In September 2017 the eccentric Catholic Tory MP Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg addressed a crowd of 100 activists in Westminster who had signed up to the ‘Moggmentum’ movement which grew over the summer. A survey at the time found that he was Tory members’ favourite to be the next leader, despite the fact that he has never held a frontbench post. Ten months later he insisted again that he is not ambitious and not aware of a £750,000 war chest raised by supporters for an eventual leadership bid. He joked, ‘There isn't a leadership contest. I’m very unlikely to be the next Pope and just as unlikely to be the next Prime Minister. The papacy would be fantastic. I would be infallible, which is better than is given to most politicians.’ He named Sajid Javid and Michael Gove as ‘first-class candidates’ to succeed Theresa May when there is a vacancy.

Charlie Rowley, 45, and Dawn Sturgess, 44, fell ill at a house in Amesbury and remain in a critical condition after being exposed to Novichok, the same nerve agent that poisoned ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal. There was nothing in their background suggesting the pair were targeted. Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said they could not confirm whether the nerve agent came from the same batch but the possibility was ‘clearly a line of inquiry’. Chemical weapons expert Richard Guthrie says the Novichok used on the Skripals may have been disposed of haphazardly. Security minister Ben Wallace says he cannot guarantee people are 100% safe from further contamination. The areas around Amesbury and Salisbury where the couple went on the day they fell ill have been cordoned-off and police warned the public against picking up anything if they didn’t know what it was. Pray for the victims’ recovery and for successful detailed examination of potentially dangerous areas.

The Passport Office and Action Fraud are raising awareness of the need to report missing passports to prevent documents from being used to commit identity crime and facilitate illegal travel across borders. Almost 50 million people hold a UK passport and 400,000 are lost or stolen annually. Yet despite the risks people wait on average 73 days before making a report. Passports have all the information that fraudsters need to steal an identity and set up accounts in that name. Immigration Minister, Caroline Nokes, said, ‘When you lose your bank card, the first thing you do is contact your bank and have it cancelled, yet people don’t treat lost or stolen passports with the same urgency’. By reporting missing passports, law enforcement agencies and immigration control officers can keep ahead of criminals attempting to get a UK passport illegally. This also ensures action can be taken against anyone identified as having obtained a passport by fraudulent means.

Drug deaths have reached their worst level in Scotland since records began, (934 in 2017). Statistics show Scotland's drug death-rate is roughly two and half times the UK rate and ‘massively worse’ than anywhere in Europe. The official ‘Drug-related deaths’ paper shows methadone, the heroin substitute, was present in nearly half of all deaths. Methadone is prescribed by the NHS to keep people off drugs! Annie Wells, the Scottish public health spokesperson, said, ‘ We need a radical and urgent drugs strategy, not one that waves the white flag in the face of drug-dealers and those who profit from this despicable industry, but one that gets tough on the issue. We need to help vulnerable people beat the habit once and for all, not park them on methadone just to watch them die from that very substance years later.’ Pray for God to inspire ministers to implement a successful, revitalised substance use strategy.

‘Gay conversion therapies’ are to be banned as part of a government 75-point plan to improve the lives of gay and transgender people. A national survey of 108,000 LGBT people suggested that 2% have undergone the practice with another 5% having been offered it. A plan costing £4.5m, has been produced in response to the survey. A national LGBT health adviser will be recruited to tackle discrimination, improve the response to hate crime and improve diversity in education institutions. While the government did not offer a definition of conversion therapy, its report said it ranges from ‘pseudo’ psychological treatments to surgical interventions and 'corrective' rape. Faith organisations were the most likely to have carried out the therapy, according to the report. The NHS does not refer people for it and disagrees with the practice.

The Trumpet Call day was framed in worship to Jesus - The Lamb who has conquered - and included deep times of humbling, confession and repentance after RT Kendall spoke and again after Malcolm Duncan had spoken.  The promise contained in 2 Chronicles 7:14 invites us to continue to come to our heavenly Father on an ongoing basis for ourselves, for the Church and for our nations, in humility and confession in order that we might see a continuation of the turning from our wicked ways.  The WPC team have had many encouraging feedback comments. One Church leader said it had completely turned around his ministry, another said ‘awesome is an overused word but it truly was awesome’. The team has also been very encouraged by feedback on evangelistic events happening at the same time and the week after and by conversations about prayer and mission whilst recognising that there is a hard road ahead of us.

Lewis Hamilton believes he has the hand of God resting over him when he steps into his Formula One car. The Christian racing driver will set his sights on wrestling back the championship lead at the British Grand Prix. ‘Anything can happen any day, but I feel God has his hand over me,’ Hamilton, 33, said ahead of his home race. ‘Every morning I have breakfast and before I eat, I pray. Every time I eat, actually, I pray. So, whether it's a couple of seconds, a minute or whatever you are praying for, take that moment. He attends church with a couple of friends, ‘We leave Church most often feeling enlightened and empowered. Sometimes you leave, and you are like 'I didn't get that today', but most of the time you leave and you are like 'wow, I know where I am going'.

Last week Prayer Alert readers prayed for Cabinet members to get behind Theresa May as she prepares to negotiate with EU members next week, hoping to deliver the best possible clean Brexit  for the UK.

At the time of writing, (2 July 2018) Theresa May’s cabinet is squabbling loudly and in public ahead of a ‘crunch’ meeting at Chequers on Friday - when the Prime Minister wants to unite her team to agree on the terms of a white paper that she will present to Brussels next week.

There are strong views being aired on both sides of the Brexit debate regarding the customs arrangement. Brexiteers do not want to compromise in any customs union plans, while former remainers do not want anything that will damage UK business.

Pray: for God to pour his oil of peace over cabinet members in the coming days and during Friday’s meeting.
Pray: Ask God to replace public political backbiting and media speculation with professional qualified comments. May He bring harmony into all of Friday’s debates.
Pray: for Friday’s meeting to determine a way forward according to God’s agenda for the future of the United Kingdom.
Pray: for God’s flawless direction to replace unedifying public debate.

Greetings!  We are pleased to bring our partners around the world the July edition of International Prayer Connections.   Amidst many challenging and needy situations, there are reasons to give thanks to our Heavenly Father… for breakthrough in the Korean Peninsula that even months ago we could not have imagined and early rains in Cape Town that have eased the potential drought situation, to name just two.

Each month, I meet with fellow network leaders around the globe, using online conferencing software. I cannot remember a time with so much happening to further the mobilising of prayer and mission.  We are seeing a number of initiatives that are focused on raising awareness and prayer for the unreached peoples’ groups.  The Children in Prayer Movement are doing some excellent work and are an example of great collaboration.  There are some encouraging developments across the middle east too. 

I am grateful to my colleague Brian Mills for writing our lead article this month on the topic of Praying for the Persecutors.   He has recently published a book entitled ‘Window on the Darkness’ that is timely and challenging. It is available in print or Kindle formats from Amazon USA |  Amazon UK .

May I draw your attention to the United Prayer Rising event taking place in Toronto, Canada August 8-11 2018.  This will be a significant event. Please see the article below.  More information and sign up here:www.uprisingcanada.com

International Prayer Connections is produced and distributed freely each month.  We are grateful to those who give generously to enable this to happen.   If you would like to make a gift towards our costs, please click here.

Best wishes, in Him

John D Robb

IPC Chairman

By Brian Mills, Senior Advisor to the IPC

In recent days and weeks the catalogue of stories about Christians being persecuted seems to have increased in momentum.

Last week it was Mozambique, where Heidi Baker described how people were being beheaded, women were being raped and villages were being burned to the ground as Islamist terrorists went on the rampage.  The week before it was about some churches in Indonesia being targetted by Islamist suicide bombers, with many deaths.

Last month it was about registered churches in Algeria being closed by the authorities, and followers of Jesus being restricted in what they are able to do.  Bombs going off in Afghanistan with the main targets being those who are NGO’s from other nations.  Many of the stories don’t get picked up by Western media.   But on a daily basis Christians are killed or put in prison for their faith somewhere in the world.

Ministry leaders are experiencing increasing difficulties for their NGO’s and those serving Christ to obtain visas to travel into some of the most needy countries.  Sometimes it is because of the dangers facing foreign workers, sometimes it is because foreign workers are not welcome.  Sometimes the visits of foreigners puts added stress on indigenous followers of Jesus, in addition to the dangers they face constantly.

North Korea, so much in the news recently, has for many years been the number one country for persecution in the world.  We are seeing how the situation there is beginning to change, and the hope is that this will help the thousands of Christians held in concentration camps there to find freedom.  The prayers of God’s children, both in S. Korea and also from many other nations, over many years, and the many prayer assignments conducted in the DMZ, have built up to the stage that now we are beginning to see an unprecedented change in the spiritual atmosphere.

One of our friends in a Middle Eastern country – a remarkable woman of faith and enterprise - faces daily death threats from those who don’t want to see Christians succeed in their task and mission to refugees and to people of the majority population.

So how should the church around the world respond?  What difference can ordinary Christians make?

There are three main ways in which agencies devoted to helping the persecuted church operate.

1. Advocacy. These make representations to governments, the UN and the world’s media on behalf of some of the worse cases of those who are discriminated against or are in prison, sometimes on trumped-up charges, because of their Christian faith. Some cases grab the headlines.  Many more are kept out of the limelight because of the sensitivities.  They need prayer.
2. Aid. These agencies seek to raise money and other resources to help impoverished churches and Christians function in the face of adversity. In many countries followers of Christ are unable to get jobs and face daily discrimination. Some are in refugee camps, and some are reaching out to those in refugee camps who are fleeing conflicts. The aid given is many faceted – from food to medical supplies, to finance for micro-businesses, to educational supplies for children, and for the supply of Bibles. They need prayer.
3. Advance. These are the agencies that through personnel, resources and training help and equip indigenous leaders and believers in Christ to reach out with the Gospel, develop disciple-making movements and plant churches. Some of the most exciting stories of the growth of the church are coming from countries where persecution has been intense. In several Moslem countries the atrocities committed by Moslem against fellow Moslems is causing many thousands to turn away from Islam. The door is opening wider for the Gospel to be shared – but the spiritual climate is at least uncertain, and sometimes extremely dangerous.  They all need prayer also.

So when we pray, what do we pray for?   Most Christians seem to pray out of a sense of solidarity with those who are going through the fires of persecution.  We are moved by the latest stories to hit the headlines.  We pray for those who are suffering.   We pray for those who are in danger or who are in prison, because of their faith. We pray for those seeking to reach out, despite the difficulties.   Some of the stories of those who against all odds are doing this are deeply challenging to those in non- persecuted parts of the church globally.   Some of us pray for Christians to escape persecution, or to survive despite persecution.  But is that the right prayer?   Some pray that those we know will be kept safe – is that it?

Followers of Jesus in countries where persecution is rife accept being persecuted as part of the normal Christian life. They know that Jesus said “If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (John 15.20). Many of them are praying for weak Christians in the West, who don’t get persecuted, nor live in danger, but where faith is compromised in many dishonouring and not so subtle ways.

However, let me ask - do we pray as Jesus instructed us to pray?  “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5.44-45). Paul picked this up in Romans 12.14, when he wrote “Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse”.

What a difference would be made if the church around the world started blessing the persecutors – be they Governments, adherents of Islam, Buddhism or Hinduism, or Islamist or any other kind of terrorists?  The example of Egyptian believers  - when a number of Arab followers of Jesus were publicly be-headed by ISIS followers - is an outstanding example of this.  Instead of bemoaning their plight, they started forgiving their persecutors and blessing them in word and song. The results are being seen in a rich harvest of souls in Egypt today.

Instead of being fearful of persecution, let’s focus on those doing the persecution, whatever their motivation may be.

By all means let us continue to pray for our brothers and sisters in general who are persecuted for their faith, but let’s also re-focus our praying on those mainly responsible for the persecution, that God would open their eyes and give them encounters with Him.  He once did it with someone called Saul of Tarsus!   And He can do this again and again in many situations around the world.

Brian Mills, Senior Advisor to the IPC