Displaying items by tag: Global

Thursday, 07 June 2018 23:00

Action plan on physical activity

The WHO has launched a global action plan on physical activity and health. Worldwide, one in five adults and four out of five adolescents do not do enough physical activity. Girls, women, older adults, poorer people, people with disabilities and chronic diseases, marginalised populations, and indigenous people have fewer opportunities to be active. Regular physical activity is key to preventing and treating non-communicable diseases (NCDs) - such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and breast and colon cancer - which are responsible for 71% of all deaths globally. The action plan calls for training health-care workers and other professionals, stronger data systems, and the use of digital technologies. On 27 September world leaders will meet to take action on physical inactivity and mental disorders at the third UN General Assembly high-level meeting on NCDs in New York.

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 07 June 2018 22:57

Trade tariffs and G7 8-9 June

The G7 leaders will discuss many things, including trade tariffs. France says tariffs are illegal. Macron will not shy away from telling Trump what he thinks. Merkel may try to calm down her EU counterparts to avoid a full-scale trade war. Italy’s new prime minister is a political novice who said Italy is ‘second to no-one,’ and shares some of Trump’s views about ‘putting national needs ahead of global ones’. Japan is not expected to support Trump's tariff decisions. Some believe Theresa May could look for concessions to calm the waters ahead of Trump’s UK visit in mid-July. On 3 June US treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin faced sharp criticism from the angry finance ministers of all the G7 nations over America's imposition of steel and aluminium tariffs. See

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Friday, 04 May 2018 10:40

Ramadan: 31 days - 1.8 billion people

During Ramadan (15 May to 14 June), 1.8 billion Muslims across the nations will be seeking Allah through prayer and fasting. Christian intercessors are being invited to join the ‘Ramadan Challenge’ and strategically pray every day for 31 days for them to have powerful encounters with Jesus as Saviour. Prayercast have provided a video with a featured topic each day to aid intercession and opportunities to sign up to receive daily reminders: see Also a booklet, 30 Days of Prayer, can be downloaded; it has prayers and information to help people understand the Muslim world, the month of Ramadan, and how to pray more effectively. See  Click the ‘More’ button for the stories of five Muslim men from five different countries who all saw Jesus Christ in a dream or a vision and their lives changed for ever.

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 19 April 2018 20:34

Global: praying for the persecuted

Since Jesus laid down His life, tens of millions of Christians have become martyrs. When mission agencies and the media tell us about Christian persecution, we can become overwhelmed and not know where to start or what to pray. The New Testament was written to persecuted believers, and is filled with examples of how to pray for Christians under attack. Here are examples from Ephesians to inspire our prayers: - may believers know the hope God gives (1:18); - for the Holy Spirit’s strengthening (3:16); - may persecuted believers know how much God loves them (3:17); - may they would know how to share the gospel (6:19) and fearlessly tell others about Jesus (6:20). We can also pray that believers have access to a Bible, and for God’s anointing and inspiration for mission agencies and translators who produce and distribute the Bible in different languages. See also Open Doors resource on prayer by clicking the ‘More’ button.

Published in Worldwide
Friday, 06 April 2018 10:30

Global witness of the Church

Christians are to stop putting politics ahead of the Gospel as they advance racial reconciliation, according to comments at an event held in memory of Martin Luther King Jr. While focusing on racial tension in the USA, the dean for intercultural student development at Calvin College Michigan said there had been ‘significant consequences’ of Donald Trump’s win. ‘For those of us who wept as a result of it, we didn't weep because we're big fans of the Democrats. We wept because we knew not just the national but the global witness of the Church was at stake’, she said. A senior pastor from Austin, Texas called on churches to focus on ‘the politics of heaven’ over ‘the politics of this earth.’

Published in Worldwide
Friday, 30 March 2018 00:22

Reflection on the cross

The cross reminds us of the point in history when the world was changed. Two thousand years ago, a cross was an ancient instrument of torture and death for criminals. Christ the accused criminal king, wearing a crown of thorns, was nailed to a wooden cross. Nails that should have pierced my hands and feet held him there. A crown of pain rested on his brow, not mine. A spear that should have penetrated my side stabbed him. The cross, the misery, the mystery - all reduced in 2018 to a piece of jewellery, a t-shirt logo, or perhaps a bumper sticker on a car. Pray for a recovery of Christian faith across our nations; for faith and an unwavering belief that Christ saved us through his death and resurrection. Pray for the relevance of the cross to impact today’s culture once again.

Published in Worldwide
Friday, 30 March 2018 00:17

Global: small churches aren’t broken

The following ideas are found in the Small Church Essentials book: *The lack of a powerful worship band doesn’t mean settling for passionless worship. *Small churches thrive if they prioritise culture, relationships, and history. *If you’re doing the Great Commandment and Great Commission, you have a great church, no matter the size, denomination, or liturgy. *Small congregations may be Christianity’s most overlooked, underutilised asset; but they’re multiplying and driving global church growth. *Healthy churches continually assess and clear space in their agenda, then they are ready to add something fresh and new. *Reaching the next generation will be done through ministry from the church in the community, not just in the church.

Published in Worldwide
Friday, 30 March 2018 00:15

Global: Cambridge Analytica

Recent revelations about Cambridge Analytica (CA) tactics to influence elections using data from Facebook accounts and its role in UK and US election votes are the tip of an iceberg. CA has been linked to elections in Czech Republic, India, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Ukraine. This is a truly worldwide phenomenon. New technologies can be a double-edged sword. Social media has transformed how the public call out the corrupt and demand change. But what happens when the data these tools generate about their users is used as part of a murky process to influence elections? Is this corruption? The now-suspended CEO of CA has said that some emails between the company and its clients automatically self-destruct, leaving no electronic paper trail for investigators looking for election fraud allegations. Also identities of companies working on elections were hidden, presumably through shell companies. ‘No one even knew they were there,’ said another CA executive of an operation in Eastern Europe. See also

Published in Worldwide
Friday, 23 March 2018 12:53

Russian threat to global democracy

Theresa May is warning leaders of Russia’s threat to all democracies; Russia has ‘shown itself to be a strategic enemy not a strategic partner’. Mrs May believes that although the attempted assassination of the Skripals took place on UK soil, the Russian threat does not respect borders and it places all nations at risk, adding, ‘As a European democracy, the UK will stand shoulder to shoulder with the EU and Nato members to face these threats together. United, we will succeed.’ Whitehall stressed the response to the Salisbury attack was carefully calibrated to remain within the law, and the UK was not looking for huge confrontations with Russia or regime change. The US, UK, France and Germany recently signed up to a very strong and uncompromising statement, and the prime minister is now using blunt language to the world and to the rest of EU member states.

Published in Prayer Alert
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Friday, 02 March 2018 10:26

Global: the silent Holocaust

Worldwide, there are approximately 42 milion victims of abortion each year. That's more people than the entire population of Iraq being killed. Abortion is not confined to one region or people group. It is a global tragedy, with roughly 83% of all abortions taking place in developing countries and 17% in the developed world. That is why it is called the silent Holocaust. 40 Days for Life continues until 25 March. This is a unified time of prayer and fasting for God's mercy, healing, and restoration - that He would bring an end to abortion. Multitudes around the world are crying out to God for an end to the shedding of innocent blood. Prayer Alert readers are invited to cry out to God for the lives of those not yet born to have a future and a hope.

Published in Worldwide