Micah Challenge Prayer, November 3, 2006

Friday November 3, 2006

Welcome! We hope you will enjoy using these reflections with us!

Reflection

‘Responsibility for the world is an evangelical heritage’, says Andreas Kusch from Micah Challenge and he illustrates this through the examples of well-known evangelicals in Europe :

• Poverty was a “sore to the eye of our Christianity” said Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705), father of the Pietist movement in .

• “Christ’s commandment to “love one another, for we are brothers” contains the only policy that can make humankind happy;” was the belief of Carl Christian Mez (1808-1877), a leading figure in the revivalist movements of South-West .

• William Carey (1761-1834) the father of “modern World-Mission” called for a sugar boycott…

• John Wesley’s (1703-1791) social reforms inspired by his faith, may have spared a revolution similar to that which took place in .

Please reflect on Matthew 22:37-39.

‘Love for God and love for the neighbour are inseparably intertwined with each other. In this context, the neighbour, however, is not only the individual; the commandment of love is extended to societies and cultures to the ends of the earth.’

Prayer

Please pray:

• Please give thanks for the 2^nd round of elections in the DRC. Joseph Nkinzo, Micah Challenge coordinator in the DRC, writes:

‘In order to fight against poverty effectively we need to achieve the objectives of the MDGS and hold our governments to account to keep their promise and honour the mandate that their people have given them. This is why good governance and Civic Education form an important part of the Micah Challenge DRC strategy.

MC DRC was officially accredited by the Electoral Commission as part of the national structure to delegate election observers in the country. Considering the limited resources, we managed to delegate people in all the districts of the capital Kinshasa . The objective was to play the part of sentinel of the church and the Civil society for a credible and transparent 2^nd round of the elections.

We thank the Lord for this present electoral process which comes to its end and that we were able to play our part.
Let us thank God for good and safe election procedures except a few isolated incidents.

Please pray for the announcement of the results as there was some disorder in Kinshasa after the first round of the elections. The announcement of the final result of the election is expected between the 15 and 19 November. But the various candidates are already starting to celebrate their victory which may cause problems for the candidate who doesn’t succeed and is therefore likely to find it difficult to accept the result. The two candidates signed a peace agreement before the international community to guarantee peace in this process but nothing guarantees that it will be followed through.

• Please pray that the Stop Climate Chaos rallies in London on November 4^th and in Nairobi on November 11^th capture people’s imaginations and inspire change. Pray that governments witnessing this groundswell of support will be motivated to prioritise climate change action in their policies.

• That during the UN climate change conference (COP12), which will take place in Nairobi from 6^th-17^th Nov, that the voices of poor people will be heard.

• Pray also for commitments to see that poor communities receive funding that will help them to adapt to the impacts of climate change. They are currently the least able to prepare and cope with the consequences of climate change. consequences.

Meditate on the Statistics

As you spend time in prayer and reflection, you may like to take a moment to silently understand with your heart the focus statistic we will include each week (see below). We are hoping that you will find this series of statistics a useful reference in preparing presentations.

Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability

Target 9: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources

Indicator 28: Carbon dioxide emissions per capita and consumption of ozone-depleting CFCs (ODP tons)

‘Without urgent action on climate change, 200 million people are at risk of being driven from their homes by flood or drought by 2050′.

Source: Stern Report, October 2006

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1943315.ece

Yours in Christ,

Regine, Jill and Michael

Please see List of Prayer Reflections

http://www.micahchallenge.org/global/prayer_resources/documents/SearchableFridayPrayerReflections.xls

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