"praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints" - Ephesians 6:18

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” — Romans 8:18

Ramadan is coming up next week and so I wanted to encourage you today to set aside some time for the next month because Muslims will be observing their holy month with fasting because it is one of the five pillars of Islam. During the month of Ramadan Muslims fast during the day and they do it because they believe it will help them to burn away their sins.

Mission Network News is reporting on a story from the Gospel for Asia about a church that told to remove the cross and the name of the church because "anti-Christian" extremists filed a complaint.

On July 15, Pastor Artur Suleimanov was shot to death by a gunman as he was leaving the Hosanna House of Prayer in Makhachkala, Dagestan, according to VOM Canada and Barnabas Fund. Dagestan is a federal republic of Russia in the North Caucasus region.

HENAN — On July 21, 2010, Weidu District Court of Xuchang Municipality of Henan province ruled in the trial of first instance on the administrative lawsuit in which the Christians Gao Jianli and Liu Yunhua sued Shangqiu Municipal Committee. The court upheld the administrative decision sentencing the two plaintiffs to one year in re-education through labor.Gao Jianli and Liu Yunhua were sentenced to re-education through labor for organizing a house church that is different in organization and doctrine from the government-approved Three-Self Church, and for not yielding to the local police’s demands for bribery. According to an unpublicized secret document from the Ministry of Public Security, the Full Scope Church they organized is a cult. They claim the church was harmful to society because church members cry and weep during prayers, and because they founded a Sunday school for their children.

The silver lining in this story is the the police, of which there were about 300, helped to protect the church from the protestors.

Recently the Lord has really laid the nation of Pakistan on my heart to pray for and to support, which is why when I heard about the recent flood in Pakistan I was even more concerned about the nation.

Given all the recent controversy with the four missionaries to Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan, Mission Network News is reporting today that the Dearborn Four (as they are called) is now being represented by a Muslim lawyer. Here is the rest from Mission Network News.