Faces of Children: Prayer Requests

Faces of Children is an ecumenical prayer ministry under the auspices of First Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas. Our mission is to initiate ministries of prayer for children in churches, communities, and neighborhoods. In doing so, we seek to provide an opportunity for people of God to join together, learn about children and their needs throughout the world, and celebrate Christ's love (especially as it relates to children).

Prayer Concerns for the week of 04/14/10

Benin
• Pray for the children of Benin who are trafficked into servitude because their family situations are so desperate. Pray for those who must contribute to the family income because of deep poverty, making them extremely vulnerable to exploitation.
• Pray for girls who are trafficked within Benin for domestic servitude and sexual exploitation and for boys who are trafficked within the country for forced labor as plantation workers, street hawkers, and construction workers. Pray for children trafficked out of Benin who are forced into prostitution, child labor, or illegal adoption.
• Pray for children who are sexually exploited by teachers in return for better grades.
• Pray for more openness about the subject of trafficking children for commercial sexual exploitation-the subject is taboo in Beninese culture. Pray for greater awareness of the problem of child trafficking and just laws that are enforced with consistency. Please pray that safe homes and programs that help with healing will be available for children rescued from this type of modern day slavery.
A report from EPCAT
• Pray for an end to the tradition of using young, virgin girls as slaves to the temple priests in the tradition of trokosi, or "wives of the deity." Young girls are brought to a shrine to compensate for a crime committed by their families, sometimes for transgressions committed generations earlier, and must work in the household, clean the shrine, and serve as sex slaves.
A report from gvnet.com

China
• Please continue to keep the children in Pishon Family Ministry's orphanages held close in prayer. Pray for the children in the orphanages who are "illegal" and unwanted. Many of them have some kind of physical or mental impairment and have been discarded by their parents. Because of China's strictly enforced one child policy, often the parents of a disabled child will dispose of that child in favor of having a healthy one, preferably a boy.
• Pray that each "illegal" child will be able to receive identification papers that will make them legal. Thank God for the orphanage leaders who have been working hard to obtain papers for every child. Give thanks that these children are loved and wanted by God and that they have people in their lives who share this with them often!
• Please pray for the caregivers and volunteers of Pishon Family Ministry and for their work with and witness to these children. Pay that God will encourage and support them in every aspect of their service. Pray that God will also provide them with the resources necessary to care for these forgotten children. Again, give thanks to God that the love of Jesus Christ is being made known to some of China's most vulnerable children.

United States
• Please keep twins Micah and Nehemiah, who were born 6 weeks' premature, held close in prayer. Pray that they will learn to suck and swallow quickly so they won't have to stay in the hospital for a long time.
• Pray that God will protect 14-year-old Teresa* from a high risk environment in her biological mother's home. Pray for her safety and that she won't be abused by the men with whom her mother associates regularly. After scheduled visits with her father and step-mother, Teresa often goes back home to a houseful of men drinking with her mother. Pray for Teresa's emotional and physical health-she has recently been hospitalized for behavioral problems, possibly stemming from the home environment.
* Name changed for confidentiality and/or protection.
• Please lift in prayer the 10-year-old granddaughter of a Michigan woman who allowed her 67-year-old drug dealer to sexually assault the girl in exchange for cocaine or other narcotics. Pray for this child's physical and emotional healing. Pray for resilience and for her complete recovery from this horrible abuse. Pray for swift justice in this situation. And pray for the grandmother and the predator-that healing would take place in their lives as well.
A report from mlive.com
• Please pray for God's comforting presence to be with the children and families of the miners killed in the April 5 coal mine explosion in West Virginia. Pray for those who lost fathers, brothers, sons, grandfathers, uncles and friends in one of the deadliest mining accidents in the U.S. in 25 years.
A report from the Washington Post

Faces of Children
• Please continue to pray that more churches and individuals will join with the ministry of Faces of Children in spreading awareness about children in crisis and inviting more people to pray for children at risk.