Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Pray for Bulgaria

Week of June 23-29, 2014

In the News: Bulgaria floods: At least 12 killed in Varna and Dobrich

At least 12 people have died and several are missing after torrential rain and heavy floods hit eastern Bulgaria, officials say.

Floodwaters in the Black Sea port city of Varna surged up to 1m (3.2ft).

Many residents had to be rescued as cars were swept away. Hundreds have been left without electricity or food.
"The tragedy is enormous. I am here on a street in the suburb of Asparuhovo. The street is not here, the houses are not here, there are cars on top of each other," Varna mayor Ivan Portnih was quoted by the Reuters new agency as saying. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27935436

Prayer Points:
1. More floods in the Balkan Peninsula. Let us pray for the victims of these floods in northeast Bulgaria. May they be comforted during this time of hardship.
2. EI Balkans was in Serbia last week distributing much needed aid. We partnered with local church ministries that are reaching out to the flood victims there. Let us pray that similarly in Bulgaria, churches will be motivated to reach out with help for these flood victims.
3. Tragedies that disrupt our normal life experiences, force us to take another direction. This has happened to the flood victims in the Balkans. Let us pray for humility (accepting human weakness), peace (reversing anger), hope and strength.
Being a lover of history and an intercessor, I like to seek out the root causes of grounds won and grounds lost. So I was reading up on how the Christian Bulgarian kingdom fell to the Muslim Ottoman Turks. The conclusion was that the Bulgarian nobles were in disunity and could not maintain a united front against the Turks.
The situation in the Balkans on the eve of the Ottoman invasion (Wikipedia)From the 13th century, the two main Balkan powers Byzantium and Bulgaria fell victims to a process of decentralization, as local feudal lords grew stronger and more independent from the emperors in Constantinople and Tarnovo. This weakened the military and economic power of the central rulers. The process deteriorated central authority to an even larger extent in the 14th century, when numerous nobles came to be only nominally subordinated to the government. [They were not able unify their armies against the invading Turks] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian%E2%80%93Ottoman_wars

4. Satan is clever. Sowing seeds of disunity helps him divide and conquer. Let us pray that the churches will unite in Bulgaria so they can stand against the enemy.
5. May the curse of disunity that was not able to stand against the Ottoman armies be broken in this generation.
6. I do not know what the spiritual condition of Bulgaria was in the 14th century but there was political disunity. May the churches stand strong in their relationship with God’s purposes as they stand against Satan’s present attacks.
7. It was not until the early 20th century that the Muslim influence over the Bulgarian nation was fully broken. Then communist atheism replaced it. Bulgaria needs a Spiritual revival. Let us pray for revival in Bulgaria to secure it as a sheep nation for the return of the Lord.
8. Let us pray for events that gather Christians of different faiths. May the single purpose of these events be to lift up Jesus, knowing that when He is lifted up and the churches are standing as one united front, the enemy will have to flee.
Just want to give a shout-out for Ballet Magnificat and how they performed for Jesus in the main square in Zagreb, Croatia. Take a look this 3 minute video just released: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt1g5EwFJvk&list=UU7XcSP0N1IM_rT32JfDTjyg

We visited Obrenovac, Serbia where some of the worst flooding occurred. We worked alongside Daniel and Vera Kuranji and the ministry they work with, http://www.transformeuropenow.org/serbia/daniel-and-vera-kuranji

Other events that we close to my heart that need prayer:
European Initiative in conducting an evangelism outreach on the streets of Zagreb, Croatia and visiting Roma (Gypsy) villages this week and weekend. www.europeaninitiative.com Operations European Capitals is conducting a meeting of intercessors in Podgorica, Montenegro June 23-24 and then in Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina June 26-28. June is an important date in that it is the 100year anniversary of the start of World War I, the war that re-mapped and forever changed Europe. The war started because a Serb nationalist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. http://oceprayer.com
Please leave a Comment or Reaction so we will know you Prayed. 

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