Day: March 5, 2014

1. Pray for the new interim Ukrainian president who is a committed Christian and Baptist preacher. He and the rest of the Ukrainian government need tremendous wisdom in the days ahead.
2. Pray for the Christians in Crimea that God will protect them but also make them witnesses of reconciliation and peace in the present situation. There are Russian, Ukrainian, and Crimean Tatar Christians who can model reconciliation between the different groups. Pray that Colossians 3:11 will become a visible reality in the Church.
3. Pray for a political, economic, and spiritual breakthrough and peace in Crimea. That happened in 1999 when the grievances of the Crimean Tatars had been met the day before the protests could turn violent. Praise God who can do that again!
4. Pray for wisdom for Russian, European, and US leaders in how to deal with the tension in Crimea. The Ukrainian government could ask the UK and US governments to help protect its territory according to the 1994 memorandum. That can create a conflict that will not only affect Crimea but the whole region and potentially the whole of Europe.
5. In 1914 Europe had been catapulted into war after an incident on the European periphery. Please pray that the same will not happen again 100 years later.
6. Pray that God will be glorified in a situation where Satan wants to cause destruction.

On Sunday, March 9, the world will join in prayer for Myanmar (Burma), a nation steeped in poverty and ravaged by 60 years of civil war. Most live on US$1 a day, and two thirds of children are malnourished. Violent military dictatorships have killed thousands and displaced millions. Although freedom is increasing, forced labor, property destruction, and attacks on civilians continue across the nation.

» Learn more and watch Prayercast video.

Twenty-five Protestant families have had their water and electricity supplies disconnected and have effectively been put under house arrest in Mexico because of their refusal to participate in traditionalist Catholic religious ceremonies.

Traditionalist Catholic village authorities are demanding that the families, who belong to the local Mount Tabor Evangelical Church, contribute financially to religious festivals, and have said they will not permit the families to reconnect their services or receive visitors until they pay 500 pesos each. The village authorities are justifying their actions as in line with the Law of Uses and Customs, which gives indigenous populations autonomy to exercise traditional forms of justice and to protect their culture.

The situation follows an escalation of discriminatory behavior towards the group of Protestant Christians in La Trinitaria Municipality in Chiapas state, beginning in 2010, when the local village assembly blocked their access to firewood and refused them permission to attend or participate in village assembly meetings.

Garbage and filth surrounded their makeshift shanty in a small-scale dump in Kigali, Rwanda. Five years ago, three street boys, David, Pacifique, and D’Amour, lived in this squalor, their minds obsessed with survival and numbing their pain.

“They had no hope before they came to us,” says Hilliary Anderson, founder of Hope for Life Ministry (HFLM), based in Kigali. HFLM’s aim is to transform the lives of vulnerable street kids by providing housing, Christian counseling and discipleship, and resources to break the chains of poverty.

Last year the three boys formed a gospel band called Shining Hope and produced their first song, “You Are Precious,” singing about their transformed lives since they began to follow Jesus.

“When we recorded this song they were so excited,” Anderson notes. “They never believed anything like this could happen.”