Issue # 18
May 1-7, 2014
PRAY FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA AND HIS ADMINISTRATION President Obama is continuing his push for a minimum wage increase to $10.10, acknowledging that Hawaii has recently done so, and encouraging action from the Senate on a minimum wage law. Vice President Joe Biden delivered a blistering critique of the House budget by highlighting what he said would be “catatrophic” effects of the House vision by devastating the middle class and increasing the wealth of the top percent. Pray for President Obama and Vice President Biden as they work with members of Congress on legislation.
PRAY FOR OUR CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS Senators Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) and Rob Portman (Ohio) are encouraging the Senate to move forward an energy efficiency bill they wrote that includes an amendment to approve the Keystone XL pipeline as soon as next week. Representative Aaron Shock (Illinois) said he does not believe there will be a single bill on immigration reform in the House as Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) indicated last week; rather a series of smaller bills has potential. Pray for greater cooperation between the Senate and House in getting veto-proof bills passed through Congress.
PRAY FOR OUR JUDICIARY A federal judge in Milwaukee has struck down Wisconsin’s voter identification law, saying it unfairly burdens poor and minority voters who are less likely to have photo ID’s or the documents needed to get them. The Supreme Court in a 6-2 decision upheld a rule that allows the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate power plant air pollution that crosses state borders, giving a boost to the Administration’s climate change agenda. Pray for members of the Supreme Court as they begin to coalesce around opinions of cases heard during the year.
PRAY FOR THESE NATIONAL LEADERS IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK: Tom Wheeler, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission. Rush Holt, United States Representative for New Jersey. Judge Ralph Bestline, United States District Court for the District of Alaska. Rear Admiral Matthew Klunder, Chief of Naval Research. For more information on these prayer requests and Daily Member Updates please visit presidentialprayerteam.org.
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OTHER PRAYER CONCERNS: WARS AND TERRORISM The U.S. Government “created an environment that fostered corruption” in Afghanistan by supplying warlords, relying on private trucking contracts, and providing billions in aid, according to a new Pentagon report. Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs said that terrorism poses “the main threat” for some countries in Africa, vowing that Nigeria has taken “definite steps” to eradicate terror from its shores in collaboration with its neighbors. Pray about the scourge of terror in many countries, and the potential for a corrupt Afghanistan when troops leave.
FOREIGN INTERESTS AND CONFLICTS Pro-Russia separatists seized government offices in more Ukrainian towns Wednesday, a further sign that authorities in Kiev are losing control of the country’s eastern industrial heartland bordering Russia. Some of the school girls abducted by suspected Islamist militants in northern Nigeria are believed to have been sold into the sex trade, taken to neighboring countries, or forced into marriage with their captors. Pray about America’s diplomatic efforts and the imposition of sanctions against Russia over Ukraine.
THE ECONOMY The U.S. economy slowed drastically in the first three months of 2014 to a barely discernable 0.1 percent annual rate, in the weakest pace since 2012, and down from 2.6 percent in the previous quarter, the Commerce Department said. In 20 percent of American families, not one member of the family worked in 2013, according to new data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. An all-time high of 20.2 percent occurred in 2011. Pray about the sluggishness of the American economy, and what will be necessary to turn it around.
ISRAEL AND THE MIDDLE EAST Israel’s Religious Affairs Ministry is crafting rules that would allow Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount that would reverse long-standing orders banning such prayer. Non-Muslim praying people have regularly been arrested. Secretary of State John Kerry, under fire for warning on Holocaust Memorial Day that Israel risks becoming “an apartheid state” in the absence of a peace deal, has re-stated his commitment to Israel and the peace process. Pray about the adoption of the rule that would allow Jews (and others) desiring to pray on the Temple Mount to do so.
HEALTH CARE The Obamacare website is still missing critical pieces at its “back end” essential for accurately paying insurers triggering other accounting problems, and the deadline for fixing the site keeps slipping. Germs that defy antibiotics are now a major health risk causing near-untreatable cases of sepsis, pneumonia, diarrhea and sexually transmitted diseases, according to the WHO, blaming over use and misuse of prescription antibiotics. Pray for the technicians and others who are working to fix the Affordable Care Act enrollment and processing site. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2
For more information on these prayer requests and Daily Member Updates please visit presidentialprayerteam.org.
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