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 12/25/12

HAITI - Please continue to keep close in prayer the children and people of Haiti who still struggle to recover from a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake two years ago. Give thanks to God that almost a million people have moved out of tent cities—many received help with rent or home repair. Pray for the 500,000 children and people who still remain in dangerous tent cities…20,000 of whom live in a squalid camp in downtown Port-au-Prince.
A report from the Washington Post
• Give God thanks that the cholera epidemic, which started in late 2010 and killed 7,000 people, is now under control. Please continue to pray for the health of the children affected by this water-borne disease.

INDIA - Pray for the children of Mumbai’s massive slum known as Dharavi. An estimated one million people live and work in this contained residential and commercial “city” within a city. Pray for families who struggle to make a living in the informal economy of this infamous slum.
A report from the New York Times
• Please pray for children who grow up in this unhealthy environment—there aren’t enough toilets (most are communal pay toilets) or clean water sources (ten families share a single water tap). Pray for children living in this densely populated slum where sewage flows through open channels; diarrhea, malaria, tuberculosis, asthma, and premature tooth decay are common sicknesses affecting children; education is unreachable or expensive for many; and where daylight struggles to reach through the tightly packed shanties.
• Pray God will be at work in the hearts of those with the authority and power to make a difference for Dharavi’s children and people. Pray God will give wisdom to those government leaders who struggle to understand and deal with the complicated informal city that is Dharavi slum. A government movement to raze the slum and sell the high-value property on which it sits has Dharavi residents and leaders concerned that the booming, informal economy of the slum would be destroyed and poor people would be pushed into new slums out of Mumbai.

UNITED STATES - Keep in prayer the students, teachers, and staff at Creedmoor Elementary School, a rural Texas school at which the majority of students are considered economically disadvantaged. Pray God will provide for each child in this school … that they will have sufficient food, school clothes and supplies, and constructive parental involvement. Pray God will support and sustain Creedmoor’s teachers for this challenging work. Pray God will help each of them be a shining light of love, grace, and mercy in the lives of the children with whom they work.

ZAMBIA - Please pray for the children of Zambia who are lured, forced by circumstance, or coerced into commercial sexual exploitation. Pray for those who are sexually abused either through prostitution, trafficking, child sex tourism, child marriage, or child pornography. Pray God will bring them freedom from this abuse and healing to their bodies, minds, and hearts.
A report from Women's eNews
• Pray that those with the power to provide protection to children from commercial sexual exploitation or sexual abuse will recognize the damage this abuse does to children and act in the best interests of Zambia’s children. Pray God will bring transformation to Zambia’s legal systems and cultural traditions so they will protect sexually abused children. Please pray law enforcement officers won’t criminalize or arrest prostituted children, but will treat them as victims of crime.
A report from the Children In Need Network

FACES OF CHILDREN - Please keep in prayer Faces of Children prayer partner Rebecca Nicholson and her family during their season of sorrow. Rebecca’s father, Wilkie Miller, died January 11, 2012.
• Pray God will protect 11-year-old Max* and his 8-year-old sister Laura*, the niece and nephew of a Faces of Children prayer partner, from their father’s increasingly violent behavior. Pray for God’s healing presence in the lives of these children and their mother. Pray their father/husband will learn to cherish his family instead of terrorizing them.
• 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.

* Name changed for confidentiality and/or protection.

If you have prayer requests about children, those who care for them, those who have authority over them, or those who harm them (the really hard prayers to say sometimes), please send them to Chris Laufer, FOC Coordinator, at claufer@facesofchildren.net