Tens of thousands of Israelis have fled fires: 32,000 acres have been burnt, along with hundreds of homes and businesses. November has been very dry, with strong winds. Forest fires of similar magnitude, or worse, have recently been raging every year throughout the Mediterranean basin. Professor Carmel (of environmental, water and agricultural engineering) said, ‘Climate change is causing things we haven’t seen before.’ Russian, Palestinian and American first-responders are helping Israeli fire-fighters. In the USA many months of drought brought weeks of wildfires in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, destroying hundreds of homes and sending thousands through ‘hell-like’ escapes. 4,000 firefighters were deployed to extinguish dozens of large fires all burning at the same time. Yesterday, winds of 70 mph intensified multiple fires in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and fires are spreading into communities and knocking down power lines. See also http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.755665

Yaser, Saheb and Mohammed Reza were arrested at a house church in May and charged with ‘action against national security’. They were released on bail after weeks in detention. Their pastor, Yousef Nadarkhani, and his wife Fatemeh (Tina) Pasandideh were also arrested but not detained. However, Yousef was later charged for the same crime. All four were summoned to the revolutionary court in Rasht in October, but the judge didn’t issue a verdict. The second hearing is on 14 December. In addition, Yaser, Saheb and Mohammed face charges related to consumption of alcohol (they drank wine during a communion service). Drinking alcohol is not illegal for Christians, but is prohibited for Muslims. The charges against Christian converts reflect the view that a Muslim cannot change religion. After a court hearing on 10 September, they were each sentenced to eighty lashes, but they are appealing this verdict. The appeal hearing is scheduled for 9 February 2017.

Marco Chacon read, ‘bucket of losers trending online’, and freaked out. It came from a story he had posted on his website about a ‘secret transcript’ of Hillary Clinton’s speech given to Goldman Sachs, which claimed Clinton called Bernie Sanders’ supporters a ‘bucket of losers.’ Once posted, the story went viral and was picked up on Fox News - the scoop of a lifetime - but Chacon had made the whole thing up. Chacon said, ‘This is ridiculous, things had gone way too far.’ Fox News issued an apology for reporting it. Chacon’s story is an example of fake news making real news headlines. Lies and fabrications of mainstream media are not ‘sloppy journalism’: they are intended to mislead. As intercessors we usually have the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other hand (or watch the news on TV). We need to be aware of the risk of clever fake news.

In the ongoing instability in Iraq, Christians are not necessarily safe even if they escape areas held by IS. Esam (an Iraqi Christian) said that friends of his who escaped Mosul after being forcibly converted to Islam have been ‘baptised back to Christianity’. Other aspects of their lives will take far longer to repair. Iraqi Christians who end up returning to Iraq know they return to a country whose sectarian fault-lines have been activated to lethal levels. Aid workers have warned that extensive reconciliation work is vital if Iraq’s many different faith and ethnic communities are to cohere again, especially as levels of trauma among all sectors of the population are thought to be extremely high. The ordeal at the hands of IS members in Mosul has been horrific. Iraqi Christians tell of crucifixions, torture and sex slavery. Esam concludes, ‘What happened is not easy, but in the end we must forgive.’

The UN has reported that 75,000 thousand children are at risk of dying of hunger and fourteen million people are in need of humanitarian aid in north-east Nigeria, as it deals with the aftermath of Boko Haram violence. Pray that they will receive all the aid they need to recover and resettle. A trauma care centre is being constructed by Open Doors in northern Nigeria to support Christians who have suffered religiously-motivated violence or abuse at the hands of Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen. Pray for Open Doors and other organisations to receive adequate funding so that they can fulfil their objectives. Violence continues with a recent spate of attacks on five Christian villages in the Kauru local government area. Most of the fatalities were women, children and the elderly, who could not escape the Fulani herdsmen’s gunfire. 120 houses, including eight house-churches, were burnt down.

Hinduism has roughly 1 billion followers, 94% in India. Hinduism is growing slowly, but is still winning followers from those searching for life’s answers in religion. There are approximately 140,000 Protestant missionaries across the nations, but only 2% serve Hindu people. Despite this, Hindus from all castes are coming to Christ after hearing Bible stories they were able to relate to. In one instance an entire village turned to Christ after hearing His Word preached in their language! Pray for the Bible translators researching people groups and their languages to produce accessible Bibles. Leaving Hinduism means persecution, even to death. New believers are considered threats to Hindu society and are relentlessly pursued, violently attacked, or shunned from the community. Doubt and fear follow them because they accepted Jesus into their lives and became outcasts in their world. Pray for the new house church movement, welcoming recent converts.

Far right Front National leader Marine Le Pen is a strong candidate for the French presidency, according to a recent poll. Her main opponent will be François Fillon, a former prime minister, who has won the presidential nomination for the conservative party. He opposes multiculturalism and has called for a new understanding with Vladimir Putin's Russia. Ms Le Pen is adamant that the same anti-establishment anger which saw Britain vote to leave the EU and Americans elect Donald Trump could sweep her to power. Do the forthcoming elections spell the end of the Eurocrats’ dream?

After thirteen years of a struggling economy and unemployment at 40% among the young, 107,000 youth have left to seek work abroad. The average family income is less than it was in 2007. On 5 December Italy will vote in Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s referendum on constitutional reform. Mr Renzi has promised to resign if the referendum fails. Many believe that quitting would make way for the Eurosceptic Five Star Movement (M5S) to gain power. M5S was launched by Beppe Grillo, a youthful political rabble-rouser of the centre-left Democratic Party who proposes to limit the powers of the senate by cutting the number of senators from 315 to 100. All would be appointed (rather than elected as at present), and he would restrict their power to influence legislation. First Brexit, then Trump. Is Italy entering the west’s populist wave?

We see success in the arrests of key people in Germany’s Islamist terrorist arena, and the banning of the Salafist organisation calling itself ‘the true religion’. Plans for distributing the Qu’ran by this organisation under the banner ‘Read’ (which in German is the word ‘Lies’ but pronounced ‘Leese’) will not now be allowed. After the UK’s Brexit vote and the US election, Germans are asking the question, ‘What are YOU doing here, Lord?’ This is a time for us not only to pray for Germany, but also for the UK and the USA, and for God’s purposes for these three countries to be fulfilled through these events this year.

Faith and charity have long gone hand-in-hand. From international development to homelessness, faith-based charities can be found throughout the charity sector. Despite the diversity of issues these charities tackle, many see faith as a common thread that links them, bringing particular strengths: connections to the local community, relationships with hard-to-reach groups, and the presence of a large and motivated volunteer base. The environment for all charities is challenging, with reduced funding, increasing need and shifting public opinions - but faith and religion can bring another layer of complexity because of the changing role of faith in our society and the changing makeup of religious populations in Britain. While research into this and the influence of faith on giving, volunteering and communities exists, remarkably little is known about the effect of faith on how charitable organisations operate and what they can achieve.