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PALESTINA
Since the militant Hamas group won the alestinian elections in January, tension has been brewing between Hamas and the former ruling party, Fatah.
In April, violence clashes and mass protests across Palestinian areas erupted after a Hamas leader accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (of the Fatah group) of treachery. Palestinians appear to be on the verge of a civil war but both parties had acted quickly to calm the hostilities.
Pray for the many people, especially our Christian brethren, who are suffering because of the violence. Pray for God’s sovereign will to be accomplished in this trouble-plagued land.
SUDAN
More than 200,000 people in Sudan’s Darfur region are not getting the food they need to survive and some 650,000 people are beyond the reach of aid workers. Jan Egeland, United Nations Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs, told the Security Council, “We need a government that enables us to work and does not create obstacles to our work. We need a guerrilla (force) that does not specialise in hijacking relief trucks and fighting each other and displacing new people, which has happened in the past few weeks. And we need funding.”
More than two million people have sought refuge in huge camps since the genocide in 2003. But only 20 percent of relief work in Darfur has been funded this year, Egeland said. More than two million people have been killed and more than four million displaced during the most recent 20-year civil war mainly between the Sudanese government and black African tribes.
Pray for God to open doors for food and aid to reach the suffering, and protection for all the aid workers.
EUROPE
Across Europe the number of children being born to unmarried couples has increased by 600 percent over the past 35 years to almost 30 percent of all babies, according to the Christian Science Monitor. For example, in Sweden, 56% of the overall birth is outside of marriage. France follows with 48%; Britain 42% and Germany 28%. (Statistics taken from the European Union’s official statistics office at Eurostat.)
A majority of the governments across Europe, a traditionally Christian-majority continent, seem to simply state that the changing trend is just a sign of the times.
Dr Peter Brierley of Christian Research has stated that if British unions break up more quickly and more often than marriages apply throughout the continent, then the increasing number of single-parent families in Europe will mean governments will have to rethink policy on a wide range of issues, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
Particular concerns are the strains that will be placed on childcare facilities, employment for single mothers, social and educational needs of children of single parents. In addition, many European countries are already strained by offering state welfare schemes, and the increase could destabilise the current systems.
Pray for churches in these areas to be firm but loving in its stand on the sanctity of heterosexual marriage. Pray for churches to reach out in love to the needy single parents.
EGYPT
cOPTIC Christians and Muslims have clashed in Alexandria, Egypt, in April after a Coptic worshipper was stabbed to death in church. Several others were wounded in attacks at several churches.
Egyptian officials have blamed the attacks on extremists, but Coptic Christians say the government is not doing enough to protect them.
According to Dr. Monir Dowoud, president of the International Christian Union, Copts in Egypt have been the victims of severe human rights abuses and oppression for many years.
Several days after the attacks, the Egyptian government announced it had smashed a terror cell planning terror attacks on tourist targets,
a gas pipeline near Cairo as well as Muslim and Christian religious leaders.
But this cell is only the tip of the iceberg. On April 25, a triple bomb attack ripped apart a Sinai beach resort at the height of the tourist season, killing at least 24 people and injuring more than 80, many of them foreigners. Police has arrested several people.
Pray for Egypt’s Church, that the Holy Spirit will give Coptic Christians boldness to proclaim their faith and the mind of Christ to forgive their enemies. Pray the witness of Christians will be to the glory and praise of God and pray the perpetrators of violence will tire of continual bloodshed and seek the Prince of Peace.
GERMANY
Churches and ministries across Germany are gearing up to take part in the World Cup festivities this June with a host of evangelistic outreach events to bring the Gospel to thousands of football fans.
They have united to form a new network which includes national and international Christian sports ministries under the name of Kickoff2006.
Kickoff2006 will facilitate various projects to serve the spiritual needs of athletes and family members, the visitors and spectators to Germany and the local residents during the event. Pray for unity and joy for our German brethren.
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