Prayer Concerns for the week of April 1, 2013
Kenya
- Give God thanks for the work of the staff and volunteers with I Can Fly International (ICFI), a non-profit organization that serves children and women in some of the poorest rural communities of the Machakos District of Kenya. Thanks be to God for the life changing opportunities available to children and women through ICFI’s education, life skills, and healthcare programs. http://www.shagivens.com/
- Pray for ICFI staff and volunteers as they launch the Butterfly Project, a new program that provides at-risk girls ages 13 to 17 years old free education, housing, and enrichment activities. Pray God will guide the project’s leaders as they determine which 100 girls will be invited to participate in this program. Participants are potential victims of child marriage or female genital mutilation, live in extreme poverty, or are orphaned by HIV/AIDS.
Pakistan
- Please pray for the 170 families affected by a recent assault against a Christian minority neighborhood in Lahore, Pakistan. Pray for children and families who lost everything when their homes in the Joseph Colony were set on fire by a mob of protestors. On March 9 an estimated crowd of 3,000 people rampaged through the Christian colony protesting alleged blasphemous remarks against the Prophet Mohammed by a Christian.
- Pray for Presbyterian Education Board (PEB) support staff member Anthony and his family who lost their home in Joseph Colony during this attack. More than 160 homes were destroyed in fires set by protestors.
- Give God thanks for the arrests made in this case and pray for justice for the families affected by this violence. Pray families may be able to rebuild their homes and live in peace with their Muslim neighbors.
- Please keep in prayer all Christian children and families in Pakistan as they often experience the threat of violence from false accusations of blasphemy.
- Pray for an end to violence and hatred in the name of religion. Please pray for peace and reconciliation throughout Pakistan. http://tinyurl.com/cuouzd8 http://tinyurl.com/bj2tz9v
South Sudan
- Keep in prayer girls in South Sudan who are married off at a very young age, some as young as 12 years old. Pray for the estimated 48 percent of South Sudanese girls (between ages 15 and 19) who are married.
- Pray for girls whose education has been interrupted or denied because of an early marriage. Pray for those who aren’t able to seek employment opportunities because of early marriage.
- Pray for girls who are at risk of domestic abuse and violence from much older husbands. And pray for girls who refuse early marriage and are at risk of verbal abuse or physical violence, including murder, from their parents or other relatives. Please pray God will protect girls who resist early marriage or try to leave abusive marriages.
- Pray for girls whose health is damaged by bearing children before they are physically or emotionally ready. Girls younger than 15 years of age are at tremendous risk of dying during childbirth.
- Pray God will bring healing to girls who contract sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, from their much older husbands.
- Pray all girls are given the choice to marry when, and only when they are able and willing to consent freely. Pray the cycle of poverty created by marrying girls off when they are too young will be broken through education, public awareness, and government support. http://tinyurl.com/bsx9223
United States
· Please pray for Pastor Willie Cockroft and his wife the Rev. Jini Kilgore Cockroft as they reach out to an impoverished community in South Los Angeles, California through HighWay Ministries and HighWay House. Give thanks to God for the compassion and dedication of this couple, the staff, and the volunteers with this ministry in a neighborhood that struggles with issues of poverty, substance abuse, homelessness, and, often, hopelessness. Pray for the children, youth, women, and men who are served by this ministry. Pray God will provide the resources needed to continue the work of HighWay Ministries in South Los Angeles. http://hwmin.org/