Displaying items by tag: South Africa

South Africa’s pandemic infections seem to have reached a ceiling. However, with the fifth highest total in the world, no one is celebrating. The government had months to prepare, but there is a critical shortage of beds, staff and equipment. There are allegations of corruption by public officials ordering coronavirus-related supplies. As chaos and uncertainty swirled around official responses to the virus, a group of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Christians living and working in Lenasia decided to construct their own response as thousands of locals fell ill. Aboobaker Sayed started a community healthcare system in the middle of the raging pandemic with a community-run ambulance service; he secured advanced medical equipment and oxygen concentrators, and has turned ordinary bedrooms into critical care beds. He said, ‘We make plans, but God has another plan and He is the best of planners, so we leave it to Him’.

Global case counts of COVID-19 quietly clicked past 1 million 2^nd April afternoon on the Johns Hopkins tracking map, revealing the disease’s startling speed and reach since it emerged 4 months ago.  

The pandemic is afflicting countries unevenly as the US muffed its early response, while China acted with strong-armed efficiency, and many others are yet to be tested.

Global Highlights

The US: Though the novel coronavirus has emerged in all 50 states, the media focus has zeroed in on New York, which has more than 92,000 cases. That will likely change in the coming days as new hotspots emerge, according to Scientific American.

The American South is at special risk with high numbers of cases per capita. Albany, Georgia has 13 per 10,000 people, for example. And, as  Bloomberg News points out, the region already has some of the poorest health indicators in the country (4 of 5 states with highest diabetes rates) and a lack of health care access that includes shuttered rural hospitals. Of the 239 coronavirus deaths in New Orleans, “40% had diabetes, 25% were obese and 21% had heart problems,” Bloomberg reports.

Africa: WHO has announced that new COVID-19 cases are being reported in Africa at a dramatically accelerating pace as the number topped this week, according to The Citizen (Tanzania). Another worrying sign: Cases are beginning to emerge outside capitals and other large cities. The coronavirus has been detected across South Africa, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Senegal.

Also: Very few of the more than 300 clinical trials that are underway to seek a COVID-19 treatment are in Africa, Nature reports. The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative is part of the new COVID-19 Clinical Research Coalition seeking to remedy this.

More: 

South Africa: Though the country has the most cases (1,462) on the continent, President Cyril Ramaphosa and Health Minister Zweli Mkhize are being lauded for leading an effective and efficient battle against COVID-19, according to the BBC. However, the response also has included rounding up 1,000 homeless men and forcing them into a sports stadium in Pretoria, CNN International reports.  

Ecuador: Officials in Guayaquil report more than 400 deaths in recent days as morgues have been overwhelmed and some bodies have been wrapped in plastic and left on street. UPI

Indonesia: The 170 COVID-19 deaths reported in recent weeks have surpassed nearly 2 decades of bird flu deaths. The Jakarta Post

North Korea: Assertions that the country is coronavirus-free has been viewed skeptically. The Guardian 

Reporting from Johns Hopkins University: https://www.globalhealthnow.org/2020-04/1-million

Further data on Europe and the world: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/geographical-distribution-2019-ncov-cases

BBC news article about the 18 countries who don’t have Covid-19 at the time of writing: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-52120439

Pray: Lord God, the One who has Almighty power, we agree according to your promise in Matthew 18:18-20 that this virus will be stopped in its tracks. That the medical researchers will get a download from Heaven on how to quickly develop a vaccine to counteract COVID-19 and a cure for those who have become infected.

We also agree in prayer, asking that the Body of Christ worldwide will rise up in love and boldness, trusting in your blood to cover and protect us and throwing off fear, so that we can be available to serve, bless, and bear witness to those around us who are terrified and depressed at being infected.

Let us seize this unprecedented opportunity to make you known to those without hope in Christ!

Thank you for your promise that surely, you will be with us "always, even to the very end of the age”  so that we can carry on with the mission you have given us for our world (Matthew 28:20).

Join in Online Prayers:

World Prayer Centre, Birmingham, UK – Virtual House of Prayer
iHop Kansas Prayer Room
247 Prayer Coronavirus Prayer Room 

Praying for Unreached People Groups (UPGs) wholistically and in light of Covid-19 - Since 2018, The Extraordinary Prayer Task Force has focused on increasing prayer for UPGs through collaboration amongst leaders of church movements, mission movements & prayer movements. We meet on Zoom every two months, with our next global call April 20th from 9-11am US Central daylight time focused on praying wholistically for UPGs from the perspective of discipling nations. We will pray in light of Covid-19 outbreak, and also considering major spheres including healthcare, government, education, media and family as we pray for specific UPGs. If you're a leader of a prayer network and interested in joining the discussion, please contact David Sengupta (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) for more information on how to connect to the April 20th call. Mention IPC.

Additional Prayer Resources for Coronavirus

A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ON COVID-19 By Dr Ruth Valerio and Gideon Heugh (Tear Fund)
A coronavirus prayer from Pete Greig
19 Things to Do in response to Coronavirus
Prophecy Today UK’s Responses to Coronavirus
PrayerCast Video and Prayer Briefing
Operation World's Covid-19 Prayers for the Nations and Prayer Calendar

At the time of writing, intercessors have been praying since 6pm on Saturday 22 February and will finish at 6pm on Saturday 29 February. They are praying the Word of God without ceasing in pre-registered one-hour slots from Genesis to Revelation. There are also seven evenings of prayer, worship and encounter meetings during this period. The prayer focuses on unity (Psalm 33), healing of the nation and the land (2 Chronicles 7:14) and revival in South Africa and the nations (Habakkuk 2:14). On Saturday 29 February prayer and prophecy will focus on repenting on behalf of the nation for bloodshed, sexual immorality, idolatry, breaking covenant with God, witchcraft, etc.

Hanover Park is a violent gangland neighbourhood of unemployed young men where even army deployment failed to stop shootings. Gangsters as young as 12 operate within a contested jigsaw of fiefdoms in the historically ‘coloured’ township - 15-minutes from well-heeled central Cape Town. Mary Bruce points to identical three-storey flats ‘That’s the Ghetto Kids. Over there are the Dollars, and this side are the Americans. They fight everyone.’ A couple of hundred metres towards the taxi rank the ‘turf’ yields the Mongrels and Laughing Boys gangs. Up to 500 youths in Hanover Park could be classed as ‘child soldiers’. Nearly 7,000 people in Hanover Park are active within the myriad street gangs that have their roots in a prison gang culture on the Western Cape that stretches back over 100 years. Pray for ‘Ceasefire’, NGO violence interrupters working to nip trouble in the bud and help gangsters to quit.

In July Filmon, an Eritrean victim of anti-Christian persecution, applied for political asylum via Port Elizabeth (PE). The Department of Home Affairs told him to return after a month. Despite a court order for the department to reopen its Cape Town office, people like Filmon have to make repeated trips to PE. When he finally had a hearing on 9 October, the official concluded he was a genuine victim of religious persecution - but in November his application was refused, and despite being assisted by an experienced lawyer he got a permit for only one month. His wife Sharon, a medical doctor, who fled from their Marxist-governed country ahead of her husband, was also refused asylum. Filmon has been advised to pay a bribe, as the only way to be successful, but as a matter of principle he does not wish to do this. He now has to go to PE for the fifth time, unless God intervenes.

A Rocha is a respected Christian environmental organisation, currently operating in over twenty nations. On 28 October, Peter and Miranda Harris, its co-founders, along with Chris Naylor, executive director of A Rocha International, and his wife Susanna, were involved in a fatal car accident in Port Elizabeth. Miranda, Chris, and Susanna did not survive. Peter and the driver of the car are being treated at a local hospital and are in a stable condition. Please pray for the families concerned, and also for the future leadership of the organisation.

In North Korea leaders put workers' wages into a government fund used to strengthen defence power, including nuclear development, importing luxury goods, operating the Labour Party, and constructing political achievements. Workers’ complexes are surrounded by barbed wire and under military surveillance, like labour camps. Peru’s power struggle is creating the worst political crisis in decades, with both the president and the vice-president claiming to be the country’s rightful leader, and its congress closed while surrounded by riot police. Peru’s dysfunctional and corruption-ridden political system has courted crisis for years, with three of its past presidents under investigation and one dead after shooting himself during his arrest. In Iraq at least ten are dead and 286 wounded, after riot police fired on thousands of demonstrators against unemployment, government corruption, and poor services. In Cape Town civil unrest and anarchy on the roads is being created by taxi operators displeased by strong-arm police tactics over their reckless driving. See also and and

UPRising South Africa - ‘PRAYER By Youth For Youth’ - 4-6 Oct 2019

The young people of UPRising (United Prayer Rising) are saying that as young people in the church, we are Uniting in Prayer, Rising as a body of young people, forming a revival wave, taking a stand, marching to the gates of Hell to give the devil back his surname and take our Identity back.

And Uniting in prayer together, black or white, every tribe, putting our differences aside and praying non-stop with every young person across South Africa, Africa and around the world. Because where there is United Prayer, (Psalm133:1-3) God is present and where God is, there is hope, love, transformation and honour.

UPRising South Africa aims to mobilise young people in every street, every township, every city, every province to Pray, BELIEVING.... and to see great and wonderful things happen as a result!

We will gather. We will pray. We will see change across our country.

4th - 6th October, Orange Farm, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa.

Bishop Peter Sekhonyane - IPC Leadership Team

More at: www.uprising-south-africa.or

Cyril Ramaphosa won the May elections on a reformist ticket against ANC’s corrupt old guard. Now he is dealing with a corruption row over land reform in the countryside and xenophobia in the towns. When he took over he pledged to bring ‘ethics’ into politics. But for much of his short tenure, Ramaphosa has fought a campaign addressing financial scandals. His first move as president was spearheading controversial reforms which would advance land transfers to the black majority. But many black people don't yet know how to farm,so they need the white commercial farmers to train and help them. Recently, cities have experienced violent mobs looting shops and torching vehicles owned by foreign nationals, in a wave of xenophobic attacks. Angry residents are calling on the government to deport undocumented migrants. Nigeria sent an envoy to South Africa to express her displeasure over the treatment of her citizens, and Ethiopia's embassy advised its citizens to close their businesses. See also

UPRising South Africa - ‘PRAYER By Youth For Youth’ - 4-6 Oct 2019

United Prayer Rising - South Africa arose out of the 2016 UPRising event in Seoul, South Korea.  The South Africa delegation came home with a burden - to see young people across South Africa reconciled and praying in unity for the needs of their generation, the Church and of their country.

‘There is only so much we can do for this generation’ - those are the words of Parents, selective leaders and the government.  Young people seem to have become impotent in our societies. Everything that is bad is associated with ‘young people’.

It is almost like our surname is ‘trouble, rape, robbery, gangster-ism, drugs, pain, loss, hopelessness, drunkards, thieves, poverty and death’.

Somehow, that's what our parents see when they look at us, that's how society sees us, that's how the government sees us and we have to admit there is truth in that.  Because we have become hooligans and we cannot tell right from wrong.

Admitting that means we know that there’s a problem and there is a way to solve it. Nothing is beyond God, nothing is impossible with him. Change and transformation are Gods specialties. Hebrews 1:3 declared that all things were created through Christ. This declares that we, as young people are created through Christ, for Christ, in Christ's image and likeness and therefore that means that we are overcomers, pace-setters and game-changers.

We, the young people of UPRising (United Prayer Rising) are saying that as young people in the church, we are Uniting in Prayer, Rising as a body of young people, forming a revival wave, taking a stand, marching to the gates of Hell to give the devil back his surname and take our Identity back. And Uniting in prayer together, black or white, every tribe, putting our differences aside and praying non-stop with every young person across South Africa, Africa and around the world. Because where there is United Prayer, (Psalm133:1-3) God is present and where God is, there is hope, love, transformation and honour.

Let’s Unite in prayer and be more than Joseph who got to see Canaan, or David who smote Israel’s biggest enemy.  Let’s acknowledge Christ who changed our surname from evil to Good, and gave us life.

UPRising South Africa aims to unite young people from across the provinces in united prayer for justice, peace, healing and reconciliation in our nation.

UPRising South Africa aims to mobilise young people in every street, every township, every city, every province to Pray, BELIEVING.... and to see great and wonderful things happen as a result!

Join us! Get in touch, plan to be at UPRISING SOUTH AFRICA 2019, spread the word!

We will gather. We will pray. We will see change across our country.

4th - 6th October, Orange Farm, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa.

Bishop Peter Sekhonyane - IPC Leadership Team

More at: www.uprising-south-africa.org