PRAY FOR PERSECUTED CHURCH

1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS.2-Indonesia quake caused huge coral die-off: survey. 3-The Nation's Weather. 4-Indonesia gets new tsunami warning buoy. 5-Pope says evolution can't be proven. 6-Israel scrambles jets to escort U.S. airliner. 7-China and Japan pledge closer ties. 8-Bombing at Iraqi parliament kills 8. 9-American Christians encouraged to bombard heaven with prayers for persecuted Church.

EARTHQUAKES

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)

Update time = Thu Apr 12 11:49 AM EDT

APR 12,07
MAP 3.0 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 5.3 SOUTHEAST OF THE LOYALTY ISLANDS
MAP 4.1 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.8 TONGA
MAP 2.6 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 4.0 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.5 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 3.1 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 3.1 NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP 3.4 NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP 3.0 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.2 GULF OF ALASKA
MAP 4.6 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 5.2 TARAPACA, CHILE
MAP 3.0 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.7 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 3.5 SOUTHERN ALASKA

APR 11,07
MAP 2.6 WESTERN MONTANA
MAP 3.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.8 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.8 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.9 OLYMPIC PENINSULA, WASHINGTON
MAP 4.7 SOLOMON ISLANDS
MAP 5.2 SOUTHEAST OF THE LOYALTY ISLANDS
MAP 3.5 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 5.3 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION
MAP 5.4 TONGA
MAP 2.7 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 5.3 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.6 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.9 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
MAP 3.7 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 2.8 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.5 SOLOMON ISLANDS
MAP 3.9 KASHMIR-XINJIANG BORDER REGION
MAP 4.6 SOLOMON ISLANDS
MAP 4.7 LOYALTY ISLANDS
MAP 2.6 NEW YORK
MAP 3.2 NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.8 GULF OF ALASKA

Indonesia quake caused huge coral die-off: survey Thu Apr 12, 4:32 AM ET

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A strong earthquake that struck Indonesia's Sumatra island two years ago caused one of the biggest coral die-offs ever documented, a study by scientists from two conservation groups found. The quake itself killed nearly 1,000 people on Nias island off the western coast of Sumatra island.The scientists, who surveyed 35 sites on the coastline, found that the earthquake had raised the island of Simeulue near Nias by up to 1.2 meters (3 ft 11 in), exposing most of the coral reefs ringing the island over about 300 km (190 miles) of sea floor, a news statement said.

The scientists were from the U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society and the government-backed Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (ARCCoERS).This is a story of mass mortality on a scale rarely observed, said Dr Stuart Campbell of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Indonesia marine program.In contrast to other threats like coral bleaching, none of the corals uplifted by the earthquake have survived, he said.Campbell said, however, that some sites in Simeulue were now recovering.At many sites, the worst affected species are beginning to decolonize the shallow reef areas. The reefs appear to be returning to what they looked like before the earthquake, although the process may take many years, he said.Dr Andrew Baird of ARCCoERS said the earthquake had provided a one-off chance to study such a phenomenon.

This is a unique opportunity to document a process that occurs maybe once a century and promises to provide new insights into coral recovery processes that until now we could only explore on fossil reefs.

The team said it had documented, for the first time in Indonesian waters, extensive damage to reefs caused by the crown-of-thorns starfish, a coral predator that has inflicted huge damage on reefs in Australia and other parts of the world.People monitoring Indonesian coral reefs now have another threat to watch out for, and not all reef damage should be immediately attributed to human influences, said Baird.Indonesia has some of the richest reef environments in the world, but many have also suffered from human interference.The government has banned the use of chemicals such as cyanide and bombing to catch fish, but such practices still go on in many parts of the huge tropical nation made up of more than 17,000 islands.

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

The Nation's Weather By WEATHER UNDERGROUND, For The Associated Press
Thu Apr 12, 6:23 AM ET

A spring storm was forecast to dump several inches of snow on parts of the Northern Plains and Great Lakes region Thursday as it moves north toward Canada. Considerable rain was expected in New England and the Mid-Atlantic region, and a cold front could bring a quick shot of rain as it sweeps through the Southeast.Rain and snow were expected in parts of the Northwest and southern Rockies.Temperatures were expected to rise into the 30s and 40s in the Northeast and the 70s and 80s in the Southeast. The upper Midwest and parts of the Rockies were expected to see temperatures in the 30s, while the Northwest should see temperatures in the 40s and 50s.Temperatures in the lower 48 states Wednesday ranged from a low of 3 degrees at Stanley, Idaho, to a high of 94 degrees at Imperial, Calif.

Indonesia gets new tsunami warning buoy Wed Apr 11, 12:50 PM ET

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesia began installing its first locally made tsunami warning buoy in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday as part of efforts to protect coastal communities from future killer waves.

The country began setting up an alert network after the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed or left missing at least 230,000 people in a dozen Indian Ocean countries. Two-thirds of the deaths were reported on the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island.A German-made buoy and one donated by Malaysia are already in place.The $600,000 Indonesian-made device is being installed 160 miles south of the West Java town of Merak, said Ridwan Djamaluddin, chief of Tsunami Buoy Oceanographic Monitoring.

The buoy will be used to detect abnormalities on the surface of the sea the next time an earthquake triggers waves, transmitting data by satellite to officials on land within three minutes, Djamaluddin said.The buoy has been tested and it works well, he said. It will help alert communities on western Java and Sumatra island to tsunamis in the future.Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS, THE FOOOOOOOOOOLISH FOOL SAYS IN HIS OR HER HEART THERE IS NO GOD AND NO CREATION BUT BELIEVES THE LIE OF EVOLUTION.

Pope says evolution can't be proven By MELISSA EDDY Wed Apr 11, 5:47 PM ET

BERLIN - Benedict XVI, in his first extended reflections on evolution published as pope, says that Darwin's theory cannot be finally proven and that science has unnecessarily narrowed humanity's view of creation.

In a new book, Creation and Evolution, published Wednesday in German, the pope praised progress gained by science, but cautioned that evolution raises philosophical questions science alone cannot answer.The question is not to either make a decision for a creationism that fundamentally excludes science, or for an evolutionary theory that covers over its own gaps and does not want to see the questions that reach beyond the methodological possibilities of natural science, the pope said.He stopped short of endorsing intelligent design, but said scientific and philosophical reason must work together in a way that does not exclude faith.

I find it important to underline that the theory of evolution implies questions that must be assigned to philosophy and which themselves lead beyond the realms of science, the pope was quoted as saying in the book, which records a meeting with fellow theologians the pope has known for years.In the book, Benedict reflected on a 1996 comment of his predecessor, John Paul II, who said that Charles Darwin's theories on evolution were sound, as long as they took into account that creation was the work of God, and that Darwin's theory of evolution was more than a hypothesis.The pope (John Paul) had his reasons for saying this, Benedict said. But it is also true that the theory of evolution is not a complete, scientifically proven theory.Benedict added that the immense time span that evolution covers made it impossible to conduct experiments in a controlled environment to finally verify or disprove the theory.We cannot haul 10,000 generations into the laboratory, he said.

Evolution has come under fire in recent years by proponents — mostly conservative Protestants of intelligent design, who believe that living organisms are so complex they must have been created by a higher force rather than evolving from more primitive forms.The book, which was released by the Sankt Ulrich publishing house, includes reflections of the pope and others who attended a meeting of theological scholars at the papal summer estate in Castel Gandolfo in early September.The pope's remarks were consistent with one of his most important themes, that faith and reason are interdependent.Science has opened up large dimensions of reason ... and thus brought us new insights, the pope wrote. But in the joy at the extent of its discoveries, it tends to take away from us dimensions of reason that we still need.Its results lead to questions that go beyond its methodical canon and cannot be answered within it, he said.Associated Press writer Kirsten Grieshaber contributed to this report.

I LOVE THAT THE BOEING 777 , AND 3 SETS OF 7 JUDGEMENTS WILL BE HITTING THE EARTH IN THE FUTURE FOR A TOTAL OF 21 JUDGEMENTS. 7 SEALS - 7 TRUMPET - 7 VIAL OR BOWL, GODS WRATH ON SINNERS JUDGEMENTS.

Israel scrambles jets to escort U.S. airliner Thu Apr 12, 10:10 AM ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel scrambled fighter jets to escort an American commercial passenger plane to landing on Wednesday, Israeli officials said. An Airports Authority spokeswoman said Continental Airlines' Flight 90 was intercepted after it failed to identify itself upon entering Israeli airspace.The plane, a Boeing 777, was on a scheduled flight from Newark, New Jersey in the United States. All passengers and crew disembarked safely, Israeli officials said.The Transportation Ministry said it was investigating whether there was a technical reason for the initial lack of communication between the plane and Israeli ground control.

2ND WAVE CHINA AND KINGS OF THE EAST MARCH TO ISRAEL

REVELATION 16:12
12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.(THIS IS THE ATATURK DAM IN TURKEY,THEY CROSS OVER).

DANIEL 11:44 (2ND WAVE OF WW3)
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)

China and Japan pledge closer ties By KOZO MIZOGUCHI, Associated Press Writer APR 12,07

TOKYO - Strengthening a fragile detente, Japanese and Chinese leaders meeting in Tokyo pledged Wednesday to work together on North Korea, energy development and the environment, while defusing thorny disputes over history and territory. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is on the first visit to Japan by a Chinese leader in nearly seven years, building on a trip by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Beijing last year to salvage seriously damaged ties.The two declared firm intentions to move forward on rebuilding relations, signing agreements on energy and the environment and issuing a jointstatement that laid out a series of issues for the countries to cooperate on.

We must build future-oriented and stable Japan-China relations, Abe said at a banquet in Wen's honor. We want to expand our common interests through strengthening dialogue in various fields. Wen said he expected his three-day visit to be a success.We must keep up the momentum toward building friendly ties that have been forged between the governments and peoples of the two countries, he said. Japan and China are at a crossroads where we must inherit the past while opening up the future.They signed a series of agreements. An environmental accord called for the two to work on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change by 2013. China's emissions are not capped under the Kyoto pact, but they are a rising concern as the economy rapidly expands.The other agreement committed Japan and China to cooperate on developing energy resources.In the joint statement, the two vowed to seek ways to jointly develop gas deposits in disputed waters, pursue the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and cooperate on intellectual property rights.

The declaration also made a veiled reference to the bitter dispute over wartime history. China still nurses resentment over Japanese invasions in the 1930s and 1940s, while Japanese nationalists accuse Beijing of exaggerating accounts of atrocities for political gain.We resolve to face up to history and open up good, forward-looking relations toward a beautiful future, the statement said.Wen maintained that theme as he addressed the Japanese Parliament Thursday, calling on Tokyo not to forget those past military aggressions.Wen the first Chinese leader to address Japan's parliament in 22 years said the past would have to be confronted in order for ties to improve, though he expressed satisfaction that Japanese leaders had shown regret for the wartime past.

Japan's invasions caused tremendous damage to the Chinese, Wen added. The deep scars left in the hearts of the Chinese people cannot be described.To reflect on history is not to dwell on hard feelings but to remember and learn from the past to open a better future, he continued, adding that he hoped Japan's apologies would be turned into actions.He told Parliament that improved ties benefit both nations.

China's opening up and overnight modernization drive benefits from the support and help of the Japanese government and people. The Chinese people will never forget that.In an important nod to Tokyo, Beijing also offered understanding and sympathy for Japan's humanitarian concerns regarding North Korea a reference to Japan's demand for resolution of Pyongyang's kidnappings of Japanese citizens.

The visit was a high-profile follow-up to Abe's landmark summit with Chinese leaders in Beijing in October, which staunched a downward spiral in ties that had troubled the region and Japan's top ally, the United States. The two neighbors have good reasons to grow closer. China, including Hong Kong, is Japan's No. 1 trading partner and Japanese companies are eager for access to Chinese consumers and labor. China, meanwhile, seeks Japanese investment and technology transfers. While the emphasis was on cooperation, both leaders broached areas of concern. Wen, for instance, warned that history could be an obstacle to improved ties if not handled well, while Abe urged China to be more transparent about its troubling surge in military spending. Wen assured Abe that Beijing would use its armed forces only for national security, Japanese officials said. Wen also pointed out the dispute over gas deposits in the East China Sea. The two countries have not demarcated their exclusive economic zones in the area, and Japan has objected to Chinese exploitation of the deposits, saying some of the gas belongs to Japan. Joint talks so far have achieved little.

One of the remaining problems is the issue of the East China Sea, Wen said, quoted by Hiroshige Seko, an Abe adviser. Wen arrived just hours after the two countries signed an accord lifting Beijing's four-year ban on Japanese rice imports. China banned imports in 2003, claiming Japanese rice did not qualify for its tightened quarantine system. The Chinese premier was scheduled to meet with business leaders and the emperor on Thursday, and even join in a game of baseball with college students in western Japan on Friday before returning to China. Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, had put China relations into the deep freeze with repeated visits to a Tokyo shrine honoring Japanese war dead, including executed war criminals. Abe moved quickly to repair ties with visits to Beijing and Seoul in October, only weeks after taking office. In his meeting with Wen, Abe said he hoped to visit China again this year, and invited Chinese President Hu Jintao to come to Japan next year, officials said. But the wartime past was still a potentially divisive issue. Earlier this week, Japanese nationalist textbook writers released an open letter to Wen, challenging him to furnish proof of the 1937 Nanking massacre, in which Japanese troops killed thousands of civilians. China claims the death toll reached 300,000. Associated Press writer Chisaki Watanabe in Tokyo also contributed to this report.

REVELATION 9:12-18
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.(IRAQ-SYRIA)
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.(1/3 Earths Population die in WW 3 2ND WAVE)
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:(200 MILLION MAN ARMY FROM CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST) and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)

Bombing at Iraqi parliament kills 8 By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer APR 12,07

BAGHDAD - A suspected suicide bomber blew himself up in the Iraqi parliament cafeteria Thursday, killing at least eight people in a stunning assault in the heart of the heavily fortified, U.S.-protected Green Zone.

The blast came hours after a suicide truck bomb exploded on a major bridge in Baghdad, collapsing the steel structure and sending cars tumbling into the Tigris River, police and witnesses said. At least 10 people were killed.The parliament bombing was believed to be the deadliest attack in the Green Zone, the enclave that houses Iraq's leadership as well as the U.S. Embassy, and is secured by American and Iraqi checkpoints.Security officials at parliament, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, said they believed the bomber was a bodyguard of a Sunni member of parliament who was not among the dead. They would not name the member of parliament.

The officials also said two satchel bombs were found inside the building near the dining hall. A U.S. military bomb squad took the explosives away and detonated them without incident.President Bush strongly condemned the attack, saying: My message to the Iraqi government is `We stand with you.

It reminds us, though, that there is an enemy willing to bomb innocent people in a symbol of democracy, he said at the White House.Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told The Associated Press that eight people were killed in the attack, which witness accounts indicated was carried out by a suicide bomber.We don't know at this point who it was. We do know in the past that suicide vests have been used predominantly by al-Qaida, the U.S. military spokesman said.Earlier, Iraqi officials said the bomber struck the cafeteria while several lawmakers were eating lunch, and at least three of them were killed. State television said 30 people were wounded.After the blast, security guards sealed the building and no one including lawmakers was allowed to enter or leave.A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said no Americans were hurt.

The bombing came amid the two-month-old security crackdown in Baghdad, which has sought to restore stability in the capital so that the government of Iraq can take key political steps by June 30 or face a withdrawal of American support.

We know that there is a security problem in Baghdad, added Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking at the State Department. This is still early in the process and I don't think anyone expected that there wouldn't be counter-efforts by terrorists to undermine the security presence.One of the dead lawmakers was Mohammed Awad, a member of the Sunni National Dialogue Front, said party leader Saleh al-Mutlaq. A female Sunni lawmaker from the same list was wounded, he said.The other legislator killed was Taha al-Liheibi, of the Sunni Accordance Front that holds 44 seats in parliament, said Mohammed Abu Bakr, who heads the legislature's media department.

A third dead lawmaker was Niamah al-Mayahi, a member of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance bloc, said Saleh al-Aujaili, a fellow member.Abu Bakr said he saw the bomber's body amid the ghastly scene. I saw two legs in the middle of the cafeteria and none of those killed or wounded lost their legs which means they must be the legs of the suicide attacker, he said. Several other lawmakers also said they saw the limbs, believed to be those of the bomber. Earlier in the day, security officials used dogs to check people entering the building in a rare precaution apparently concerned that an attack might take place. But a security scanner that checks pedestrians at the entrance to the Green Zone near the parliament building was not working Thursday, Abu Bakr said. People were searched only by hand and had to pass through metal detectors, he said. The brazen bombing was the clearest evidence yet that militants can penetrate even the most secure locations. Masses of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers are on the streets in the ninth week of a security crackdown in the capital and security measures inside the Green Zone have been significantly hardened.

The U.S. military reported April 1 that two suicide vests were found in the Green Zone, also home to the U.S. Embassy and the Iraqi government. A rocket attack last month killed two Americans, a soldier and a contractor. A few days earlier, a rocket landed within 100 yards of a building where U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was holding a news conference. No one was hurt. Khalaf al-Ilyan, one of the three leaders of the Iraqi Accordance Front, which holds 44 seats, said the attack was aimed at everyone all parties our parliament in general being a symbol and a representative of all segments of Iraqi society.

Al-Ilyan, who is in Jordan recovering from knee surgery, said the blast also underlines the failure of the government's security plan.The plan is 100 percent a failure. It's a complete flop. The explosion means that instability and lack of security has reached the Green Zone, which the government boasts is heavily fortified, he said. U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said its officials were investigating the nature and source of the explosion. No embassy employees or U.S. citizens were affected.Hadi al-Amiri, head of the parliament's security and defense committee, said the blast shook the building just after legislators ended their main meeting, and broke into smaller committees. A few brothers (fellow lawmakers) happened to be in the cafeteria at the time of the explosion, al-Amiri told Al-Arabiya television. But had they been able to place this bomb inside the meeting hall, it would have been a catastrophe.Al-Amiri said Iraqi forces are in charge of security in the building, and that explosives could have been smuggled in amid restaurant supplies. A television camera and videotape belonging to a Western TV crew was confiscated by security guards moments after the attack.

Attacks in the Green Zone are rare.

The worst known attack inside the enclave occurred Oct. 14, 2004, when insurgents detonated explosives at a market and a popular cafe, killing six people. That was the first bombing in the sprawling region. On Nov. 25, 2004, a mortar attack inside the zone killed four employees of a British security firm and wounded at least 12. On Jan. 29, 2005, insurgents hit the U.S. Embassy compound with a rocket, killing two Americans a civilian and a Navy sailor on the eve of landmark elections.

Four other Americans were wounded. In addition to killing 10 people, Thursday's bombing of the al-Sarafiya bridge wounded 26, hospital officials said, and police were trying to rescue as many as 20 people whose cars plummeted off the span. Waves lapped against twisted girders as patrol boats searched for survivors and U.S. helicopters flew overhead. Scuba divers donned flippers and waded in from the riverbanks. Farhan al-Sudani, a 34-year-old Shiite businessman who lives near the bridge, said the blast woke him at dawn. A huge explosion shook our house and I thought it would demolish our house. Me and my wife jumped immediately from our bed, grabbed our three kids and took them outside, he said. The al-Sarafiya bridge connected two northern Baghdad neighborhoods Waziriyah, a mostly Sunni enclave, and Utafiyah, a Shiite area. Police blamed the attack on a suicide truck bomber, but AP Television News video showed the bridge broken in two places perhaps the result of two blasts.

Cement pilings that support the steel structure were left crumbling. At the base of one lay a charred vehicle engine, believed to be that of the truck bomb. The al-Sarafiya bridge is believed to be at least 75 years old, built by the British in the early part of the 20th century.

It is one of Baghdad's monuments. This is really damaging for Iraq. We are losing a lot of our history every day, said Ahmed Abdul-Karim, who lives nearby. The al-Sarafiya bridge has a duplicate in Fallujah that was built later and made infamous in March 2004 when angry mobs hung the charred bodies of U.S. contractors from its girders. The destroyed span is linked to Baghdad's modern history it is one of our famous monuments, said Haider Ghazala, a 52-year-old Iraqi architect. Attacking this bridge affects the morale of Iraqis and especially Baghdad residents who feel proud of this bridge. They (insurgents) want to demolish everything that connects the people with this land, he said. Before the al-Sarafiya bridge was destroyed, nine spans across the Tigris linked western and eastern Baghdad.

The river now serves as a de facto dividing line between the mostly Shiite east and the largely Sunni west of the city, a reality of more than a year of sectarian fighting that has forced Sunnis to flee neighborhoods where they were a minority and likewise for Shiites.

Baghdad's neighborhoods had been very mixed before the war but hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced since then as militants from both Muslim sects have sought to cleanse their neighborhoods of rivals. There have been unconfirmed reports for months that Sunni insurgents and al-Qaida in Iraq were planning a campaign to blow up the city's bridges. U.S. military headquarters near the Baghdad airport and the Green Zone, site of the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi parliament and government, are both on the west side of the river. Also Thursday, the U.S. military said its troops killed two suspected insurgents and captured 17 in raids across the country. Associated Press Writer Lauren Frayer contributed to this
report.

PERSECUSSION,BEHEADINGS

JESUS PERSECUTED BIGTIME

ISAIAH 53:4
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

MATTHEW 9:34
34 But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.

JOHN 8:41
41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.

JOHN 10:20
20 And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?

PHILIPPIANS 2:10-11(JESUS GETS REVENGE)
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.(JUDGEMENT SEAT OF CHRIST AND FOR SINNERS, THE GREAT WHITE THRONE
FINAL JUDGEMENT).

WE ARE CHRISTIANS WE WILL BE TREATED THE SAME.

2 TIMOTHY 3:1-5 (WHY WE ARE PERSECUTED BY THE WORLD)
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

MATTHEW 5:10-12
10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

MATTHEW 24:9
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.

JOHN 15:18-20
18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me (JESUS) before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

REVELATION 6:9-11
9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain(BEHEADED) for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

REVELATION 20:4
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

American Christians encouraged to bombard heaven with prayers for persecuted Church Allie Martin OneNewsNow.com April 11, 2007

The president of the Dallas, Texas-based ministry Gospel for Asia says Christians in America have an obligation to pray for believers throughout the world who are suffering for their faith. And as reports of persecution against Christians continue to increase throughout India, GFA founder K.P. Yohannan says believers in America must not forget the modern day persecuted Church.Yohannan, who spends half of his time in Asia consulting with missionary leaders and speaking at missionary gatherings, says many American Christians fail to realize the tough, lifethreatening conditions faced by believers in other nations. He encourages Christians in the United States to pray specifically for those who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ. I think here we have a greater responsibility here much is given; much shall be required, the GFA spokesman observes. And I wish that every believer would be willing to wake up one hour early every morning and spend that hour before a world map, he says, praying and crying out to God for this generation, some two billion people that wait to hear that Jesus died for them on the cross.Yohannan says many Christians in America are focused on materialism, instead of eternal matters. That is one reason why he urges U.S. believers to pray and fast for the persecuted Church worldwide.

We too, by the grace of God, can make a difference in the world, the ministry founder says, if only we are willing to accept this kind of call from Christ, and not be satisfied with just going to church and hearing good sermons and having a comfortable feeling with our lifestyle. The call of God, Yohannan contends, is much more serious than that.Gospel for Asia currently supports more than 16,000 church planters in ten countries of South Asia in the heart of that part of the world known to missions strategists as the 10/40 window. This area of the Eastern hemisphere, from ten degrees latitude north of the equator to 40 degrees latitude north of the equator, is where most of the people groups as yet unreached by the gospel of Jesus Christ reside.American Family News Network