Prayer Concerns for the Week of January 13, 2014

Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey

·         Please continue to pray for the children of Syria who are affected by violence from the ongoing civil war in their homeland. Pray government and rebel forces will stop intentionally targeting children. An estimated 11,000 children (a large proportion of whom were boys) have been killed during this three-year long conflict. Many of them were deliberately targeted by snipers, were executed, or were tortured, including some of infant age. http://tinyurl.com/n37f36r  http://tinyurl.com/oc2jwgb

·         Pray for children and women who have been raped during this conflict and are now outcasts in their families and communities. Please remember in prayer pregnant girls who are disowned by their families or whose lives are threatened with “honor killings” because they have supposedly ruined the family’s reputation. http://tinyurl.com/ldw7kj4

·         Pray for Syrian women forced into the role of breadwinner in a country where there are few jobs for females without skills or experience. Pray for mothers struggling to provide food and healthcare for their children. Over 60 percent of the hospitals in Syria have been destroyed and many doctors have left the country.

·         Pray for the 2.2 million Syrians, many of whom are unaccompanied women with children, who have fled violence in their home country. Pray for girls and women in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey where they are at great risk of sexual and/or domestic violence. Pray for vulnerable girls and women who are “married off” to men from other parts of the Arab world and then taken back to countries where they are trafficked into prostitution.

Thailand, Burma, Bangladesh, Malaysia

·         Pray for Burmese Rohingya children, youth, and adults who are allegedly sold to traffickers by Thai immigration authorities in an effort to rid these refugees from Thailand’s overcrowded immigration detention centers (IDCs).

·         Pray for Rohingya children and families who flee persecution in Burma only to be sold to human traffickers who hold them for ransom or force them to work in brutal jungle camps. Pray for the safety and health of children held in these secret, deadly camps. http://tinyurl.com/n8qtaaa

·         Pray for Rohingya children and families from Burma and Bangladesh who are considered illegal immigrants by the governments of both these countries. Continue to pray for this predominately Muslim minority who live in squalid camps or segregated communities where they have little access to medical care, education, or jobs. Pray for those who seek freedom and a better life in Malaysia and risk their lives to get there in overcrowded fishing boats and cargo ships.

United States

·         Please pray for four 7- and 8-year-old little girls who were sexually assaulted during naptimes, allegedly by a male worker at their day care center. Pray for their psychological and emotional healing from these assaults that took place four years ago. http://tinyurl.com/qcpmdg2

·         Pray for the girls’ parents as they navigate this difficult season in their daughters’ lives. Give God thanks that one of the girls told her parents what was happening and that they believed her and followed up on the situation.

·         Please keep in prayer the staff of the child care center involved in this case. The center did perform a proper background check before hiring the alleged abuser who had no criminal history. Pray for staff members who were suspicious of the alleged abuser’s behavior but never reported him…pray they will learn from this experience not to overlook any suspicious behavior.

·         Keep law enforcement officers and social service workers in prayer as they proceed with this case. Pray God will protect their hearts and minds from despair due to the difficult nature of their work and the horrific things to which they are exposed.

·         And please pray for the man accused of abusing these four young girls. Pray for the truth to be revealed during his court case and for justice for the little girls. Pray for healing in this man’s life.

·         Pray for all children in daycare centers. Please pray they are surrounded by a staff of caring, responsible, and qualified caregivers. Pray for the safety and health of children in unsuitable daycare situations.

·         Continue to pray for parents who struggle to find appropriate child care for their children. Pray for those who feel they have no alternative but to leave their children in unsafe or questionable situations because nothing else is available.