Prayer Concerns for the week of August 19, 2013

 Namibia, Angola

·         Keep in prayer the 330,000 children and people of Namibia as they deal with the effects of their country’s worst drought in 30 years. Pray for those in neighboring Angola, between 640,000 and one million people, who are also suffering because of extreme drought.  http://tinyurl.com/lmac5p9

·         Pray for those whose crops have failed (Namibia has only one harvest a year and the next won’t be until March 2014) and for those whose livestock have died. Pray for children who have nothing to eat and risk malnutrition, disease, and death without emergency intervention.

·         Pray humanitarian assistance will reach every at-risk child before the crisis worsens. Please pray for healing rains to come to parched lands in these countries. 

Pakistan (Presbyterian Education Board - www.peb.edu.pk/  http://www.friendsofpeb.org/)

·         Please pray for young Ramna who was beaten by her abusive husband and suffered mental stress and trauma. Give God thanks Ramna, whose parents are deceased, was able to leave this man and find shelter at Sangla Hill, the Presbyterian Education Board’s home for young girls and women. Pray for Ramna’s healing and health as she recuperates from the trauma of abuse. Pray she will be able to learn how to make a living and care for herself while she is at Sangla Hill.

·         Thanks be to God for the staff and volunteers at Sangla Hill and the compassion and help they offer young women like Ramna.

Qatar, United States

·         Please be in prayer for the family of 9-year-old Gloria who died last January in Qatar. Pray for her adoptive parents, Matthew and Grace Huang, who have been arrested and accused of starving Gloria to death. The Huangs, United States citizens working in Qatar, have been held without bail for six months and face the death penalty in Qatar if convicted.  http://tinyurl.com/o59qtjo  

·         Pray for their two other adopted children who have not been allowed to leave the country to be cared for by family members while their parents are imprisoned in Qatar.

·         Pray for justice for this couple and their family. Lawyers and medical experts in the United States believe the Huangs have been wrongly accused and that the Qatari medical examiner’s report was based on shoddy evidence and poor science. http://tinyurl.com/kcb4sq3 

·         Give God thanks for the staff and volunteers with the California Innocence Project and the David House Agency as they work to free the Huangs. http://californiainnocenceproject.org/  http://davidhouseagency.com/focus/

United States

·         Give praise to God for the rescue of 105 trafficked, sexually exploited children through Operation Cross Country, a joint operation between the FBI, local law enforcement agencies, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Thanks be to God so many underage sex trafficking victims were rescued in this three-day nationwide sweep that took place across 76 cities. http://tinyurl.com/p8n3u69    http://tinyurl.com/kqgrqmv

·         Pray for these 105 victims of sexual abuse and exploitation as they begin the long, difficult process of healing and restoration. Pray they will find a safe environment in which they can receive professional counseling and assistance throughout the recovery process. Pray God’s healing peace will comfort these hurting children.   

·         Give God thanks that 150 pimps and others who profited from the commercial sexual exploitation of these trafficking victims were arrested in Operation Cross Country. Pray for justice for every child victimized by these pimps and traffickers. Pray these men and women will be held accountable for exploiting and abusing children in such horrific ways. Pray God might bring healing to these broken people.

·         Please keep in prayer the FBI agents, law enforcement officers, and the personnel of organizations that work to end the commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking of children. Pray for those who must witness the abuse of victims as they build cases against pimps and traffickers. Pray God will guard their hearts and minds as they continue this dangerous, difficult work to free exploited children.

Faces of Children

·         Pray for Faces of Children prayer partner Margaret Purvis as she recovers from hip replacement surgery. Pray God’s healing touch will be upon her as she recovers from this painful surgery.