Displaying items by tag: New York

Linda Sun, a former senior aide to two New York governors, has been charged with acting as a secret agent for the Chinese government. She and her husband face multiple charges including visa fraud, alien smuggling, and money laundering. Both have pleaded not guilty and are out on bail. Sun allegedly used her political position to further Chinese interests, blocking Taiwanese representatives from meetings and altering official messaging to favour China, especially during the Covid pandemic. She ensured public praise for China’s ventilator shipments while blocking an effort by Taiwan to get a public acknowledgement for giving masks. Authorities claim she facilitated millions in business deals for her husband’s Chinese-connected company, which funded their luxurious lifestyle. China’s embassy dismissed the charges, pointing out that previous cases against alleged Chinese agents have collapsed. There are growing tensions between the two countries over espionage claims.

One week after Hurricane Ida came ashore over half a million people are still without power. Some of the hardest-hit areas could be without power until 29th September. Mayor David Camardelle said, ‘It looks like a bomb went off. We have no water, we have no electricity, we have no food.’ Residents have been waiting in long queues for water, ice, food and fuel, and the situation has been made worse by extreme heat without air conditioning. On 9th September forecasters watched category 3 Hurricane Larry and Tropical Storm Mindy that are heading towards Bermuda and Canada causing ‘significant swells’ along America’s east coast. Louisiana’s Governor said, ‘We know there are a lot of people out there who are hurting. We're going to continue to work hard every single day to bring additional relief and to make progress.’ But Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy said residents need more help now.

New York, which saw 51 shootings over the 4 July holiday weekend, has become the first US state to declare a disaster emergency order to address rising gun violence. It comes amid reports of a rise in gun deaths countrywide, including nearly 200 over the same weekend. State governor Andrew Cuomo signed the executive order that will funnel the equivalent of £100m towards gun violence intervention and prevention. In March, the FBI released preliminary 2020 statistics showing a significant jump of 25% in murders from the year before. The upward trend has continued into 2021. The majority of homicides are gun-related. In late June Joe Biden unveiled a strategy to combat rising homicides including curtailing rogue gun dealers and firearms trafficking and more funding for law enforcement. The state disaster declaration describes gun violence as a public health crisis, and more people are now dying from gun violence than from Covid.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) reported that Nadia, a four-year-old female Malayan tiger, has tested positive for COVID-19. She, her sister, two Amur tigers, and three African lions had a dry cough. All are expected to recover. This positive COVID-19 test for the tiger was confirmed by the veterinary services laboratory and the animal health inspection service. A WCS spokesman said, ‘Coronavirus is a zoonotic disease, meaning it jumped from animals to humans. Now, it’s jumping back. WCS said that any knowledge gained about COVID-19 will be shared to aid the world’s understanding of this novel coronavirus. It is not known how this disease will develop in big cats, since different species react differently to novel infections. The zoo will issue additional information as warranted. A provisional warning was issued that domestic cats should be kept indoors.

People crowded onto Jacob Riis Beach on a hot July afternoon to witness an unusual event - 51 people presenting a public witness for Christ through baptism. As exciting as it was, for the Journey Church, one of the city’s largest Southern Baptist churches, it wasn’t necessarily out of the ordinary. The Journey is on track toward 140 baptisms this year - close to the church’s average over its 18-year history. Since its founding in the days following 9/11, the church has baptised more than 2,750 people. On a typical weekend it draws 1,000 people for worship in three Manhattan locations. Kerrick Thomas, its lead pastor, said that New York is one of the most unreached cities in America. They see reaching people with Christ as their primary mission, focusing on training and equipping believers to talk about their faith with their friends and co-workers.

Thankful to God for the Past, Anticipating His Wonders for the Future

Some history

The International Prayer Council (leadership team) and eventually International Prayer Connect (network of prayer leaders, ministries and networks) came into being shortly after 9/11 in 2001 – when a simultaneous terrorist attack took place on the twin towers in New York and on the Pentagon in Washington – an horrific day which we all knew would go down in history. A few weeks later the IPC was formed in New York (close to what became known as Ground Zero), with prayer leaders from around the world pledging to work and pray together on a global level, over global issues.

Before that year many of us had begun to discover each other through fresh global initiatives, like the Lausanne Movement (formed in 1974), the first International Prayer Assembly in South Korea (1984) and through involvement in the AD2000 and Beyond Movement in the 1990’s. The IPC as a prayer entity was to be both the successor to these initiatives and involve many of the key prayer leaders from within those structures.   It was important for us to stay connected, find out more about what was happening in our world, and to pray more strategically about some of the pressing needs facing the world.  

Our focus was to be the transformation of our world, encapsulated in our motto “Globalising Prayer, Transforming our World” and this was adopted at our first international consultation in South Africa in 2002. (Please see this video about its founding and early history IPC Prayer Globalizing Prayer Transforming Our World  https://youtu.be/5ZYVFLML1sU). 

Much of the experience of the church around the world was about praying for its work – its daily activities, including mission and evangelism.   For many of us, however, transformational prayer became our work.  Praying for mission in all its aspects was included, along with issues of international and national importance.  

Networking with prayer leaders and their ministries both internationally and regionally was a priority.  To that end global and regional consultations were held in many nations, including South Africa, Egypt, United States, Canada, England, Germany, Switzerland, UAE, Thailand, Hong Kong, South Korea, Kenya, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Cyprus. 

The World Prayer Assembly envisioned and arranged by the IPC in partnership with the powerful Indonesian prayer movement (involving up to three million Indonesians in 380 cities as well as many others worldwide through satellite TV and internet) was in a sense the culmination of such networking and resulted in a further explosion of prayer ministry around the world that continues to grow, thanks be to God!

“God by His Spirit was working so many agendas in the lives of those who took part that it is impossible to recount all that happened or was reported. So many said their lives and ministries would never be the same. We have received encouraging reports from a number of nations as participants have begun to implement strategies of prayer mobilization and other actions that they were inspired to undertake during the WPA. Praise God for all He did and continues to do through this gathering!”

Here is an inspiring video report about this great gathering that God used and continues to use so wonderfully to ignite so many other things: World Prayer Assembly https://youtu.be/qmDeuokTQ7I

Prayer initiatives, with teams of intercessors, have been undertaken over strategic issues in many nations, especially those caught up in awful wars and ethnic conflicts.  By the grace and goodness of the Lord, several hopeless wars have so far been ended, soon after national prayer initiatives (sometimes within a day or few days) that IPC teams were able to facilitate with local Christian leaders. In addition, three international initiatives were held within and for the United Nations with ambassadors, hundreds of prayer leaders and praying children from around the world as well as another arranged for Hollywood (the home of the film industry).  

Children in Prayer has been an important part of IPC initiatives, with leadership being given from the United States, Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia, and more recently India, but including CiP coordinators from 70-80 nations.  Consultations and leadership gatherings have been held in many nations along with three global CiP events that brought adults and children from scores of nations to pray, learn, and plan for the future of this movement. 

The recent Youth-focused prayer movement called the UPRising (United Prayer Rising) developed out of the World Prayer Assembly in Indonesia in 2012 and has seen further prayer and worship events in many nations since 2016.  Both of these key initiatives (Children and Youth) have produced another tier of leadership. The Global UPR called “World Generation” being held in Jakarta (January 23-26, 2019) is challenging the participants to find and engage in the unique missions the Lord has for each one, especially reaching the unreached with His Gospel in order to fulfil the Great Commission. 

The Global Issachar Group developed out of an initial consultation in Cyprus, with its focus on the dark places and powers, and it too has held gatherings in several nations in N. America, Europe & Asia.  

Each of these various above initiatives has developed out of or come under the umbrella of the IPC. But separately, and also strategic, have been a number of initiatives that others have spear-headed, and which have been incorporated into or led by those with close association with the IPC. Among these would be the emphasis on the 4/14 Window (led by Luis Bush) on mission to the generation included in that age range. This has focussed the minds of missiologists the world over.

The Global Day of Prayer ran annually out of a vision stemming from South Africa, and was led by Graham Power and Dawie and Isebel Spangenberg for great blessing to the international prayer movement and the many nations touched by it.

Praying through the 10/40 Window (led by Beverly Pegues) which originally emerged in the 1990’s has continued to be featured in our communications.

The IPC has sought to reflect the importance of praying for the Persecuted Church, for Muslim nations, for Governments, for war zones, and on issues concerning historic sins and brokenness with the need for identificational repentance and reconciliation.

In short, the IPC started off as a networking structure, but it has developed into taking many initiatives as well.  National Prayer initiatives have been undertaken in over 50 countries over the last 20 years, many in the really difficult nations on the planet. Generally, these initiatives have consisted of three days of prayer by local ministry leaders of all denominations in the spirit of 2 Chron. 7:14 led by John Robb with IPC colleagues on the ministry teams. It was discovered over and over again that as His people focused on repentance for corporate sins and reconciliation, God would bring about stunning breakthroughs, such as unexpected peace agreements ending wars, governments of national unity being formed, and spiritual revival happening among participating church and political leaders. Glory to the Lord!

The IPC has always sought to connect with and support other global initiatives - like Ethne - who are focused on Unreached People Groups and now we are focusing on the Go 2020 initiative to see a billion unreached people reached with the Gospel by May 2020 and the raising up of hundreds of millions of additional intercessors to engage for the fulfillment of Christ’s Great Commission, even as early as 2025- http://go2020.world. We are interested to maintain a close connection between prayer and mission in the spirit of the Moravians as we describe in this video: “The Spirit of the Moravians” (9-min & 3-min).

Links have also been maintained with the International Reconciliation Coalition, Global Church Planting Network, and prayer for the Persecuted church etc.

Our emphasis has always been on prayer for socio-political transformation and mission. We continue to be open to Spiritual Warfare, Spiritual Mapping, understanding the Spiritual Powers, Identificational Repentance and Reconciliation, on-site prayer, and governmental connections. We continue to have a deep desire for the unity of the Body of Christ and Word-based prayer.

Remaining challenges - unfinished business for the IPC and the international prayer movement

• Identifying and developing prayer in and for the “global gates” (major international institutions like the U.N., World Economic Forum, etc.) and international cities.
• Seeking God’s strategy and deliverance for the ‘dark places’ on planet earth.
• Developing technology and language translation in support of global prayer.
• Finance - raising more substantial support through the Transformation Prayer Foundation to meet ongoing costs of all we do and hope to do for the future.
• More effectively connecting prayer leaders, their ministries and networks in an ongoing way so that we can flow together, coordinating and supporting one another.
• Integrating more fully with the rising youth and children’s prayer movements and co-working with the Lord to raise up the next generation of mighty men and women of God to lead His people and reach our world with the Gospel

Important questions to consider for the future

1. Are we to be just a “network” of prayer movements, or are we called to do things together? Or both?
2. What else are we being called to be and do? What priorities should we focus on for the next 5-10 years?
3. How can we best steward the “New Wave” of transformational prayer and mission engagement coming out of the World Prayer Assembly and all that the Lord has done through the last couple of decades of various prayer initiatives seeking to unite Christ’s global prayer movement and see His breakthroughs?
4. Finding a new wineskin for the global prayer movement. How can we best reflect the inter-generational nature of what God is doing in global prayer at the current time?

If you have any suggestions in this great task of transforming our world through united prayer, we welcome your getting in touch with us. Please write to us at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Please also pray with us as our leadership meets to consider future directions and new leadership for the IPC just before the Global UPR youth prayer and mission event in Jakarta, January 23-26.

Brian Mills and John Robb

The 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women, taking place in New York from 13 to 24 March, will focus on 'Women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work.’ This session gathers together global leaders, NGOs, private sector actors, UN partners, and activists from around the world, focusing on the status of rights and empowerment of all women and girls. It takes place as the world of work is changing, urged by innovation, globalisation and increasing human mobility. At the same time, it is adversely impacted by climate change, humanitarian crises, rising informality of labour, and economic inequality. For sustainable and healthy economies, the world of work must empower women and remove the persisting inequalities that hold them back from getting on equal footing with men.