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A GLOBAL YEAR of prayer for Jewish people around the world is to be launched later this year. 

        Beginning in September, to coincide with the Jewish New Year, the event has been organized by Youth With A Mission to help establish an ongoing prayer movement for a population historically ignored or avoided by many Christians. 

        The 12-month program is the third international prayer focus 
YWAM has been involved in starting, and follows the successful 
annual 30 Days Muslim Prayer Focus launched in 1993, and the 30 Days Hindu Prayer Focus introduced earlier this year. 

        "Many Christians are already praying for Jewish people, but we believe that with concerted, united prayer we will see some 
greater breakthroughs in Jews coming to know their Messiah," 
said a spokeswoman for YWAM's Jewish-World Office in Richmond, Virginia. 

        The campaign centers on a daily prayer guide, with entries 
profiling different communities in the 15-million Jewish population scattered around the world, as well as detailing Jewish history, culture and beliefs. 

        Members of the board of reference include Patrick Johnstone, author of the Operation World prayer guide, Daniel Juster, a 
well-known leader of the Messianic Jews movement in the United 
States, and Dr C Peter Wagner, president of the AD2000 & Beyond movement's United Prayer Track. 

        "The bottom line is all about reconciliation," said the YWAM 
spokeswoman. "Reconciliation of Jews to God, Jews to the Church - which has over so many years persecuted them, and the Church 
with the Messianic movement. 

        "Many Christians feel that the Jews had their chance to receive the message and they rejected it, but we believe that  they are important and strategic in God's plans and purposes. We hope that by participating in this event, they might come to see how the Jewish people are important to God, and so should be to us, too." 

       The prayer guide - to be published in English, with as many as six translations - begins on September 1, preceding Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur - the Jewish New Year and the Day of Atonement, two high points of the Judaic calendar. Other Jewish 
holidays are highlighted during the following 12 months. 

        The Jewish-World Office plans to update the guide each year. "We want to make this part of the exciting things we are beginning to see happening in the Jewish world," said the spokeswoman. "There are huge numbers in the former Communist world that are coming to know Christ right now. In fact it is becoming quite a problem with so many emigrating to Israel that the rabbis there are quite alarmed about it." 

        In addition to producing the prayer guide, workers at the 
Jewish-World Office - who include messianic Jews -  also run 
special training courses for churches and groups wanting to learn how to pray effectively for the Jewish world. 

        Staff also run training courses for workers planning to become involved in evangelism and ministry in Jewish communities in the United States and other parts of the world. 

        Copies of the prayer guide - An Intercessor's Handbook to the Jewish World - can be obtained from: 

YWAM Press & Media Services