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 to pray together for children in our community and around the world!
Warmly,
Carrie
I heard a friend say that Easter feels like a deep exhale after you've been holding your breath. I love that image. First comes the pain and the suffering and the darkness... then the waiting... then the Resurrection! A deep exhale.
As my children hunted Easter eggs yesterday, I watched them scramble around our friend's yard looking for little glimpses of bright pink, yellow, or purple hidden among the bushes and the flowers. Some of the eggs were scattered around the ground -- obvious and easy to find... but so many more were tucked in unexpected places. And those were the ones that gave them the greatest joy to discover!
As I watched them, I thought about how this is a picture of this Resurrected Life we are living. Life is full of this Holy Week cycle of pain, waiting, and Resurrection. And though we each long for the day when all we see around us are the resurrection stories, it isn't yet complete. But that doesn't mean we have to keep holding our breath. Instead, while we wait for our Savior's return, we can find little glimpses of hope hidden among the sorrowful and scary headlines. A deep exhale while we wait and trust and hope with expectant hearts for the day when ALL things are redeemed, all things are made new, all things are restored.
This week I read a story about the pain of Rohingya refugees who are heading back out to sea because they feel like they can wait no longer for relief from their despair. I felt the angst of their pain and waiting knot up my stomach... a small taste of what these mothers and fathers must feel.
And I felt my heart swell with gratitude, a deep exhale, when I read about the work of an American charity who is providing prosthetic devices to Tanzanian children with albinism who were attacked for their body parts, in high demand among witchcraft practitioners in the country. Resurrection on a personal level - restoring hope and dignity.
Happy Eastertide! May these next few weeks find you searching for little glimpses of Resurrection with all the eagerness, enthusiasm, and expectant certainty that good things WILL be found, just like we see in children hunting Easter Eggs.
You can read more about each of these stories below... and join me in praying for all the children of this beautiful and broken world.
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| Reuters Photo by Navesh Chitrakar |
SOUTHEAST ASIA // First boat of the season of Rohingya refugees spotted
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Monday it was concerned about the safety of 56 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar on a boat bound for Malaysia in stormy seas. Some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled from their homes in Myanmar's Rakhine State into Bangladesh after militant attacks in August sparked a military crackdown that the United Nations and Western countries have said constitutes ethnic cleansing. Myanmar rejects that saying its forces have been waging a legitimate campaign against "terrorists" who attacked government forces. The boat, which a UNHCR spokesman said was believed to have set sail from Rakhine State last week, stopped at an island in southern Thailand on Saturday evening after a storm. It was the first Rohingya vessel, plying a route refugees have used for years to get to Southeast Asia, to be spotted off Thailand in more than a year. There are signs that overcrowding in Bangladeshi camps could prompt many others to make similarly perilous voyages. "Given the poor weather conditions currently prevailing in the waters off the west coast of the Thailand-Malaysia border, we are concerned for the safety of the refugees," said Caroline Gluck, a UNHCR spokeswoman based in southeast Bangladesh. Read more here ...
Many of us remember the images of boats full of people adrift in the sea off the coast of Thailand and Malaysia from a couple years ago. Some of those boats floated for weeks with few supplies. Please pray for the people who feel like a rickety vessel on water provides more promises of safety than staying on dry land. It is a deep desperation that would cause a mother to choose for her children stormy seas over solid ground.
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| Reuters Photo by Carlo Allegri |
TANZANIA //Attacked for body parts, Tanzanian albino children get new limbs in US
Rutema is one of four Tanzanian children with albinism visiting the United States to get prosthetic limbs to replace those hacked off in brutal superstition-driven attacks in their East African homeland. At Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia on Tuesday three of them got the new limbs that will help them do everyday tasks most people take for granted. "When they come here, they have lost so much. They have lost part of their youth and part of their dignity," Montanti told the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the Philadelphia hospital. "We put them back together. When they go back, they have a stronger sense of empowerment. I see such a difference." Read/watch more here ...
Praise God for these doctors and this organization that is investing in the lives of these children, helping them to literally rebuild their bodies. Please pray for the lives of other children with albinism to be protected, and for these superstitious practices to end.
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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