“Nothing tends more to cement the hearts of Christians than praying together. Never do they love one another so well as when they witness the outpouring of each other’s hearts in prayer.”
FROM THE DESK OF: the Director of Communications
The holidays are behind us. The bowl games are over. Time to get back to the normal rhythms of life. Which for us is recruiting and sending sports missionaries to restricted access countries. Our prayer for 2016 is similar to what we find in the book of Ezra. Everyone whose spirit is stirred up we want to send. Our prayer is that the Lord would stir up like He never has before...
For the Win[dow],
Bubby Bryan, DOC
VERSE OF THE WEEK: Ezra 1:5
Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to to up to rebuild the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem.
COUNTRY OF THE WEEK: Libya
The Italians supplanted the Ottoman Turks in the area around Tripoli in 1911 and did not relinquish their hold until 1943 when defeated in World War II. Libya then passed to UN administration and achieved independence in 1951. Following a 1969 military coup, Col. Muammar al-QADHAFI assumed leadership and began to espouse his political system at home, which was a combination of socialism and Islam. During the 1970s, QADHAFI used oil revenues to promote his ideology outside Libya, supporting subversive and terrorist activities that included the downing of two airliners - one over Scotland, another in Northern Africa - and a discotheque bombing in Berlin. UN sanctions in 1992 isolated QADHAFI politically and economically following the attacks; sanctions were lifted in 2003 following Libyan acceptance of responsibility for the bombings and agreement to claimant compensation. QADHAFI also agreed to end Libya's program to develop weapons of mass destruction, and he made significant strides in normalizing relations with Western nations. Unrest that began in several Middle Eastern and North African countries in late 2010 erupted in Libyan cities in early 2011. QADHAFI's brutal crackdown on protesters spawned a civil war that triggered UN authorization of air and naval intervention by the international community. After months of seesaw fighting between government and opposition forces, the QADHAFI regime was toppled in mid-2011 and replaced by a transitional government. Libya in 2012 formed a new parliament and elected a new prime minister. The country subsequently elected a new parliament in 2014, but remnants of the outgoing legislature refused to leave office and created a rival government.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
- Pray for a unified government that will rebuild the nation with justice and peace.
- Pray for the tiny Libyan Church to be united and established despite intense persecution.
- Pray for Jesus to reveal Himself to moderate and extremist Muslims alike.
- Pray for the Uttermost workers in the field.
- Pray for the US office.