Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Special announcement for this week's "Invitation to Prayer"

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).

Listening with a Sacred Text


"It might be helpful to offer here a concrete suggestion. One good way to listen is to listen with a sacred text: a psalm or a prayer, for instance. The Hindu spiritual writer Eknath Easwaran showed me the great value of learning a sacred text by heart and repeating it slowly in the mind, word by word, sentence by sentence. In this way, listening to the voice of love becomes not just a passive waiting, but an active attentiveness to the voice that speaks to us through the words of the Scriptures.

I spent many of my half-hours of prayer doing nothing but slowly repeating the prayer of St. Francis: ‘Lord make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred let me sow love….’ As I let these words move from my mind to my heart, I began to experience, beyond all my restless emotions and feelings, the peace and love I was asking for in words.

In this way I also had a way to deal with my endless distractions. When I found myself wandering away far and wide, I could always return to my simple prayer and thereby listen again in my heart to the voice I so much wanted to hear.”

Life of the Beloved by Henri J. M. Nouwen


A message from Chris Laufer, Coordinator, Faces of Children

Greetings, Faces of Children Prayer Partner,

The Midland Faces of Children prayer group will not meet on Wednesday, November 26, 2014 as our offices will be closed that day for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Thank you for your faithfulness in prayer for the littlest citizens of God’s Kingdom! If you have prayer concerns or celebrations 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 me at at claufer@facesofchildren.net, or give me a call.

Grace and peace,

Chris



Prayer Concerns for the Week of 11/24/14

Bangladesh

Please keep in prayer girls at risk of being forced into marriage at a young age in Bangladesh. This South Asian country has the second highest rate of child marriage in the world.
more on this request ...
Pray the Bangladeshi government will reconsider new legislation that proposes to lower the minimum age of marriage for a girl from 18 to 16 years. Please pray their government leaders will instead reinforce a largely ignored 30-year-old law that bans marriage for girls under age 18.
Pray for girls who are forced into marriage before their bodies are mature enough to engage in sex or safely carry a pregnancy to term. Pray for child brides who are denied the opportunity to attend school, who are isolated from society, and for those who are forced into a lifetime of economic dependence.
Please pray for the estimated 74 percent of Bangladeshi women, currently aged 20 to 49, who were married off before they were 18 years of age. Pray for those who have experienced rape, domestic violence, and forced pregnancies because they were coerced into marriage at a young age.
Pray the practice of forced child marriages will end…that the social acceptance of this form of child abuse will stop.

Syria

Keep close in prayer an estimated 150 children who were kidnapped and tortured by Islamic State militants (IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL) in Syria. The children, most from a Kurdish town on the Syrian border with Turkey, were kidnapped last May as they returned home from taking school exams in Aleppo.
more on this request ...
Pray for children who were forced to watch videos of Islamic State militants in combat and beheading captives. Pray for those who were beaten with cables when they didn’t conform to the strict religious indoctrination and training forced on them by these radical Islamist militants.
Pray for children who were singled out by the militants because of their connections to the Kurdish militia. Children with family members in the Kurdish militia were forced to give IS the addresses of those relatives and were then told these Kurdish militia members would be hunted down and killed.
Give God thanks for the release of these young hostages. The last of them were released late last month when they were told their religious education was now over. Pray they will find safe shelter and be reunited with their families. Pray God will provide them with the resources they need to heal from long months of trauma and torture. Pray for their physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental healing.
Pray for the freedom of those still held by IS militants and for an end to the brutality IS dispenses so ruthlessly.
Pray for peace in this troubled region.

United States

Please pray God will bring healing and peace to 26-year-old Paige who has been given a terminal cancer diagnosis. Pray this young mother and her husband Kevin will experience God’s comforting presence through the love and support of their community. Pray for their 2-year-old daughter Olivia during this season of confusion and sickness. Pray God will sustain Kevin as he takes care of his little girl and his dying wife.
Give thanks to God 17-year-old Taylor* will graduate next month from her therapy program at a residential treatment facility. Taylor was diagnosed with a serious mental illness last year and has worked hard to regain her emotional and physical health as well as strengthen her resiliency. Thanks be to God for this amazing treatment program and the staff and therapy specialists who have helped Taylor during this challenging season.
     o Please pray for Taylor as she returns home next month…that she will remember all the tools she’s worked hard to acquire in her time away. Pray she will experience God’s peace that surpasses all understanding as she reenters home life.
     o Continue to keep in prayer Taylor’s siblings, 19-year-old Ernest* and 13-year-old Melissa*, as they have been deeply affected by their sister’s mental illness. Pray God will bring healing to their hearts and minds and their relationships with their sister.
     o Please continue in prayer for Taylor’s parents as they bring their daughter home. Give thanks to God for the hard work they have done in family therapy to learn how best to help Taylor and their family. Pray God will sustain them in this new chapter and continue to guide them.

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.



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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