AUSTRALIAN PRAYER NETWORK NEWSLETTER

December 2009.

* UNPRECEDENTED CHRISTMAS GATHERING HELD IN VIETNAM

* BRITISH CHRISTIAN HOTELIERS WIN CASE OF INSULTING MUSLIM GUEST

* URGENT PRAYER NEEDED IN IRAQ

* ISLAMIC HAT ALLOWED FOR LAWYER IN COURTROOM

* MYANMAR FACES FAMINE DUE TO RAT PLAGUE

* NORTH KOREAN GOVERNMENT CALLS FOR ’100 DAYS OF COMBAT’

* ORAL ROBERTS DIES AT AGE OF 91

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UNPRECEDENTED CHRISTMAS GATHERING HELD IN VIETNAM

Christian sources report that some 40,000 people have gathered in a hastily constructed venue in Ho Chi Minh City to worship God, celebrate Christmas, and hear a gospel message – an event of unprecedented magnitude in Vietnam. Reports indicated up to 8,000 people responded to the gospel message indicating a desire to follow Christ. For the past two years, authorities have granted permission to house churches in Ho Chi Minh City to hold public Christmas rallies. Last year more than 10,000 people participated in one in Tao Dan Stadium.

This year house church leaders again approached the government asking for a 30,000 seat stadium, but were refused. Authorities offered a venue holding 3,000. This was unacceptable to organizers. They pressed for another 15,000 seat stadium, and officials gave them a verbal promise that they could have it. The verbal promise however did not translate into the written permission that was required. Invitations were sent out only to have authorities deny the stadium they had promised. Organizers were forced to look for alternatives. They found a large open field.

Several church leaders camped for three days outside city hall, pressing for an answer. Authorities tried to find ways to talk the leaders out of going ahead, promising future concessions if they would cancel the event. Ultimately they told the deputy mayor that refusal to grant permission would have far-ranging, ramifications in Vietnam as well as internationally. Finally, just 48 hours before the scheduled event, officials granted permission that required clearance from Hanoi. But the permission was only for 3,000 people, and many more had been invited.

Organizers had less than two days to turn a vacant field into something that would accommodate a stadium-size crowd. They had to bring in ample electricity, construct a giant stage, rent 20,000 chairs, and set up the sound and lighting. The extremely short time frame caused contractors to double the prices they would have charged with ample time. Organizers rented hundreds of buses to bring Christians from provinces near the city. Thousands of students sacrificed classes to help with last-minute preparations and to join the celebration.

Organizers, fearing all buses would be stopped, put out an emergency worldwide prayer request. Christian sources said that authorities either did not or could not stop buses from arriving, and by 6 p.m. the venue was full to capacity, and at least 2,000 had to be turned away. Christians described the event in superlative terms. For house churches, large gatherings are both very rare and very special, and for many this was their first glimpse of the strength of Vietnam’s growing Christian movement.

People responded to the gospel invitation pouring to the front of the stage “like a waterfall.” With space in front of the stage insufficient, many others in their seats also indicated their desire to receive Christ. Organizers along with many participants were overwhelmed with emotion and gratitude as the event closed. The event raised more than US$3280 for a charity helping needy children. People were quite surprised to read a positive article on the event in the state-controlled press, which often vilifies Christians.

Source: Compass Direct News

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BRITISH CHRISTIAN HOTELIERS WIN CASE OF INSULTING MUSLIM GUEST

Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang were taken to court by a white British convert to Islam who complained they had called the prophet Mohammed ‘a warlord’ and said that Muslim women were oppressed. The couple saw their business “brought to its knees” as they found themselves at the centre of an investigation into what was deemed a religious hate crime against 60-year-old Ericka Tazi. However their names were cleared as a judge said the case “flew in the face of the right to freedom of religious expression.”

Their barrister told Liverpool Magistrates’ Court: “It is most unfortunate that so much time and public money has been devoted to this discussion about religion.” District Judge Richard Clancy told him: “You raise the question of free speech, and the European Union gives all of us a right to religious freedom. People have gone to some length to preserve that integrity.” After sitting through two days’ evidence, Judge Richard Clancy didn’t take very long to reach an answer. In fact, he didn’t even retire to consider his verdict. Judge Clancy dismissed the case against the couple.

Judge Clancy said the European Union gave everyone the right to religious freedom. “I’m not satisfied on the facts that this case has been made out.” Judge Clancy criticized Mrs Tazi, saying her profuse swearing while staying at the hotel conflicted with her demure demeanour in court. The Vogelenzangs were charged with a religiously aggravated public order offence under hate crime laws. The Vogelenzangs could have received a maximum jail sentence of six months.

When the case was first raised, Church leaders wrote to the Director of Public Prosecutions, calling for it to be dropped. They said “The Vogelenzangs had adopted five children, of whom one was a Muslim, and had put their names forward to foster other Muslim youngsters.” Mike Judge, a spokesman for the Christian Institute who funded the case, said: “Important issues of religious freedom and free speech were at stake. There is a worrying tendency for public bodies to misapply the law in a way that sidelines Christianity more than other faiths.

Judge continued: “People see the police standing by when Muslim demonstrators take to the streets in this country holding some pretty bloodthirsty placards, but at the same time come down hard on two Christians having a debate over breakfast.” Mr Judge welcomed the swift dismissal of the case, but added: “It should never have come to court.” Local Muslims who attended the hearing were dismayed by the decision. A woman student from Liverpool University, said: “People will think they can say whatever they want to Muslims after this.”

Source: ASSIST News Service

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URGENT PRAYER NEEDED IN IRAQ

On Tuesday, December 8, 2009, terrorists set off multiple car bombs in Baghdad, killing at least 127 people and injuring another 448. This is the third worst attack in the nation’s capital in 2009. Two days after the Iraqi parliament passed a new election law, allowing elections to be held in early 2010, insurgents retaliated with a series of devastating car bombs. The explosions targeted a courthouse, training centre for judges, a Finance Ministry building, and a police checkpoint. This is the third wave of attacks on government buildings since August 2009.

Another bomb, set off north of Baghdad on Wednesday, December 9, 2009 killed two people and injured seven others. On the same day, a sniper shot and killed a policeman in the same area. A school was bombed on Monday, December 7, 2009, killing eight people, most of them children. The Iraqi government has reacted by vowing to address security issues, while NATO governments have said the bombings will not change their troop withdrawal plans.

“MPs are angry,” a Kurdish lawmaker said, “and the people are even more angry. We want to know what is going on, what is the security plan? Why do these explosions keep happening?” Terrorist attacks have declined in the last eighteen months, but a renewed surge of violence began in October 2009 with a systematic bomb assault thatkilled 155. The recent series of coordinated car bombings in Baghdad were the third most deadly in Baghdad this year. The death toll in the nation’s capital in 2009 has now risen to 1,243.

PRAY FOR:

* an immediate end to the murder of civilians and children in Iraq, and an immediate end to bomb attacks. Pray for the Prince of Peace to move powerfully in this land, restoring order and bringing true and lasting peace. Pray for God’s Kingdom to come to this war-weary nation in great power, through dreams, visions, signs and wonders. Pray for multitudes to accept Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.

* insurgents, rebels and terrorists to be discovered, defeated, apprehended, and quickly brought to justice. Pray for the hearts of these evil men to be softened by the Holy Spirit and freed from the grip of Satan. Pray for them to repent of their wickedness and put their faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.

* family members who are grieving the loss of loved ones, and pray for sisters and brothers who have lost their siblings in the bomb blast that went off at the school. Also pray that the children will not be traumatized by what they saw and experienced as a result of the explosion. Pray for the supply lines of weapons, financing and military intelligence to be demolished, leaving terrorist without support. Pray for their ability to inflict harm to wither away.

Source: Windows International Network

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ISLAMIC HAT ALLOWED FOR LAWYER IN COURTROOM

The appeals chamber of the Bar Association’s disciplinary council has acquitted lawyer Mohammed Enait of contempt of court. He has the right not to rise when the judge enters the courtroom and can wear a Muslim hat during sessions, it has ruled. It is customary for lawyers to stand up during court cases when the judge enters the courtroom. Enait deliberately refuses to do so. His argument is that his religion maintains that everyone is equal and as a Muslim, he therefore does not want to behave subserviently.

The disciplinary council of the Bar Association reprimanded the Islamic lawyer in May. On three points, he showed contempt of court, it ruled; he refuses to rise, wears an Islamic head-covering during sessions and showed contempt of a judge in a TV talkshow. But the appeal chamber acquitted the lawyer on all three counts. His refusal to rise and his headgear are not meant to show contempt of court, in its view. And in the TV programme his relative lack of experience as a lawyer played a role.

Enait appears regularly in talk-shows on TV. The lawyer earlier became the focus of satire after it emerged that the secretaries portrayed on the website of his office were porn actresses. Enait refuses to shake hands with women. In making his claim that he does not wish to be subservient to non-Muslims, Enait overlooks the fact that in many Islamic Countries, the Dhimmi (Christians & Jews) are made to be subservient to the Muslim rulers, being as they are forced to pay a poll tax due to their different religious beliefs.

Source: MSN News

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MYANMAR FACES FAMINE DUE TO RAT PLAGUE

A village in Myanmar’s Chin state is facing a severe famine due to a heavy influx of rats that are eating their food. They are also being afflicted with unknown illnesses, and their children have been unable to attend school. The heart-wrenching crisis the people of this village and many others throughout Chin state are going through has a name – mautam. “Mau” is the Burmese word for bamboo and “tam” means famine. The rat infiltration was triggered by the blooming of a certain species of bamboo plant – a phenomenon that takes place just once about every 50 years.

The plague of rats has ravaged Myanmar’s already impoverished Chin state for two years now, wiping out 75 to 80 percent of its crops. Rats are drawn to the nutritious fruit created by the blooms, which increases their fertility and greatly multiplies their birthrate. They strip the bamboo plants of their fruit and seeds and plow their way through other crops as well, devouring grain, corn and rice. Families are being forced to scavenge for food such as edible leaves, shoots, roots and tree bark, as their rice harvest and other staples are being devoured by rats.

More than 54 people have died from health problems related to the food crisis. “I have never seen such a huge number of rats,” a Burmese farmer said. “I had thought we could easily drive out the rats and protect our crops. But just before harvesting, the rats came and ate all the rice in the fields in just one night.” Gospel for Asia leaders request prayer for the Lord’s intervention and protection upon the people in Chin, Myanmar, and that many will find lasting hope in the midst of their suffering.

Source: Gospel for Asia

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NORTH KOREAN GOVERNMENT CALLS FOR ’100 DAYS OF COMBAT’

North Korea’s people face disaster. A sudden currency devaluation coupled with a disastrous harvest threatens to collapse the food market. Starvation is imminent for millions. Paul Estabrooks with Open Doors says the government has responded by instituting “100 days of combat. These are days when mobilization is controlled very strictly, people can’t go from place to place without a permit, and they’re expected to work extra hard.” Complicating matters, North Korea’s suspicious nature and isolation keeps them in the past.

“They’re still believing that America wants to wipe them out, so combat is something that they’re constantly prepared for. This is kind of normal for a country like North Korea.” The work of Open Doors has been limited in the past few months because of these “combat periods.” Pray with North Korean believers: “They’re praying that they will have the ability to stand strong through the pressures they face, that during this Christmas time they will still have the chance to share the message of Jesus.”

Source: Intercessors Network

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ORAL ROBERTS DIES AT AGE OF 91

Evangelist Oral Roberts has died of pneumonia complications. He was 91. Roberts rose from tent revivals to found a multimillion-dollar organization and an Oklahoma university bearing his name.

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.ausprayernet.org.au/

Related Articles:

• SUDAN & BURMA: CHRISTIAN REFUGEES IN PERIL
• Pray for the World 6 February 2012
• PRAYER OF A HUMBLE SERVANT
• Prayers for Help in Times of Trouble
• Pray for the World (January 31, 2012)

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