In This Issue: Alternative Voices
- SOMALIA: Challenges and Complications
- INDIA: 2,000 Children Gather to Pray for the Nations
- WORLD: Youth Activists
- MIDDLE EAST: In That Hour
- WORLD: Responding to Gender Abuse and Inequalities
Missions Catalyst is a free, weekly electronic digest of mission news and resources designed to inspire and equip Christians worldwide for global ministry. Use it to fuel your prayers, find tips and opportunities, and stay in touch with how God is building his kingdom all over the world. Please forward it freely!
Greetings!
With the worst drought in the Horn of Africa in five decades, women and children have been on my heart; they always suffer the most. Piracy, child soldiers, and regional players complicate the efforts of aid workers. The articles below should give you much fodder for prayer.
I wonder if the prayers of some amazing kids in India – see below – had something to do with a breakthrough of good news in some parts of the world: light shining in darkness. May God raise up the youth of Somalia, Libya, and Saudi Arabia to pray like the kids in Chennai!
Let the little children … pray!
Pat
SOMALIA: Challenges and Complications
Source: Pat Noble, July and August 2011
The UN reports that only half the aid needed in Somalia has been given. Workers can’t even get to the area of greatest need. In this part of the world it seems that the days of immunity for aid workers and reporters are gone. Read these reports and pray for change in the Horn!
Children in Somalia Facing War Crimes (Amnesty International article with a two-minute video).
Eritrea: The Bad Boy of the Horn of Africa (short article on the new UN Monitoring Group report on Somalia and Eritrea, posted by Africa Review as a 417-page PDF).
Piracy Hampers Delivery of Aid to Somalia (The Guardian).
You may not have time to read the book, The Pirates of Somalia: Inside Their Hidden World, but maybe you can watch an interview with the author Jay Bahadur (C-SPAN, one hour).
>> For additional stories, see Horn of Africa Narrative Roundup for Week of August 5, 2011 (Justin Long).
INDIA: 2,000 Children Gather to Pray for the Nations
Source: Joel News International, August 11, 2011
In Chennai, India, 2,000 children gather[ed] from August 13-17 for the International Children Intercessors Conference. Over the past few years children’s prayer movements and houses of prayer have been started in many nations.
In Chennai children pray on live television every Saturday night with people calling in from all over the world to receive prayer. There are plans to raise up 10,000 children intercessors this year.
>> To learn more, check out Royal Kids Prayer Ministries. Don’t miss this 14-minute video with kids praying with power! Our friend Karen at Stand4Kids also recently shared several stories about children who pray.
WORLD: Youth Activists
Source: Pat Noble, August 2011
The news has been filled with stories of disaffected youth lately, but some young people are also creatively working for change.
Through the YOUNG Africa Project (Youth Overcoming Underdevelopment Nationally and Globally in Africa), the young of Liberia are rising to the challenge. The Key to Rebuild (Missions Door) relates the story of a former refugee going home with the gospel and a message for the youth.
This month a group called Mideast Youth launched a new platform for advocacy, AssyrianRights.org.
And my favorite, a 14-year-old news sleuth who “looks more like he’s ten” and “carries around a backpack almost as big as he is.” Read or listen to the report about Malik Mohammed’s reporting: Libyan Teen’s News Site Hears the Rebel Yell (NPR).
MIDDLE EAST: In That Hour
Source: Faith Comes By Hearing, July 2011
“When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.” Matthew 10:19 (ESV)
This testimony was shared with [FCBH] by a worker who took Audio Bibles into the Middle East:
“You have a four-year-old daughter who is dying, and the Lord wants to heal her.”
“What are you talking about?! What do you know about me and my family?!” The judge glared at the young woman appearing in front of him in court.
“God wanted me to tell you.”
Unnerved and angry, the judge put her in prison.
Five days later, his daughter was healed. The judge ordered for the young woman to be released.
>> Full story. See also With His Stripes We’re Healed, the story of six-year-old Hayat, born blind, deaf, and paralyzed, and how God answered her father’s prayer.
WORLD: Responding to Gender Abuse and Inequalities
Source: Pat Noble, July and August, 2011
Could you guess what are the top five countries where women and girls are most at risk? Check your answers by watching this four-minute video. The release of this poll has ignited Internet debate. Learn more at Trust Law.
Have you heard of the White Ribbon Pledge Campaign? Begun in Toronto in 1991, it has expanded to more than 60 countries. See Church of Southern Africa to Join Campaign to End Violence against Women, Children (Anglican Communion News Service).
Finally, two interesting articles that may need no introduction: David L. Johnson’s Driving in Riyadh – If You’re Female (Rick Love) and A Jihad by Muslim Women Against Violence (The New York Times).
Pat Noble has been the “news sleuth” for Missions Catalyst since 2004. In addition to churning out the news, she is working to create a SWARM (Serving World A Regional Mobilizers) in Northern New York using the NorthernChristian.org website. You can connect with her at www.whatsoeverthings.com.
