Afghanistan, Pakistan (Central Asia Institute – https://www.ikat.org/)
- Give thanks to God for the work of the Central Asia Institute in helping remote communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan build and staff schools for their children, including girls. Since 2007 the Taliban has destroyed or closed more than 200 schools in Pakistan and 500 in Afghanistan. Pray for the children who are denied education.
- Thanks be to God for the strong community support of the CAI schools—only one has been attacked. The local militia drove the Taliban out, reopened the school, and posted armed guards to protect the children.
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/family
/real/education-for-girls?click=main_sr
Cambodia (Rapha House – http://www.freedomforgirls.com
/RaphaHouse/NEWhome.htm)
- Please ask God to encourage and sustain 17-year-old Sophea* who was trafficked into prostitution by a boyfriend’s mother at the age of 14. At the brothel, Sophea was given drugs to control her.
- Thanks be to God she was able to escape and find and a safe place to stay. Sophea returned to prostitution for a while, yet came back to the safehouse a couple of weeks ago.
- Give praise to God that Sophea, in a very significant act, burned the clothes she wore as a prostitute and also changed her name. She wanted a new name for her new life. Pray that Sophea will continue to heal. Pray she will recognize and embrace the love of Jesus—a man who will never betray or use her as a commodity.
United States
- Give thanks to God for answered prayers concerning 6-year-old Diana*! This precious little girl has been exposed to so much in her young life, but is beginning to disclose to her foster parents the kind of abuse she suffered while in her mother’s care. In what is short of a miracle, four weeks’ worth of phone calls to the department of children and family services and a child abuse treatment specialist to inquire about an evaluation for Diana were accomplished in just a few short hours—everyone called was available and willing to pursue the evaluation.
- Please pray that Diana will be able to have an evaluation very soon so she can begin treatment for the trauma she has endured. Continue to pray for her healing.
- Pray that Diana will be placed in a loving and caring forever-home with her 1-year-old brother.
- Please keep in prayer the agents who work on the FBI’s Innocence Lost national initiative that addresses the growing problem of domestic sex trafficking of children in the U.S.
- Pray for those who must interview the children involved—an agent said this is one of the hardest things he has to do. Pray for children who are traumatized again when they are interviewed about the abuse.
- Pray for all children enslaved in commercial sexual exploitation, not only in the U.S., but around the world. Pray that God would set the captives free and heal their deep emotional and physical wounds. http://www.fbi.gov/innolost/innolost.htm http://www.fbi.gov/innolost/case_sum.htm
- Thanks be to God for the staff and volunteers of the GEMS (Girls Educational and Mentoring Services) program in New York who work to end commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking of children. This contemporary form of slavery “consists of practices that are demeaning, degrading and many times life-threatening to children. The child is treated as a commercial and sexual object.”
http://www.gems-girls.org/index.html
Pray for the estimated 200,000 to 300,000 adolescents who are sexually exploited each year in the United States. http://www.gems-girls.org/resources.html#AdditionalResources - Pray for the GEMS leadership, staff, and volunteers as they work with deeply traumatized girls and young women. Pray for the children and women enrolled in the GEMS program—for healing and restoration, for a life of dignity and hope.
- Pray for those who keep the commercial sex industry thriving with their insatiable appetites for the bodies of children and adults. Pray for the healing of those with pornography and/or sexual addictions.
- Pray for those who enslave, exploit, and profit from the sale of children and adults in the commercial sex trade. Pray for the redemption of these abusers.
- Pray for a shift in cultural perception about children, women, and men who are prostituted—who are commercially sexually exploited.
*Name changed for confidentiality and/or protection.
