Displaying items by tag: Praise

As Kyung-ja drifted in and out of consciousness, her head bloodied by repeated blows from a club, she heard her North Korean guard shouting words she had never heard before - Bible, God, Jesus. She couldn’t understand why the guard kept asking about them and then beating her when she didn’t or couldn’t answer. Two months later she was transferred to a labour camp, where she asked a fellow-prisoner, ‘What is God? What is a Bible?’ The prisoner told her there was a God, but that they couldn’t discuss it because it was too dangerous. Months later, while talking on the phone with her daughter in South Korea, Kyung-ja finally got answers to her questions. Soon afterwards, she placed her faith in Christ, and today she lives and serves Him in South Korea. North Koreans will not be changed by politics or missiles. They will be changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Following the proposal by the NHS for a new form of prenatal screening, Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT), for women ‘at high risk' of having a child with Down's syndrome, Prayer Alert readers prayed for the General Synod to call for regulation on providers of this screening. See The Synod members have now affirmed that they welcome medical advances, but are also calling for the Government and health professionals to ensure that women whose unborn child has Down's syndrome are given comprehensive and unbiased information about it. They added that people with this condition should be welcomed, celebrated and treated with dignity and respect.

On 6 February police arrested over 20 people across the UK in a huge operation to tackle a Kurdish gang smuggling hundreds of illegal immigrants into the UK for up to £10,000 a time. Over 300 officers coordinated by the National Crime Agency raided properties in Northumbria, Cleveland, Sussex and London to arrest suspected traffickers. Hundreds of Iraqi Kurds, men, women and children, are being brought into the UK in lorries and on ferries by the gang, paying up to £10,000 each. A number of car washes were also raided, in what is said to be a bid to shut down the gang's money laundering operation. Senior investigating officer Mark Spoors said all of the agency's targets had been arrested, and a significant trafficking network has been disrupted.

Nearly 3,000 athletes will compete in 102 events in this year’s Winter Olympics. Among them are Christian Olympians who have spoken openly about their faith. Kelly Clark (snowboarding halfpipe) said she didn’t get her worth from what she did, it was from Christ. David Wise (freestyle skiing halfpipe) said his Christian faith ‘plays a huge role because it enables me to be confident’. Elana Meyers Taylor (bobsled) said, ‘Regardless of whether I win gold or not, I just have to trust that God has a plan for my life and I’m called to be his representative through the sport and outside the sport.’ Katie Uhlaender (skeleton) said God guides her and gives her the strength to keep going. Gigi Marvin (hockey) said her mission is more than winning medals: it’s about sharing Christ and leading others to him.

In May 2016 a two-week mission began in Reading. On the first day 80+ people accepted the invitation to pray to Jesus. Many more heard that God had an awesome plan for them and allowed a church member to pray a blessing over their life. On 8 June, Reading Christian Network affirmed that something extraordinary was happening. After ten days over 720 people had prayed on the streets of Reading, the mission was extended, and The Turning was born. It is now becoming a phenomenon - a gift from heaven that empowers ordinary Christians to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. What started in a Baptist Church is not just for one Church or even one town. The Turning leaders are considering the possibility of reaching three million people across Europe within five years. There will be a national day of prayer and worship at City Gates Church, IG1 1BH on Wednesday 21 February, to launch ‘Turning’ in London. See

Intercessors have been praying for God’s Kingdom to grow in Hindu-dominant Nepal. Although proselytising has been banned in the country for decades, the church has exploded! Recent reports state that Nepali Christians are now one of the fastest-growing Christian communities in the world! After the 2015 earthquake, Christian groups gave aid to needy Nepalis, and were some of the first and most sustained groups to help. This growth has not come without a price. To curb it, the government will introduce a new criminal code in August, increasing jail sentences for proselytising from three to five years. Convicted foreigners will be deported after serving their time.

What would life be without Jesus? Thousands of people have never met a Christian or heard the Good News in their mother tongue. In 2018 more people than ever will find out that God is reaching out to them. Wycliffe Bible Translators personnel work tirelessly towards the goal of delivering the message of Jesus in people's heart languages, while organisations like MAF travel across continents to deliver God's Word to new believers. Recently a South Sudanese Christian said, 'I was jealous of white people being blessed by having the Word of God in their own language. We had no Bible in Baka.’ Then he gave a broad grin: ‘Now I am happy because I have a Baka Bible. God did not forget us.’ Now Christians speaking Baka can share God’s Word with those around them who do not yet know the salvation Christ offers. See the World article ‘Praying for the unreached’, and also https://www.maf-uk.org/campaign/unreached

After nearly three years in exile in Kurdistan, ten-year-old Helda Hindi and her younger brother and parents who fled from IS have returned to their home town in the Nineveh plains. She spoke about the night of 6 August 2014, when IS seized her hometown. ’Alarm bells rang out in our streets - we had to escape the living hell of violence and terrorism. I left, crying, with no hope of ever seeing my town, my school, or my friends again. We lived in torment and tragedy until we got used to it.’ She related her harrowing experiences, but finished, ‘And today, by God's grace, we have returned to our town and I am back in school among my friends. We had only God and we never stopped believing in His power and praying for His mercy for all those hurting in Iraq and around the world.’

Last week we prayed for God to soften President Macron’s heart and prompt him to help refugees still living rough in Calais while officials take months to process their claims. On 19 January Mr Macron and Theresa May signed a treaty designed to reduce the backlog of migrants by greater cooperation. The agreement will strengthen an accord known as Le Touquet, signed in 2003, which moved the British border to France. This will remain in force, but Macron said France will no longer be Britain’s ‘coastguard’ without concessions from the UK to help ease the crisis. Under the new, legally binding treaty, Britain will speed up ways of accepting legitimate asylum seekers currently stranded in Calais, including those seeking to re-join families in the UK and unaccompanied children.

David Barker and Stephen Wan were preaching the gospel in Camberley in December. Hecklers gathered and claimed that the preachers said ‘homosexuals are going to hell’ and ‘man cannot lie with man’. The preachers deny saying this. David spoke about the good news of Christmas, quoting Romans 3:23, ‘All people have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God’, and John 3:16. Stephen explained Jesus was called ‘Jesus’ because he would save his people from their sins, and he came into the world to atone for the sins of all mankind. A heckler accused him of preaching hate and asked about homosexuality. Stephen explained the Genesis creation story, adding that ‘marriage is an institution ordained by God for the purpose of procreation’. The two men were questioned by the police, but with help from the Christian Legal Centre, all charges against them were dropped.