Faces of Children is an ecumenical prayer ministry under the auspices of First Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas. Their mission is to initiate ministries of prayer for children in churches, communities, and neighborhoods. In doing so, they 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).
Invitation to Prayer ... TODAY
Hi Friends,
Please join us in lifting up the needs of vulnerable children around the world.
Faces Of Children will be meeting at 11:00 this Wednesday, November 28
- TODAY - for prayer. We are now meeting in the prayer closet at
First Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas. I hope you can join them to pray together for children in our community and around the world!
I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday and that it was filled with special time with friends and family. For our local-to-Midland intercessors, I'll see you in the prayer closet this Wednesday at 11:00 am for our prayer time. For our not-local-to-Midland intercessors, I thought it might be fun to hear about your prayer groups. If you still have a prayer meeting with a small group of local friends, will you send me a group picture? I'd love to share it with our local intercessors as we give thanks for you!
Warmly,
Carrie
Dear Intercessors,
This week I've scraped leftovers into a compost bucket, thrown away a bag of moldy pasta, and pulled freezer-burnt frozen vegetables out of the freezer and tossed them in the trash. Today at the store, I watched the vegetable department manager toss a blemished tomato into a trash cart piled high with wilted greens and bruised apples. In the days after Thanksgiving, I'm sure households across America are scraping half-eaten pumpkin pies and the remains of stuffing into the trash can.
And I think of something old farmers in my hometown used to say... "It's either feast or famine."
And so it is. Feasting for us. But for Yemeni children... these are the days of famine.
I know better managing my freezer and eating all my leftovers won't make a difference for Yemeni children. But I can't help think of some of the images I've seen out of Yemen these last few weeks as I stare at the piles of food in my home; the prolific availability of options in my grocery store; the extra freezer recently filled to the brim with free-to-me all natural beef procured by my father-in-law.
So many juxtapositions in this world leave me shaking my head... how do such vast differences of experience coexist on the same small planet.
This week I'd like to invite us to focus our prayers on the children of Yemen ...
• "Save the Children says that an estimated 85,000 children under the age of 5 may have died from extreme hunger or disease since the war in Yemen escalated more than three years ago. Through new analysis of United Nations data, the leading international charity found that between April 2015 and October 2018, about 84,701 children under 5 died from untreated cases of severe acute malnutrition -- or in simple terms, hunger." Current estimates suggest 5 million more children are at risk of dying from famine.
Read more ...
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| Reuters Photo by Mohamed al-Sayagh |
• Although the scale of victims is mind-boggling, the reality is each individual child is someone's beloved son or daughter. Each one leaves behind parents, many also malnourished, grieving the loss of their child and their own inability to provide what they needed to survive.
Read more ...
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| AFP/Getty Photo |
• This is a man-made famine. "Saudi Arabia is intervening on the side of the Yemeni government against Houthi rebels, who control a large part of the country. The country's internationally-recognised leadership no longer holds the capital and its opponents are backed by Saudi's regional rival, Iran." ... "The UN says by far a disproportionate number of civilian casualties are caused by Saudi coalition forces and that 22 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, as well as eight million at dangerous risk of starvation." Germany, Denmark, Netherlands and Finland join other European governments in deciding to stop selling Saudi Arabia weapons which are being used against civilians in the war. The UK and the USA have not stopped selling weapons... the very same weapons being used against civilians.
Read more ...
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Praying with you,
Carrie
Carrie J. McKean
Faces of Children Director
First Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas
(432) 684-7821 x153
Steve and Oddny Gumaer started Partners Relief and Development in response to the needs of refugees and displaced people from Burma, and now in the Middle East, as well. Their mission is to demonstrate, through holistic action, God’s love to children and communities made vulnerable by war in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and other conflict zones.
The China Aid Association is a non-profit Christian organization - based in Midland, Texas - with a mission to uncover and reveal the truth about religious persecution in China, focusing especially on the unofficial church. They do this, they explain in their website, by exposing the abuses, encouraging the abused and equipping the saints to advance the kingdom of God throughout China.
