Please join us Sunday May 30, 2004 for a day of prayer and fasting for the church in Iraq.  Gary Bergel of Intercessors for America has provided an excellent article focusing on the Assyrian Christians.  

Also please continue to pray for our troops.  They are encountering so much spiritual activity and many may not be aware that they may be opening themselves to the influence of these spirits.  Let’s continue to pray for their physical and spiritual protection.   

Blessings and thank you,

Dana

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

INTERCESSORS FOR AMERICA
ON WATCH IN WASHINGTON

26 May 2004 | Special Edition

A DAY OF PRAYER AND FASTING FOR THE CHURCH IN IRAQ

PENTECOST SUNDAY - MAY 30, 2004
Special Focus: The Assyrian Christians

The clock is ticking…
WHAT ABOUT IRAQ’S “FORGOTTEN CHRISTIANS?”

In his Monday night speech, President George W. Bush reiterated his intention to transfer full sovereignty to an Iraqi government on June 30.  The President indicated that UN Special Envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, would present the names of the proposed 30-member interim Iraqi government this week. 

Inside observers say that regardless of who is named, “all hell could break loose” on midnight June 30, and that the remnant of the Assyrian Christian community and other believers in Iraq could quickly be massacred. 

Why?  Article 7 (A) of the Law of Administration for the State of Iraq for the Transitional Period declares that “Islam is the official religion of the State…” Saddam Hussein established a Pan-Arab socialist dictatorship which did not force the Arab Moslem people of Iraq to follow fundamentalist Islam, and granted degrees of religious freedom to the historic Christian denominations in Iraq.  Islamic leaders, like the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, desire to see an Iranian-style Islamic state formed, and have already engaged in bloody power plays with rivals like Moqtada al-Sadr.  This is why the media is abuzz with talk of possible “civil war.” 

Already, the Kurds are moving their people northward and will “seal” off their Kurdistan region.  The Shii’a Arabs in the south are doing likewise.  Article 53 (ABC) of the Law of Administration for the State granted and guaranteed the Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis these land jurisdictions.  While the same Article 53 (D) states that “This law shall guarantee the administrative, cultural, and political rights of the Turcomans, ChaldoAssyrians, and all other citizens” no land jurisdictions were defined for these minorities.  While the Turkoman minority is supported and protected by Turkey, THE ASSYRIANS ARE PRESENTLY IN AN EXTREMELY PRECARIOUS AND UNPROTECTED CONDITION.  If this ancient indigenous people of Iraq, the ChaldoAssyrian community, is decimated, then all other remaining Christians in Iraq will immediately become vulnerable.

This remnant of the Assyrian people, most of them Christian and still speaking the language of Jesus Christ, Aramaic, are the third largest ethnic community in Iraq.  They still comprise some 1.3 million or 5% of the population.  Thought to have been established by the Apostle Thomas in the First Century A.D. when Assyrian King Abgar repented and brought his people to Christ, the Apostle Peter also visited and referenced this powerful body of early church believers which had even planted a congregation in Babylon, some 100 kilometers south of Baghdad.  Peter wrote and sent greetings from “The chosen church which is at Babylon.” (1 Peter 5:13; Lamsa Aramaic Translation)

At least another 3 million Assyrian Christians, having fled earlier waves of persecution and the radicalization of Islam, now live in Iran, Syria, Jordan, Canada, the United States, Australia and Europe.  In World War I, they lost nearly two-thirds of their population, including their Archbishop.  The Assyrian people were promised a homeland under the treaty of Lausanne in 1923, and again under the League of Nations Treaty of Serves in 1928.  They are still waiting, and now precariously live “sandwiched” between the Kurds and Arabs in Iraq. 

The Assyrian Archbishop for Iraq, Mar Gewargis Sliwa, is pleading for help for his people and the Assyrian Church:  “We understand the concern and support of the Christians in the West for Israel, but find it hard to understand why [they] do not have the same concern and support [for us].” 

INTERCESSORS FOR AMERICA and THE CAPITOL HILL PRAYER PARTNERS are joining with REV. KEN JOSEPH* (www.assyrianchristians.com) and the KEIKYO INSTITUTE (www.keikyo.com) in calling for a DAY OF PRAYER AND FASTING ON PENTECOST SUNDAY, MAY 30, 2004.  This day marks the start of the final 30-day countdown to the declared return of sovereignty in Iraq. 

LET US AGREE IN PREVAILING PRAYER FOR THE FOLLOWING:

1) That the Lord will quickly “make the truth known” and awaken officials in the Bush Administration, ranking members of Congress, prominent Church leaders and voices in the media to the fact that Iraq is being established as an Islamic state, rather than as the non-sectarian democratic Republic called for in Article 4 of the Law of Administration. Pray that they see the need for the removal of the language that “Islam is the official religion of the State” from any interim or final Iraqi constitution, and that they take action accordingly.

2) That the Lord thwart all acts of sedition, treason and treachery working against the formation of a representative and legitimate government in Iraq, and that He expose and remove members of the U.S. State Department who are secretly working against President Bush’s policies and promoting Islam and failure in Iraq out of partisan motives.  Pray that He silences “doomsayers” and “divides and destroys” the “tongues of His adversaries” in the media.  (Is 55:9)  Affirm that Jesus Christ is “ruler over the kings of the earth.”  (Rev 1:5)

3) That the Lord will protect and assist Rev. Ken Joseph and others who are working to persuade UN Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, U.S. Presidential Envoy Robert D. Blackwill, U.S. Ambassador John D. Negroponte, Administrator L. Paul Bremer III, others in the Coalition Provisional Authority, members of the U.S. Congress and Church and civil leaders to call for the immediate establishment of an “Assyrian Administrative Region” in Bakhbeda, Iraq, according to the intent of Article 53 (D). This will provide a “homeland” and place of protection and refuge for the Assyrian community in northern Iraq.  (The 30,000 population of Bakhbeda is 82% Assyrian; the U.S. has a military base in this area.)

4) That the Lord will protect and appoint angelic guards around Assyrian Christian families, their communities and churches, believers of other denominations, and all Christians in the military or reconstruction work in Iraq – the complete Church in Iraq.

5) That the Lord intervenes to avert civil war, massacres and loss of human life.  Pray that He protect the Jewish community estimated at 2,500 in Baghdad, and that He assist them in returning to Israel.  (Isaiah 11:10)

6) That the Lord bring spiritual awakening and Revival to the ancient Iraqi Nestorian believers, the Assyrian Christians, Chaldean Catholics, Syrian Catholics, Armenian Orthodox, Protestants and Evangelicals, Pentecostals, all other Christians in Iraq, and to Assyrian Christians living in other nations. 

7) That the Lord act to fulfill the following prophetic scripture:

“In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians.  In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria – a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying ‘Blessed is Egypt My people, and ASSYRIA THE WORK OF MY HANDS, and Israel My inheritance.” 
--Isaiah 19:23-24 (NKJV)

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:
THE ASSYRIAN REVELATION By Rev. John Booko Sr. - An American-born Assyrian, Rev. Booko writes about the history, peoples and special role God has for Assyria (modern-day Iraq). Scripturally sound and well-timed in regard to today’s world events. Hardback, 360 pages. Order IFA Item #B433, $15.95 + shipping. Credit card orders call toll-free 1-800-872-7729, or via secure eBookstore, www.ifabooks.com.

ASSYRIA, THE FORGOTTEN NATION IN PROPHECY By Rev. John Booko Sr. - God’s word guarantees that before the end time hour of spiritual history comes to pass, Assyrians will once again have their own homeland! God used Assyria in the past when it was a powerful nation and He used Assyrian believers to spread the Gospel to faraway lands. So, He plans to use the restored Assyria in His end-time purposes. Paperback, 144 pages. Order IFA Item #B432, $7.95 + shipping.  Credit card orders call toll-free 1-800-872-7729, or via secure eBookstore, www.ifabooks.com.     

•    * REV. KEN JOSEPH is the President of the Assyrian Christian Assistance Center (www.assyrianchristians.com) and the KEIKYO INSTITUTE (www.keikyo.com), two Assyrian Christian advocacy organizations with roots back to the Assyrian Apostolic Church of the East. This is the church which first carried the Gospel to other regions of the Middle East, China, Japan, India, Indonesia and Mongolia after Christ’s death and Resurrection.

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