Summers are intense at Musalaha in three summer camps for Israeli and Palestinian children. This summer there was anxiety due to the Gaza conflict. Each year church teams come to help with our summer camps. This year a youth group from Bolton assisted the staff at Beit Sahour camp. On Wednesday I visited the camp, wondering how the children had related to one another in the midst of the conflict in the country. I marvelled at how much they enjoyed themselves playing with one another. Pray for similar camps to spread to all parts of the country, where Arab children could meet Jewish children. One of the children said ’I wish I could stay in this camp forever [rather] than go home to war.’ Meanwhile as Middle East shelling continues, internet users have been flooding the web with dozens of photos of Jews and Arabs together showcasing peace and love, under the hashtag #JewsAndArabsRefuseToBeEnemies see:

A former LA deputy sheriff arrested while street preaching in Scotland has been told by police he will no longer face charges. Tony Miano was arrested in Dundee after a member of the public complained he had been using ‘homophobic language’. He was on a weeklong street-preaching mission in the city in January with evangelist Josh Williamson when he was arrested under hate-crime legislation. (See Prayer Alert 2.2014). The Christian Legal Centre, which represented him, said he was held by police for 24 hours and that they refused to watch video footage of his street preaching. Mr Miano, 50, said it ‘took months’ for the prosecutors to watch the footage. ‘When the prosecutors finally managed to get the video footage off my camera they could plainly see that the accuser had made allegations about my speech that were simply untrue,’ he said.

According to the press release, Wycliffe Associates, a global organisation that involves people in the acceleration of Bible translation around the world, earlier this year, 32,000 pounds of Ketengban Scriptures were delivered to the people via the Pilatus PC-6 aircraft funded by Wycliffe Associates volunteers. New Testaments were also delivered to their neighbours in Lik villages - the first Scriptures ever in their heart language. Andrew and Anne Sims, members of the translation team, were caught off guard as they entered the Ketengban village in Indonesia. They had come to check on the progress of the Old Testament translation, yet hundreds of people greeted them as a celebration broke out. Off to the side, eight boys covered in white mud from head to toe stood expressionless and silent, never moving.

A former LA deputy sheriff arrested while street preaching in Scotland has been told by police he will no longer face charges. Tony Miano was arrested in Dundee after a member of the public complained he had been using ‘homophobic language’. He was on a weeklong street-preaching mission in the city in January with evangelist Josh Williamson when he was arrested under hate-crime legislation. (See Prayer Alert 2.2014). The Christian Legal Centre, which represented him, said he was held by police for 24 hours and that they refused to watch video footage of his street preaching. Mr Miano, 50, said it ‘took months’ for the prosecutors to watch the footage. ‘When the prosecutors finally managed to get the video footage off my camera they could plainly see that the accuser had made allegations about my speech that were simply untrue,’ he said.

Nandar Nant from the children’s prayer movement in Myanmar, reported: ‘Every week and every month we have prayer gatherings in different orphanages, homes and churches. On Saturdays we organize a 24 hours of prayer. At the moment 50 churches, 60 orphanages and about 3500 children are involved, and next year we plan to expand again. Children have great faith and an innocent heart,’ she says. ‘When we started praying for the seven spheres of society, we saw amazing changes. Parents repented for not taking care of their children, and the children repented for disobeying their parents. People came free from addictions and adultery. We saw miracles of healing and unity among churches. Christian singers and actors now openly share about their faith. Personally I believe these changes are related to the children’s prayer movement. The children are really engaged as they see how God changes things because of their prayer.’

‘Lord, I'll do anything, I'll go anywhere.’ This was the prayer of Simon Guillebaud as a young man, before he was called into one of the world's most dangerous mission fields. In 1999, when he was in his early 20s, Guillebaud gave up a steady marketing job to move to Burundi, a war-torn nation in the Great Lakes region of Southeast Africa. In the 15 years since, he has seen God move in incredible ways and is passionate about seeing the country and its people fully restored. ‘I went out with a few hundred pounds, most of which got stolen on the first day, and I just thought 'Bring it on', he tells Christian Today. Guillebaud set up an umbrella organisation, Great Lakes Outreach (GLO), which works with local groups and gifted leaders to share the Gospel, and has seen one percent of Burundi come to Christ in the last eight years – 100,000 people.

Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) could create thousands of jobs across Yorkshire, the Humber and the Tees Valley, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and Carbon Capture Storage Association (CCSA) announced last Friday. They argue that the concentration of coal and gas-fired power stations, energy-intensive industries and proximity to a significant carbon dioxide storage capacity located deep under the North Sea makes the area well placed to benefit from CCS technology. CCS would enable both power stations and heavy industry to reduce their carbon emissions and could also help maintain the UK’s coal industry. TUC assistant general secretary Paul Novak said, ‘This is exactly the kind of technology needed to rebalance our economy and generate strong and sustainable growth outside London and the South East.’ Despite the clear benefits of CCS technology, it has yet to be fully embraced by the government who must put in place an enduring policy to bring forward additional power and industrial CCS projects in the UK.

BRAZIL - It's another match day in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and thousands of fans have arrived to support their teams in the World Cup.  The government reports 600,000 foreign tourists visited Brazil this month. Many come from Muslim countries like Algeria and Iran, where they may have never heard about Jesus.  It's a unique opportunity to help them to hear the Gospel message. That's why churches and ministries including Brazil's Bible Society and Youth With A Mission (YWAM) have deployed a small army of evangelists to the streets and parks of the city. They're enthusiastically greeting soccer fans and sharing the good news of salvation.  100,000 copies of the Bible with individual covers for each host city of the World Cup have been printed and distributed.   One fan, who had just experienced a personal tragedy, found a sympathetic listener in Vaneide, a personal evangelist.  ‘This man had lost his wife in a fire and became blind,’ she recalled. ‘He stopped and talked with me for half an hour. I told him about Jesus and suddenly he said, 'Now I understand the way to the truth!' And at that moment he gave his life to Jesus.'

Brazil: Much of Latin America and the Caribbean is in the midst of what believers proudly call an ‘evangelical revolution’. According to the IBGE, Brazil's census board, the country's Catholic population fell from around 89% in 1980 to 74% in 2000, while its Pentecostal flock grew from 3% to 10%. A public expression of this new evangelicalism is the ‘March for Jesus’. Over half a million Christians gathered in Rio de Janeiro in early June this year. The annual event was held under the slogan ‘I belong to Jesus. I am a champion’, in honour of the participants' faith and the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which Brazil is hosting this year. Another ‘March for Jesus’ is planned in Sao Paulo on 12 July, a day before the World Cup final. This one is expected to draw 2 million participants. It’s the country’s largest religious gathering, and more popular than the Salvador Carnival.

Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) could create thousands of jobs across Yorkshire, the Humber and the Tees Valley, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and Carbon Capture Storage Association (CCSA) announced last Friday. They argue that the concentration of coal and gas-fired power stations, energy-intensive industries and proximity to a significant carbon dioxide storage capacity located deep under the North Sea makes the area well placed to benefit from CCS technology. CCS would enable both power stations and heavy industry to reduce their carbon emissions and could also help maintain the UK’s coal industry. TUC assistant general secretary Paul Novak said, ‘This is exactly the kind of technology needed to rebalance our economy and generate strong and sustainable growth outside London and the South East.’ Despite the clear benefits of CCS technology, it has yet to be fully embraced by the government who must put in place an enduring policy to bring forward additional power and industrial CCS projects in the UK.