Prayer List for February 1-7, 2009

Sunday, please praise God that an Egyptian Christian has won the legal right to change his identity papers from Muslim to Christian. “Fathi Labib Yousef, who had long ago converted to Christianity, spent 31 years officially identified as a Muslim but has now won a rare legal victory to be officially registered in his “new” faith. According to Compass Direct News, changing one’s official religious identity from Islam to any other religion in Egypt is extremely difficult. Religious reversion cases are difficult to win, but it is far more difficult for Muslim-born converts to Christianity to officially change their religious status.” (Open Doors, Compass Direct News)

Monday, please praise God that a German couple’s jail sentence for homeschooling their children was overturned. Please pray that Juergen and Rosemary Dudek’s retrial will result in a change of heart among German government officials. HSLDA Staff Attorney Michael Donnelly says “he remains concerned that there is no indication that German authorities are changing their position on stamping out what they call ‘parallel societies.’ There continue to be signs that the German government is cracking down on homeschooling families,” he said. “A recent letter from one family in southern Germany contained threats from local school authorities that unless the family enrolled their children in school, they would seek fines in excess of 50,000 euros (nearly $70,000), jail time and the removal of custody of the children. German policymakers must create regulations or laws to protect homeschooling families from this persecution. This kind of behavior by a so-called Western democracy is unacceptable. It is this kind of repression that is forcing families to flee Germany and to seek protection in other countries, like the Romeike family, who have applied for political asylum in the United States.” (Home School Legal Defense Association)

Tuesday, please pray for a “Christian pastor in Meherpur district (Bangladesh, who) suffers continued torture and harassment at the hands of 4,000 Muslims. Jhontu Biswas, 31, said residents of Fulbaria town accused him of misleading Muslims by distributing Christian booklets. They confronted him on Dec. 9 as they gathered for the Islamic Eid al-Adha festival of sacrifice. ‘They also accused me of converting poor people by offering money,’ said Biswas. ‘They called several local journalists in that massive assembly to publish news against me and my activities. They took my photograph and interviewed me but did not publish anything in their respective newspapers.’ Biswas denied the accusations against him, and the Muslims threatened to harm him and others who converted from Islam to Christianity.” (Open Doors)

Wednesday, please pray for the people of Mexico. “Mexico is in danger of a ‘rapid and sudden collapse’ due to criminal gangs and drug cartels, according to a troubling new report by the U.S. Joint Forces Command on worldwide security threats. Criminal activity in Mexico has killed more than 5,300 people in the past year, including members of warring drug cartels, law enforcement officials and bystanders, many of them slain close to the U.S. border.” As lawlessness increases so do attacks on Christians who stand against evil, as we have seen in Colombia. Please especially remember those Christians who are standing for Christ in Mexico. (Jim Meyers, Newsmax.com, me)

Thursday, please pray for Believers from a Muslim Background who are coming to the Lord throughout the Muslim world. They face ostracism, rejection from family and culture, torture, and death. Yet more and more are coming to the Lord with hungry hearts. (Arab World Ministries)

Friday, please pray for ministries who are engaging and befriending Muslims at colleges and universities throughout the West. Please pray for the Lord to pour out His spirit upon these young people. (Arab World Ministries)

Saturday, please praise God that the abduction of “two teenage Christian sisters in Pakistan is over, but difficult times still loom ahead. Parvisha Masih, 18, and Sanam Masih, 14, who were kidnapped and assaulted last November” are at home now. Please pray that the Lord would help them recover from the trauma and that those around them would love them rather than shun them. (Open Doors)

Prayer List for January 25-31, 2009

Sunday, please pray for Yao Lifa, a Chinese political activist, who has disappeared. “Yao Lifa, a well-known advocate of free elections from Hubei province in central China, was due to attend the reception held by the U.S. consulate in Wuhan, the provincial capital” to celebrate the inauguration of President Obama. “Yao Lifa, 50, a school official in the small city of Qianjiang, achieved nationwide celebrity as a fast-talking and tireless advocate of democratic votes, winning himself a place on the local Communist Party-controlled assembly. But Yao Lifa's campaigning and mobilisation of disaffected farmers irked officials. Under a shadow of official disfavour, he failed to win re-election but threw himself into a life of organising other independent candidates. He also signed the "Charter 08" petition issued last month demanding democratic political reform, which has pitted hundreds of dissidents and rights advocates against the Party.” His son believes he has been secretly arrested. (Yahoo)

Monday, please pray for MakeWayPartners to be able to provide and staff a sterile surgical unit for their mission in Sudan. They recently lost a pregnant mother and baby due to the long journey through the countryside to reach a suitable sterile surgical unit. (MakeWayPartners)

Tuesday, please pray for justice to be done in the assault and murder of a seven-year-old girl, Ma Ne Mya “of Ma Oo Bin village in the area close to Kyauk Kyi Town, Nyaunglebin District” by a Burma Army soldier on December 27, 2008. “The Karen Women's Organization is demanding the immediate arrest and prosecution of an SPDC soldier who raped and killed a young girl in Burma's northern Karen State last week, as well as punishment of his commanding officer for failing to take action over the crime.” The commanding officer, Captain Thet Khaing, has done nothing to the soldier. Not only does it leave an injustice, it endangers all women and children because other soldiers will think they can commit atrocities with impunity. (Free Burma Rangers)

Wednesday, please pray for the Christians of California, especially those in San Francisco, who have taken a stand for traditional marriage by supporting Proposition 8. Homosexuals have trashed churches by putting swastikas and insults on buildings. San Francisco officials have turned a deaf ear to the attacks on the churches. (Charlie Butts, OneNewsNow)

Thursday, please pray for the Christians of Mosul, Iraq. “Yassr tells us that terrorists in police uniforms are patrolling the streets of Mosul, setting up rogue checkpoints in what appears to be an organized campaign to force the city’s Christians to flee. One brother was stopped in the street by militia men who demanded to see his identity card. Seeing he was a Christian, the extremists shot him in cold blood. As many as 20 Christians have been killed in this way in Mosul in recent days. “Among the fatalities is a 15-year-old who played in the street with his Muslim friends, an elderly man, and even a man in a wheelchair,” says Olaf, Open Doors coordinator for Iraq. “Having ‘Christian’ on your ID card is enough to get you killed!” As a result, Christians have been fleeing Mosul in droves.” Please especially pray for those who have neither the money nor the means to leave. (Open Doors)

Friday, please pray for “the health and safety of the son of martyred Iranian pastor Hossein Soodmand. (Fears) are escalating as Ramtin Soodmand awaits trial for ‘promoting anti-government propaganda.’” The Iranian government could sentence him to death. (Open Doors, me)

Saturday, please pray for an Indonesian Christian, Rini, and her 4 children. Since her conversion 3 years ago, her husband has abandoned the family. Her family has also threatened and physically attacked her. (Open Doors)

What FOCA REALLY Means

What FOCA Really Means

When he was running for president, Barack Obama promised that one of the first bills he would sign into law would be FOCA. What do those innocuous sounding letters stand for? Proponents tell us that it means Freedom of Choice Act. Of course, choice does not refer to freedom in choosing education, health care, or unions. It means only the freedom to abort unborn children.

What FOCA really means is Fill Our Coffers Again. This is payback to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers for all of their donations to the Democrat Party over the years. State laws protecting youngsters from being taken across state lines by non-guardians or requiring parental consent, laws authorizing women to have the medical facts about abortion risks or the baby’s development have decreased the profits for those who pay for their Porsches by performing abortions. FOCA will increase their incomes. At least, that is what they hope.

FOCA also means Fool Our Children to Abort. Even with state laws intact, Planned Parenthood in several states is being investigated, charged, or tried for concealing abortions on young people who have undergone statutory rape or incest by older men. Lifting the laws that protect these children will help business for the aborters., who will profit from the pain, fear, and rape of girls who have to get parental permission to have their ears pierced or borrow an aspirin from a friend at school. Parents who have no idea what has happened to their daughters will have to try to pick up the pieces of their daughters’ shattered lives.

FOCA could also mean Force Our Citizens to Abort. This could open up the use of your tax dollars and mine to pay for abortions for poor women. We’ve fought it for years. What it could also mean is pressure on women on Medicaid to abort whether they want to or not. One of the dirty little secrets is that most abortions are committed on minorities. How painfully ironic if Barack Obama becomes the King of the Abortion Promoters!

One thing that FOCA will surely do is Fragment Our Culture over Abortion. Though abortion has been a stressor in our society for over thirty years now, FOCA will remove the safeguards. Freedom of speech and the promise that peaceful political changes would save lives of the unborn have been a safety valve. Both sides could influence the culture. FOCA undermines thirty years of work and the opinions of the people worked out in their own states. When the chance for peaceful change is taken away by the elitists in Washington who know better than we little people what is good for us, what remains?

If FOCA passes, citizens in two years need to remember to Fire Our Congressional Abortucrats, those congressmen and senators who keep their positions by voting as the party or the big abortion proponents tell them. Until President Obama’s honeymoon is over, congressmen and senators will be pressured to rubberstamp what he wants. Moderates in the Democrat Party will feel extra strong pressure, but even conservatives will be pressured to vote for FOCA. If you oppose the elitists stepping in and undermining years of safeguards, contact your representative and senators now. If we ask them to hold the line against the liberal media’s assaults, we need to let them and the media know that we stand for life with them and that we hold them accountable.

Debbie W. Wilson

Prayer List for January18-24, 2009

Prayer List for January18-24, 2009

Sunday, please pray for the people of Gaza and Israel. Over 700 have died in Gaza. Hospitals are poorly staffed and supplied, but this matters little to Hamas who started the attacks. Now rockets have been launched into Israel by Hizbullah from Lebanon though the Lebanese government is decrying these attacks. Please pray for the Christians who are often victims of the terrorists and victims of the Israelis since the terrorists stage themselves among the Christians. The terrorists use Christian bodies as propaganda against Israel and decrease the number of Christians at the same time. (Open Doors, various news, me)

Monday, please pray for Pakistani Christians Emanuel and Amin Masih. Emanuel Masih “of Faisalbad, a father of six and a former street sweeper, is trying to commute his prison sentence after police officer Omer Draz tortured him and had him imprisoned on trumped-up charge originating from a quarrel between their sons nine years ago.” Emanuel’s brother-in-law Amin was arrested on the same charges. Draz tortured the two for a month, leaving Emanuel paralyzed in the arms and legs. “The two men were eventually released on bail. In the intervening (9) years, they continued to attend court hearings. But on May 24 they were arrested and given a 5-year prison sentence along with a fine of 25,000 rupees. Lawyers appealed the decision in September at a Faisalbad court. Emanuel Masih could be released from prison due to an article in Pakistan criminal law that requires proper facilities for an incapacitated person. Without the use of his arms, Emanuel Masih could not survive in prison unless Amin assisted him.” Both men are totally innocent of a crime, however. (Compass Direct News, International Christian Concern)

Tuesday, please pray for 27-year-old Bangladesh Christian, Sujan Chakma, his wife, Shefali, and their 6-year-old son. Since Sujan became a Christian, his Buddhist neighbors have beaten him, threatened to beat and imprison him, and have ostracized and refused him work. On days he doesn’t work, his family cannot eat. They have also pressured him to divorce his wife. He fears to stay in his home at night. (Compass Direct News, International Christian Concern)

Wednesday, please praise God that Pakistani courts returned a Christian teenager, Nousheen Bibi, held in slavery by a Muslim women to her mother. (Jawar Mazhar, International Christian Concern)

Thursday, please pray for a Brazilian homeschooling couple, Cleber and Bernadeth Nunes, who have been taken to court for homeschooling. In Brazil Homeschooling is illegal in spite of the illiteracy of 70% of teens from 15-19 years old. The Brazilian Congress is considering legalizing homeschooling.(Pete Chagnon, OneNewsNow)

Friday, please pray for the surviving families “of a brutal attack December 26 in a church in the eastern region of Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa. According to news reports, attackers used machetes and killed dozens of people at a church in remote eastern Congo. The Ugandan army accused the Lord's Resistance Army rebels of the massacre. The accused Ugandan rebel group, which has waged one of Africa's longest and most brutal wars, denied responsibility, according to a report.” (Open Doors)

Saturday, please pray that the American people would recognize the pressure that is being put on companies to make contributions to organizations promoting and trapping people in homosexuality. “In the last two years, Pepsi has given $500,000 to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and $500,000 to the Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). The $1,000,000 was to be used to help promote homosexuality in the workplace. Pepsi refuses to give money to any pro-family organization that opposes the homosexual agenda. Plus, every homosexual organization we know of is overwhelmingly pro-abortion.” “The Media Daily News reports that Campbell's will continue to use its advertising dollars to support homosexual publications pushing the homosexual agenda and same-sex marriage. AFA had asked the company to remain neutral in the culture war.” (American Family Association)

Prayer List for January 4-10, 2009

Sunday, please pray for the people of Canada who have an opportunity to revoke section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act. “(T)he Canadian Conservative Party has overwhelmingly approved a resolution to repeal the ‘hate speech’ provision that has been used to squelch the free speech rights of Christians and others who speak out against homosexuality.” (Chad Groening, OneNewsNow.com)

Monday, please pray for the Christians of Gaza and Israel. Hamas has refused to quit firing rockets on Israel so Israel is responding in self-defense. What most of the media does not mention is that the terrorist groups frequently set their rocket launchers up in Christian neighborhoods. They then refuse to allow the Christians to take refuge. When the Christians’ homes are attacked by the Israelis, the terrorists lament the deaths of their people, deaths that they caused. It serves two goals: 1. it provides bodies to parade before the media; 2. it decreases the number of Christians. (various reports, my analysis)

Tuesday, please pray for the Christians of the Middle East where thousands in Egypt and other countries are coming to the Lord. (Ravi Zacharias, Focus on the Family)

Wednesday, please pray for the children trafficked into slavery in the United States. “This practice is apparently a growing problem in the U.S., because well-to-do Africans immigrating to the U.S. who engage in this child-maid slavery are bringing this practice with them. An estimated 10,000 forced laborers in the U.S. right now are servants who are trapped in suburban homes, according to a National Human Rights Center survey, conducted with Free the Slaves, a nonprofit group. Research by the U.S. State Department reveals that just over the past year, children have been trafficked to work as servants in 33 of Africa's 53 countries, and children from 10 African countries were sent as maids to Europe and the U.S.” (Rukmini Callimachi, AP, OneNewsNow.com)

Thursday, please pray for “(o)ver 200 displaced villagers (who) fled last week in Kyauk Kyi (Ler Doh) Township, Nyaunglebin District, as Burma Army attacks yet again threatened their hiding sites. Although their situation is tenuous, villagers have now been able to return to their former hiding sites as Karen Resistance soldiers have forced the attacking troops back to their camps. The area, which had just been visited by three multi-ethnic FBR relief team comprised of Arakan, Chin, Kachin, Karen, Karenni, Pa'O, and Shan team members, is now being assisted by the local Karen FBR team which has been able to provide relief, medical treatment and encouragement. The teams have reported that the Burma Army plans to continue their activity in the area, and displaced villagers remain constantly ready to flee further attacks. (Free Burma Rangers)

Friday, please pray for the Christians of Bethlehem where close to 97% of the population is Muslim. The Christian community faces persecution from both Islamic militants and the Israeli military, high unemployment, lack of freedom, and restrictions on travel. (Kristin Butler, Open Doors, Crosswalk.com)

Saturday, please pray for the Christian mother of a 3-year-old daughter in Egypt. “Mervat Reszqallah of Tanta, 60 miles north of Cairo, was granted custody of her toddler daughter, Barthenia, by Judge Emaad Eldean Abedelhamed of the Court of Tanta on Aug. 7. Police, however, have refused to implement the court’s decision to take the child from her father. ‘Many times [the police] have ignored this decision, because they see the aspect of religion,’ said human rights lawyer Naguib Gobrail, who said police favor the Muslim father. Fady Farhaat Labbib converted to Islam in May of 2006 in order to divorce Reszqallah and marry another woman. He applied for custody of Barthenia in order to raise her as a Muslim. This has kept the police from doing their duty, said Gobrail.” (Compass Direct, Open Doors)