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 12/15/10

Colombia
• Give thanks to God for the positive results of Colombia's conditional cash transfer scheme-a program that has helped children from poor families attend school, receive regular health care, and medical checkups. The cash payments come with obligations-the mother must attend health workshops; take her children to regular medical checkups and have them vaccinated; and her children must attend school 80 percent of the time.
A report from alertnet.org

Dominican Republic, Haiti
• Please pray for Haitian children who have been trafficked across the border or migrated across it into the Dominican Republic. An estimated 9,000 Haitians have migrated across the border since the January 12 earthquake devastated Haiti.
• Pray for Haitian children who now beg for money on the streets and in the fruit markets of the Dominican Republic. Pray for those who are vulnerable and could be coerced into prostitution or trafficked into begging rings. Pray for those who are exploited and abused by traffickers.
• Give thanks to God for programs that help remove children from the streets and provide them with shelter and assistance.

Iraq
• Please pray for al-Qaeda in Iraq children who are now paying for the sins of their fathers. When al-Qaeda in Iraq militants held large parts of the country after the U.S. invasion, many girls and women were forced into undocumented "marriages" and then into motherhood. Pray for those women and girls who were raped by al-Qaeda in Iraq militants and who now have children by them although the "husbands" have long since disappeared.
• Pray for al-Qaeda in Iraq children who, according to the government, do not exist-they don't have rights as Iraqi citizens and lack proper identification papers. Pray that God will provide for these children and their families-they fear retaliation because of their association with al-Qaeda in Iraq, even though it was forced on them. Pray that in the future, al-Qaeda in Iraq children will be able to attend school and hold jobs even though they have incredible odds stacked against them.
A report from the Washington Post

Sudan
• Pray for children and people returning to their ancestral lands in south Sudan's Unity State ahead of a January referendum on independence. More than 1.5 million southerners are expected to return home to the land they fled during the 1980s and 1990s' civil war.
• Pray for those families living in emergency shelters in Unity State because their homes on ancestral lands have been flooded. Pray for vulnerable children left in these emergency shelters while their mothers go out to find work. Pray that God will provide the resources needed to help these children, especially since conditions in the shelters are deteriorating because of the scarcity of water.

United States
• Please continue to pray for Mike and Emily, co-founders of ESTHERS Children, a ministry that works with girls in Brazil who've been prostituted and abused.
Website for ESTHERS Children
• Give God thanks that Mike and Emily were able to make the trip to Brazil in July to hold a vacation Bible school for 75 children from a poor neighborhood and also have an outreach event for their mothers.
• And thank God for all God has done to help Mike during the treatments for his brain tumor. Pray that God will continue to be at work in healing Mike and providing for his day-to-day needs. Thanks be to God for all of the support and help Mike and Emily are receiving from their community. Pray that they will know the peace of Christ that surpasses all understanding during this difficult, stressful time.

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.