We are pleased to bring you this September 2021 edition of IPC Connections.
Our Editorial this month is a response to the tough question of how to pray for the persecuted. We know that many believers all around the world are being discriminated against and persecuted due to their faith. Among others, the situation in Afghanistan has shocked many, as overnight, the risks facing the people of the Christian Church there have escalated. Dr Jason Hubbard reminds us how we can respond in prayer for those facing persecution. He illustrates his points with a moving worship song and a video of the emotive prayers of young children in India.
Our 30 Days of Prayer for Afghanistan continues. More info here.
This month, a number of partnered prayer and worship events are taking place under the banner of Trumpets to Tabernacles – a series of events with the theme of RETURN | REVERE | REVIVE. We would encourage our contacts and networks to watch the 50-minute Trumpets to Tabernacles broadcast which premieres at 9.30pm Jerusalem time on 7th September and can be watched online here. Further details follow below.
Thank you for continuing to partner with us in mobilising and informing united prayer across nations, denominations, movements, and generations for the fulfilment of the Great Commission.
May we express grateful thanks to Andy Page and the IPC Editorial Team who put this email together each month.
Every blessing,
Jason Hubbard - Director
International Prayer Connect
Please use this link if you would like to sow into IPC’s ministry with a donation
Disclaimer… The views and opinions expressed in IPC Connections and the articles on our website are those of individuals and our partner organisations. They do not necessarily represent the policies or views of IPC or its individual leaders.
We aim to respect the diversity within the prayer movement and yet embrace our unified calling to mobilise prayer for the nations. (2 Chron 7:14) If you wish to discuss the appropriateness of any articles, please contact us.
Praying for the Persecuted…
We know that many around the world today are persecuted for the sake of the Gospel. Many have given their lives for the sake of the Gospel and we know this will continue to the end of the age! The estimates today are that more than 340 million Christians are suffering high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith.
Places like North Korea, China, Nigeria, and many places throughout the Middle East, including the current crisis in Afghanistan. Our hearts are breaking for our precious brothers and sisters and their families.
I have often struggled over the years with how I can be involved, and help to serve them? I read verses like Hebrews 13:3 and wrestle with how to respond?
“Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body”
I think one of the most powerful ways is to pray and intercede on their behalf. As Brother Andrew from Open Doors writes, “Our prayers can go where we cannot. There are no borders, no prison walls, no doors that are closed to us when we pray.”- Brother Andrew
Jesus was clear that we would experience tribulation and trouble in this world but to take heart that He has overcome! In Paul’s last letter, the letter of 2 Timothy, he shares with his beloved disciple Timothy his last words about life and ministry to encourage him, “my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. 12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…” (2 Timothy 3:11-12).
We know in many cases God miraculously sets free believers from their imprisonment or severe persecution. At other times he allows his saints like Stephen to be martyred and to give their lives for the message of the Gospel. In either case, God calls us the church to pray and intercede on their behalf!
I have been inspired by the story of Andrew Brunson, an American pastor who was imprisoned a few years ago in Turkey. After 11 months he was given 3 life sentences and assigned to solitary confinement. At a place of despair with little to no hope, he wrote a powerful song, called Worthy of my All. He would sing this song every day and it would strengthen him to keep persevering to the end! Here is a link to the song and words below …
Worthy of my All Video:
Worthy of my All - Lyrics and Chords
Let’s ask the Lord for his burden and heart for those who are suffering today. We want to grow in Love-motivated prayer, “a love-motivated plea, to a love-giving God, on behalf of love-needy persons who live in a love-starved world.” May God give us his compassion and even the ‘gift of tears’ as we enter into the pain of those are suffering today in the place of prayer.
We have worked together for many years with the Royal Kids in India. They have adopted thousands of children, many who had been left to die on the streets or in the garbage slums. Many include the children of temple prostitutes.
These children are growing day by day in their relationship with their ‘Abba Father,’ and praying for people around the world. Here is a short video clip, where they are praying for the suffering saints in Afghanistan.
To connect with key prayer points for our persecuted ‘family’ we recommend Voice of the Martyrs The Voice of the Martyrs (www.persecution.com) or Open Doors, Serving Persecuted Christian's Worldwide they have both put together excellent prayer guides and you can sign up to be a prayer partner, receiving first-hand prayer points and testimonies from around the world!
3 Prayer Points:
Pray: that God would strengthen Jesus Followers with his grace. Pray through Ephesians 3:14-21 on their behalf.
Pray: for ‘Open Doors’ for the sharing of the Gospel in the midst of their persecution. Pray for these workers to be ‘filled with the Spirit and speak the Word of God boldy!’ (Ephesians 6:18-21, Acts 4:29-31).
Pray: for the families of those who have lost loved ones through martyrdom or imprisonment (Galatians 6:2).
May we follow those that have gone before us, ‘denying ourselves, taking up our cross daily, and following Jesus.’ (Luke 9:23).
Dr Jason Hubbard – Director
International Prayer Connect
As of 1st September, the total global figure for people infected by Covid-19 stood at 217.7 million according to Johns Hopkins University. In addition to this, the recorded number who have died totalled 4,519,287. Cases are rising steadily from a recent low point in mid-June, fuelled by the Delta variant.
39.5% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.5.29 billion doses have been administered globally, and 41.1 million are now administered each day. Only 1.7% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose.
Data on a county by country level can be found here.
The Delta variant continues to cause concern in countries such as the USA, and those that have followed a strategy of ‘zero covid’ such as New Zealand and Australia.
After a relative successful initial phase dealing with Covid, many countries in South East Asia are struggling to vaccinate citizens at an effective rate.
Pray: for divine intervention and for God's name to be glorified even as each nation and government tries its best to vaccinate, prevent or control the emergence of new waves of infection and finally arrest this epidemic.
Pray: that individuals, leaders and nations focus on the needs of others rather than themselves, and that co-operation and compassion lie at the heart of the world’s response to the crisis.
We continue to release faith, hope, and love over the peoples of the world. May the Church seize this opportune time to manifest Jesus our Lord and Saviour to those who are seeking answers and purpose.
In a manner that seemed so predictable to many except those in political leadership, The Allied withdrawal from Afghanistan left a vacuum immediately filled by the Taliban with the Afghan government and Army unable to resist and prevent their advances. More than ever, this is a country that needs our prayers.
President Biden said "I believe this is the right decision, a wise decision and the best decision for America".
Over 120,000 people were evacuated, including around 6,000 Americans over the last several weeks. More than 100 Americans were left behind as well as tens of thousands of at-risk Afghans, such as interpreters who worked with the U.S. military, journalists and women's rights advocates, who fear for their lives. It is unclear what their fate will be but officials are concerned that the Taliban may retaliate against them.
The UN Secretary General released this statement expressing concerns of “basic services collapsing completely” in Afghanistan with the risk of total economic collapse and the hardship that will accompany this.
The Taliban leadership has sought to portray itself as more moderate than 20 years ago, when it imposed a brutal rule, stopping women from studying and working. The have insisted women will have the right to both. But reports of women being sent home from their jobs and from universities are exacerbating fears the reality will be very different.
Afghanistan’s only boarding school for girls has temporarily relocated to Rwanda, its co-founder has said, just days after a video of her burning class records to avoid Taliban recriminations was widely shared on social media.
Shabana Basij-Rasikh, who escaped Kabul with 250 students and staff, urged the world to “not avert your eyes” from the millions of girls left behind.
“See those girls, and in doing so you will hold those holding power over them to account,” said Basij-Rasikh in a tweet, as she vowed to return to Afghanistan.
Another teacher, Pashtana Durrani, executive director of Learn Afghanistan, who is now in hiding, vowed she would “raise an army, just like the Taliban did – only mine will be of educated determined Afghan women”.
There are also those truly voiceless and vulnerable to Taliban violence who are now living in terror in remote rural areas as well as in the cities. These are the widows of all ages, but especially at risk are the women and girls from the Hazara community and other minority groups. The 20-year conflict created millions of widows, but now Covid-19, in a country where only 2% of the population is vaccinated, has become a gigantic widow-maker.
Many of these widows are the poorest of the poor, illiterate, reduced to begging in order to survive, but even that is precarious since the Taliban forbids women from leaving their homes without a male guardian. They have no resources, documentation or transport even to get them to refuge in neighbouring countries. They are weeping as they hide, terrified their young girls will be taken as brides for the Taliban.
This is also a difficult time for the families of those who lost loved ones in Afghanistan, both in recent attacks and throughout the course of the 20 years’ war, as they struggle to understand the legacy of human sacrifice.
It is worth remembering the human cost of the conflict:
American service members killed in Afghanistan through April: 2,448.
U.S. contractors: 3,846.
Afghan national military and police: 66,000.
Other allied service members, including from other NATO member states: 1,144.
Afghan civilians: 47,245.
Taliban and other opposition fighters: 51,191.
Aid workers: 444.
Journalists: 72.
More /Sources: AP news, The Guardian
Pray:
O God of mercy and of peace,
We hold before you the peoples of Afghanistan.
Be living bread to those who are hungry each day
Be healing and wholeness to those who have no access to health care amidst the ravages of pandemic
Be their true home to all who have been displaced
Be open arms of loving acceptance to those who fear because of their gender, ethnicity, religious or political views
Be peace to those engaged in armed conflict and those who live within its shadow.
Turn our hearts and minds to your ways of just and gentle peace,
Open our eyes to see you in all acts of compassionate care
Strengthen our hearts to step out in solidarity with your suffering people and
Hold us all in your unfailing love.
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, who emptied himself of all but love in order to bring life in all its fullness.
Amen
Source: Christian Aid
Join with the IPC’s 30 Days of Prayer for Afghanistan at www.ipcprayer.org/pray4afghanistan
Christians in Afghanistan have been paralyzed with fear at the news that the Taliban has taken control of the country. Nadine Maenza, chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom said the Taliban takeover ‘is the worst possible development for religious minorities. While most from these communities left Afghanistan in recent years, those that remain, and women in particular, are now in imminent danger.’
News received by Aid to the Church in Need echoed reports that leaders of underground house churches in Afghanistan had received letters from the Taliban warning them that they 'know where they are and what they are doing'.
According to Pew, around 90 per cent of the 37 million population is Sunni and 9.7 per cent Shia, with the remaining 0.3 per cent belonging to other religions.
Most Christians in Afghanistan are underground, so getting a precise estimate of their number is nigh-on impossible.
One Christian reportedly received a letter saying his house now belongs to the Taliban.
Open Doors, a charity that challenges Christian persecution, ranks Afghanistan as the second-worst country for believers. It says that under former president Ashraf Ghani, Christians faced ‘clan pressure’: in other words, persecution was most likely to come from friends and family. Converts to Christianity risked being killed, or at least disowned, by their family, clan or tribe. In some cases, conversion was treated as a psychiatric condition. There are cases of former Muslims being sectioned.
The constitution of Afghanistan establishes Islam as the state religion and, according to a US Department of State report, religious minorities have to exercise their faith ‘within the limits of the law’. Conversion from Islam is apostasy and can be punished by death, imprisonment or confiscation of property. Proselytizing is also punishable by death.
In Taliban-controlled parts of the country, the treatment of Christians has been harsher. In 2010, the extremist group murdered ten humanitarian aid workers during a medical mission to Badakhshan in the north. They accused them of being foreign spies and of spreading Christianity.
A man named Brother Firas — not his real name — a convert from Islam to Christianity, told International Christian Concern how the takeover move has been received by believers and how the Taliban will operate. According to the charity, he said:
“They will kill the known Christians and want to spread fear. There are already posters appearing that if you have single girls, 15 years old, you have to marry them to Taliban soldiers. Christians fear their daughters will be taken away from them and forced to marry Taliban. They will be sent to madrasas to brainwash them. The parents may or may not be killed... One man received a letter that his house now belongs to the Taliban. He is a simple man who makes crafts and his entire savings are in his house. The Taliban will take the property and assets of the Christians and all their women will be taken.
Release International, which supports persecuted Christians, warned that anyone identified as Christian was facing death. As for living conditions under the Taliban, one Christian Afghan told the charity: “Our brothers and sisters in Christ are telling us how afraid they are. In the areas that the Taliban now control, girls are not allowed to go to school, and women are not allowed to leave their homes without a male companion.”
Sources/More: The Spectator, The Church Times
Pray for wisdom and super-natural strength in times of adversity for all Christians in Afghanistan. Ask the Lord to guide the citizens in the country – especially our brothers and sisters in Christ – in how to deal with interrogations and brutalities in the days to come. (2 Samuel 22:3-4)
Pray for comfort for those who mourn. Pray for God’s presence, grace and love to shine through even the most challenging of situations.
Pray for the underground church in Afghanistan that it will thrive despite these unprecedented challenges. Pray for those that are supporting and resourcing the believers.
Join with the IPC’s 30 Days of Prayer for Afghanistan at www.ipcprayer.org/pray4afghanistan
After armed men snatched seven of Abubakar Adam's 11 children in northwestern Nigeria, he sold his car and a parcel of land and cleaned out his savings to raise a ransom to free them. He sent his 3 million naira ($7,300) into the bush, together with payments from other families in his town of Tegina.
The kidnappers took the money, seized one of the men delivering it and sent back a new demand for more cash and six motorbikes.
"We are in agony," the 40-year-old tyre repairman told Reuters, still waiting for any sign of what happened to his children three months after the mass abduction. "Honestly I don't have anything left."
Kidnappers have taken more than 1,000 students since December amid a rash of abductions across the impoverished northwest. Around 300 of the children have still not been returned, according to a Reuters tally of reports. President Muhammadu Buhari has told states not to pay anything to kidnappers, saying it will only encourage more abductions. Security agencies say they are targeting the bandits with military action and other methods. Meanwhile, hundreds of parents are facing the same quandary: do everything they can to raise the ransoms themselves, or risk never seeing their children again.
"We are begging the government to help," said Aminu Salisu, whose eight-year-old son was taken in the same daylight raid on Tegina's Salihu Tanko Islamic school in May, alongside more than 130 students. Kidnappers collected more than $18 million in ransom from June 2011 to March 2020 in Nigeria, according to an estimate by Lagos-based analysts SBM Intelligence.
That flood of cash brought a flood of new kidnappers, said Bulama Bukarti, an analyst in the Extremism Policy Unit of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. He estimated there were currently around 30,000 bandits operating in the northwest. "It's the most thriving, the most lucrative industry in Nigeria," he told Reuters. Kidnapping has become a tempting career choice for young men at a time of economic slump, double-digit inflation and 33% unemployment.
The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), an NGO, tracked a 28% increase in violence nationwide in Nigeria in the first six months of 2021, compared with the previous six months. Reported fatalities from violence nationwide rose 61% to 5,197, it said.
It all explains, Bukarti of the Extremism Policy Unit said, why Adam and other parents are willing to sell everything they have to pay ransoms themselves. "They cannot afford (it) by any means. But it's a life-and-death matter. And they know security agencies cannot free their loved ones."
Sources/More: Reuters
Pray: for protection and resilience for the young people taken away from their families. Pray for their physical and mental wellbeing (Matthew 18:10)
Pray: for wisdom for families seeking to free their children from captivity.
Pray: for the Nigerian government and the military to succeed in bringing these extremists to justice.
Hurricane Ida has unleashed flash flooding and tornadoes across the north-east of the US, killing dozens and causing devastation in a number of states. Hurricane Ida, the fifth strongest storm in the history of the US, caused large scale destruction across the country’s northeast and Gulf coast, bringing life in the storm-battered areas to a grinding halt. At least 64 people have died in the US after the country's northeastern states were battered by record-breaking rainfall brought by Storm Ida.
The deaths include at least four people who died from carbon monoxide poisoning in Louisiana, two dead in Mississippi after torrential rain caused a highway to collapse, and a number of people killed after their cars were swept away by floods - one of them a Connecticut state trooper.
At least 11 of the deaths in New York were in flooded basement apartments, such as a family of three, including a toddler, who were not able to get out before the water rushed into their home. Most of those who died in New Jersey drowned after their vehicles became caught in floodwaters, with some getting swept away when they got out of their cars into fast-moving water.
Satellite images taken by Maxar on Thursday showed large areas of New Jersey submerged – with business and homes devastated by floodwater.
Ida, one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to hit the U.S. Gulf Coast, knocked out power to over 1 million homes in Louisiana on Monday and prompted rescue operations in flooded communities around New Orleans as the weakening storm churned northward.
Ida made landfall on Sunday 29th August as a Category 4 hurricane, 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina, evoking memories of a disaster that killed more than 1,800 people in 2005 and devastated New Orleans.
"We didn't have another Katrina and that is something that we should be grateful for. However, the impact is absolutely significant," New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell told a news conference.
President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in the state, and the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) sent 3,600 of its personnel and 3.4 million meals to the storm-devastated area.
Some areas in Louisiana that were impacted the most due to Hurricane Ida may have to wait until the end of September to have their power connections restored, said the chief executive of Entergy’s Louisiana division on Saturday.
More than 22,000 power poles have been damaged or destroyed, which was more than the destruction caused by hurricanes Katrina, Zeta and Delta combined, something termed by Entergy Corporation president and chief executive Philip May as “staggering.”
More than 1.2 million have been left without power and food as Ida ripped through Louisiana, Cuba, the east coast of the US, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut last week.
The hurricane has knocked out several power lines, rendering more than 5,200 transformers and nearly 26,000 spans of wires dysfunctional. Nearly 600,000 in Louisiana are still waiting for their power connections to be restored.
While Entergy – which manages the production and distribution of electricity in the US’s south – said full power restoration will be achieved by 29 September, with no “later than” date, some Louisiana customers may have to wait longer, Mr May told the Associated Press (AP).
Sources: Reuters
Pray: Father God, all the elements of nature know Your voice and obey Your command. You are the God who parted the Red Sea with Your hands. You are the God who calmed the storms - even the wind and waves obey You. We pray for You to calm the storm, make the winds die down, and we pray You will provide comfort and safety for those in the path of the storm because You are the God who reigns. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Pray: For those whose homes, businesses and livelihoods have been affected by hurricane Ida in Louisiana and the other states that have been affected. May they find a God-given inner strength as they seek to rebuild both their dwellings and their lives.
Pray: for safety and protection for all of the agencies who are working to restore power and to repair services.
Pray: for resources to be released to help those with little or no home or medical insurances.
IPC will be circulating resources shortly, along with further details of a joint prayer initiative to cover the forthcoming Cop26 conference in prayer. We are sharing some information and links ahead of that, which we trust you will find useful:
Formal briefing on the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference (31 Oct-12 Nov 2021
Glasgow) https://ukcop26.org/
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is the science assessment body known as the IPCC, released its Sixth Summary Report about climate change causes and impacts this past month, and it sets the tone for the forthcoming COP26 Un Climate Conference to be held in Scotland. It is worth reading the short summary report here, with 15 statements outlining the current position, challenges and futures ahead of us.
It states unequivocally ‘that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land. Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred.’
There will be opportunities over the coming weeks to come together with other Christians to pray for the planet and the leaders who will do so much to decide its future. For example, you can pledge your prayers in support of the Young Christian Climate Network (YCCN) in a pilgrimage for climate justice.
If you wish to read theological reflections on COP26 from ‘Green Christian’, then you can do so here.
If you wish for inspiration in prayer, then consider this resource containing 26 Prayers for the Climate and Ecological Emergency.
You can also join a movement of Christians praying and fasting on the 1st of each month for climate justice.
Please contact us if you would like to be kept informed about Cop26 Prayer initiatives.
We acknowledge that there are diverse opinions across the Church on the topic of climate change. IPC aims to respect the diversity within the prayer movement and yet embrace our unified calling to mobilise prayer for the nations. (2 Chron 7:14) If you wish to discuss the appropriateness of any articles, please contact us.