Invitation to Prayer from Faces of Children ... TODAY

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 11:30 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!

REMINDER: We have moved our meeting time back to 11:30! Hope that enables some of you to rejoin us!

Warmly,

Carrie

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Dear Intercessors,

So often we pray and don't get to see or know the answers. I'm so excited to share a wonderful story with you this weekend about my Memorial Day weekend. We celebrated a dear friend's high school graduation, but the story of how we got to today is a miracle-filled journey that testifies to God's goodness. It starts in a small orphanage in China over 10 years ago and ended on top of the world in Dallas this weekend... but truthfully, I think the good part is just getting started.

Courtesy Photo

It's a little long for this email, so I thought I'd just link it here. I hope you'll take some time to read the whole story and look at the pictures. I think it will uplift and encourage you as much as it has me!

This week, I'd like to invite you to join me in praying for our VBS and Adventures with Christ, which both happen next week! We'll be kicking off our summertime project to help fund the rebuilding of a school in Syria!

I'd also like to invite you to join me in praying for the following matters. Both of these stories are so complex and fraught with controversy that I hesitate to offer any commentary. So I'm only going to ask that you join me in prayerfully considering how God would have us respond, first in prayer, and then perhaps in tangible actions:

Photo by Zein al-Rifai/AFP/Getty Images

NATIONAL // The group least likely to think the U.S. has a responsibility to accept refugees? Evangelicals.

"Pew's new research includes a fascinating detail: No group agrees less with the idea that the United States has a responsibility to accept refugees than white evangelical Protestants."
• Read the full article here in the Washington Post ...

Photo by Hans-Maximo Musielik/AP

NATIONAL // The U.S. lost track of 1,475 immigrant children last year. Here's why people are outraged now.

"Did the United States really lose track of 1,475 immigrant kids? In short, yes. During a Senate committee hearing late last month, Steven Wagner, an official with the Department of Health and Human Services, testified that the federal agency had lost track of 1,475 children who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border on their own (that is, unaccompanied by adults) and subsequently were placed with adult sponsors in the United States. As the Associated Press reported, the number was based on a survey of more than 7,000 children:

From October to December 2017, HHS called 7,635 children the agency had placed with sponsors, and found 6,075 of the children were still living with their sponsors, 28 had run away, five had been deported and 52 were living with someone else. The rest were missing, said Steven Wagner, acting assistant secretary at HHS.

Health and Human Services officials have argued it is not the department's legal responsibility to find those children after they are released from the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which falls under HHS's Administration for Children and Families. And some have pointed out that adult sponsors are sometimes relatives who already were living in the United States and who intentionally may not be responding to contact attempts by HHS. However, neither of those arguments has done much to quell outrage surrounding the testimony by Wagner, a principal deputy at HHS who oversees the Administration for Children and Families."
• Read the full article in the Washington Post ...

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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

Praying with you,

Carrie

Carrie J. McKean
Faces of Children Director
First Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas
(432) 684-7821 x153