to “annul its covenant with death”, and to bring about its collapse and the liberation of North Koreans to worship the LORD.  Let us pray for all of Korea to be one reunited, healed and mighty missionary sending nation!

Rick Ridings
http://www.succathallel.com