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 07/31/14
China, North Korea
Crossing Borders, a faith based, nonprofit organization, provides North Korean refugees who cross the border into China with food and medical assistance. The organization has several group homes for North Korean children who’ve been abandoned by their parents. Recently, the Chinese government has increased pressure on foreigners and others who help North Korean refugees. Crossing Borders staff and volunteers risk arrest or deportation for their support of refugees from North Korea.
• more on this issue / Crossing Borders website
• Pray for 11-year-old Juhee * whose mother was arrested in China four years ago and sent back to a North Korean prison camp. Her mother had been trafficked into China and sold to Juhee’s father. Pray God will provide for Juhee who lives in extreme poverty with her father. Give God thanks Juhee is able to go to a local private school because of help from the Crossing Borders program Second Wave. Pray for Juhee’s mother whose status is unknown. *Name changed for confidentiality and/or protection.
• Pray for the children in Crossing Borders’ group homes and other programs. Pray for their physical, emotional, and spiritual healing from the traumas they’ve experienced in their young lives.
• Give thanks for the Crossing Borders staff and volunteers and their willingness to witness Jesus’ love to abandoned, orphaned, and neglected North Korean children. Pray for their protection and safety.
* Name changed for confidentiality and/or protection
Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, North Africa
More than three million Syrians, almost half the country’s population, have been forced to flee their homes because of Syria’s civil war and attacks by the Islamic State militant group (formerly ISIS). Over half of those who’ve fled are children. The majority of Syrian refugees, almost 1.2 million, have escaped to Lebanon, but Turkey is host to more than 800,000 refugees, and Jordan, over 600,000. Others have fled to Iraq, Egypt, and North Africa. Of these Syrian refugee households, one in four is headed by women who struggle to provide food and shelter for their families. In Lebanon, an estimated 50,000 Syrian refugee children are working long hours every day as street vendors, in coffee shops or markets, on farms or construction sites, or as street beggars in order to help their families. In Syria, there are an estimated six and a half million IDPs (internally displaced people) struggling to survive. The numbers are bleak regarding those who haven’t survived this three-year civil war—more than 191,000 people have been killed with at least 8,800 of those being children.
• Please continue to keep in prayer the children, youth, and adults affected by this devastating conflict in Syria.
• Pray for those who’ve fled the violence and lost their homes and livelihoods. Pray for families who’ve spent a year or more traveling throughout Syria to reach safety in refugee camps in neighboring countries. Pray for children who arrive in the camps exhausted and frightened by their long ordeal.
• Pray for Syrian refugee women who are caring for their families in insecure shelters or overcrowded homes. Pray God will provide for their immediate and deepest needs as they try to make ends meet.
• Pray for the safety and health of Syrian refugee children who labor in dangerous jobs for long hours. Pray they may be freed from this heavy responsibility of providing for their families so they can pursue an education.
• Keep in prayer children who have lost family members…children who are traumatized by their experiences…and children who have been physically injured in this violent conflict.
• Please pray humanitarian aid organizations will secure the resources needed to help the millions of Syrian refugees and IDPs. Pray for raised awareness throughout the world about this enormous humanitarian emergency.
Faces of Children
• Please keep Lori, the sister of Faces of Children prayer partner Donna Preston, in prayer as she is treated for severe complications from hernia surgery. Lori has experienced four surgeries in less than three weeks and is now in an induced coma. Pray for God’s healing touch to be upon Lori during this difficult time. Pray she will regain her strength and make a full recovery. Pray for her family and loved ones as they care for her.
• Give praise to God that 16-year-old Clare, the granddaughter of a Faces of Children intercessor, is doing well and making friends at the public high school she is attending. Please pray for God’s continued healing mercies on this precious young woman who recently graduated from a residential treatment facility where she had been for several years. Pray for her parents and siblings as they adjust to having Clare back home.
• Please pray for Faces of Children prayer partner Margaret as she undergoes knee surgery this week. Pray for her complete healing from this surgery. Pray for her husband and family as they help care for her during the recovery process.
• 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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