‘Jehovah Shalom, Lord of Peace, we remember those living in coronavirus hotspots and those currently in isolation. May they know Your presence, Your peace in their turmoil and your patience in their waiting. God of Comfort and Counsel, we pray for the grieving, reeling from the sudden loss of loved-ones; may they find Your fellowship in their suffering, Your comfort in their loss, and Your hope in their despair. Jehovah Rapha, God who heals, we pray for all medical professionals dealing daily with the intense pressures of this crisis. Grant them resilience in weariness, discernment in diagnosis, and compassion as they care. We thank you for the army of researchers working steadily and quietly towards a cure: give them clarity and unexpected breakthroughs. May You rise above this present darkness as the Sun of Righteousness with healing in your rays.’ For the full prayer, click the ‘More’ button.

Julia Gillard, former Australian prime minister, chairs the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), and is campaigning for the rights of girls to stay in education. Boris Johnson has called for every girl to be guaranteed twelve years of good quality education. In his party's election manifesto he repeated his support for girls' education globally. There are 130 million girls completely missing out on school. The UK government has been among the biggest backers, giving almost £1bn in 15 years. In Ethiopia there are projects to protect girls from sexual harassment as they go to school or college. Ms Gillard says that getting girls to stay in school is the ‘keystone’ for wider economic improvement. Many girls are married off at a young age or kept at home to work (freeing up an adult to go and earn an income for the family). Despite decades of world leaders’ promises, millions have never started school.

On 2 March Israel held its third election in a year. Already huge Likud roadside billboards bearing the faces of Blue and White and the Arab Joint List leaders have been erected, stating, ‘Yes to a Jewish and democratic state, no to supporters of terror.’ Israel’s elections are not over. The party headed by Benjamin Netanyahu continues its campaign against the formation of a minority government by Blue and White with the support of the Joint List. Foreign minister Katz called members of the Joint List ‘terrorists in suits’. 64% of Arab voters support the Joint List joining the government, but the right-wing/ultra-Orthodox and many of the general public, including Blue and White voters, don’t. Knesset members are receiving constant curses and insults by those against such cooperation. Is Israel prepared for real cooperation between Jews and Arabs at the highest level?

Violent extremists have spread across Burkina Faso. Traditional hunters and crime-fighting vigilantes have filled a governance vacuum and add a complexity to the crisis. A new group provides locals with weapons and two weeks’ training to combat jihadists. Many worry it will make matters worse. National troops are implicated in countless rights abuses, while French counter-terrorism forces have little impact. A jihadist attack on a church recently left 24+ people dead in a crisis that has displaced over 750,000 people since the beginning of last year. This insecurity has left displaced people in rural areas outside the reach of aid groups - and a lack of clear information on which militants are operating where - has made it difficult for humanitarians to negotiate access to affected people. Most attacks are attributed to groups linked to al-Qaeda and IS, with a patchwork of self-defence gangs and poorly equipped soldiers also being responsible for abuses.

As well as targeting individuals for exercising their freedom of religion and belief, Tajikistan’s regime also targets Christian communities. For example, the Full Gospel Protestant Church's two buildings in northern Tajikistan have both been confiscated. One of them had a vision in 2018 for a kindergarten to open there - but in 2020 there is still no sign of it. Between August 2019 and January 2020, the state fined leaders of four Protestant churches between £574 and £902 each (the average monthly offering in some of these churches is £41, the average monthly salary about £123). ‘They were fined for arranging a translation of the Bible into modern Tajik’, a local Protestant said. The translation is needed as some Christians think that other translations use archaic words and some passages are unclear.

Local ethnic or folk religions have seen great losses to the larger religious movements. They were the dominant faith among 30% of the world in 1900, but only among 9% today. Yet traditional religion has not gone away. Many followers of world religions wear their faith lightly and remain, at heart, followers of folk religions: shamanists, idol worshippers, spiritists or ancestor worshippers. The worldwide fascination with spells, amulets, crystals and the occult highlights the power of the old ways. People who claim to connect with the spirit-world are still in demand around the world. Their presence is a kind of tax on fear. Yet people who have turned to Christ from folk religion testify to his power over spells, curses, fears, taboos, and superstitions - and also in the life-and-death issues like sin and forgiveness. Pray for Christ to shine ever brighter into the world of animism and for the Holy Spirit to bring repentance and new life. See

Afghanistan’s population is 99.9% Muslim, containing 72 unreached people groups. There are 48,000 mosques and no churches. Any belief contrary to Islam is illegal. Converting from Islam to Christianity results in death. Christian believers gather and worship in secret. Yet extremist violence has caused many Muslims to question their faith. Though impossible to document, it is undeniable that the Church is growing and Muslims are turning to Christ. Some encounter Jesus in dreams and visions; others hear the Gospel through Christian radio. Christian relief agencies also share the love of God through meeting the nation’s immense physical needs; some have died as martyrs. Amid great persecution, there are several thousand believers in Afghanistan today. War and violence are almost routine, and many have given up on anything ever changing. That is what made the recent historic agreement between the United States and the Taliban so monumental. 

She was picking fruit on a sweltering summer’s day in June 2009 with Muslim women when a dispute arose over a shared cup of water because the Muslim women would not drink from a cup that they considered ‘unclean’ as it had been used by a Christian. This culminated in Aasia Bibi being accused of insulting Muhammad. ‘My husband was at work, my kids were in school’, she recalled. ‘A mob came and dragged me away. They made fun of me.’ ‘I am not angry at all, I’ve forgiven everyone from my heart and there is no hardness in me. I learned how to be patient after having to leave my children behind.’ These are the gracious words of Aasia Bibi, the Christian mother-of-five who spent nearly eight years on death row in Pakistan, falsely accused of ‘blasphemy’.

We recently prayed that the preliminary Sudan peace deal with the rebel Sudan PLM would stand and end nine years of fighting and poverty in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan areas. Now the EU is allocating €30 million life-saving assistance to address various humanitarian needs in these areas that have been cut off from international assistance for years. Over nine million people are in need of humanitarian assistance; nearly two million are uprooted from their homes, while the country hosts one million refugees relying on aid for their survival. The EU complements its funding with development assistance that helps communities build resilience to increase people's access to social protection in the long-term.

Last week Prayer Alert intercessors praised God for 115 people rescued from bonded-labour slavery in India. This week we can celebrate the release of 204 people, including 41 children, from two large Indian brick kilns in one of their largest ever joint rescue operations. Click the ‘More’ button for the heart-warming story of recovery.