Turkey: Riots resulting from proposed project
A company with close ties to the government intending to build cultural centres, a mosque, an Ottoman-era military barracks and an opera house on a treasured Istanbul park was the trigger for protests that have spread into nationwide anti-government unrest. A BBC reporter who has covered unrest in Greece, the Occupy protests and reported from Tahrir Square said the breadth of social support within the urban enclave of Istanbul is bigger.’ Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, ‘This is not about Gezi Park anymore. These are organized events with affiliations both within Turkey and abroad. Those who make news and call these events the Turkish Spring do not know Turkey.’ Protesters say the Turkish government is becoming increasingly authoritarian. They fear that Mr Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) is trying to impose conservative Islamic values on the officially secular country and infringe on their personal freedoms.
Pray: for all unions, political and religious groups to calm the situation - remembering that peaceful demonstrations are part of democratic expression. (Ps.37:37)
More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22753418
Columbia: Portion of an open letter to the Prime Minister of Canada
‘I am a 24-year-old Canadian citizen living and working in Colombia with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) as an international human rights observer, striving for justice and peace in a country torn by a 50-year civil war. I want to tell you about Las Pavas, a farming community in rural Colombia, their displacement over the past ten years and the violations of their rights that continue to this day at the hands of palm oil company Aportes San Isidro. I want to tell you this because as Canada, now a ‘Free Trade’ partner with Colombia, imports millions of palm oil products, it perpetuates these crimes.’ The letter goes on to explain how hard-working farmers struggle to survive after the palm company knock down homes, threaten lives, rape the women and even shoot at farmers while they work. To read the whole document click on the more button.
Pray: for justice in this and similar situations where industry and profits outweigh human dignity and rights. (Ps.45:4)
More: http://www.cpt.org/cptnet/2013/05/29/colombia-open-letter-prime-minister-canada
America: American Pastor’s wife appealing to UN
Naghmeh Abedini, wife of Paster Saeed Abedini who is currently being held prisoner in Iran addressed the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday, June 4, 2013 about her husband's plight. 'For nearly a year, the Iranian government has tried to silence my husband, Saeed Abedini, through illegal imprisonment, torture, and threats against our family. My husband is a U.S. citizen and loving father of our two young children. He has been held in Iran's brutal Evin Prison because of his faith and without a voice to fight for his freedom. I must, therefore, be his voice. In light of his failing health due to repeated beatings by his captors and their refusal to give him necessary medical care, I cannot sit idly by – time is running out. Saeed is not guilty of violating any Iranian law; instead, he is being held as a prisoner of conscience.'
Pray: that Naghmeh’s address to the United Nations Human Rights Council will result in the international community speaking out against Saeed's persecution.
More: http://www.foxnews.com/opini
Student Volunteer Movement 2 (SVM2) is pleased to announce the 2013 dates for the “21 Days for Global Harvest” prayer campaign. It will take place from September 29 – October 19, 2013.
“21 Days For Global Harvest” encourages local churches, campus ministry fellowships and Bible schools to promote small group prayer for spiritual awakening in the body of Christ resulting in global harvest among the unengaged over a 21 day period. A daily prayer guide helps bring focus to our prayer and intercession. It is an opportunity to focus our prayers from around the world on God’s glory among the unengaged.
A new updated video will soon be available on our website that you can use to Promote the Prayer Campaign (http://21daysofprayer.net/get-involved/spread-the-word/) among your constituency. Don’t forget to register (http://21daysofprayer.net/get-involved/21-days-registration/ yourself for “21 Days” and commit to participate as well.
Joel Iyorwa
21 Days of Global harvest coordinator
Mobile - +66 8427 82683 / Email - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. /Website - www.SVM2.net / Abandoned Times Blog – www.SVM2.net/abandonedtimes/
This is the season for the children of the One and Only Living God to embrace the Father’s Heart in 2 Chronicles 7:14. Therefore, we invite the Global Body of the Christ to participate in A Day of Repentance 7/14 during Sunday worship services on July 14, using 2 Chronicles 7:14 as our common guide for unity, humility, prayer and repentance from our sins that the Lord may forgive and heal our land. We also encourage prayer gatherings on Saturday, July 13 to intercede for a mighty move of the Holy Spirit on Sunday, July 14 as we repent for our sins and the sins of the Church. For additional details and contact information, please visit www.prayersurgenow.net. As a follow up to A Day of Repentance 7/14 for your congregation or ministry, please consider 10 Days of Prayer: September 4-14, 2013 during the 10 Days of Awe - from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur - for your city or region. Please consider the following inspiration for "Repentance” and “10 Days”.
"Repent" was the first word Jesus spoke when He began to preach in Matthew 4:17. Repentance is not only the key to entering the Kingdom of Heaven, it is also the key final act by which the Lord - honoring His covenant with His People at a time when He has shut up heaven and has sent pestilence - hears from heaven, forgives our sins and heals our land as revealed in 2 Chronicles 7:13-14. There is now a growing realization in the body of Christ that we need to activate this Truth through days of repentance. A nonprofit, nondenominational Christian ministry is now supporting the season of repentance and welcomes all to join without cost to speak for repentance in their community: www.dayofrepentance.org.
10 Days is a vision rooted in Jesus' prayer in John 17, "let them be one as we are one". Believing that "Jesus gets what He prays for", it's a strategy for bringing city-wide churches together into a 10 Day season of worship, prayer, and fasting on an annual basis. The focus of the time is three-fold: (1) personal repentance, encounter with God, and transformation; (2) corporate prayer for Scriptural promises; and (3) promoting "eager longing" for the return of Christ. As Zechariah 8:20-21 states, "In that day people from one city will go to another saying, 'Come, seek the Lord with us. I myself am going". It's our hope that such a movement of prayer from city-to-city will take place during this annual time-table. Please visit www.10days.net (currently under construction) for more information.
Dai Sup Han, Facilitator, Prayer Surge NOW!, Serving with YWAM
Jonathan Friz, Facilitator, 10 Days of Prayer & New England Alliance
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., www.prayersurgenow.net, www.thefatherheart.com
The U.S. military is embracing a celebration of homosexuals (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/23/military-gives-a-salute-to-gay-pride-month/) in the ranks this month by sending out a homosexual pride poster and a directive to commands, while planning a Pentagon symposium that will be attended by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. In the aftermath of ending the ban on open homosexuals in the military, the Pentagon last June recognized Homosexual Pride Month for the first time in a subdued recognition of uniformed and civilian homosexuals. As defense secretary at the time, Leon E. Panetta gave a public statement, and a Pentagon event featured an active-duty homosexual Marine, a homosexual Air Force civilian lawyer and a female homosexual who had served in the Army.
As these decisions and celebrations in the military stem from a pro-homosexual administration, let our intercession begin at the top. Pray that the president and his advisors will treat all citizens and citizen groups with equal fairness. Pray that conservative Christians and evangelical chaplains will have at least as much voice and receive the same respect and recognition that the homosexual lobby demands and gets. Pray that the Lord would deliver our nation from leadership that rebels against God's Word. Pray for righteous leadership in the land. Pray for the strengthening of righteous decisions for our military command. Pray for protection and for the elevation of those leaders in our military who will not bend their knee to unrighteous edicts.
Eight drug kingpins, also known as "plaza bosses," were identified by a multi-agency effort earlier this month.
The bosses, covering a drug network spanning the length of the southern U.S. border, are members of the Sinaloa Cartel, according to a release from Customs and Border Protection.
The eight men were identified as follows:
- Cenobio Flores Pacheco (a.k.a. Luis Fernando Castro Villa)
- Jesus Alfredo Salazar Ramirez
- Guillermo Nieblas Nava (a.k.a. Adelmo Niebla Gonzalez)
- Ramon Ignacio Paez Soto
- Felipe De Jesus Sosa Canisales
- Armando Lopez Aispuro
- Jose Javier Rascon Ramirez
- Raul Sabori Cisneros
A Customs and Border Protection (CBP) special task force along with the Drug Enforcement Agency and the State of Department say these men helped oversee the illegal flow of drugs over the border.
PRAY:
- Mighty God, capture, convict, and bring down the operations of the Sinaloa Cartel Plaza bosses: Cenobio Flores Pacheco, Jesus Alfredo Salazar Ramirez, Guillermo Nieblas Nava, Ramon Ignacio Paez Soto, Felipe De Jesus Sosa Canisales, Armando Lopez Aispuro, Jose Javier Rascon Ramirez, Raul Sabori Cisneros.
- Capture and convict Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, known as Public Enemy No. 1.
- Give success to law enforcement and military personnel in the breakup and destruction of the TCO/DTO supply lines, distribution, and sales operations.
- We pray for key cartel leaders to come to repentance and faith in Christ and that word of their salvations would shake the trafficking underworld.
- Lord, protect our law enforcement as they carry out their God-ordained responsibilities to keep law and order and defend our citizens.
PRAISES!
May 13, 2013: Federal agents have arrested 12 Mexican nationals accused of smuggling drugs into the United States and seized hundreds of pounds of marijuana. The Border Patrol estimates the street value of the drugs at $282,000.
May 14, 2013: Border officers found more than 30 pounds of methamphetamine hidden in the rear bumper of a car being driven across the Nogales border crossing. A drug dog at the Mariposa crossing alerted officers to a sedan Officers pulled 33 packages of the drug from the bumper. The estimated street value was $512,000, the release said.
May 17, 2013: Federal agents intercepted more than 2,300 pounds of marijuana following a traffic stop in Nogales. A search of the van turned up 12 boxes containing more than 930 pounds of marijuana. Information provided by the suspects led agents to a warehouse, where a search led to the seizure of an additional 1,370 pounds of marijuana.
From: BridgeBuilders Int’l (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Capitol Hill aides spent their Memorial Day weekend scanning hundreds of pages of documents related to the IRS scandal in order to prepare their bosses for what will inevitably be a frantic month of June involving multiple simultaneous investigations into government wrongdoing. By the time lawmakers return to session next week, at least four different investigations will be underway. As The Daily Caller has reported, at least five different IRS offices including Cincinnati, Ohio; Baltimore, Maryland; Chicago, Illinois and El Monte and Laguna Niguel, California improperly targeted conservative nonprofit groups for extra scrutiny between 2010 and 2012.
Give thanks to God for bringing these questions to the light of inquiry so they can be examined. Pray that all corruption would be exposed and dealt with in a fair and equitable manner. Pray for the restoration of a rightly balanced Internal Revenue Service.
From: “Focus on the Family” (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
UNITED STATES v. WINDSOR, EXECUTOR OF THE ESTATE OF SPYER, ET AL. Click for PDF version. (http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-307_g2bh.pdf)
The Supreme Court's ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act provides some clarity about a fast-growing practice for banks: financial planning for same-sex couples. (http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/wall-street-doma-decision-93213.html)
The country's highest court handed down a landmark opinion on a section of the law that denies married homosexual couples the same federal rights and benefits as married heterosexual couples. For example, under DOMA, homosexual couples cannot file joint federal income tax returns, do not receive Social Security survivor benefits and cannot access federal estate and gift tax marital deductions - all important issues that factor into married couples' long-term financial planning.
Pray that our nation does not continue down this Sodom and Gomorrah path of destruction. Pray that sound voices of logic and reason would align with God's Word on the subject of homosexual sin. Pray that those who advocate the sin of homosexuality would bend their knees to the Lord's sovereignty and that the Lord would deliver their souls from the death-grip of Satan's domain while there is yet some time to do so. Pray, too, for God's mercy on the U.S., and that a heaven-sent, widespread revival will sweep through the Church in America and bring many to repentance and a true heart-change on these deeply divisive issues.
"You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination." (Lev. 18:22)
"If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltness is upon them"
(Lev. 20:13)
"But God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He love us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) . . ." (Eph. 2:4-5)
The "INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF PRAYER-LINKING THE ISLANDS" in Queensland, Australia is officially launching the first National House of Prayer in Melanesia, in Honiara in the nation of Solomon Islands from July 10th-14th, 2013.
Delegations from five Melanesian nations of Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu and the two western nations of Australia and New Zealand and representatives from US, Africa & Asia will attend this historical event to pray, worship and celebrate with the church, the government and the people of Solomon islands on this great Kingdom Advance occasion.
The Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, Honourable Gordon Darcy Lilo will officially launch this SOLOMON ISLANDS HOUSE OF PRAYER on Sunday 14th at the National Stadium at Lawson Tama and his government will officially sponsor the International Leaders Breakfast, Prayer and Seminar on Saturday 13th July at the Solomon Kitano Mendana Hotel... The vision of SIHOP is to encourage Prayer, Worship and to do Mission together as One Nation, One People, One Church and One Government under ONE GOD, THE LORD ALMIGHTY.
Prayer Requests:
- Pray for God’s manifest presence to be upon this gathering and that God’s name be honoured and be glorified.
- Pray for all the speakers for this four days of ministry activities in Honiara.
- For the seven nations that are currently part of this ‘IHOP-LINKING THE ISLANDS’ Prayer Network.
- For the development of the new IHOP-Linking the Islands’ base in Queensland Australia where God has recently and miraculously provided a large property for this ministry.
Brother Roy Funu
Founder/Visionary of IHOP-LINKING the Islands