Wednesday, June 13, 2018

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



Dear Intercessors,

Whew! What a week! VBS is over and I think all the adults are still recovering. The children had a great week... lots of laughter, lots of fun, lots of learning about the love Jesus has for each of them. In our station, we kicked off our summertime campaign to raise money to rebuild a school in Syria with our friends at Partners Relief and Development. We have a lofty goal of $10,000 for the whole summer, and I'm pleased to announce our kids have already brought $3,000! I think we'll see them reach their goal by the end of the summer.


But more important than the money they raise is the impact on their hearts... there were so many little moments when the children really seemed to "get it." They wrote notes to the kids who will someday attend the school welcoming them back. They prayed for the kids. They learned about how Arabic is written and read from right to left instead of left to right and one little girl signed her note "ecarG ,evoL." (Love, Grace - written from right to left.)


In addition to these short lessons, we also had a big pile of "rubble" (recycled materials and assorted art supplies) available for the children's creations. We talked about how God is always making beautiful things out of the rubble in our lives and in this world, and how we can do the same... and then each day the kids spent part of their time in our station transforming old cans and bottles and toilet paper rolls into robots and clown cars and pirate swords and whatever else their imagination could imagine. (Thanks to everyone who contributed materials. The children couldn't get enough of this activity!)


As children so often do, they demonstrated how their hearts are always willing to expand and make more room; to make more space for loving people who maybe - on the surface - don't seem to have all that much in common with them.


Thank you for your prayers and your support and your encouragement these last few weeks as we prepared. I'm so proud of our children and eager to see their faith and confidence grow as they watch how God always shows up and takes what we offer and multiples it into more than enough for His children. I think they are going to be in for an exciting faith journey this summer!

/////

Even as my heart is full and thankful for all the joy and fun and learning VBS held this week, it is heavy and sad for children in our own state caught in the latest immigration chaos. Reports abound of children being separated from their parents ...

big shelters for children where observers aren't being allowed entry
one father in ICE custody who took his own life after being separated from his family
one teenager who was deported and then killed in Mexico
immigrant parents who are frantically trying to navigate a court system to find their children
mass immigration raids that reportedly left some children stranded at day-cares and babysitters

... there is so much chaos - including reports of different policies at different parts of the border - and undoubtedly so much misinformation and confusing reports coming out of all sides of the media.

But underneath all the uncertainty, it seems the one thing everyone agrees on is that the policy of separating children from their parents in an attempt to dissuade people from crossing the border is in effect. And from all we know about children and the importance of felt safety, we can also know these children are terrified and at risk for long-term effects from this scary separation. Please join me this week in praying for reasonable and compassionate immigration officers who encounter these families, for just policies that put children first, and for our policy-makers and leaders to find ways to sort out the immigration problems our nation faces without traumatizing children.

Also this week ...

Please pray for the surviving families in the affected radius of Guatemala's Fuego volcano.

Please pray for the Rohingya and the Kachin who are both continuing to experience violence in Myanmar.

Please pray for the children in Syria who will someday be the recipient of the relief our children are working to provide; and continue to pray for our children as they work towards their goal!

I'm sure there are so many areas of prayer needs I haven't mentioned and haven't even heard of... I'm always grateful God never fails to see a single one.

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

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