Brandon Shanks {dot} com

Pic from SYATP today...

Join in Prayer

This is an excerpt from an email that I received from a friend of mine that is in South Africa.

"We are writing to ask you to pray for our city - Johannesburg. Last week 60 people were attacked and houses were burnt in Alexandra Township 2 were brutally murdered. The attacks were directed at African Foreigners living in South Africa (mainly those from Mozambique & Zimbabwe) Yesterday the violence erupted again all over the East Rand (east side of Johannesburg). 50 were injured and 5 killed (2 burned to death and 3 beaten to death) in an area called Cleveland. There were riots, beatings and the burning of homes in an area where many of our church members live - Thokoza. Also, please pray for an area called Tembisa where we have a great church but prejudicial violence has erupted in that area as well.

We ask you to pray for the safety of God's people as many of our church members are foreigners from other African countries.

Here are some local news articles about what is happening.

http://www.thestar.co.za/?fSectionId=&fArticleId=vn20080518082610756C405049

http://www.thestar.co.za/?fSectionId=&fArticleId=vn20080519054119742C540915

http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=&fArticleId=iol1211142740501X532

Please take a moment and go before God in prayer for these people around the world! Prayer makes a difference

Jesus was happy today!

As I stood this morning in a circle of High School Students that had gathered to pray. I thought to myself, "Jesus sure is happy today!" Kids from all churches, teachers, youth pastors, and saints gathered to pray for our schools and our nation! I went to the school that I graduated from today. It was a cool experience. It is as if when we gathered for prayer today that there was this sense of, "Man, this is how it should be." The church standing...gathered in prayer unashamed! The funny thing is that when I was in school I never went to SYATP. God sure is awesome, the way he turns our lives around. As we prayed we were a beautiful mess of all different kinds...and I think Jesus was happy today. (Check This Out)

Here are some pictures!