Broadening Of The Prayer Initiative

HigherPraise encourages believers to pray with us for the needs below. We are so blessed in our country, to be able to worship God with freedom

Items and issues to watch carefully in prayer and to ponder as to their implications

Dear Brother,
I am AnilJoseph. My wife is Salini. Please pray for me, my salvation,my diseases, get a good job, for a child, financial crisis and anounting. My situation is very very dangerous. Please pray for me, Please include this letter on your prayer chain.Please pray for me.
ANILJOSEPH&SALINI please include this letter on your prayer chain.

GOSPEL TO THE MUSLIMS IN INDIA
Dear Brothers & Sisters at High Praise,

Greetings!
Thanks for your continuous prayers for us & ministry. I would like to share with you that God’s Spirit is moving in a very special way among our dear neighbors. Few more men & women boldly are attending at our House Churches and Friday worship services ( weekly worship services on each Friday ) in the midst of threats for their lives, persecution & hardship by His grace.
Cha B (married Muslim lady) & her family members are attending from last few months at one of our house Church Fellowship in the village. Now the radical Muslims came to know about her new faith in Jesus. Therefore, they are threatening her not to attend to our worship services any more and not to keep any touch with us. If she continue attend at the worship services then the whole villagers & her own relatives will boycott her from the society and no one will purchase cow milk from her ( she is having cow milk business ) and no shop kippers will sell her any things( such as Medicines, Grocery, stationary etc, etc.) They are also telling her that they will make fine quiet big amount to her because of her faith in Jesus.
However, I humbly request you kindly uphold her & her family members in your prayers. Please pray for God’s protection & help towards her & the present situation that she is facing right now.
With regards,
Carey

There is nothing that makes us love a man so much as praying for him.
William Law


BURMA: OFFICIALS ORDER CLOSIRE OF CHURCH IN CHIN STATE

Officials in Chin state, Burma, ordered a Baptist church to cease holding worship services after the pastor refused to wear an election campaign T-shirt supporting the military government’s Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

The election commission summoned 47-year-old Pastor Mang Tling of Dawdin village, Gangaw township, Mergui division on Nov. 9, two days after the election and ordered him to stop holding services and discontinue the church nursery program, the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) reported. Village headman U Than Chaung had given the pastor a campaign T-shirt to wear in support of the USDP, and when he refused to wear it, the headman filed a report with local authorities accusing him of persuading Christian voters to vote in favor of an opposing party, the National Unity Party (NUP).

Officials interrogated Mang Tling in Gangaw until Sunday (Nov. 14), when he was allowed to return home. The USDP won the election amid widespread evidence of “advance” voting and other forms of voter manipulation throughout Burma. The NUP defeated the USDP in three electorates in Chin state despite reports of widespread voting anomalies, some of which were outlined by CHRO. In Tedim township northern Chin state, for example, USDP agent Go Lun Mang went to the home of a local resident at 5 p.m. the day before the election and told the family that he had already voted on their behalf in favor of the USDP.

Meantime, the release of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest in Burma on Saturday (Nov. 13) has sparked cautious optimism about human rights among Christians and the country’s ethnic minorities even as the junta does battle with armed resistance groups.
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HINDU PEOPLES OF MYANMAR

The Hindus of Myanmar are a combination of people groups that originally came from India and Nepal during the time of British colonization. They came as government staff and soldiers who governed the country, however when the Burmese (Myanmar) government gained Independence after WWII, the Indian and Nepali peoples were cast down to the bottom rung of Burmese society.

Today these Hindu peoples are spread throughout Myanmar. Some are found in villages, but the largest concentrations are found in the larger cities. There is a small population of Christians among the Indians/Nepalese, estimated at 2,000 to 2,500 people, but they need to be encouraged to reach out to the lost Indian and Nepalese peoples around them.

Downtrodden, overlooked, but not forgotten by the Savior, please pray for the salvation of the Hindu peoples of Myanmar.
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BHUTAN: DISTRIBUTING RECORDING OF THE GOSPEL

Pray for local leaders as they distribute the first voice recordings of the Gospel of Luke in a heart language that is only now being written down for the first time. This is among the first Gospel materials in their heart language. Pray in accordance with God’s Word, asking that His Word will not return void!

Be in prayer for national believers who received training in how to share their faith, disciple new believers, and form new churches across Bhutan.
Pray that they will be obedient in what God has asked them to do and be bold in their faith against strong persecution.
Pray for those churches and believers who are being persecuted by their neighbors as well as authorities.
Ask God to give them peace and the strength to face the persecution and remain strong in their faith in the Lord.
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NEPAL: TRAINING WOMEN

A cross-cultural worker in Nepal writes, “This past week we were out in a bazaar town where one woman along with some other ladies conducted a training for ladies only called “The Bride of Christ”.
The training had over 50 ladies show up from the villages and surrounding towns. During the training, these ladies went out to share with the people of the town, and made over 100 contacts where they had opportunities to share about Jesus with people.
Pray that the ladies who were trained would continue to share boldly and that the seeds which were planted will grow to fruition.
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INDIA: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM?

This year’s International Religious Freedom Report claims India’s doing well with religious freedom. However, Don with Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Mission India says that the central government may have decent laws, but they seldom step in when freedoms are breached. “Where the Hindu fundamentalist groups have power or a strong following in the area, Christians are attacked on a regular basis.”

The report mentioned state-level anti-conversion laws, but not how often they’re abused. “Even though Christians are often times forced under threat of life to enact Hindu ceremonies to deny their faith, those are not deemed as forced, but are acceptable.” Laws won’t change soon, but the good news is: persecution has strengthened the church. “They’ve been persecuted, and they know what it means to follow Jesus whole-heartedly.”
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INDIA: HINDU RADICALS ATTACK CHRISTIANS AS POLICE WATCH

On November 7, Hindu radicals stormed three villages in Orissa and assaulted Christians. The attackers claimed that they were teased by Christian boys. The victims told ICC that they were attacked for refusing to pay donations for a Hindu festival called ‘Druga Festival.’

Around 250 radical Hindus stormed the villages of Peliguda, Kenduguda and Telarai near the town of Malkangiri. They broke into Christian homes after the Christians refused entry. The police were present at the scene but refused to protect the Christians.

Journalists from the Indian television channel ETV-2 videotaped the attacks and broadcasted it throughout the country.

The victims complained to the police at the Malkangiri police station but the police have not yet made arrests. The state of Orissa has been a consistent scene of attacks against Christians. In 2008, an estimated 100 Christians were killed and over 55,000 displaced after radical Hindus carried out attacks against Christians.
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IRAN: AHMADINEJAD URGES GIRLS TO MARRY AT 16

Iranian newspapers on Sunday, November 21, reported that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged girls to marry at the age of 16.
The president criticized the current average age of marriage of 24 to 26.
The Sunday report by the state-owned Jam-e Jam quoted Ahmadinejad as saying “we should take the age of marriage for boys to 20 and for girls to about 16 and 17.”
Other newspapers quoted the president as putting the best ages for marriage of girls at 17 or 18.
Ahmadinejad has long sought an increase of population, rejecting family planning as a Western import.
Critics say the policy will only exacerbate the current 9 percent official unemployment rate.
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AL-QAEDA DECLARES WAR ON CHRISTIANS IN IRAQ

When claiming responsibility for the 31 October church massacre in Baghdad, the al-Qaeda-linked ‘Islamic State of Iraq’ threatened to retaliate against Christians everywhere unless Egypt’s Coptic Church released its alleged captives.

The myth – that Coptic converts to Islam are being held captive in Coptic churches (supposedly along with stockpiles of Israeli weapons) – has been propagated by Egyptian Islamic fundamentalists keen to incite massacres of Copts. This situation in Egypt is extremely volatile.

Meanwhile, genocide is unfolding in Iraq. On 9-10 November, over a dozen Christian homes and one church were targeted with bombs and mortar shells across Baghdad, killing four and wounding many. On 15-16 November, more bombs targeting Christians exploded in Mosul while two Christians were executed in their homes by militants.
Please pray!
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UZBEKISTAN: SCEPTICISM THAT ANY NEW ADMINISTRATIVE CODE WILL END PUNISHMENTS FOR RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY

After a mass police raid on a Protestant church in Chirchik near the capital Tashkent, assistant pastor Vladimir Kim was fined 80 times the minimum monthly wage, while the church’s pastor received a fine of 40 times, church members complained to Forum 18 News Service.

They were fined under the Code of Administrative Offences for “violation of the procedure for holding religious meetings” as they had not informed the authorities that they would be meeting for worship in their registered church building. Some 20 police officers had caught them during a raid, eleven days after the Harvest Festival at another registered Protestant church in the town was broken up and the pastor fined.

Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov told parliament that a new Code of Administrative Offences will be prepared, but religious believers told Forum 18 they are sceptical that any new Code will end punishments for religious activity. As well as regular fines, Forum 18 knows of 22 religious believers to have received prison terms of 3 to 15 days under the Code in 2010.
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EGYPT: ANTI-CHRISTIAN SENTIMENT HEATS UP

As bombings continue against Christians in Iraq, Christians in Egypt have gathered to pray and plan for their own safety. When a group of Islamic extremists on Oct. 31 burst into Our Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad during evening mass and began spraying the sanctuary with gunfire, the militant organization that took responsibility said Christians in Egypt also would be targeted if its demands were not met. The threats against Christians caused a flurry of activity at churches in Egypt, and security has increased throughout the country.

The security concerns came against a backdrop of heightened tensions between the Muslim majority and the Coptic Christian minority over the past few months, with weeks of protests against Christians. Tensions started after the wife of a Coptic bishop, Camilia Zakher, disappeared in July. According to government sources and published media reports, Zakher left her home after a heated argument with her husband. But Coptic protestors, who started gathering to protest at churches after Zakher disappeared, claimed she had been kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam.

The month after the Zakher incident, Egyptian media reported in error that Egypt’s State Security Intelligence had seized a ship from Israel laden with explosives headed for the son of an official of the Coptic Orthodox church, and rumors began that Copts were stockpiling weapons in the basements of their churches with plans to overthrow the Muslim majority. The Front of Religious Scholars has since called for a complete boycott of Christians in Egypt. The group called Christians “immoral,” labeled them “terrorists” and said Muslims should not patronize their businesses or even say “hello” to them.
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UGANDA: CALL FOR SUPPORT IN PRAYER

I believe the good Lord is listening to the agonizing prayer of His people. Please believe God with us in prayer, we need a place for worship. We have now moved to seven places, looking for a place to worship. We must move again because the place we are in is going to be demolished (Community Center).
Let’s pray that the Lord will graciously not only give us a plot but shall give us a facility for worship.

Rev Ouma Daniel
Christ Call Ministries Entebbe
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LESOTHO: THE BASOTHO ARE DYING OF AIDS

Estimates say the AIDS rate in Lesotho is 25 percent, but missionaries there says it’s closer to 60 percent. An International Mission Board missionary couple says everyone is dying out before they have a chance to reach them with the Gospel.
The couple has visited villages where every person has AIDS as well as one of many pulmonary diseases. The spiritual condition is just as bad. Missionaries are needed now more than ever to bring hope before death.
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ERITREA: PEOPLE TRAFFICKERS HOLD 80 REFUGEES HOSTAGE
ON ISRAELI BORDER

People traffickers are holding 80 fleeing Eritreans and hundreds of refugees from other countries hostage in horrific conditions in the Sinai Desert According to Italian NGO AGenzia Habesha. Making their way across grueling desert landscape through Libya and Egypt to Israel in a desperate search for safety, the refugees were chained, brutalised with electric shocks, isolated in desert shelters and are being forced to make extortionate payments of over £5,000 to the people smugglers for their freedom.

CSW’s Advocacy Director said, “The Egyptian government has a duty to end this situation and bring Egypt’s treatment of refugees into line with international norms by ensuring that these and other refugees are afforded full protection and assistance”.
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Cuts from the Wycliffe Prayer Focus Bulletin

Asia: Translation progress
Pray for the national translator who has recently joined the Siares* project and is translating from Psalms and Samuel. Joseph has faced persecution and imprisonment throughout his life, beginning when he began questioning his traditional religion. He suffers from fear of travel, which makes it difficult for him to attend training workshops. Despite great obstacles, the New Testament has been drafted except for Romans, Corinthians, and Hebrews.
Pray for the drafting of those difficult remaining books, and for more testing and revision of the whole New Testament.
Pray for God’s timing and provision in the publication and distribution of this New Testament.

*pseudonym

Vladivostok, Russia: Wycliffe Seminar
Wycliffe Russia has been invited to participate in the conference of an alliance of churches in Vladivostok (located in Eastern Russia) at the end of November. This is Wycliffe Russia’s first opportunity to share the vision for Bible translation in this region. 100 young people are expected to participate in this three day conference.
On November 26 Wycliffe will have a full day to share about their work. This will likely be the first contact many of these young people will have with Wycliffe and Bible translation around the world.
Pray that the staff of Wycliffe Russia will make good connections with the individuals and churches participating in this event.

Mozambique: Maintaining the right focus
Workers there write, “Pray that all of us in Mozambique will keep our eyes focused on our high calling to be representatives of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that many lives will be transformed by the reading and hearing of the Word of God.”


Mozambique: Koti Consultation
Pray for the Koti translation team based in the city of Angoche. They will be working over internet and Skype with their consultant in England.
Pray that the computer system will soon be set up and ready to transmit data, and that they will have good communication between Mozambique and England.

Mozambique: Children in boarding schools
Pray for families whose children have to travel to Rift Valley Academy in Kenya for their education. It is a wonderful school. But the difficulty is in parents and children enduring long separations.
Pray for kids to flourish where they are and for parents to be able to keep in touch and be part of their children’s lives while they carry on working in Mozambique.


Mozambique: Recruiting
Pray for SIL Mozambique Director, John Iseminger and his wife Susan, who are in the USA and Canada for a few months.
Pray that they will have good success in recruiting for the Mozambique Branch. The Branch is in great need of personnel for literacy, linguistics, support and administration.

United States: Gullah Scripture recording
The De Gullah Nyew Testament* Steering Committee (GSC) has begun to plan for recording an audio version. This recording is scheduled for February 28 to March 6, 2011. When the committee met in late October, they focused on the recording of John’s Gospel. It is encouraging that 25 readers were identified. Gullah speaker, Dr. Emory C., GSC Chair, commented: “We’ve got to use it and the church has to be involved.”
Pray for the steering committee as it works to develop a lot of interest in the churches for using the Gullah Scriptures.

*Or, ‘Gullah New Testament’ in English. It was dedicated in 2005.

South Asia: Translation completed
The Mai* New Testament was dedicated in five locations in two different countries this May, after 39 years of dedicated work. The Mai language is spoken by around 30 million people, making it one of the largest language groups in South Asia previously without Scriptures.
Pray for release of 2000 copies of the New Testament that are still stuck in customs.
Pray that the audio recording of the New Testament text will be finished soon.
Pray for continued distribution of the New Testaments and encouragement for many to study them.
Pray also for the right team to come together to translate the Old Testament, in God’s time.

*pseudonym


South Asia: Translation and literacy underway
The ‘KV’* project is finally moving into a translation phase. God has provided a mother-tongue translator (MTT) and the local sponsors for his training and work.
Please pray for the MTT as he is taking a translation course in the closing months of 2010.
Praise the Lord for the people’s response to published materials - spelling guide and phrase book: all 500 copies have been sold, plus 1,000 health brochures have been distributed for free. In addition, people have recently decided to join the literacy program.
Pray that they may successfully participate in a primer construction workshop in February 2011.

*pseudonym


South Asia: Training mother tongue translators
South Asia has one of the largest remaining needs for Bible translation in the world. In October 2010, 40 Christian educators from around India gathered at Serampore College, founded by William Carey, for a seminar on the Diploma in Bible Translation (Dip BT). One attendee said, “I had only a vague idea about Bible translations. After this course I will appeal to students to join Dip BT and full time Bible translation ministry.”
Pray for a harvest of new training partners and opportunities and that existing programs in India and the region will be strengthened to meet the Bible translation training needs.


South Asia: ABBI Cluster translation project
Pray for the ABBI* cluster project** in this region involving six translation teams. Team coordinators recently wrote: “The teams are progressing well, but it will be a challenge to keep all the teams and consultants disciplined and moving ahead with the right priorities so that the gospel of Luke is ready to be distributed in these languages by August 2011.”

*pseudonym
** A language cluster refers to languages that may be linguistically related, and/or from similar geographic regions or cultural backgrounds.


India: Planning helps reach more language groups
The Last Command Initiative is a comprehensive plan to meet the Bible translation needs in India.
Pray for good communication and teamwork between the various partner organizations meeting to develop the plan.
Pray for patience and wisdom in the process. As meetings have been held in various regions, the interest was so great that some projects have already started before the entire plan is complete.


Asia: Mini-Bible ready for press
The ‘K’* Mini Bible is ready for publishing. Since the established church in this language group prefers to use a translation in the national language, this mini-Bible, which presents key stories from the entire Bible, is meant as an out-reach tool and for personal Bible reading.
Pray for the printing process as it goes to press in December. In May 2010 this team reported that after years of apathy towards the translation, there are signs that enthusiasm for it is growing.
Please pray for strength and encouragement for the teams involved as they have faced numerous health, visa and logistic obstacles this year.

*pseudonym

Global: Children of cross-cultural workers
A family from Asia has given up the privilege of their children studying in their mother tongue. Some families have chosen boarding schools for their children far from home as their only real option.
One mother writes, “Our daughter was feeling very overwhelmed by work and other responsibilities recently.
Please pray that they (she and her brother) will get enough sleep to help them cope with the busyness of life during this long term.” In other families, maturing children have suffered from illness or emotional collapse, causing parents to pull back from ministry. Whenever you pray for those ministering in Bible translation, please pray for their children

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SLINGSHOTS

When we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do; when we rely upon education, we get what education can do; when we rely upon eloquence, we get what eloquence can do. But when we rely upon prayer, we get what God can do.
A. C. Dixon

A season of waiting is always an essential qualification for successful service. God would have His children realize the utter inadequacy of all human means to accomplish His gigantic purposes, that thus the praise and glory might be afterwards ascribed exclusively to Him. The disciples were given ten days to review the field of battle, to recognize the difficulties that bristled round on every side, to measure the adversaries’ strength, and to understand their own helplessness and weakness; thus were they driven to their knees in earnest, anxious prayer. Then came the answer. The promise was fulfilled, and the power stored up in the almighty Savior was brought down to His disciples in the person of the Holy Spirit.
Hugh D. Brown

The true man of God is heartsick, grieved at the worldliness of the Church... grieved at the toleration of sin in the Church, grieved at the prayerlessness in the Church. He is disturbed that the corporate prayer of the Church no longer pulls down the strongholds of the devil.
Leonard Ravenhill

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The Christ of the Mount
A Working Philosophy of Life
E. Stanley Jones

The Sermon on the Mount seems dangerous. It challenges the whole underlying conception on which modern society is built. It would replace it by a new conception, animate it with a new motive, and turn it toward a new goal. One day I was addressing an audience of Hindus and Moslems and was interpreting the Sermon on the Mount. Before me sat two C. I. D. men, secret service police taking down shorthand notes of what I was saying, to be sent to the government to see if anything seditious could be found in it.

A Christian government sends Hindu and Moslem agents to find out if the Sermon on the Mount is seditious! It is! The ideas underlying the Sermon on the Mount are the charter of freedom to all men, of all races, of all climes, of all classes.

The secret police of the Modern Economic Order might have sent their agents to see if there is anything seditious against their Order in this Sermon. There is This Sermon strikes at the whole selfish competitive idea underlying modern economic life and demands that men co-operate in love or perish in strife.

The Militarists might have sent their secret police to see if there was anything seditious against their methods in the Sermon. There is! The Sermon challenges the whole conception of force which militarism holds and would substitute the method of love.

The churches might have sent representatives to see if there is anything seditious against them. There is.! Denominationalism often expresses itself in ways that are not much more than an ecclesiastical race in competitive armaments. It would find the Sermon on the Mount seditious, for it demands that individuals and groups and nations lose themselves in co-operation that they may find themselves in a higher brotherhood.

We have insisted that what we call Christian experience is an absolute necessity and that without that which Pentecost provides we cannot be Christian in any vital sense. This is true. But it must be remembered that back of Pentecost lay the Sermon on the Mount. When the disciples received the divine re-enforcement, it ran into these channels of conduct. Pentecost had the content of the Sermon on the Mount in it and therefore the power manifested was Christian. Pentecost divorced from the Sermon on the Mount is spiritual pow-wow instead of spiritual power.