in the world and to revive His Church for the end-time preparation for the Harvest. Now every week we set aside one hour between 8-9 p.m. to pray. A short prayer guide is forwarded every week before the prayers. If you know of any Christian who has a burden for Nigeria or America, and the Church, please pass this on. And please pray. 
Attention please! If you share the burden to pray for Nigeria, join us in a 30-minute prayer by phone or on your laptop on Sundays at 8pm to cry to The Lord for divine intervention.  CALL-IN NUMBER:+16309840424 or click on https://meetings.dialpad.com/room/livingfountain
This week in Nigeria:
Former Anambra State Governor, and presidential candidate of Labour Party, LP, in the last election, Mr Peter Obi has insisted that he must be President of Nigeria. Obi, who is in court with the winner of the just concluded election, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, said he is convinced in his spirit that he will be President. DAILY POST reports that the LP candidate spoke during the launch of a book written in his honor: ‘Peter Obi: Many Voices, One Perspective’, in Awka, Anambra State. Obi said: “Anyone who thinks I’m on transit is wasting his time. Let me tell you, I must be the president of this country. I’m sure of that. If it is not today, it must be tomorrow.
Seven newly-elected governors will face angry workers who are owed several months of unpaid salaries by their predecessors, investigation by Sunday PUNCH has revealed. Some of the incoming governors, apart from dealing with unpaid salaries of active workers and retirees, will also be faced with the challenges stemming from the failure of their predecessors to implement the nationally agreed minimum wage in the midst of rising inflation, escalating prices of goods and services, and dwindling purchasing power. The NLC is angry over no less than six months’ salary and pension arrears owed core civil servants and over 30 months’ salary and pension arrears to other public workers in the state.”
This week in America:           
Today is Mother’s Day is an annual holiday celebrated in the United States on the second Sunday in May. Mother’s Day recognizes mothers, motherhood and maternal bonds in general, as well as their positive contributions to their families and society.  In the United States, Mother’s Day complements similar celebrations honoring family members, such as Father’s Day, Siblings Day and Grandparents Day.
Officials in Southwest Louisiana have charged a 58-year-old man in connection with the shooting of a group of juveniles who were playing hide-and-seek, one of whom was injured. The incident happened early Sunday in the small town of Starks, Louisiana, near the Texas state line. Authorities say that a group of juveniles “were playing hide and seek in the area and were hiding on the neighbor’s property,” when David V. Doyle fired his weapon. Doyle told detectives that he “observed shadows outside his home, at which time he went inside and retrieved his firearm. He then advised detectives he went back outside and observed people running away from his property, at which time he began shooting at them,” according to a release from the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office. Doyle was charged with aggravated battery; four counts of aggravated assault with a firearm; and illegal discharge of a firearm, the department said.
In an interview with a local Alabama radio station, Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville was asked if he believes White nationalists should be allowed in the military. He responded, “I call them Americans.” Tuberville is now attempting to clarify his comments, arguing that Trump Republicans in the military are being unfairly characterized as White nationalists. The radio station WBHM published a transcript of the interview with Tuberville where he was asked, “Do you believe they should allow White nationalists in the military?” The senator responded, “Well, they call them that. I call them Americans. What happened after January the sixth—and I was here on January the sixth—we were attacked on the Senate floor. Saying all these people that came into the Capitol were extremists, they were against the country. There was a lot of people. There were probably a hundred of them that came in, broke windows and broke doors that should have been locked up. That’s not how we do it in America.” For weeks, Senate Democrats have criticized the effort by Tuberville and top defense officials have said that it is harming US national security as key senior positions are not permanently filled. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday called on Tuberville to denounce White nationalism as “un-American,” and stop his hold on military nominations.
This week in the world:
At least 400 people have died after floods and landslides hit the Democratic Republic of Congo’s South Kivu province last week, officials told CNN. Heavy rainfall through last week caused rivers to overflow and created mudslides that devastated the villages of Bushushu and Nyamukubi in South Kivu’s Kalehe territory, provincial governor Theo Kasi told CNN Monday. “We have 401 deaths in Bushushu and Nyamukubi villages in Kalehe territory,” Kasi said. Two babies have been found alive on the shores of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Lake Kivu, days after floods and landslides killed more than 400 people in two villages in the country’s South Kivu province. “Two babies including a boy of one month and two weeks and a girl of about two months were recovered alive,” a spokesperson for the DRC Red Cross, Kally Maluku, told CNN on Thursday. One of the babies was pulled alive from the rubble near the lake by locals on Tuesday, Maluku said, adding that the other child was rescued on Saturday after being found floating on the lake. “The boy had a fractured femur and a facial injury and the girl was safe,” Maluku said of the rescued babies, who were found in Bushushu and Nyamukubi villages that were both devastated by the floods. “The injured child lost his mother while the other child’s deceased mother and father are without trace.”  
Israel and Islamic Jihad agreed to a ceasefire Saturday, after days of violence that have claimed the lives of at least 35 people – almost all of them Palestinians. The ceasefire was scheduled to take effect at 10 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET), said Egyptian officials in Gaza, who helped negotiate it, but it was unclear if it will take hold or last. Rockets continued to be fired from Gaza in the minutes after the ceasefire was supposed to take effect, a CNN producer in the strip heard. More than an hour after the time the ceasefire was due to take effect, sirens continued to sound in Israel, warning of incoming rocket fire, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched more airstrikes on targets in Gaza, minutes before the ceasefire was due to come into effect.
Prayer Guide: 2 Chronicles 7:13-14
NIGERIA:
·   Let us pray that there will be peace in Nigeria at the inauguration event on the 28th of May and even beyond in Jesus Name. amen
·   Also let us pray that The Lord will change the regimes in Nigeria and usher in a righteous system of government and terminate the continued slaughter of the ordinary citizens of Nigeria
·    Government owes Nigeria workers an average of 6 months wages. Lett us call on our Father The Lord of Sabaoth to hear the cries of the wages of Nigeria’s laborers. James 5:4
AMERICA:       
·     Let us thank The Lord today for Mother’s Day in America and Australia, Canada and a few other countries. Let us praise the Name of the lord for His Wisdom in perfecting Creation.
·     Let us pray specifically today for widowers and widows. Pray the God of all souls to comfort them and strengthens them. Pray that their children will remember them, and hat the Church of God will remember them as well.
·     Pray that there will be no mass shooting anywhere this week in Jesus Name.
·     Pray that the Holy Spirit will rekindle his love in Christian families today that Christian homes may once again model the Love of Christ in neighborhoods
The World:
·     Pray for abatement of natural disasters in the world. Pray that the Love of God may be spread abroad in the hearts of men that each may see himself as hos brother’s keeper
·     Pray for Peace on earth today. Pray for REVIVAL

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May 14, 2023

Before she is a Mother, a girl child becomes a Woman. Upon marriage she becomes a wife. And when she brings forth a child, she becomes a Mother! Even when she has not brought or cannot naturally bring forth a child, she is still a Mother! 
 How does the girl child understand these societal expectations in today’s world? When my two girls were growing up, we used to have conversations, (especially during our trip to physical exercise location,) concerning their expected place as “women” in the world. They, I admonished, must not think they are here on earth to please men, to satisfy men. No. They must know that they are created by God to worship Him and Him only and to live an obedient life. Once they follow that path, they will grow in favor with God and man. 
 Today, we may ask; what does God expect of women in today’s world, which girls must know, which mother’s must know and which all women must strive to meet? I suggest the following: 
 • The woman must know her identity as a woman. 
 • Many girls and women do not know their identity even though they are in a position to know.
 • Many women choose not to know their identity, because they consider that true freedom is expressed through acts of rebellion. 
 Today we need to meditate on the life of a woman who knew her identity. Even though she was sure of her identity in the Covenant. It was recorded in 1 Samuel 1-2 that God closed the womb of Hannah But. She waited…It was probably because the Lord closed her womb that her husband married another woman Peninnah. But Hannah waited…
And Peninnah, who had children,  boys and girls, grievously provoked and mocked Hannah for her childlessness But she was gracious, she did not fight her back, she did not retaliate. ‘Hannah’ means ‘Gracious’. She waited….. 
 Her husband did not intercede for her. The General overseer Eli, did not appear to know or be concerned about her case. the Church did not hold vigil for her, but her name is Gracious: she did not grumble….Yes she wept many a time, but she waited…..
And when it appeared the devil was threatening her identity, she took the matter to the Lord herself. And then it happened…..
This is the Good News for you reading this today. If you have, or you are on the verge of losing your identity,  take it to the Lord your Creator,  in humble submission and regain your identity. He will restore your identity . In Him and through His Word and the power of the Holy Spirit you will know who you are and recover your identity. 
If you have been waiting for your spouse or like Hannah for a child or your child or husband that you do not know where they are, just go the way of Hannah, the Lord “God of Israel will give you on this Mother’s Day “what you asked for” as you go on to believe and to wait to receive….
Happy Mother’s Day

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cry to our Father for His divine intervention in the world and to revive His Church for the end-time preparation for the Harvest. Now every week we set aside one hour between 8-9 p.m. to pray. A short prayer guide is forwarded every week before the prayers. If you know of any Christian who has a burden for Nigeria or America, and the Church, please pass this on. And please pray.
 Attention please! If you share the burden to pray for Nigeria, join us in a 30-minute prayer by phone or on your laptop on Sundays at 8pm to cry to The Lord for divine intervention.  CALL-IN NUMBER: +16309840424 or click on https://meetings.dialpad.com/room/livingfountain
This week in Nigeria:    
An organization dedicated to the tracking of violent incidents in the country, Nigeria Mourns, has released its first quarter report of 2023 which showed that 1,230 people were killed in the country in the first quarter of 2023. The report also said that 79 security personnel died within the period while 658 people were abducted across the country. The report published on its website said banditry remained the most singular cause of violent deaths across the country with 29.27 per cent or 360 deaths.
Some netizens have reacted to the sentencing of former Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, his wife, Beatrice, and a medical doctor, Obinna Obeta, to jail by the Old Bailey, London’s Central Criminal Court, on Friday. The court sentenced Ekweremadu to nine years and eight months, while his wife Beatrice and Obinna Obeta got four years and 10 years, respectively. Prior to the sentence, Ekweremadu, Beatrice, and Obeta were convicted of conspiracy to arrange the travel of a young Nigerian man identified as David Nwamini to Britain in order to exploit him for his kidney. The kidney organ was intended for Ekweremadu’s sick daughter, Sonia. Meanwhile, many Nigerians have continued to express their feelings following the sentencing of the Ekweremadus. Choice Moses said: “If it were to be in Nigeria, the boy who they want to exploit would have been the one in jail. That’s how wicked and perverse our justice system is in Nigeria.” Abdul Muktar wrote: “In Nigeria, the boy would be the one going to jail. Sad ending, but justice prevailed. Hope their daughter does get a kidney donor and she get well.”
This week in America:  
Eight people were killed in a shooting at an outlet mall near Dallas, and seven victims are being treated at trauma facilities, officials said Saturday night. The gunman, who authorities believe was acting alone, is also dead. Allen, Texas, Fire Chief Jonathan Boyd said that at least nine people were sent to hospitals. “Of those that we transported, two have since died. Three are in critical surgery, and four are stable,” said Boyd. A Dallas-area medical group says it was treating victims as young as 5 years old.
A 16-year-old was struck by gunfire and killed in an altercation while attending an after-prom party in Houston early Saturday, according to police. Police were dispatched to a home after a shooting around 1:30 a.m Saturday, according to a news release from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. Responding officers found 16-year old Isacc Zetino, who had been “struck by gunfire,” according to the release. Zetino was pronounced dead at the scene.The sheriff’s office said Zetino was not a resident of the home and was there to attend an after-prom party. They found that Zetino and another “juvenile male” had been involved in a disturbance with the father of a girl who was also attending the party. During that altercation, “both parties produced handguns and fired at each other,” according to the sheriff’s office. Investigators found the father who had exchanged gunfire with the teens, according to the release. Police have not named the man. He provided them with a statement that said, in part, “that he had acted in self-defense when shooting,” according to the sheriff’s office. The release adds that his statement was corroborated by evidence at the scene. No charges have been filed at this time, according to the release. The case is still under investigation.
Six people were shot, including a 17-year old who has since died, at a large party in Chico, California overnight, according to local police.At around 3:26 AM on Saturday, Chico Police patrol officers were dispatched to an address of a large party in progress, according to a media briefing by the police department. Officers found six individuals between the ages of 17 and 21 had been shot. The victims included the 17-year-old girl who died; a 21-year-old man who was admitted into an area hospital and is in stable condition with non-life threatening injuries; a 20-year-old man who has been discharged from the hospital with non-life threatening injuries; a 19-year-old man who was admitted into an area hospital and is in stable condition with non-life threatening injuries; an 18-year-old man who was discharged from the hospital with non-life threatening injuries; and another 17-year-old girl who was admitted into an area hospital and is in stable condition with non-life threatening injuries.
This week in the world:              
The head of the Wagner private military company says his men will begin withdrawing from Bakhmut this week, because dwindling ammunition supplies and mounting losses mean there is “nothing left to grind the meat with.” On his official Telegram channel on Saturday, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin blamed the lack of ammunition on Russia’s military command and said his forces would begin to withdraw from May 10.
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A 13-year-old who opened fire Wednesday at his school in Serbia’s capital drew sketches of classrooms and made a list of children he intended to target in a meticulously planned attack, police said. He killed eight fellow students and a guard before calling the police and being arrested. Mass shootings are extremely rare in the Balkan region, although Serbia is awash in guns left over from the wars of the 1990s. No mass shootings have been reported at Serbian schools in recent years. Six children and a teacher were also hospitalized. The assailant called police himself after the shooting was over. Police identified the shooter as 13-year-old Kosta Kecmanovic, a student at the Vladislav Ribnikar school. He carried two guns belonging to his father — at least one a handgun — and four Molotov cocktails, officials said. charged.
Prayer Guide: 2 Chronicles 7:13-14
NIGERIA:
·  Elections are over in Nigeria. The ruling party is again in power, but bandits, body stealers, Jihadists have continued to ravage the nation of Nigeria, without let up. Famine and poverty persist. Today in Nigeria is the Day of Distress indeed, and there is no strength to bring forth 2 Kings 19:3; Isaiah 37:3. Pray for divine deliverance of Nigeria in Jesus Name.
· Pray for repentance to fall upon the leaders and people of Nigeria as in Nineveh that the nation may be saved from the peril that is to come upon the earth.
AMERICA:
· It has been a bloody weekend in America. Pray for Peace and safety in America.  Pray for wisdom for American leaders they make decisions that may stem this pandemic of gun violence.
· Pray for the Youth. Pray for laborers for this rich mission field. Pray for revival among the youth this year in Jesus Name.
The World:
· The Wagner group is a bunch of wicked mercenaries fighting for wicked autocrats of the world today. They are hired to kill. Pray that  they may repent and dismantle in Jesus Name.
· Pray for Serbia. Pray that evil will not spread. Pray for the Light of God to envelope the earth.
· Pray for REVIVAL on earth at this time in Jesus Name

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to our Father for His divine intervention in the world and to revive His Church for the end-time preparation for the Harvest. Now every week we set aside one hour between 8-9 p.m. to pray. A short prayer guide is forwarded every week before the prayers. If you know of any Christian who has a burden for Nigeria or America, and the Church, please pass this on. And please pray. 
Attention please! If you share the burden to pray for Nigeria, join us in a 30-minute prayer by phone or on your laptop on Sundays at 8pm to cry to The Lord for divine intervention.  CALL-IN NUMBER: +16309840424 or click on https://meetings.dialpad.com/room/livingfountain
This week in Nigeria: 
Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) have rescued two children abandoned by their mother on the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos State. The children were identified as Chigozie Okonkwo and Bright Okonkwo, aged 10 and 9 years old. According to the RRS, the operatives were on routine monitoring of the Third Mainland bridge on Friday evening, April 28, 2023, when they ran into the minors. Commander, Rapid Response Squad (RRS), CSP Olayinka Egbeyemi has directed that the children be immediately transferred to Adekunle Police Station, Yaba, where an investigation has commenced on the matter.
 Ahead of the Presidential inauguration of May 29, the Prelate of the Methodist Church Nigeria, His Eminence, Oliver Ali Aba says there is no cause for alarm as nothing untoward would happen on the set date. The Prelate has asked Nigerians to remain positive, saying May 29 would be normal like every other in the lives of Nigerians. He spoke during the inauguration of the new Methodist Diocese of Awka and the enthronement of Rt. Rev. Onyekachi Nwakanma, as the Bishop, Aba. The clergyman pointed out that the country cannot afford to disintegrate due to political differences but must unite to build a prosperous nation. According to Aba: “Nothing bad will happen on May 29. We Nigerians should be able to love our country.
This week in America:
Today April 29, a gunman is still at large after allegedly fatally shooting five people, including an 8-year-old, in a Cleveland, Texas home after a Friday night rampage that started with a noise complaint about gunfire, according to the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office. The suspect, identified as 38-year old Francisco Oropeza, was apparently shooting a rifle in his yard when neighbors asked him to stop because a baby was trying to sleep, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said. The suspect then opened fire on the neighbors, Capers said. Authorities found the victims Friday night after receiving a harassment report about 11:30 p.m. local time, the sheriff said. “The victims, they came over to the fence said, ‘Hey, could you mind not shooting out in the yard. We have a young baby that is trying to go sleep,’” Capers said.  
In 2021, 1 in 5 high school students said they witnessed violence in their communities, and 3.5 percent said they carried a gun. Nearly 9 percent of students said they’d been forced into sex in their life. A third of female students said they had considered suicide in the past year, and over 13 percent said they’d attempted suicide. A sweeping series of surveys of U.S. high school students released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have an urgent message for parents and policymakers: America’s kids are in crisis.
With almost all gun legislation a nonstarter on a divided Capitol Hill, states are charting wildly divergent paths. Some states are doing everything they can to restrict access to certain weapons. Others are doing everything they can to make guns as accessible as possible without much government oversight. In Texas, you can carry gone openly anywhere.  
Three teens were arrested in the death of a 20-year-old Colorado woman who was killed when a large rock thrown at her car went through the windshield, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Wednesday. Alexa Bartell was killed April 19 after a series of cars were hit by rocks that night, Jacki Kelley, public
This week in the world:         
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navally said Wednesday that he was facing new extremism and terrorism charges that could land him in prison for life as authorities set the stage for a new trial against the Kremlin’s leading critic. Navally, 46, who exposed official corruption and organized massive anti-Kremlin protests, was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.
Hundreds of evacuees arrived in Saudi Arabia from Sudan as fierce fighting in the country between the army and a rival paramilitary group entered its third week, despite another attempt at a ceasefire. Violent clashes broke out the capital Khartoum near the presidential palace in the city centre. Sudan’s Armed Forces, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, are fighting each other’s groups.
More than a dozen people were lynched by a crowd in Haitian capital Port-au-Prince on Monday, on suspicion of being gang members, according to authorities. Video from Reuters and AFP showed burning and charred bodies with tires around them, and crowds forming near the area. Residents who spoke to Reuters and AFP on camera said they believed the victims were gang members.
Prayer Guide: 2 Chronicles 7: 13-14
NIGERIA:
·  Elections are over. It is the ruling party handing over to another section of their team in the meantime the act of reckless terrorism continues unmitigated. Let us pray for mercy and divine intervention in the affairs of the nation of Nigeria.
·  There is no want of prophets or prophecies in Nigeria about every and anything However the Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy Revelation 19:10. Every prophecy must lead us to His Word. Pray the Lord to restore Holiness to His Church again inn Jesus Name
AMERICA:
·  Violence is abominable to God. Psalm 11; Proverbs 3 & 10. Come against the rising spirit of violence in America.
·  Pray fervently that the Leadership in America will repent and hate what God hates and make laws that will denounce, prevent and punish wicked acts of violence.
The World:
·  Again, this week let us continue to cry for REVIVAL in the Church throughout the world.
·  Pray that Alexei Navally will not die. Pray the Lord to keep him alive and bring down all tyrants in today’s world in Jesus Name.
·  Pray for Peace on earth and especially today in Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti, Nigeria, Myanmar, Syria Afghanistan and in Jerusalem.
·  Let us thank the Lord for answered prayers. Amen

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 for His divine intervention in the world and to revive His Church for the end-time preparation for the Harvest. Now every week we set aside one hour between 8-9 p.m. to pray. A short prayer guide is forwarded every week before the prayers. If you know of any Christian who has a burden for Nigeria or America, and the Church, please pass this on. And please pray. 
Attention please! If you share the burden to pray for Nigeria, join us in a 30-minute prayer by phone or on your laptop on Sundays at 8pm to cry to The Lord for divine intervention.  CALL-IN NUMBER: +16309840424 or click on https://meetings.dialpad.com/room/livingfountain
This week in Nigeria:
The Evangelical Church Winning All on Friday expressed shock over the killing of 472 persons in three states of Benue, Kaduna, and Plateau by terrorists in one month. Describing the development as unacceptable, the church, in the statement urged the government and security agencies to do everything within their powers to stop the trend. The statement read in part, “ On the insecurity in Nigeria, the council frowned at the high and frightening levels of insecurity in Nigeria through banditry, kidnappings for ransom and ritual killing, incessant killings of innocent citizens by ‘unknown gunmen’, terrorism by especially Islamic extremists, and destruction of lives and property impunity by these underserved elements who are ravaging and forcefully occupying cities and in the nation with the inability of the government at various levels to successfully tackle the menace. “The council condemned the frequent assaults on security personnel in the line of duty by unidentified groups across the nation. Therefore, the government should improve the provision of security equipment and take adequate care of security personnel while also sieving the security outfit of bad elements and bringing the perpetrators of this heinous act to book.
Four days after he was kidnapped by gunmen at the Obiri-Kwere axis of the East-West Road, near Port Harcourt, the whereabouts of a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Okey Wali, is still unknown. Wali, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, was kidnapped by gunmen who intercepted his vehicle, opened fire and killed his driver and one other aide before whisking him away. His abduction a second time has raised concerns of insecurity in Rivers State, with the NBA, Port Harcourt branch, calling for his unconditional and early release.
Bandits have released four of the remaining 11 schoolgirls abducted from the Federal Government College (FGC) Birnin Yauri in Kebbi State about two years ago. The girls were released by a notorious bandit leader, Dogo Gide, on Friday evening. The other girls, Bilha Musa, Faiza Ahmed, Rahma Abdullahi, and Hafsa Murtala, were among the students and teachers abducted when the bandits attacked FGC Birnin Yauri on June 17, 2021. Kaoje stated that the parents had paid an undisclosed amount of money to secure the release of the four girls. They sold their properties and organized a fundraising campaign that saw many Nigerians assist the parents financially. Kaoje added that the remaining seven girls’ release is still uncertain, and the parents are calling for help from the government and security agencies.
This week in America:  
The two professionals and colleagues, still in work attire, were part of the afternoon rush at the South Shore Shooting Range. Muffled rapid-fire gunshots could be heard in the parking lot outside Thursday on a quiet street shrouded by giant oaks and dotted with houses with backyard pools in suburban Islip. Jenn and Shelby, friends who did not want their last names used, settled into two indoor shooting lanes – donning noise-canceling headphones and protective goggles as they took aim with lever-action rifles and pistols at targets meant to represent the human body. Jenn and Shelby are part of a growing number of Americans, particularly women and people of color, on an extended national gun shopping splurge – many for the first time. The heightened interest in guns comesamid a horrific spate of mass shootings and – according to the CDC’s most recent figures – firearm fatalities that outnumbered motor vehicle traffic deaths 48,830 to 45,404. Over the last two weeks, four people were shot – one fatally – in upstate New York, Kansas City and Texas after accidentally going to the wrong address or opening the wrong door.
The FBI has arrested two alleged Chinese agents and federal prosecutors have charged dozens of others with working to silence and harass dissidents within the United States – with some even operating an “undeclared police station” in New York City. Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping allegedly operated the police station in New York City’s Chinatown. Both men are US citizens and have been charged with conspiring to act as agents of the Chinese government and obstructing justice. The Justice Department also announced charges against 34 officers of the national police of the People’s Republic of China with harassing Chinese nationals in the US critical of the Chinese government. All 34 are believed to live in China and remain at large, according to Justice Department. The officers were part of an effort by the Chinese government called the “912 Special Project Working Group” to influence global perceptions of the People’s Republic of China, or PRC. The agents allegedly used social media to post favorably about the PRC and to attack their “perceived adversaries,” including the United States and Chinese pro-democracy activists around the world, the Justice Department said. The illegal police operation is the “first known overseas police station in the United States” set up on behalf of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, or MPS, the Justice Department said. The agents were allegedly directed by the MPS to create and maintain accounts that looked like they were run by American citizens. Topics of their propaganda machine include US foreign policy, human rights issues in Hong Kong, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Covid-19 and racial justice protests following the murder of George Floyd, according to prosecutors
This week in the world:             
The Russian mercenary group Wagner has been supplying Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces with missiles to aid their fight against the country’s army, Sudanese and regional diplomatic sources have told CNN. The sources said the surface-to-air missiles have significantly buttressed RSF paramilitary fighters and their leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo as he battles for power with Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan’s military ruler and the head of its armed forces. In bordering Libya, where a Wagner-backed rogue general, Khalifa Haftar, controls swathes of land, satellite imagery supports these claims, showing an unusual uptick in activity on Wagner bases. The powerful Russian mercenary group has played a public and pivotal role in Moscow’s foreign military campaigns, namely in Ukraine, and has repeatedly been accused of committing atrocities. In Africa, it has helped to prop up Moscow’s growing influence and seizing of resources.
When its helicopter gunships and fighter jets rained fire and bombs on a village celebration last Tuesday, Myanmar’s military junta insisted it was targeting “terrorists.” But among those killed that day – in what was the deadliest attack by junta forces on civilians since it seized power two years ago – were dozens of women and children, the youngest just six months old. CNN spoke with half a dozen eyewitnesses and survivors who said those targeted in Pazigyi Village, part of a self-governed district in the central Sagaing region, were unarmed civilians enjoying a community celebration. The April 11 attack killed 186 villagers, among them 40 under the age of 18, according to Aung Myo Min, human rights minister for the National Unity Government (NUG), Myanmar’s shadow administration of ousted lawmakers..
Dozens of people were killed in a crowd surge in Yemen’s capital on Wednesday as needy residents in the war-torn nation flocked to receive charity handouts from local merchants during the holy month of Ramadan, officials have confirmed. Video of the tragedy in Sanaa showed a chaotic scene with dozens of people packed tightly together, unable to move and shouting for help. Those trapped formed a tangled wall of bodies with some desperately stretching out their arms for help. A couple of men who were freed could then be seen attempting to pull others out of the deadly crush. Images from the aftermath showed shoes and slippers heaped into piles as well as scarfs strewn on the floor. “What happened tonight is a tragic and painful accident, as dozens of people were killed due to a large stampede of a number of citizens caused by a random distribution of sums of money by some merchants and without coordination with the Ministry of Interior,” the spokesman of the Houthi-run Ministry of Interior, Abdul-Khaleq al-Ajri, said in the statement. At least 78 people were killed in the crush and dozens injured, Mutahar al-Marouni, the director of the Houthi-run Health office in Sanaa, told the Houthi-run Al-Masirah news agency. According to Reuters, hundreds of people had crowded into a school to receive donations of about $9.
Prayer Guide:2 Chronicles 7:13-14
NIGERIA:
·   With cash now available, abductions and wanton killings have resumed in full measure.
· Let us thank the Lord for the four students that have been released after 2 years and let us pray for the remaining seven to be set free
.
·   The government of Nigeria has left the citizens of Nigeria as merchandise to be bought and sold by bandits. Even babies are now being stolen and sold in Nigeria. The nation is already sold. Let us pray for the redemption of Nigeria from the grip of Satan
America:
· Pray the Lord to turn the hearts of Americans back to Him, that the nation may not be sold to foreign powers by the rich
·   There are more guns in America than they are people and there are now gun churches in America with the largest in Texas. Pray that brotherly Love will reign again in America.
The World:
·    Pray for Myanmar. Pray the Lord to turn the hearts of this junta warring against their own citizens to love their people not kill them.
·    Pray for people of Yemen crushed by reason of hunger
·    Pray for mercy. Pray that there will be no famine in the world.
·    Let us cry fervently for REVIVAL at our own time on earth in Jesus Name

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Leah refused to renounce her Christian faith whilst held by Boko Haram
Leah Sharibu will forever be remembered her decision to hold on to her Christian faith. Thus her fame is not borne out of notoriety but passionate commitment to her faith. She chose faith over freedom despite an offer of freedom after her abduction along with other schoolgirls by members of the Islamic West Africa Province, ISWAP terrorists group. By her unwavering faith, she has become both a national and international symbol of courage and resistance against the oppression of girls and women by the Islamist fundamentalist.
Indeed Leah is made in the same mould as the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan who came to the global limelight after she was shot by the Taliban in the Swat district of Pakistan for defying their calls for girls not to go to school. Daily, Malala along with other girls would pick up their bags and walk to school in defiance of the Taliban order. Angered by this, the Taliban shot her severally leaving her in a critical condition. She was later flown to the United Kingdom where she underwent several surgical operations before she finally recovered from her wounds. Now Malala has become a global icon and an activist for female education and freedom from oppression.
To recap, the insurgency in the North-East region of Nigeria took on another dimension in 2018 when ISWAP insurgents stormed Government Girls Science Technical College, GGSTC, Dapchi, in Yobe State and abducted over 100 school girls. Precisely, on February 19, 2018, at 5:30 pm, 110 schoolgirls aged 11–19 years old were kidnapped by the Boko Haram terrorist group from their school. The nation was shocked by the audacity of the insurgents. The abduction of the schoolgirls attracted global outrage and outcry. Once again, it revealed the rising level of insecurity in the land despite the yeoman efforts of the Armed Forces to curb the activities of terrorists.
Of course, it reminded the nation of the abduction of the Chibok girls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in southern Borno State in 2014. At that time, the Goodluck Jonathan administration was excoriated for failing to foil the kidnap of the girls and rescue them. This put the government in the spotlight of global infamy and the opposition latched on to this to describe the administration as incompetent and clueless.
However, after the Dapchi schoolgirl’s abduction, the Federal Government deployed the security agencies to search for the missing schoolgirls and to hopefully enable their return. Then governor of Yobe State, Ibrahim Gaidam, had blamed the Joint Security Task Force for removing a military checkpoint shortly before the terrorists struck at GGSTC, Dapchi. Dapchi lies approximately 275 km northwest of Chibok, where over 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014. Five of the Dapchi schoolgirls died on the same day of their kidnapping.
Thereafter, the government started negotiations with the terrorists to secure the release of the abducted girls. The painstaking negotiations later paid off with the release of the 108 abducted girls. However, one of the girls, Leah Sharibu stood out among the girls for she rejected attempts by the terrorists to renounce her faith and convert to Islam before she would taste the air of freedom. Thereafter Boko Haram released everyone else in March 2018, save Leah Sharibu who refused to convert to Islam. Leah like some of the Old Testament prophets held on to her faith in the face of terror, saying she would not renounce her Christian faith for freedom.
Afterward, the Federal Government had promised to rescue her from bondage, but it’s clearly four years since she was abducted and it appears as if the government’s effort has not yielded any positive result in the bid to help her regain freedom. Instead, the ISWAP has reportedly turned her into a sex slave and she has also given birth to two children in captivity having been married off to one of the terrorists.
However, the abduction of the Dapchi schoolgirls could have been averted if only the Safe Schools Initiative Programme of the Jonathan administration was faithfully implemented after the abduction of the Chibok girls. As usual, the initiative launched with fanfare later suffered a setback due to a change in government.
On his part, President Muhammadu Buhari had promised to rescue Leah Sharibu, the only girl in Boko Haram captivity after the Dapchi schoolgirls were freed by their captors. Buhari made the pledge at the Grand Finale of the 2019 Nigerian Army Day Celebration and Combat Support Arms Training Week at Ikeja Cantonment Parade Ground, Lagos, represented by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.
President Buhari said, “The challenge for us is to recognise this sick extremism of Boko Haram for what it is and form alliances across faith, ethnicities, to destroy an evil that confronts us all. “We want to reassure the affected families and friends that this administration will not relent in its efforts to bring back all the remaining girls including Leah Sharibu, who has become a poster child for the heinous activities of Boko Haram insurgency. “We will reunite them with their families and friends by the Grace of God.”
At the same time #BringBackOurGirls movement has been in the vanguard of the campaign for the release of Leah. In August 2018, the movement followed news of a recent audio recording and photograph of Leah Sharibu released by the online medium – The Cable attributed to Ahmed Salkida, a journalist who frequently reports on the North East terrorist war.” Leah’s father, Mr Nathan Sharibu confirmed the identity of his daughter.
In the audio a young woman who introduced herself as Leah Sharibu said the following in Hausa Language:
“I am Leah Sharibu, the girl that was abducted in GGSS Dapchi. I am calling on the government and people of goodwill to intervene to get me out of my current situation…I also plead to the members of the public to help my mother, my father, my younger brother and relatives. Kindly help me out of my predicament. I am begging you to treat me with compassion, I am calling on the government, particularly, the president to pity me and get me out of this serious situation. Thank you.”
Also, the movement had expressed its displeasure over the insensitivity of the Federal Government- and especially the Presidency – to the plight of Leah Sharibu and her parents. It added that there is no excuse worthy of any consideration that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari can offer to attenuate their failure to rescue Leah Sharibu.
Furthermore, the movement declared “Why is the young woman who stood on her conviction abandoned by her government in the hands of terrorists? What is Leah Sharibu’s offence that made the Federal Government accept a negotiation that included her being left behind when others were rescued? When was the last time the Federal Government provided updates on tangible efforts to rescue Leah Sharibu to her parents and the Nigerian People beyond the recent abdication of that duty to God by the Presidency? Does the unfair treatment of Leah Sharibu not again raise questions of inequity in the actions of this administration?” We ask again, “Where is Leah Sharibu and when will she be retrieved from her captors like her classmates, Mr President?”
Also, Transforming Uplifting and Reforming Nigeria (TURN) is concerned about the plight of Leah Sharibu and would like to raise worldwide awareness about her continuing abduction by Boko Haram. TURN is interested in working with Nigerians from all walks of life to effect Leah’s release.
Ordinarily, Leah ought to have completed her secondary education and maybe gone ahead for further studies in the university. Now, her education has been truncated and her life thrown out of gear. What’s more, she’s now saddled with two unwanted babies, products of a shotgun marriage to a terrorist. Indeed fate has dealt her an ugly card. Her dreams have been aborted mid trajectory. Definitely as a girl of strong faith she will overcome because faith will eventually trump adversity
Finally, four years after her abduction, and with several broken and unfulfilled promises made by the government to rescue her, Nigerians remain resolute that Leah Sharibu will regain her freedom sooner than later. Despite her travails, Leah Sharibu remains a significant symbol of resistance against Jihadist terrorists

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 Praying without giving up is knowing that the solution we need is found only in Him just as the widow knew that the solution she needed could only come from the Judge. This takes us to the place of Bible Study in Prayer The Word: The act of prayer is speaking the Word of God back to him. What we are praying is what He has promised in His Word. To pray the prayer that prevails we must know the Promise. And all His Promises. are in His Word. When we come together to study the Word of God, the Holy Spirit is faithfully there.  We are sure of this because He says, “where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I with them”. (Matthew 18:20) As we gather together this Lenten season to study the Word of God, let us come believing that The Holy Spirit Who wrote the Bible will be with us and will lead us into all Truth, as we come to hear Him not man or woman. Please join us during this season for one hour of Bible Study each week. Here is an introduction to the season. THE ENCOURAGERS BIBLE STUDY FELLOWSHIP LENTEN/HOLY WEEK SEASON MONDAYS AT 2PM US Eastern Time Zone Theme for the Lenten Season: Jesus The Messiah Main Texts: The Book of Isaiah. The Book of Matthew. The Book of Isaiah contains the bulk of the Prophecy while the Book of Matthew contains the most references in the New Testament to the Prophecies of the Coming Messiah The Bible Study Fellowship this Lenten season will cover at least 6 sessions.  The Fellowship guidelines for each study will go out every Sunday and will also be available on the Encouragers website.  Please let us know by text, WhatsApp, registration on the website or by email if you would attend or simply join by clicking on this URL every Monday at 2PM US Eastern Time Zone.(ET) The Zoom link will be forwarded to you every Sunday and will always be available on the Encouragers website. START DATE IS 1ST Monday in March which is March 6, 2023

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