Displaying items by tag: Middle East

International Christian Concern (ICC) has observed a marked increase of reported religious freedom violations within Turkey since the start of the New Year. While most of these recent violations impact church buildings, they also include a lack of interest by the authorities in pursuing and protecting justice for Christian victims. Churches are seen as a source of income both by the government (faith tourism) and by society (treasure hunters). Otherwise, church buildings are neglected by the government and often turned into mosques. Pray for the protection and perseverance of believers in Turkey. Pray that the government will honor Christian landmarks and churches.

The Gaza Strip recently took advantage of the latest technologies used to produce drinkable distilled water, thanks to Israeli cooperation. Damour for Community Development, a nongovernmental organisation based in Ramallah in the West Bank, brought into the besieged enclave two atmospheric water generators that turn air into water using solar power. The machines are produced by an Israeli branch of a US company that obtained the patent for this device. Arava Institute for Environmental Research in Israel also donated a third generator for drinking water at a specialised hospital for children in the Gaza Strip. The generators are three months into a six-month trial phase to assess their operation and quality. They will not solve Gaza’s water crisis but will raise residents’ awareness of this technology, which can be the solution to clean water. The suppliers of the generators managed to work without dealing with the Hamas-controlled government institutions which do not coordinate with the Israeli side.

14-year-old Mohammed, a Muslim street child without parental supervision, attended a local Sunday school for the entertainment and free food. Then he was challenged to receive Jesus. He said, ‘I waited until I got home, then at 3:00 am I said, “Lord Jesus, please help me. I am desperate, helpless, hopeless. I cannot take it any more. I need you.” Then within half an hour I slept, and I woke up in the morning excited. I took one of the many New Testaments from Sunday school and put it in my school bag and went to school and started telling people about my experience.’ He was thrilled that he had found the answers to his troubling questions, not where he expected in Islam, but in Christianity, and he boldly told everyone about Jesus. This turned more than a few heads. God had a plan for his life; to read his wonderful story, click the ‘More’ button.

Last week we prayed for change and the need for reforms to alter the way Turkey polices, prosecutes, judges, and imprisons its residents. Almost all Kurdish mayors have been replaced by government-appointed administrators. Judges whose verdicts disagree with government diktats are probed and often punished. 63,014 people were prosecuted for insulting President Erdoğan between 2014 and 2019; 9,554 of them were sentenced. A political analyst said Erdoğan's reform program survived only nine days, and his charm offensive is fake and is too little too late. He wants Turkey to continue as a third-world democracy while hoping to lure foreign investment on the same terms as a Western democracy, but investors are leaving. The economy is in freefall, with double-digit inflation and central bank interest rates up to 15%, while unemployment rises sharply. Erdogan promises to democratise, hoping to reverse the economic downfall, but that will not happen without real reforms.

On 2 December. the 23rd Knesset came one key step closer to being dispersed, but it must still pass three more readings before a new national vote is called. Opposition leader Yair Lapid said, ‘I call upon the Knesset to vote in favour of this bill, to disperse and let the people of Israel choose a government that genuinely cares about them.’ Lapid said his bill was not intended to be ‘just another round of 'anyone but Bibi,’ aimed at defeating Netanyahu. He said the bill was being presented ‘because it's time to end that focus and ‘the anger and the hatred and the terrible mismanagement and the politics that are destroying our country and won't end as long as he's there’. Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz said that Netanyahu needed to leave office due to his criminal cases, and he would have already left had Blue and White listened to his office and not joined the government.

The kings of Jordan and Bahrain flew to Abu Dhabi for an important meeting with crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, as Bahrain’s foreign minister Abdullatif al-Zayani was in Israel meeting his Israeli and American counterparts. These important and unprecedented meetings illustrate the tectonic changes emerging in the Middle East. The tone was different in Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi. A Gulf Air flight which arrived in Tel Aviv, with Zayani and US envoy Avi Berkowitz on board, was the first of its kind; very likely Gulf Air will soon join Flydubai and Etihad, which have announced regular flights to Israel. Meetings about peace and the brave new world illustrates how Israel and the Gulf States are moving toward. This area improvement has been midwifed by the USA.

Israel’s government is considering halting the gradual lifting of coronavirus restrictions, with some senior officials now weighing new prohibitions. A new report cited health ministry officials who warned that a third nationwide lockdown might be imposed during the upcoming Hanukkah festival, which begins in December. ‘The idea that we may need to impose a third lockdown during Hanukkah is not unfounded,’ the sources were quoted as saying. Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has asked experts to draw up plans for new restrictions, including nightly curfews which could be imposed across Israel. Under the current exit strategy, Israel was to have entered the third stage of the gradual reduction of lockdown restrictions next week, with shopping malls and markets reopening, along with studies resuming for students in grades 11 and 12.

Doctors say Covid-19 is now rampant in the refugee camps of Idlib, north-west Syria. The number of positive coronavirus cases rose tenfold in this region last month. Aid agencies say that due to a lack of testing, the real figure is expected to be much higher. In March the UN, aid workers, and doctors began to give stark warnings that camps for the displaced in this area of Syria could be devastated by a coronavirus outbreak. At that time they said 100,000 might die unless medical supplies arrived urgently. See Pray for nations to be generous in their giving, and for the aid agencies to be better funded as they work to distribute much-needed equipment, testing resources and medical advice to save lives. See

Centres of Hope are Christian schools open to anybody regardless of faith background. They want to show Jesus’s love to the community, and they don’t attach conditions to entry. But they do want to make sure that they show Jesus as the real source of hope. Young children and teenagers do separate activities. The young ones dance and sing songs about Jesus and watch biblical stories and funny sketches by staff. The teenagers watch a Christian movie and then discuss it. But like everywhere, Syria has taken measures to prevent coronavirus spreading. Many centres temporarily closed, and staff refocused efforts towards humanitarian and emergency aid. Now the centres are re-opening, and they are praying that they will reach even larger numbers of children to show them the love of God and to tell them the good news of salvation.

The continuing trend of peace initiatives between Israel and its Arab neighbours are creating an upheaval of the Middle Eastern order. Please continue to pray for the people of Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and the Palestinian territories as their leaders seek a stable footing in this season of realignment. Pray for a just and swift end to the Syrian civil war through the peace process that includes the Syrian regime, rebel and Kurdish factions. Pray that the Lord will continue to expose the duplicity and danger of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and that the Lebanese people will continue to turn against terrorist groups and unite together in the formation of a new government. We pray for a shield of divine protection around the state of Israel, that the schemes of her enemies will be thwarted.