Friday, February 1, 2013

#429 "Pray for the Johns Day ..."

UPDATE AND CALL FOR  CONTINUED  PRAYER AND NEW ACTION, Jan. 28: After a short sham trial, Iran has convicted American Pastor Saeed Abedini – a U.S. citizen – and sentenced him to eight years in one of Iran's most brutal and deadly prisons – merely because he is a Christian.Iran has violated Pastor Saeed's human rights, violated its own constitution, and violated multiple international treaties and covenants that it voluntarily and willingly signed. At the ACLJ, we are mobilizing a domestic and international effort to pressure Iran to abide by its treaties and agreements. We are calling on the United Nations and the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights to directly intervene and demand Pastor Saeed's release.Morere than 250,000 of you signed our petition to ask the Obama Administration to intervene, and the White House and State Department responded. PLEASE CONTINUE PRAYING for him, his release and for his family AND  Sign this NEW petition to mobilize the international community. http://aclj.org/iran/save-american-pastor-from-iranian-prison-sentence

PLEASE CONSIDER:  I am participating in the annual fundraiser Walk for Lifeon Feb. 9 for a local pregnancy resource center that ministers to girls and women who might otherwise abort their baby. My goal is $213. If you can make a pledge of $10 or more, please go to http://www.razoo.com/story/Stan-M-Yonashiro, THANK YOU for whatever you can pledge. (I'd especially appreciate your prayers that I (and all the walkers) will meet my goal.)

REMINDER: If you didn't get a chance to check out this week's broadcast of "The Spiritual State of the Union," please go to www.truthinactioin.org and watch the 10 minute video of the special feature they had on the program for this week. Excellent look at what this past election indicated for our nation on social issues and the challenge before the Church. Please also encouage you friends to check it out.- Stan

"Pray for the Johns Day - Changing Lives on Super Bowl Sunday." Eric Metaxas, Breakpoint.org;
January 30, 2013

Quick: What’s the big event that’s happening this Sunday? Chances are extremely good that the answer that popped into your head, without even having to think about it, was “the Super Bowl.” Whether you watch football or not, you probably know that America’s biggest and best-loved game takes place this weekend. There’s always so much hype surrounding the Super Bowl, it’s almost impossible not to know about it.
But here’s something that you might not know: Major sporting events like the Super Bowl tend to cause an increase in sex trafficking. It’s tragic, but true. As WANE.com in Indiana reported last year, “Girls as young as 12 to 14 are being shipped to Super Bowl host cities and sold as prostitutes to meet the demand for sex at the event.  And it’s getting worse.”
Ernie Allen of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children added, “The operators of these enterprises will use these kids as commodities, bring them to a community, and will literally sell them to people who are partying and having a good time and think there's nothing wrong with what they're doing.” The magnitude of this horrific problem can seem so overwhelming that it makes us feel helpless. Is there anything that you can do to help save these kids? Well, yes, you can start with one very simple but very important action: prayer.
Super Bowl Sunday will mark the second annual Pray for the Johns Day. The event was created by Christian writer Anna Broadway, who has long been interested in the subjects of “relational brokenness” and human trafficking. It occurred to Anna that while many Christians are making laudable efforts to help trafficking victims, we haven’t paid much attention to the men who are paying for the sex.
But these men, she reminds us, are spiritually lost and in great need of prayer. That’s why she created Pray for the Johns Day. Anna says, “[We’re] praying that they would turn from the sin and the harm and the wrong that they’re doing, and repent of it. That their lives would transform and they would become the men God made them to be.” That kind of transformation can be nothing but a blessing, not just for the men themselves, but for our entire society.

Wherever there are men who think it’s okay to buy little girls for sex, that it’s all just a natural part of “partying and having a good time,” that’s the sign of a very sick culture. These men are mired in evil, and they’re destroying both their own lives and the lives of innocent victims. The only thing that can possibly help them is repentance and restoration through Christ—which is why Anna’s idea is such a great one. And moving it to Super Bowl Sunday, when sex trafficking is at its height, was a particularly inspired touch.

So here are her three recommended steps: “(1) Pray for the johns before, during or after the game on Sunday, Feb. 3. [note suggested pray at link under "Pray for the John's Day below](2) Encourage your church to pray for the johns during corporate worship that day. (3) Tell other friends about this event.” I hope you’ll consider taking part in Pray for the Johns Day, and telling your friends about it. Prayer might seem like a small thing, but through it, you can help change even the darkest and most depraved lives.
---------------------------------------------------------
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)