Suffering Church Action Week of Prayer

This week, November 1st to 8th, is Suffering Church Action Week, when Christians around the world are encouraged to support and pray for the persecuted Church.

This year, perhaps more than ever, we need to be truly interceding before the Throne of God for our fellow Christians in places such as the Middle East, North Africa, Eritrea and other African countries,Yemen, Myanmar, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Central Asian countries … the list goes on.

Ideologies, the rise of religious fanaticism, increasingly oppressive governments and war are all working to increase the pressure against Christians and the Church, and they, all too often, find themselves living as a despised minority in hostile communities.

In many countries, Christians also endure persistent discrimination that holds them in a poverty trap.  Denied access to education and decent employment, they go hungry and are often unable to provide for their families, and so the cycle continues.

But in all of this, the Church is growing. Reports from Middle East refugee camps frequently tell of people turning to Christ and finding hope and healing in His love. The pressure against the Church is actually serving to unite Christians together, to support each other, share resources and to pray together for their nations and people.

This week, let us join them, united with our brothers and sisters in Christ across this world, lifting them and their nations before the Father, knowing that He hears, He knows, He understands, and He alone has the power to save, to change our nations and bring hope to a needy world.

• Pray for Christians in areas of the world where there is real persecution, fear of death, oppression and discrimination against them. Pray that they will stand firm in their faith, be faithful in their witness to their communities and families, and know that they are held in the hands of their Heavenly Father.
• Pray for peace, stability and for change in nations where Christians are persecuted.
• Pray for the Holy Spirit to blow across these nations, and to open people’s eyes and hearts to the truth of the Gospel.
• Pray that Christians will be encouraged and not lose heart, and the Church will continue to grow in numbers and in strength.

2 Corinthians 4 vs 8 – 10: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”

Source, and for more details and resources for this week of prayer: https://www.barnabasfund.org