True Worship Prophetic Ministry
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NEWSLETTER ACTS 19:8 JANUARY 2018
And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God..
2018 Theme: “Kingdom Ecclesia”
Intercessory Prayer List: January2018
Ladii Rollins Monica Harley
Chavon Harris Stephanie Harley
Jonae Rollins Melvin Harley III
Ashonta Johnson Jordan Harley
Joseph Rollins
Mylan Morisseau
Samenta Morisseau
Timbuktu
Timbuktu’s founding dates back to the eleventh century when Tuareg nomads settled there and began using the site as a trading post of goods such as gold, ivory and salt along the Trans-Saharan caravan routes. The city’s location near the Niger River facilitated trade across West Africa as well as withMoroccoin North Africa. By the early 1300s Timbuktu had become the hub of a number of east-west and north-south trading routes and soon became the major commercial city (but not the capital) of the Mali Empire. Timbuktu’s population, which included Berbers, Arabs and Jews along with Mande and Fulani people from the surrounding countryside, was estimated to be close to 250,000 at the height of its prominence in the 15th Century, making it at the time one of the world’s largest cities.
Timbuktu’s wealth was made evident to the world with the pilgrimage of Malian Emperor Mansa Musa to Mecca in 1324. Upon his return to Mali, Mansa Musa brought a number of Arab immigrants including the renowned architect, Ishaq El Teudjin, who built its legendary mosque, Djinguereber. The mosque served as a Friday prayer temple for thousands of inhabitants and its library and Sankore University attracted scholars from throughout the Muslim world. With an estimated enrollment of twenty five thousand students, Timbuktu had become the headquarters of Islamic intellectual development in Africa.
In 1591 the Songhai Empire fell to the Moroccans. Under their rule Timbuktu lost its status as a major cultural and trading center. The Moroccans were driven out by the beginning of the 17th Century and Timbuktu was ruled by smaller states which were never able to reestablish its former glory. In 1894 French colonial forces seized Timbuktu. French control of the city continued until September 20, 1960 when Timbuktu became part of the newly independent Republic of Mali.
The population can be split into two main categories: the sedentary and the nomadic. The sedentary being those people who have traditionally lived sedentary lives tending towards villages, towns and cities, subsisting on agriculture, fishing or other stationary activities. In the north that means Songaï and Bozo. The nomads are predominately herders, in this area either a variety of peul or a variety of Tuareg.
The existence of an ancient Jewish community in Mali was “officially” revealed in 1996 when the Malian newspaper,Le Republicain, dramatically “announced to the presidents of Mali and Israel, diplomatic missions in Mali, and Jewish communities throughout the world, the presence of some 1,000 ‘Jews’ in Timbuktu,”writes Shari Berkein an article appearing in theWashington Jewish Week.The article cites Haidara who also founded an organization called Zakhor, or the Timbuktu Association for Friendship with the Jewish World, in 1993, and said in his “manifesto” that “we are Jews because our ancestors were Jews, whose genes are found in all our families.”
Other Jewish references in Mali include the claim that Jews controlled the salt and gold trade between Morocco and Timbuktu for some 300 years beginning in the late 1500s (this, however, is unsubstantiated).
Jews lived “mostly in villages scattered along on the Niger River, the border to where the Sahara begins. They were land-owning farmers, potters, dyers and mat weavers. Use of the Star of David as their symbol was also reported to us.” Klein conducted interviews in the village of Tangasane where it is said that the descendents of Al Kohani settled.
Egyptian Jews may have settled in the northern part of Mali as early as biblical times, and it is known that in the late seventh century, when the Arabs invaded North Africa, one of the chiefs of the Berber warriors resisting that invasion was a heroic princess of Jewish origin known as Kahina (Doumya). In the eighth century, the Rhadamites (those multi-lingual Jewish traders who traversed the known world by land and sea, including crossing the Sahara) settled in Timbuktu and its environs.”
Some possible connections to Jewish practice: the families have continually given newborns Jewish names; some members sign their names with a Star of David; some Hebrew songs are still sung; and they only marry among themselves, not a custom in Islam.
Prayer for The New Year
Guide me, Lord. Plant in me a new way of thinking. Give me new thoughts and new beliefs. I pray for the strength to fully adopt a new way of thinking that aligns with Your Word and the things You have for me to do. Help me release the thoughts and beliefs that do not serve me and will actually hinder me in the places which You are taking me. Help me to trust You above all things that I might not be reluctant to think or do what my humanness believes is “unfair”. Help me to be confident in knowing that You are ordering my steps and can “right” any “wrongs”.
Father God, we your children confess 1 Peter 2: 5-17: Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.6Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.7Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,8And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.9But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light;10Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.11Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;12Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.13Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;14Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.15For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:16As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.17Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
We welcome the New Year, 2018 (5778), by making a conscious decision to step wholly into “Jehovah” mind, body and spirit. We know that our purpose is to encourage, equip, empower, and educate the ecclesia. Keep us Kingdom minded as we go forth boldly in the name of Yeshua.