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Yes, Tuesday brings the 40th celebration of my birthday and, hopefully, my "birthday wish" will be granted; however, I do plan on asking God for something more eternal than election results. Knowing so many others will be praying on that day, I'm asking God to deposit those prayers to the "salvation account" of two men with whom I've been sharing His message of forgiveness and reconciliation. Last week I hit this dreadful bump as someone shared news about a relatively recent meeting that was supposed to bring a certain type of attention to the local conflict. The one sharing this news seemed to imply that those working with Palestinians are "liberal" and not interested in... (hmm, I don't know how to put it) uh, let's just leave it at "liberal." My heart sunk, even considering the source :-( Anyway, at the bottom of this page is the Day 07 excerpt from the 30-Days of Prayer for the Muslim World, which I hope you will find informative. And, oh, if you ever wondered what it was like to put a PC in your car, try this 25-minute video link. Brigada.org found what I hope is a helpful link for those of you on dial-up and looking for a way to install Service Pack 2 for Windows XP:
"Microsoft will send a free CD containing SP2 with no shipping charges anywhere in the world (a gift from Bill Gates!). Just go to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en_us/default.mspx to order the free CD in any language." If that URL gets broken, try this one. ("For a free subscription to Brigada's weekly missions publication, write brigada-today-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and/or visit Brigada on the web at www.brigada.org.")
Did you see the open letter Oliver North wrote to John Kerry? Anyway, please feel free to recommend the 'Wednesday Weekly' to other like-minded intercessors in your circle of friends. Invite them either to send me an email at scoterry31684-subscribe@topica.com or to subscribe at our Wednesday Weekly website. I'm glad to have you with us. Have an awesome week! May God find us listening more attentively to His voice this week as I am, Yours because His,
* Be sure to sign up for the Wednesday Weekly.
+ <L A S T W E E K>< ++ You prayed for a time of praise while learning more about God in the ladies meeting in the Old City last week. Most of the women's families are observing Ramadan, thus causing it to be a difficult time to be the only believer in the home... Shirin thanks you for praying for the ladies meeting. As she and others called the ladies to invite them to the meeting, the ladies all had excuses relating to Ramadan not to attend. One women did come, however, and she says they had a great time of prayer and fellowship. + You asked God to grant me a certain level of patience and understanding as I assisted a gentleman with computer needs... He granted the patience and understanding as we worked on a Windows 95 machine with 32MB RAM. + You joined us in giving God thanks for Jasmine's enthusiastic attitude toward learning and asked Him for it to continue... wow, has it ever! While she's had a good attitude toward learning, your intercession made this week phenomenal! Thank you for praying : -)
<T H I S W E E K><<>< I'm meeting with a local merchant today to discuss some of his products and need intercession to keep our relationship from turning sour. <>< Pray with us to have divine appointments to speak to local people about God's love and mercy during Ramadan. <>< Jasmine and I will combine her monthly celebration of the 30th with my birthday, so pray with me that she would have an enjoyable, memorable time of celebration.
>< Pray for the people of Latvia. >
CALENDAR UPDATES<If you're not receiving our bimonthly snail-mail newsletter, let us know so we can send it to you!>< 20-23, Pray for Shirin and a co-worker to plant seeds at the Lazarus home for girls.* Last Friday we were able to visit the girls and share a Bible story. We also started helping them learn how to cross stitch and knit. 24, May many come to Jesus.* Well, I didn't see it happen *here,* so I trust it happened with you! 25, Pray for safety on the road.* I often think of you as a big part of our safety and thank God for your faithfulness in praying. Thank you! 26, Pray for the safe arrival of mail.* To my knowledge, none came today; however, your ongoing intercession *has* made a difference in its safe arrival.
30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World Day 07 - For Thursday 21 October 2004 The Palestinians The Palestinian Territories (the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) cover approximately 6,000 sq km, and have almost 3.5 million inhabitants. Nearly half are under the age of 15, and the current birth rate is 5.7 children per family. The West Bank is 83 per cent Palestinian Arab and 17 per cent Jewish; Gaza is 99 per cent Arab. The Palestinian government under the presidency of Yasser Arafat has experienced a lot of internal conflicts. Mr. Arafat has liked to present himself as a serious negotiating partner to Western countries and at the same time keep good relationships with fundamentalist Islamic groups, to avoid being overthrown by radicals. The Palestinians earn their living partly through agriculture, but many work in some sort of service industry. The authorities receive economic aid totaling about US$865 million annually. Nevertheless, about 60 per cent of the Palestinian population live under the poverty line and there is not sufficient medical care. Approximately 30,000 people work in Israel, but frequent army controls make it difficult for them to get to work. Because of the continuing Palestinian uprising (“Intifada”) which started in September 2000, the border with Israel is sometimes completely closed for weeks, and the unemployment rate is said to have reached 50–60 per cent because of this. Daily life in the Palestinian Territories is characterized by two factors: frustration and social decay because of the Israeli occupation, and intense Islamic indoctrination, which begins at childhood and teaches that the West, and especially “the Jews”, are the worst enemies of Islam. With promises of Paradise, young people (teenagers) are encouraged to undertake suicide attacks. While more and more parents are going against these ideas, a Muslim mother who refuses to sacrifice her child to Islam is still considered a “traitor”. Palestinian society is still very much shaped by traditional Arabic-Islamic values, despite Western influence. Although many Palestinian women attend university nowadays, their freedom of movement is restricted. Honor and virginity of a woman are considered to be the most valuable family treasure and, should it be necessary, honor will be restored by killing the transgressor. Even when a woman is raped, she normally gets the blame for the loss of her honor. The population is mainly Muslim. Many Palestinian Christians have emigrated during the last 20 years because of intense threats and persecution — in particular against converts. The Christian percentage of the population has dropped from 15 per cent to 2 per cent. Private Palestinian Christian schools, which try to offer an alternative to the usual propaganda, work under very difficult conditions. Prayer Topics * Muslim Palestinians need to encounter the Saviour of all men. Pray that Jesus will reveal Himself to them. * Pray for peace in the Middle East. After decades of war, the hatred planted in hearts is producing fruit and has made people bitter. Corruption and abuse within government and society motivate some to join the radical groups. * Pray for the believers working in Christian schools and hospitals to be able to exhibit love in the darkness. * Pray for strength and wisdom for Christian churches and fellowships, which
often suffer both from Israeli actions and from discrimination from their fellow
Palestinians. © Copyright 30 Days International 2004 --- Permission is granted to reproduce this article providing the (c) Copyright 30-Days Int'l and http://www.30-days.net are left intact. --- To join, send to 30-days-subscribe@arche.c-server.net --- 30-Days provides free materials about the Muslim world annually - powered by www.archeweb.net [ back to top ]
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