A pastor who is leading protests against embattled Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe says he does not want to be another martyr and he is committed to rebuilding the country. Mugabe, 92, is facing increasing demonstrations against his dictatorship but has been crushing protests by ordering police to use violence. Hundreds of people have been injured as officers use batons, tear gas and fists to stop protests. Pastor Evan Mawarire started the movement with his 'This Flag' campaign which calls on Mugabe to resign. In July he was arrested but, after mass protests outside court, he was released. Sources suggest he was told he must leave the country or he would be killed. He is in hiding in South Africa and believed to be trying to enter the US. He said he will not give up his campaign to oust Mugabe and his Zanu PF party. Despite calls for him to be the next president, he insists he has no political ambitions.

Torrential rains eased on Monday in flood-ravaged Louisiana, but forecasters warned that the threat was far from over. Louisiana has been deluged by rainfall since last week, with at least seven people dead and thousands of homes damaged by floods. Gov John Edwards said that officials ‘won't know the death toll for sure for several more days.’ More than 20,000 people have been rescued from floodwaters and more than 12,000 are in shelters. The water is expected to rise in many areas. ‘This is going to be tough to recover from,’ said a meteorologist for The Weather Channel. Pray for the homeless, the vulnerable elderly, and the infirm as they struggle to cope with loss and damage. Pray for the neighbourhoods under waist-high mud. Pray for those living downstream who are in fear as the water upstream has yet to reach them. Pray for those who have fled to higher ground and for the Louisiana Army National Guard and helicopter rescue teams.

Even before she left the shores of Nigeria for Brazil, Mariam Usman knew that winning a medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics would be a tough call. She would not pretend to be a magician or claim perfection where there is none. Usman believes one can only reap where one sows. She was the only weightlifter representing Nigeria in Rio. She competed in the +75 category and amassed 265 kg, finishing 8th in her group. ‘It is painful to come to the Olympics and see people who are your contemporaries perform better than you; not because you lack the ability but because you were not prepared like them,’ she said, She added that training for the Rio Olympics was non-existent in Nigeria, while her counterparts from other countries have been training for three to four years. ‘Other competitors had everything they needed: training grants, competitions and access to the most modern equipment. I had nothing.’

Five years after becoming the world's newest nation, South Sudan is broken. The joy of independence quickly faded back into conflict. Years of fighting and civil war have crippled nearly every sphere of society. Pray for the government, where the president and vice-president are political and military rivals. Pray for security: due to looting, rape, and mass killings, people are confined to houses, reduced to unimaginable fear. Pray for the economy, as South Sudan has the highest inflation in the world - 300%. Pray for the health of this nation that is suffering acute malnutrition. Many South Sudanese have only known war, conflict, and strife. A culture of revenge is prominent among the more than 60 major ethnic groups. The people of South Sudan are desperate for forgiveness, healing, and reconciliation. These are precisely what God offers by the blood of Jesus Christ.

A missionary writes, ‘The military is working to bring down terrorists along the Afghan border. Pray this might be coordinated with Afghanistan so that terrorists cannot cross borders to escape. The Joshua project states Pakistan is one of the most unreached countries in the world. God says that before Jesus returns ‘there will be one from every tribe and tongue’ who accept Him as Lord and Saviour. A stronghold the devil has over Pakistan is caste; we can only work in one group at a time. There is a problem identifying these people groups. For the south of Pakistan, a survey identified 496 unevangelised people groups - very few have been reached. The survey’s lists and results were sent to appropriate organisations and it has just been found that these lists have been mislaid. Pray that all these files and lists will be found and that the Jesus film will be completed for those who have never heard the gospel.’

According to the UN, last year the number of people living in a country other than the one of their birth reached 244 million. God is doing something through diaspora - the individuals and peoples who have been scattered through migration. What Scripture shows from Genesis to Revelation is that God moves people from one place to another so that He might be known. The Bible is full of diaspora people, whom God sent to a different place for the glory of His name among the nations: Abraham, Moses, Daniel, Esther, Paul and Jesus. The pattern of God moving people around for the increase of His kingdom has not changed. According to Acts 17:26-27, the Lord ‘determined allotted periods and the boundaries of every nation’s dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.’

Three Christian tourists from Azerbaijan visiting their Christian friends in Tehran were arrested by Iranian intelligence police at a residential house, believed to be a house church. They were immediately transferred to an unknown location. They were identified as Bahram Nasibov, 37 years old and married; Yusif Farhadov, 52 and married; and Eldar Gurbanov, 48 and married. 45-year-old Naser Navard Gol-Tapeh, an Iranian Christian convert with an Islamic background, was also arrested. He is being held separately from the rest and there is no word on his whereabouts. The three Azeris’ wives have not been able to contact them since their arrest. One of the men was allowed to make two very short phone calls, during which he said, ‘All three of us are in good health and are held together in one place.’

Former congressman Tom DeLay encountered Jesus over 30 years ago and the transformation he underwent inspired him to write a book, jointly with Baptist pastor Wallace Henley, calling America back to its godly heritage. He spoke in depth about the process of repentance and revival that can lead to transformation in a nation. ‘How does a nation repent? Well, 100% of the nation isn’t going to repent, but when the remnant community, which is the core of the spiritual heart of the nation, awakens to repentance it radiates to others and others pick up the theme across the culture. When that occurs, that's when revival really strikes,’ Henley said. ‘God is at the core of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and the Constitution is at the core of our government. We need a God-centred revolution for the Constitution, resulting in a rebirth of our culture.'

The announcement by Jabhat al-Nusra that it was severing ties with al-Qaeda signals the terrorist organisation’s desperation. Russian and Iranian-backed Syrian forces are working together; Jabhat al-Nusra and its allies have instituted brutal Sharia rule, as documented by Amnesty International. It is hoped that US-Russian negotiations will produce an agreement on military coordination that will bring further bad news for what is now called the ‘Front for the Conquest of Syria’, The roll-out by Jabhat al-Nusra of its new brand would have been comical if there was a place for humour when dealing with the al-Qaeda affiliate and its bloody record worldwide. Ahmed Hassan Abu al-Khayr, the deputy to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, announced that he had ordered the split ‘for the good of Islam and the Muslims.’ Amnesty International said the Aleppo Conquest coalition organisations working with Jabhat al-Nusra are practitioners of an ideology and governance barely distinguishable from IS.

The Pentagon has said it is investigating what could be its deadliest strike on civilians in Syria since its anti-IS campaign began two years ago. Syrian opposition groups and monitors said a strike on 19 July is likely to have killed over 100 civilians, including whole families in Syria’s Aleppo province. Speaking from Baghdad, Colonel Christopher Garver said that the anti-IS coalition reviewed reports of US warplanes killing civilians and has completed a preliminary probe. The result was that the information available was credible enough to warrant a formal investigation, which has now been initiated. Meanwhile the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights continues to monitor and report on civilian casualties as airstrikes continue. Researchers and reporters based in the Middle East have catalogued 74 civilians killed last week, but how many more may have died in US and allied airstrikes remains unclear.