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,
We will be meeting this Wednesday - TODAY - at 11:00 a.m., in the gym conference room at First Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas. I hope you can join us!
Also, Faces of Children is now on Facebook! I invite you to like our page so that you can see regular stories, prayer needs, and updates from partner ministries.
Warmly,
Carrie
Dear Intercessors,
Children facing the death sentence of growing up in a war zone ...
Children being sacrificed because they are believed to be demons ...
Our state's dubious ranking: worst in the nation for deaths related to child abuse ...
Our hearts can be broken in so many ways. Please join me in praying this week for children whose very lives are something to be survived.
And also please join me in praying for the Alsup family. Mr. Jim Alsup has been an integral part of Faces of Children over the years, faithfully praying for children day-in and day-out. His wife Sandy died last week.
We trust God holds his brokenhearted children near, binding up their wounds and wiping away their tears. This week we pray the Alsup family and children all around this world feel the comfort of a loving Father who never, ever lets go of our hands.
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| Reuters Photo by Bassam Khabieh |
"Syria's Eastern Ghouta has become a "death sentence" for children as heavy bombing is killing scores of young people trapped in the besieged enclave, aid agencies said on Tuesday.
Sparking an international outcry, a surge in pro-government air strikes, rocket fire and shelling has killed more than 210 people - including 54 children in the rebel pocket near Damascus since Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. "The longer the siege and bombing goes on, it is effectively a death sentence for many children," Alun McDonald, a spokesman for charity Save the Children, said by phone, "People are trapped and thousands of lives are at risk not being able to leave, without medical evacuations, and lack of food and medicine."
Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have been besieging almost 400,000 civilians - half of them children - trapped inside Eastern Ghouta for years, but the siege has tightened this year and attacks on the enclave have intensified. Siege tactics and indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas contravene the internationally-agreed "rules of war". Monday saw the heaviest one-day toll in three years, with 127 people killed, the British-based Observatory said. McDonald said more than 100 children in Eastern Ghouta need evacuation for life-saving medical treatment that is not available for conditions including cancer and kidney disease.
The United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) estimates that about 12 percent of children under the age of five in Eastern Ghouta are acutely malnourished, the highest rate anywhere in Syria since the seven-year war began." Read more here ...
There are no words to describe the situation the people of Ghouta are facing... and experts agree the toll is heaviest on children. Please pray for the children living in this war zone, and children in other war zones around the world. Surely their hearts and lives are shattered ... Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
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| Photo by Frans Lemmens/Alamy |
In 1996 Chinwe Olusola heard that a child would be offered as a sacrifice to trigger good harvest in that planting season. "I pleaded with them not to kill her and they allowed me to take her," she says. "As more babies kept coming, it got to the point that my two-bedroom flat could not take us all. At that point we also had very limited support from individuals. The responsibility of caring for the babies became overwhelming and I resigned from my lecturing job at the University of Abuja."
The couple say that the killing of babies, usually twins, is still practised by a few groups within the Bassa Komo tribe. The tribespeople believe, according to Margret Ekesua, a missionary with Nigerian Pentecostal church Assemblies of God, that twins are "demons who suck their blood at night" and "predestined to kill either parent or both."
The foundation's efforts in persuading people to betray their communities and tip off missionaries when babies are at risk are the most difficult aspect of the rescue. "Through our locally trained informants and converts, we get information that a nursing mother has died or that a set of twins have been delivered. We trace the village and initiate negotiations with village leaders for the release of the child. We assure them that the children will return to them educated when the communities begin to accept them," says Olusola. Read more here ...
Please pray for missionaries working to save these babies. Pray for the indigenous cultures to change and grow in understanding that these innocent babies hold no threat.
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| Dallas Morning News Photo |
In 2016, 4-year-old Leiliana Wright was brutally beaten to death while in her mother's care even after social workers had been warned the Grand Prairie girl was in danger. Her story led to outrage and scrutiny of the state's child welfare system, but she was far from the only child to die in such a way. A report released this month by the Department of Health and Human Services shows that Leiliana was just one of 217 Texas children killed by child abuse that year - a 34 percent increase from 2015. Texas reported more child fatalities than any other state in 2016, a sobering distinction it is has held since 2012, according to the report. Read more here ...
As our state grapples with fixing its broken foster care system, please pray for children who are caught in the middle... whose entire childhoods are spent shuffled from one painful situation to another. Pray for the children who are removed from dangerous situations only to be placed in another dangerous situation, and for the children who fall through the cracks and aren't removed. Being the worst state for fatal child abuse is a sobering statistic. Father, help us find our way.
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| Photo by AFP/Getty Images |
"In January, we [Marriott Hotels] made human trafficking training mandatory for all associates, and developed training tailored to the specific roles on our properties. Over 225,000 of our associates completed the training this past year, and we're on our way to our goal of 100%. The objective of the program is simple. We want the associates in our hotels to be aware of the scale of human trafficking, our commitment to stopping it, to learn the many indicators or unusual behaviors of traffickers, and to report suspicions to management, who in turn, alert local authorities. To make the training program more readily available, we teamed up with the American Hotel & Lodging Association to make it accessible to all of its members. The training was translated into 15 languages, so it can be used more effectively worldwide." Read more here ...
Praise God for the commitment this hotel chain has made to fighting trafficking. Praise God for the children and victims already discovered and rescued due to their efforts, and pray for more to be found as a direct result of this program.
Praying with you,
Carrie
Carrie J. McKean
Faces of Children Director
First Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas
(432) 684-7821 x153
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 info@facesofchildren.net
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