Prayer for our brothers and sister in India

Today, I received this sad and urgent prayer request regarding the persecution of our brothers and sisters in the Lord in India. After the email is a prayer that we can stand in faith in the name of Jesus!

This is what was sent via email:

I trust my friends have enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family. I feel quite sure that all of you have also heard the very devastating news about India the last couple of days. I also received this very urgent email that I wanted to share with my praying friends because all of these dear people NEED OUR PRAYERS. I am trying to hold them up before God all through out the day and at the end of every day. I hardly know the words to pray, but know that God can fill in my blanks. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this...I promise you will not be sorry.

This is regarding the slaughter of Christians in India. It comes from someone in a ministry that provides homes for "throw-away" children. PLEASE PRAY NOW!

November 21, 2008 The following was received from Celia Taylor of our church. This is a request for prayer for YWAM (Youth With a Mission) missionaries and their churches in Orissa, India . The request came from Mabel Hurst, an associate of HCJB Global. Please readand make this a matter of urgent prayer.

"Dear beloved sponsors and friends of Good News India. We have never seen anything like this. We knew that Orissa was the most resistant and hostile State in India as far as the Gospel is concerned. And we brushed off the continuous threats and harassment we faced as we went about His work. But none of our staff imagined that they would see this kind of carnage.... And it seems to be totally under the radar of the Western Media .... Let me explain....... A militant Hindu priest and 4 of his attendants, who were zealously going around the villages of Orissa and 'reconverting' people back to Hinduism, weregunned down by unknown assailants in Central Orissa last weekend. Immediately the Christians were blamed. The cry rose up... Kill the Christians!

And the horror began.... In the past 4 days, we have first hand witness to hundreds of churches being blown up or burned and many, many dozens of Christian tribals have been slaughtered. For no other reason than they bear the name of Christ. Night and day I have been in touch with our Good News India Directors spread across 14 Dream Centers in Orissa... they are right in the middle of all this chaos. In Tihidi, just after the police came to offer protection, a group of 70 blood-thirsty militants came to kill our staff and destroy the home. They were not allowed to get in, but they did a lot of damage to our Dream Center by throwing rocks and bricks and smashing our gate, etc. They have promised to come back and ' finish the job. 'Our kids and staff are locked inside and havestayed that way with doors and windows shut for the past 3 days. It has been a time of desperately calling on the Lord in prayer. More police have come to offer protection. In Kalahandi, the police and some local sympathizers got to our dream center and gave our staff and kids about 3 minutes notice to vacate. No one had time to even grab a change of clothes or any personal belonging. As they fled, the blood thirsty mob came to kill everyone in the building. We wouldhave had a mass funeral there, but for His grace. In Phulbani, the mob came looking for Christian homes and missions. The local Hindu people, our neighbors turned them away by saying that there were no Christians in this area. So they left. We had favor. The same thing happened in Balasore. All our dream centers are under lock down with the kids and staff huddled inside and police outside. The fanatics are circling outside waiting for a chance to kill. Others were not so fortunate. In a nearby Catholic orphanage, the mob allowed the kids to leave and locked up a Priest and a computer teacher in house and burned them to death. Many believers have been killed and hacked into pieces and left on the road.... even women and children. At another orphanage run by anotherorganization, when this began, the Director and his wife jumped on their motorbike and simply fled, leaving all the children and staff behind.

Every one of our GNI directors that I have spoken to said: "We stay with our kids.... we live together or die together, but we will never abandon what God has called us to do." More than 5000 Christian families have had their homes burned or destroyed. They have fled into the jungles and are living in great fear waiting for the authorities to bring about peace. But so far, no peace is foreseen. This will continue for another 10 days.... supposedly the 14 day mourning period for the slain Hindu priest. Many more Christians will die and their houses destroyed. Many more churches will be smashed down. The Federal government istrying to restore order and perhaps things will calm down. We ask for your prayers. Only the hand of God can calm this storm. None of us know the meaning of persecution. But now our kids and staff know what that means. So many of our kids coming from Hindu backgrounds are confused and totally bewildered at what is happening around them. So many of their guardians have fled into the jungles and are unable to come and get them during these trying times.

Through all this, I am more determined than ever to continue with our goal: the transformation of a community by transforming its children. Orissa will be saved... that is our heart's cry. If we can take these thousands of throw-away children and help them to become disciples of Jesus, they will transform an entire region. It is a long term goal, but it is strategic thinking in terms of the Great Commission.

What can you do?

First, please uphold all this in fervent prayer.
Second, pass this e-mail on to as many friends as you can. We must get the word out and increase our prayer base for this is spiritual warfare at its mostbasic meaning. We are literally fighting the devil in order to live for His Kingdom. The next 10 days are crucial. We pray for peace and calm to pervade across Orissa.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please pass it on and help us to get as many people to partner with us on this cutting edge effort to fulfill His mandate: Go and make disciples of all nations.... Prayer works!

Blessings, Chip & Sandy Wanner Col 2:2 MB Team Facilitators to YWAM frontlines--
"A friend hears the song in my heart & sings it to me when my memory fails"

Prayer we can pray in one accord:

"Father God in the name of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit...We pray for warriors to rise up in the midst of this chaos and havok that Satan has left behind. We call forth the mighty warring angels of God to protect every child, every minister and every Christian...this is the time for our FAITH to rise up and only believe...there is no room for doubt and unbelief. We pray the anointing of favor that was on Queen Esther to fall on every single Christian in those regions of India in the name of Jesus! We thank you Father that at this moment your All-Consuming Fire would burn up all assignments of the enemy and there would be constant revealing of the enemy's tactics before one finger can be laid on your people, our brothers and sisters in Christ!

We thank you for a WARRIOR CRY that would be heard from all these Christians as the Holy Spirit would shout through each Christian there like a MIGHTY TRUMPET! The enemies would hear it abroad and would flee for their lives in the name of JESUS!!!! We thank you Lord that you are the God of yesterday, today and forever! What we have seen you do for the armies of Israel, when in the natural there was no way they could have defeated their enemies, YOUR MIGHTINESS DELIVERED THEM AND YOU WERE IN THE MIDST OF THEM! Hallelujah!

Lord, we cry out for these Christians a battle cry like we have never uttered from our mouths before! O God, we pray you would supernaturally impart in each of these Christians boldness, strength of You! Lord, we declare your glory as their rear guard! We pray Psalm 91, your mighty promise over them right now in the name of Jesus!

Lord, your Word says, that because we abide under the Shadow of the Almighty they can say of you Lord, that you are their Refuge and their Strength! They trust in YOU, and we stand in the gap for them trusting in YOU! Surely you will save them from the traps of the enemy and from the deadly pestilence. You will cover them with your feathers and under YOUR wings they will find refuge. YOUR faithfulness will be their shield and rampart. They will not fear of the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at their side and ten thousand at their right hand but it will NOT come near them. We will only observe with our eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. Because your believers and children have made YOU their dwelling place, and YOU Lord, as their refuge, NO HARM will befall them, no disaster will come near them. For you will command your angels concerning them to guard them in all their ways, they will lift them up in their hands, so that they will not even strike their foot against a stone.
Lord, YOU will tread upon the lion and the cobra; YOU will trample the great lion and the serpent. Because your children love you, YOU LORD SAID, that you rescue them, protect them because they acknowledge YOUR name. When they call upon YOU, YOU will answer them; YOU are with them in trouble, YOU will deliver them and honor them and with long life you will satisfy him and show them YOUR salvation!"

We pray YOUR PROTECTION TO MANIFEST IN ALL THOSE AREAS OF INDIA LIKE MIGHTY WALLS! MAY YOU OPEN THE EYES OF THE ENEMIES THAT ARE COMING AFTER YOUR PEOPLE AND MAY THEY SEE YOUR ANGELS AND FLEE IN HORROR, NEVER TO RETURN. WE EVEN COMMIT THEM TO YOU AND PRAY THEIR HEARTS BE TRANSFORMED JUST AS PAUL DID, AND BE ON FIRE FOR YOU LORD, NEVER TO RETURN TO HINDUISM!

Thank you Lord for your protection over your prayer warriors who pray on their behalf as well! Lord, we thank you for boldness and the spirit of Faith to rise up in each of us!

In Jesus Mighty Name, we pray and thank you in advance for miraculous stories to give YOU all the glory and honor! In Jesus Name. Amen.