Displaying items by tag: USA

On 16 May, President Trump was asked whether his summit with North Korea would still take place after the communist regime had threatened to call it off. ‘We haven't seen anything, we haven't heard anything’, Trump said. When asked if Kim was bluffing when he threatened to cancel the planned summit on 12 June, he replied, ‘We'll see what happens’. Pyongyang’s statement blamed the annual military drills between the US and South Korea that had started two days earlier, adding: ‘The USA must carefully contemplate the fate of the planned summit amid the provocative military ruckus that it is causing. We will keenly monitor how the authorities react.’ China has urged North Korea to go forward with the summit. Its foreign ministry says the two countries should make sure that the meeting runs as planned and yields ‘substantial outcomes’.

Fears are growing that Hawaii's Kilauea volcano is heading for a major eruption. The US Geological Survey has raised the alert from orange to red, meaning that a major volcanic eruption is imminent or very likely. The volcano is one of the world's most active, and its activity level has increased substantially over the past twelve days. A 300m-long fissure has opened on the volcano's side, releasing more lava and gas and sending a plume of ash and smoke as high as 12,000 feet. There were reports of ash and vog (volcanic air pollution) falling as far as 18 miles downwind, the USGS said. Dozens of homes and swathes of farmland in that area have been destroyed. US president Donald Trump declared it to be a disaster on Friday, following a request from Hawaii's governor, David Ige.

Three US citizens have been set free from prison by North Korea, according to a tweet on 9 May from US president Donald Trump. This is viewed as a goodwill gesture before a historic summit between Mr Trump and Kim Jong-un. Mr Trump greeted the men when they returned with secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who was in Pyongyang to arrange a date and location for the planned talks. Missionary Kim Hak-song, humanitarian worker Tony Kim, and pastor Kim Dong-chul boarded the plane ‘without assistance’, the White House said. They had been jailed for alleged anti-state activities and placed in labour camps.

A day after Donald Trump said he was withdrawing from the Iran weapons deal, he created further anxiety by threatening Iran with ‘severe consequences’ if it restarted its nuclear programme. He is also preparing to impose new sanctions, perhaps as early as next week. His comments came as officials in Iran and leaders across Europe scrambled to see if they could continue to operate the 2015 deal negotiated by Barack Obama. France’s foreign minister claimed that the deal could yet continue, but Iranian president Hassan Rouhani told Emmanuel Macron that Europe had only a ‘limited opportunity’ to preserve it.

In India, a dust storm affecting three districts in Rajasthan state and Uttar Pradesh has killed 111 and injured hundreds more, with numbers still rising and more storms forecast. Electricity is disrupted, hundreds of trees uprooted, hundreds of houses damaged or destroyed, and livestock killed. Many of the dead were sleeping when their houses collapsed after being struck by intense bursts of lightning. Dust storms are common in this part of India during summer, but loss of life on this scale is rare. Pray for hospitals and emergency services without electricity. In Kenya, over 100 people died and 200,000+ have been displaced by four weeks of floods, landslides and heavy rains. The Red Cross described it as a humanitarian disaster. Severe weather hit central USA on 2 and 3 May, with unusually violent thunderstorms, tornadoes and tennis-ball-sized hailstones taking down trees and power lines. See

In 2010 Capitol Ministries began a Bible study for representatives, which now has almost fifty members. When four of the group were elected to the Senate, they asked for a senators' Bible class, which began in 2015. Two months after Donald Trump took office, the same process led to a group for cabinet members. Trump started appointing to his cabinet all the men who were in the House and Senate bible study, men who were known to be believers. Unlike secular media, Christians noticed that the appointees had something in common - they were strong in Christ. Jeff Sessions (former health secretary), Tom Price, and others then started a cabinet Bible study. For the first time in 100 years, the US Cabinet has a Bible study group.

Proposals for dialogue between North Korean and American national leaders in the midst of increasing tensions, conflicts, and fear of war have inspired International Prayer Connections (IPC) to call on Christians to pray for a just and peaceful resolution. Pray for wisdom for political, diplomatic and military leaders as they work through differences toward a goal of peace, security and freedom. Ask God to bless the efforts of citizens who seek to bridge the vast differences between these countries. Pray that, however profound the differences between their governments, Americans and North Koreans will not view each other as enemies, but on the contrary desire only the best for each other. May the decades of business, humanitarian and education contact between the two countries now bear fruit by putting a human face on those who are characterised as enemies.

By John D Robb

1. God desires and requires intercessory prayer for the accomplishment of His salvific purpose for the peoples of the earth.

Jesus told us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is done in Heaven." Abraham interceded for Lot in Sodom, Moses prayed that God would turn from His wrath against Israel, Daniel for the return of Israel from Babylon. Ezekiel was told by God, "I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it but I found none" (Ez. 22:30}

Why does God desire and require His people's intercession? Most likely because God originally gave dominion of the earth to humankind. That dominion has never been revoked by God. Satan's dominion achieved through rebellion against the Creator is a false, illegitimate, usurped dominion. Redeemed through Christ, we can exercise our God-given right to influence the affairs of this world through the exercise of intercessory prayer. Like Kuwait's request for the multi-national force to come against the illegitimate dominion of Iraq, so we in prayer as God's redeemed children, pray that His will be done, His kingdom come on earth. Prayer in the power of the Holy Spirit breaks through the false dominion of the enemy, and clears the way for His deliverance and shalom to come to all peoples. Linked through prayer with the risen Christ, sitting at His side (Eph. 2) far above all authority and dominion, we share in the accomplishment of His redemptive purposes.

Dick Eastman, president of World Literature Crusade, recently shared with our staff at World Vision how early in 1988, God had led him to take a team of intercessors throughout Eastern Europe. Their mission was "to confront the strongholds of Communism." In obedience to God's leading, they carried out a "prayer walk" around the Politbureau building in Bucharest where less than two years later, Ceaucescu made his last stand after pridefully announcing his regime would last for a thousand years. While in Berlin, God led Dick to go out with a German friend in the middle of the night to face that still forbidding wall. Moved in intercessory prayer, they both laid their hands on the wall and prayed, "In the name of Jesus, come down!"

In the dramatic events of the last year in Eastern Europe God has used the prayers of His people to shake the nations. He can do the same thing in the unevangelized world. He is seeking those who will stand before him in the gap for the 2,000 major unreached peoples, the 1,000 unevangelized cities, and the 30 unevangelized countries.

2. Victory in the spiritual realm is primary, and it is won by prayer.

Remember Moses' intercession as he held up his hands before God while Joshua and the army of Israel fought the Amalekites in the valley below? Each time Moses' arms grew tired and faltered, Israel's army was pushed back. But as he sustained his stance in prayer with uplifted arms, the Israelites were victorious.

Later in Israel's history. King Jehoshaphat relied on the weapons of united fasting and prayer, public worship and praise which brought God's intervention against the invading armies of Israel's enemies. Bible teacher, Derek Prince, writes: "These weapons, scripturally employed by Christians today, will gain victories as powerful and dramatic as they gained for the people of Judah in the days of Jehoshaphat.... Victory in the spiritual realm is primary. It is to be obtained by spiritual weapons. Thereafter its outcome will be manifested in every area of the natural and material realm."

These two Biblical episodes vividly portray intercessory prayer as being the winning factor. Why should this be any different in today's battle for world evangelization?

3. Prayer has always undergirded and extended the missionary outreach of the church.

Prayer is mentioned over 30 times in the Book of Acts alone, and generally it is mentioned as occurring just before major breakthroughs in the outward expansion of the early Christian movement. For the Apostles extended times of united prayer and waiting on God together were pivotal in their mission to the unreached. Before the first great outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost and Peter's mighty sermon that brought 3,000 into the church, it is recorded that the Apostles "all joined together constantly in prayer" (Acts 1:14). Then, as the Apostles and their new converts "devoted themselves to prayer," signs and wonders occurred, the city was filled with awe, and people were added to the church daily (2:42-44). It was "after they had prayed" that the place where they were meeting was shaken, all were filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of God with boldness (4:31).

The Apostles early on let it be known what their priority in mission was- "We will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word" (6:4). The result of the Apostles determined adherence to this priority was that "The word of God spread and the number of disciples increased rapidly, and a large number of the priests became obedient to the faith" (6:7).

Peter's prayer resulted in signs and wonders such as the raising of Tabitha. Later it was a time of prayer that opened his eyes to the revelation that the gospel was also for the Gentiles, making him willing to go and preach to Cornelius. It was also the church's prayer that brought the release of Peter from prison.

A period of prayer and fasting by five leaders of the Antioch church led to the setting apart of Paul and Barnabus for their frontier mission to the Gentiles. Afterwards they were sent out with more fasting and prayer (13:1-3). It was through prayer that Paul was not allowed by the Spirit of Jesus to enter Bithynia, but redirected into Macedonia. And it was through the prayer and praise of God by the imprisoned Paul and Silas that an earthquake helped to originate the church at Philippi!

The whole European side of the modern Protestant missionary enterprise grew out of Pietism, a revival movement that was steeped in earnest prayer. From its influence the Danish-Halle Mission to India went forth and the Moravian movement under Count Zinzendorf emerged. One author writing about the Moravians said that "the glorious movement of the Spirit... among the Moravians at Herrnhut in 1727 [which] transformed them into what has been the mightiest evangelizing force in the world for the past two centuries, was borne in prayer."

The prayer meeting which the Moravians began in 1727 went on 100 years! By relays they offered unceasing prayer for the church and needs all around the world. This prayer effort kindled their desire to proclaim Christ to the unreached and led to the beginning of modem missions. And from this one small village, over 100 missionaries went out in 25 years.

Decades later, William Carey, while still employed as a humble shoe repairman to support his part-time preaching, drew a homemade map of the world, entering all information he could find about its regions and countries. As he mused over the world's appalling needs and problems, he turned the information gathered into heartfelt intercession. His biographer reveals: "Often in the silence of the night... by the dim rush light, he would scan that map and then kneeling before it, pour out his soul to God." Prayer for the world was a definite motive force in the call and service of the one who came to be known as "the father of modern Protestant missions."

In 1806, a few college students from William's College took refuge from a sudden rainstorm beneath a haystack. Sitting in the midst of hay, they used the time to pray for the world and its needs. Out of that unlikely venue for a prayer meeting, the American mission movement was born.

Robert Glover sums up the role of prayer in the history of missions:

"From Pentecost and the Apostle Paul, right down through the centuries to the present day, the story of missions has been the story of answered prayer. Every fresh outbreak of missionary energy has been the result of believing prayer. Every new missionary undertaking that has been owned and blessed of God has been the germinating of seed planted by the divine spirit in the hearts of praying saints."

John Robb, IPC Chairman

(Excerpted and adapted from the article by John Robb “Prayer as a Strategic Weapon in Frontier Mission” Published in the International Journal of Frontier Missiology in 1991)

In 2207, 2009 and 2013, it was both a great challenge and privilege of the IPC to arrange international prayer initiatives with hundreds of prayer leaders and intercessor children from around the world to pray with ambassadors of the U.N. The Lord graciously worked in answer to the prayers of many and here is an encouraging report of recent developments there, thanks be to God!

“A brief testimony about what God is doing at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. So often we watch and pray for years and do the things we believe God has asked us to do. Then, all of a sudden, it’s as if the prayers that have been stored up in the bowls of heaven are poured out, and doors open that no man can shut.

For more then 25 years, there have been weekly prayer gatherings at the United Nations sponsored by Christian staff members, plus a weekly service with worship and a guest speaker. There are also many other organizations that have specific outreaches to the Ambassadors and monthly Bible Studies, all working hard to bring the presence and word of God into this global community.

In the fall of 2017, several of us who have been praying at the United Nations were invited by Pastor Jim Garlow of Skyline Church in San Diego, CA to come to San Diego for several days of prayer and conversation about a new ministry they wanted to launch to the United Nations. So we went and had the opportunity at the time to meet and pray with former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who had recently joined the Skyline Church staff as the Executive Director of “SkylineUN,” So, since early in January, several of us have been meeting weekly with her for a time of worship and prayer within the United Nations, asking God to open doors and visit this global community with an outpouring of His Spirit. So, fast-forward to March 2018.

The testimony I want to share is of what God did during the 62^nd Commission on the Status of Women’s conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.  This year’s theme was “Empowering Rural Women and Girls.” Individuals from around the world attend this 2-week conference, and many of the Member States host side events to address issues affecting women and children around the world. We approached the Mission of Guatemala about hosting an event. Their response was that you have to apply for a conference room months in advance because the available spaces fill up quickly. But God….,! We asked just 2 weeks prior to the opening of the conference, and there was nothing available, so we just kept praying and then we heard on a Thursday afternoon that there was one room available on the following Tuesday. So, in just four days we had to get speakers, pick the theme, and make a flyer to get approved to go up on the UN’s Digital Messaging board.

When God opens a doo, He makes a way where there seems to be no way! We put together a panel of five amazing women, a multi-ethnic and multi-generational representation, with the theme, “Personal Stories of Women’s Journey’s in Leadership”. Honestly our expectation was that we would be happy if 25 people showed up for our event since our flyer went up on the messaging board the day before our event and most organization’s events had been advertised for weeks. So, we gathered early that morning before our event and prayed fervently that God would use the testimonies of each one’s journey and how instrumental God and Faith were in those journeys. God did not disappoint. He showed up in a big way. The room was packed with such a diverse group of young and old and many different nations represented, with standing room only!  Women in the audience had tears in their eyes, as each of our speakers shared how they found their identity through their faith. Not one person left, even when each one spoke of Jesus and how He brought them through trials and testing on their journeys! At the end of our session we had many attendees follow us out into the hall to ask questions and to speak to us. Many come up to thank us afterward for the event. We were blessed to pray with several women who are leading in their nations. One woman remarked, “I’ve never seen anything like this at the United Nations before!”

The Spirit of God was truly at work. We praise God for what He did and is doing at the United Nations!

1. Please join us in praying for those who heard our session. We are praying the seeds that were planted during would take root in the hearts of all and that they would each come to know the love and saving grace of our Heavenly Father. 
2. Praythat Guatemala will be able to reserve a conference room on a weekly basis so we can gather for Worship and the Word within the Secretariat.

Jody Wood,

New York City Intercessors

Pray: In addition, let us continue to pray for God’s working in the hearts of the ambassadors and staff at the U.N. that they will come to know the Lord of the Nations Himself, Jesus Christ. May they hunger to know Him and to become His vehicle for bringing peace and development to the poor and the suffering around our world. Satan would like the U.N. to serve his purpose as a preparer of the way for the Antichrist and the global oppressive control he will represent. Pray that instead God’s good and loving intentions will prevail as never before in that influential body of diplomats.

A Reason We Need to Pray for the U.N.: “Sex Education” Standards Push LGBT Agenda on 5-Year-Olds

In yet another bid by the United Nations to sexualize and indoctrinate your children at younger and younger ages, the UN Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) just unveiled a new set of “Comprehensive Sexuality Education” standards for humanity. Among other controversies, the UN's planetary sex-ed scheme advocates masturbation, abortion, gender confusion, homosexuality, homosexual parenting, contraception, fornication, and more. The document, which cites abortion giant Planned Parenthood almost 20 times, represents a full-blown assault on parental rights and traditional morality that critics say could devastate a generation of young people. But the UN wants it to be mandatory for every child on the planet, starting at age five.

The UN document, dubbed “International technical guidance on sexuality education,” purports to provide an “evidence-based approach” to teaching young children all about sex, homosexuality, gender confusion, and more. But as the document itself makes clear, much of the “evidence” comes from extremist organizations that promote abortion, sexual “liberation,” fornication, and more. Planned Parenthood, for instance, provided much of the alleged “research” and “evidence.” That is despite the fact that the tax-subsidized abortion behemoth and the UN have been exposed in the U.S. Congress helping the Communist Chinese regime with its coercive population-control schemes, including forced abortions. Another outfit involved in the UN scheme was the rabid LGBT advocacy group OutRight Action International.

While self-styled, scandal-plagued UN education ministry UNESCO played a lead role in developing the controversial new sex-ed scheme, it was hardly alone. In fact, the new global “Comprehensive Sexuality Education” guidelines are also being publicly supported by UNICEF, the UN agency ostensibly in charge of “protecting” the world’s children; UNAIDS, which supposedly exists to protect humanity from sexually transmitted diseases; UN Women, the radical pro-abortion outfit supposedly leading the global fight for “women's rights;” and even the World Health Organization, an extreme organization whose leaders are so out of touch that they recently tried to name a genocidal Marxist dictator as “goodwill ambassador” due to his alleged success in providing “universal healthcare” to the victims of his barbarous tyranny.

The document itself would be considered shocking to anyone who adheres to traditional notions of family or morality, whether they be Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or virtually any other religion. For instance, the document promotes “sexual pleasure” for children, beginning before they even turn 10. At age nine, for instance, the UNESCO guidelines call for children to “describe male and female responses to sexual stimulation.” Also at age nine, children are taught that masturbation is fine but should be done in private. The standards brazenly encourage fornication (sexual relations outside of marriage) among children, too, painting traditional morality as old-fashioned and wrong. By age nine, the standards say children should “demonstrate respect for diverse practices related to sexuality.” And by 12, the children are expected to believe that various forms of sodomy are “pleasurable” and less likely to result in infection. They are also to be taught about condom use.

Indeed, the UN document, which distorts abstinence education, is filled with the sexual-revolution ideology that has helped devastate families across the Western world. By age 12, the UN “learning objectives” demand that children “support the right for everyone” to “express their sexual feelings.” And by “sexual feelings,” the UN refers to complete hedonism, with sex being totally divorced from morality. Throughout the manual, which UNESCO hopes will be used to indoctrinate every child on the planet, it is clear that the UN wants everyone to support the so-called “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex” (LGBTQI) agenda. In fact, the document is filled with references to waging war on “homophobia” and “transphobia,” terms that are routinely applied to describe opposition to the redefinition — or undefinition — of marriage that began in recent years and culminated with a rogue Supreme Court lawlessly pretending to create a “right” to something called a homosexual “marriage.”

The document gets worse. When children are nine, for instance, they should be able to “explain how someone's gender identity may not match their biological sex.” At that same age, they must also “demonstrate respect for the gender identity of others.” In other words, even before they reach age 10, they must not only accept, but “respect,” gender confusion that is strongly correlated with mental distress, suicide, and more. At age five, the children are expected to be able to “define gender and biological sex and describe how they are different.” They are also expected to “express respect” for homosexual parenting. “All people should be able to love who they want,” the UNESCO document explains, a clear reference to normalizing and promoting homosexual relations…

In a response to the UN's latest CSE guidelines, Family Watch International President Sharon Slater did not hold back. “We have repeatedly warned governments, parents and other stakeholders that comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is a radical, graphic, sexual-rights, pleasure-based approach to sex education that promotes promiscuity, abortion, and diverse sexual practices and identities to young children,” Slater said in an e-mailed statement. “With this new UNESCO technical guidance publication, we now have additional, conclusive evidence to prove it.”

The recently released UNESCO publication, she continued, “clearly reveals the UN’s stealth global agenda to manipulate and sexualize children through comprehensive sexuality education…

“Parents should be outraged by the content of the UNESCO publication, and UN Member States should demand that the sponsoring UN agencies withdraw their support immediately,” added Slater, whose organization works to defend life, marriage, and the family around the world. Noting the vast array of UN agencies pushing the scheme, Slater highlighted the danger. “This is an all-out frontal assault on the health and innocence of the world’s children from some of the most powerful and well-funded institutions that set the health standards for women and children across the world,” she said.

The CSE mantra is a crucial weapon in the war on the family, Slater concluded. “Comprehensive sexuality education is the primary tool used to advance the global abortion and sexual rights agenda and is designed to change the traditional sexual and gender norms of society by changing the worldviews of children,” she explained. For more information on the dangerous agenda, Slater recommended a short documentary video on CSE by Family Watch International posted at WarOnChildren.org.

The Trump administration's publicly announced plans to withdraw from UNESCO represent a good start. After all, the organization, which has long been dominated by communists, globalists, and other extremists, has been waging war on America, freedom, morality, and more for generations. As this magazine has documented repeatedly, the UN agency is literally trying to standardize indoctrination under the guise of “education” all across the world — not just on sex, but on everything. Indeed, UNESCO leaders have been openly demanding that government-controlled education force drastic changes in the views, behavior, values, and ethics of children worldwide.

However, UNESCO is only part of the problem. As The New American reported last year, the UN appointed an LGBT czar who said that when it comes to brainwashing children to support the agenda, “the younger the better.”…

https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/faith-and-morals/item/28269-un-sex-education-standards-push-lgbt-agenda-on-5-year-olds

Pray: Let us pray strongly and persistently that this assault on the world’s children will be exposed and overthrown by those governments that work with the U.N. and its agencies.

Pray: for a great groundswell of opposition to arise in order to protect the innocence of kids who cannot defend themselves from these perverse institutions and the adults that so misguidedly run them.

Pray: that those who are responsible for the introduction of these outrageously wicked policies and programs will repent or be removed from being able to cause such corruption and harm to children.