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 07/17/14
India
Sixty-three children were rescued last May at a Delhi railway station in one of the year’s largest joint rescue operations between anti-trafficking and railway police, and child rights groups. The children were mostly from the northern Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and were between 7 and 17 years of age. Thousands of children from rural areas are taken to India’s larger cities every year by trafficking gangs who sell them into bonded labor or hire them out to dishonest employers. Trafficked children often go missing—their families are unable to find or track them down.
Traffickers convinced parents their children would send money home from factory jobs. They also tricked children into thinking they would be given large amounts of money, have a much better life, or receive an education if they went with the traffickers. Twenty-three alleged traffickers were arrested in this joint operation.
• Give God thanks for the rescue of so many children! Thanks be to God they were intercepted before traffickers could sell them off in cities around India. Pray all these children will be reunited with their families.
• Please pray for vulnerable children in impoverished communities where desperation and hopelessness lead parents to make the difficult decision to send their children away. Pray for community awareness and education about the ways in which traffickers can take advantage of vulnerable children.
• Pray for healing of the underlying issues that cause parents to make these desperate decisions. Pray those in authority and leadership in India will address the abject poverty that destabilizes communities and families.
• Give thanks to God for the anti-trafficking and railway police as well as for the members of the child rights groups that helped with this rescue operation. Pray for their safety as they work to help even more vulnerable children escape from human traffickers.
Italy
SLast month, more than 2,500 men, women, and children were rescued by the Italian navy from 17 overcrowded boats in the Mediterranean Sea. An estimated 25,000 migrants—including Syrians fleeing civil war and Eritreans evading military conscription—have reached Italy so far this year. A majority of migrants are from sub-Saharan Africa and travel in small, unsafe boats from North Africa to an islet between Tunisia and Sicily. After so many boats capsized last year, killing hundreds of migrants, Italy set up a search and rescue mission that patrols the waters between Italy and Africa in order to prevent further tragedies. Italy has requested help from the European Union to patrol these waters and also help with the flood of refugees overwhelming Italy’s immigration centers.
• Please pray for children, young people, and adults who risk everything by traveling in unsafe boats to escape violence, persecution, and/or poverty in their home countries.
• Pray for children who have lost loved ones when the boats on which they were traveling to Italy capsized. Pray for parents whose children have drowned during these dangerous crossings. Pray for God’s comfort and provision for those who grieve.
• Please keep in prayer migrant children and families who are awaiting processing in Italy’s immigration centers. Pray for overwhelmed bureaucrats struggling to process the tens of thousands of requests for asylum or immigration.
• Pray for Italy’s navy and coast guard members as they rescue migrants, recover bodies, and patrol this popular migrant sea route.
• Pray for those who take advantage of migrants; for those who smuggle migrants in unstable boats; and for those who charge exorbitant fees to smuggle them to Italy.
• Pray the root causes of this massive migration—the poverty and violence in migrants’ home countries—will be resolved.
Faces of Children
• Please keep close in prayer Faces of Children intercessor Karen Lang as she grieves the loss of her brother Paul Dayton. Give thanks to God for the life of Paul who died July 3, 2014. Pray God will comfort Karen and her family in this season of sorrow as they mourn not only this beloved brother, but also Karen’s mother-in-law, Louise Lang.
• 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.
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
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