AUSTRALIAN   PRAYER   NETWORK   NEWSLETTER

* MISSIONARY TEACHER TELLS OF THE MOMENT QUAKE HIT JAPAN

* STORIES OF MIRACULOUS SURVIVALS AND RESCUES EMERGE IN  JAPAN

* CANADA: MAYOR DEFIES RULING TO CEASE PRAYERS IN COUNCIL
MEETINGS

* CHRISTIANS IN JAPAN APPEAL FOR ONGOING PRAYER

* MALAYSIAN AUTHORITIES SEIZE GIDEON BIBLES

* PERSECUTION CONTINUES IN  EGYPT

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MISSIONARY TEACHER
TELLS OF THE MOMENT QUAKE HIT JAPAN

Mary Jo Ruck, who teaches in Japan, writes of the moment the recent
earthquake struck. She writes: “I walked out of the rest room and
into the hall way. Things started to shake. I saw some teachers down
the hall that were talking. I yelled earth quake, and headed for the
door of one of our classrooms. Then I thought, this is glass, and
it’s not stopping. I ran over by the door to the outside and stood in
the corner for about a minute. Everything was shaking. “It was
getting worse. I held on, scared. I started praying. I asked God to
make it stop. Let the shaking stop.
It kept going. I said to God, Lord, if it’s my time to go, then so be
it. But if it is, let it be fast. Take me quickly Lord. “It kept
shaking, but lightened a little and then finally I got my wits about
me and I dashed out the door to a rock away from the building. I sat
on the rock, begging for the earth to stop moving. Cars were stopped
in the street. The electric poles were swaying. Finally, it resided.
I cried, relieved that it was over, but so shook up. A little bit
later William came running down the hill to see if I was okay. We
stood outside for awhile, but aftershocks kept coming.
We couldn’t go back inside. Those that did came  running out  when  it
started to shake again.” Ruck said: “We spent a good hour outside. A
little while after, it started snowing. Like the kind of snow you get
in a blizzard. 20 minutes later it stopped and the sun came out
again. When I went back into our office, we started picking up. Many
things had fallen over, there were cracks in the walls. and yet my
water glass was still standing on my desk. There was no electricity.
The water was running, but had to be turned off because of a broken
pipe that was flooding a classroom.
We  then headed back to our apartments to check the damage.” Ruck
said: “In our apartment, it was amazing what had fallen but not
broken.  Dishes were scattered all over the kitchen floor. Our olive
oil fell from the shelf closest to the ceiling, managed to dent its
lid so that it wouldn’t close, but was standing up right on my floor,
with no oil on the floor. Three bowls and a mug broke. Everything on
our top shelf in our closet fell off and was pressing on the sliding
doors of the closet. Everything on our bookshelf was off and on the
floor. We now have several cracks in our walls.”
Ruck writes: “In God’s providence, I had gone shopping for an entire
week the day before. Our cupboards were stocked. At work, we were in
between programs. The kindergarten kids for the most part had all
gone home. The friends club kids hadn’t come yet, the buses hadn’t
even left to pick them up. What a disaster it would have been if they
were all there, amidst it all.” She adds: “We had running water for
about 7 hours after the quake, but it soon dried up. Saturday
evening, water came back for a brief moment, and so I filled up some
more containers.
“We have enough food, and so do the people around us.  The grocery
stores are rationing the food, and people have to wait in a long line
for perhaps two hours or more to get some basic necessities. The
water lines at the local community centres can be just as bad.” Ruck
stated that “We’re not the worst hit. The coastal areas, the places
hit by the tsunamis, are the worst off. We’re inland far enough that
it never reached us or even really got close to us. We didn’t know
how bad it was until much later, because all we could see was the
area around us.”
She continued: “I got a letter in my mail box today. We have
electricity,  food, and drinking water as well as  friends and help.
I’ve never talked to my neighbours more in the two years we’ve been
here. People are encouraging and helping each other” Ruck concludes:
“Pray for encouragement,  for us, and the people around us, and for
the tsunami victims.  I know  deep in my heart that God will provide.
He tells us not to worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow has enough worries
of its own. Lord, your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on Earth as
it is in Heaven. Amen.”
Source: ASSIST News
Service
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STORIES OF
MIRACULOUS SURVIVALS AND RESCUES EMERGE IN JAPAN
In the midst of the tragedy that has hit Japan, there have been a few
bright spots which CNN is reporting as “miracles.”   In one
instance  soldiers from Japan’s Defence Force were charged with the
grim task of going from house to house (or what remained of them) and
pulling out bodies from the rubble. After almost dismissing it, they
realized they had heard a baby’s cry. Following the sound, they moved
away pieces of wood, rock and glass until they found her. A little
4-month-old infant girl lay wrapped securely in her pink wooden pram.

Both  her parents survived the quake, but she was swept away by
the  tsunami. Fearing the worst, they sheltered in what was left of
their home. Soldiers reunited the baby with her elated father. In
another story a  70-year-old woman, swept out to sea with her house,
was  rescued many days later suffering from hypothermia, but
otherwise  okay. Hiromitsu Shinkawa, was rescued  after 2 days  floating
on a piece of the roof of his home. “Several helicopters and ships
passed but none of them noticed me,” he told reporters. “I thought it
was going to be the last day of my life.”
The miraculous stories of survival helped lift the spirits of the
Japanese. Christian organizations based in Japan are using social
networking sites to coordinate relief efforts. One Christian group
led by Jonathan Wilson has activated a team of volunteers using
Facebook. Christian Relief, Assistance Support and Hope (CRASH) is
working closely with JEMA (the Japanese Evangelical Missionary
Association), to coordinate a large network of experienced volunteers
who live in Japan and are familiar with the nation’s culture and
language.
CRASH has  determined it will not send teams into the areas near the
nuclear plants. Instead, CRASH is focusing its efforts in smaller
villages who may not receive assistance from the larger humanitarian
aid groups. Teams will work through churches who know the community’s
needs. Missions Faces a Unique Challenge in Japan. Japan’s population
exceeds 127 million, yet less than one percent of those consider
themselves Christians. About 70 percent of Japanese profess no
religious affiliation. Those who do  typically blend elements of
Shinto and Buddhism.
Missionaries often refer to Japan as the wealthiest unreached nation
in the world with the region hardest hit by the quake, the
spiritually “darkest” part of the country. Materially rich Japan is
spiritually poor. There  are suicides every day and there are many
problems in this rich country that has no clue about the Gospel.
Japan has an extremely polite culture and its citizens often avoid
conflict. In that regard, Japanese people are generally willing to
listen to missionaries share about the gospel, but few are willing to
become Christians.
Japanese Christian leaders have characterized their own nation as “a
super power without a moral compass.” The country has been guided for
centuries by  moral and religious ethic that have come out of
Shintoism and Confucianism. “We pray  that God would use  the
earthquake as a means for  this proud and rich country to turn to the
true and living God,” said Iverson. “We pray they will eat true bread
and not the false bread of wealth and education and all the other
things that haven’t worked for them.”
Source: ASSIST News
Service
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CANADA: MAYOR
DEFIES RULING TO CEASE PRAYERS IN COUNCIL MEETINGS
The city of Saguenay, has been ordered by the Quebec Human Rights
Commission to cease offering prayers at city hall.  Mr Tremblay, the
city ¢â‚¬â„¢s mayor,  has responded defiantly saying that the prayers would
remain a part of the town meetings. He said the decision of the
Commission was non-binding and added that the decision was itself
discriminatory against people who want to pray. The Mayor told the
media that the two people who lodged the complaints rarely attended
the meetings and were opponents on a number of issues besides prayer.

 ¢â‚¬Å“I don’t know why we would stop. Prayers are what we have that’s most
precious. To subject ourselves to the whim of some people, very few
of them, just two … is to kneel down rapidly, and we don’t have the
intention to stop,” he said.  Tremblay admitted that the decision
cannot force a ban on prayers, but said that it does leave the
complainants with the option of bringing the matter before the
tribunal. In the current system of the Canadian Human Rights
Tribunals, the costs of the complainant are entirely paid for by the
state, while the plaintiff must pay his own costs.
Critics say  this has led to the HRC being used as a weapon with which
lobbyists and individuals can bring frivolous  suits against
ideological opponents that would otherwise not be heard in the
legitimate courts – all free of charge. Recently a Toronto restaurant
owner conceded defeat in a case brought against him because he was
unable to foot what would likely have been a $60,000 legal bill. The
complainant said that the restaurant owner had asked him to stop
smoking his  ¢â‚¬Å“medical ¢â‚¬  marijuana in the restaurant ¢â‚¬â„¢s doorway and that
this had offended him.
Tremblay said  that he hoped the complainants would not carry on to
the Tribunal.  ¢â‚¬Å“But if they do, I’ll show up, ¢â‚¬  he said. One of the
complainants, Christian Joncas, threatened that if the next town
council meeting opened with a prayer, he would take the matter to
court.  ¢â‚¬Å“We’re a bits oft. When someone, who represents three per cent
of the population, wishes to do something, everyone bends over
backwards, ¢â‚¬  Tremblay told the commission.  ¢â‚¬Å“But when the Mayor wishes
to have prayer, we tell him to stop in order to respect the principle
of secularism! ¢â‚¬ 
Source:
LifeSiteNews.com
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CHRISTIANS IN
JAPAN APPEAL FOR ONGOING PRAYER
Christians in Japan are appealing for prayer as their stricken land
struggles to cope with the three-fold disaster of earthquake, tsunami
and nuclear crisis. There are more than 300 churches in the affected
area; many have suffered the loss of pastors and church members,
while other believers are still unaccounted for, and church buildings
have been destroyed. A Japanese Christian leader now working in
Sendai to help the disaster victims has filed the following report.

Pray for the churches in the affected area. Many have lost their
pastors, members, and buildings. Pray  they  stand strong in their
faith in Christ. Rescue and relief missions are being
conducted  through local churches, providing an open gate for the
Gospel.  People are still  ¢â‚¬Å“traumatised and shocked ¢â‚¬ , weeks after the
earthquake struck. Desperate attempts to cool the overheating
reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant continue adding to the
crisis.  Hundreds of thousands of people are still being housed  in
temporary shelters and are in desperate need of food and water.

Please pray:
* for all those whose loved ones have died or are missing; pray that
they will be comforted. Pray for the recovery efforts, that the
Japanese authorities will have wisdom in the allocation of resources
and supplies.
* that efforts to overcome the problems at  the Fukushima power plant
will be successful.
* for Christian organisations and churches who are distributing aid.
Pray that Christians will stand strong in their faith and be
distinctively Christ-like in the way they help and care for the
suffering, that they will be salt and light in this situation.  Only
one per cent of Japanese people consider themselves Christians. Pray
that this unprecedented disaster will prompt others to turn to
Jesus.
Source: Barnabus
Fund
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MALAYSIAN
AUTHORITIES SEIZE GIDEON BIBLES
The detaining of 30,000 Bibles  in the Malay language at Malaysia ¢â‚¬â„¢s
Kuching Port has  ¢â‚¬Å“greatly disillusioned ¢â‚¬  the nation ¢â‚¬â„¢s Christian
community. The books, imported by the local branch of Gideons
International for distribution in schools, churches and longhouses,
have been detained at the Kuching Port since January. Authorities
told an unnamed officer of the importer that he could not distribute
the books since they  ¢â‚¬Å“contained words which are also found in the
Quran. ¢â‚¬   The officer was ordered to transport the books to the Home
Ministry ¢â‚¬â„¢s office for storage.
Home Ministry officials say  they are yet to receive instructions on
the matter. This is not the first time authorities have detained
Malay-language Bibles.  5,100 copies of the Bible in Malay, were
detained in  March 2009. Bishop Ng Moon Hing, chairman of Christian
Federation of Malaysia (CFM), decried the action.  ¢â‚¬Å“We are
disillusioned, fed-up and angered by the repeated detention of Bibles
written in our national language, ¢â‚¬  Hing said.  ¢â‚¬Å“It would
appear  authorities are waging a  systematic program against Christians
to deny them access to the Bible in Malay. ¢â‚¬ 
Source: Compass Direct
News
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PERSECUTION
CONTINUES IN EGYPT
Inspite of the changes in Egypt, tensions between Christians and
Muslims continue to rise. In the most recent clashes Muslims
destroyed a church south of Cairo, burning it to the ground and
desecrating the contents.  Christians in turn took to the streets
again to protest this attack, burning tires in the highway and
throwing rocks at cars. Responding to an imam’s call to, “kill all
the Christians,” a mob of nearly four thousand Muslims confronted the
Christians and a four-hour battle followed. Thirteen people were
killed and at least 140 injured.
Please pray for:
*   the Lord to comfort and encourage Christians who have lost loved
ones in this ongoing, escalating conflict. Ask Him to help Christians
forgive those who are persecuting them. Pray for Christians in Egypt
to stand up in their spiritual authority. Pray for them to be the
head and not the tail. Ask the Lord to empower them to fight
victoriously in prayer.
*   the spirits motivating these acts of violence to be bound.
Petition the Lord to rise up to contend with those who are contending
against His Children.  Pray for the Lord to set ambushes for the enemy
and expose the root of every demonic plot and scheme. Pray for the
Holy Spirit to give Christians strategies to demolish satanic forces.

*   the Lord to raise up men and women to lead this nation. Pray for
Christians to function under the Moses, Daniel, Nehemiah, Ezra and
Mordecai anointing.  Pray for the government to provide the security
needed to keep Christians safe. Pray for the Lord to bring an end to
the chaos in Egypt and restore peace. Pray that  this time of
political instability would  be used to draw the people of Egypt into
relationship with Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.

Source: Windows International
Network