China, North Korea
Crossing Borders, a faith
based, nonprofit organization, provides North Korean refugees who cross the
border into China with food and medical assistance. The organization has
several group homes for North Korean children who’ve been abandoned by their parents.
Recently, the Chinese government has increased pressure on foreigners and
others who help North Korean refugees. Crossing Borders staff and volunteers
risk arrest or deportation for their support of refugees from North Korea. http://crossingbordersnk.org/wp/
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Pray for
11-year-old Juhee* whose mother was arrested in China four years ago and sent
back to a North Korean prison camp. Her mother had been trafficked into China
and sold to Juhee’s father. Pray God will provide for Juhee who lives in
extreme poverty with her father. Give God thanks Juhee is able to go to a local
private school because of help from the Crossing Borders program Second Wave.
Pray for Juhee’s mother whose status is unknown. *Name changed for confidentiality and/or protection.
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Pray for the
children in Crossing Borders’ group homes and other programs. Pray for their
physical, emotional, and spiritual healing from the traumas they’ve experienced
in their young lives.
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Give thanks for
the Crossing Borders staff and volunteers and their willingness to witness
Jesus’ love to abandoned, orphaned, and neglected North Korean children. Pray
for their protection and safety.
Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, North
Africa
More than three million
Syrians, almost half the country’s population, have been forced to flee their
homes because of Syria’s civil war and attacks by the Islamic State militant
group (formerly ISIS). Over half of those who’ve fled are children. The
majority of Syrian refugees, almost 1.2 million, have escaped to Lebanon, but Turkey
is host to more than 800,000 refugees, and Jordan, over 600,000. Others have
fled to Iraq, Egypt, and North Africa. Of these Syrian refugee households, one
in four is headed by women who struggle to provide food and shelter for their
families. In Lebanon, an estimated 50,000 Syrian refugee children are working
long hours every day as street vendors, in coffee shops or markets, on farms or
construction sites, or as street beggars in order to help their families. In
Syria, there are an estimated six and a half million IDPs (internally displaced
people) struggling to survive. The numbers are bleak regarding those who haven’t
survived this three-year civil war—more than 191,000 people have been killed
with at least 8,800 of those being children. http://tinyurl.com/lsoxyck http://tinyurl.com/kxcoggz http://tinyurl.com/obfed5w http://tinyurl.com/nnkra92
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Please continue
to keep in prayer the children, youth, and adults affected by this devastating conflict
in Syria.
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Pray for those who’ve
fled the violence and lost their homes and livelihoods. Pray for families
who’ve spent a year or more traveling throughout Syria to reach safety in
refugee camps in neighboring countries. Pray for children who arrive in the
camps exhausted and frightened by their long ordeal.
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Pray for Syrian
refugee women who are caring for their families in insecure shelters or
overcrowded homes. Pray God will provide for their immediate and deepest needs
as they try to make ends meet.
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Pray for the
safety and health of Syrian refugee children who labor in dangerous jobs for long
hours. Pray they may be freed from this heavy responsibility of providing for
their families so they can pursue an education.
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Keep in prayer
children who have lost family members…children who are traumatized by their
experiences…and children who have been physically injured in this violent
conflict.
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Please pray
humanitarian aid organizations will secure the resources needed to help the
millions of Syrian refugees and IDPs. Pray for raised awareness throughout the
world about this enormous humanitarian emergency.
Faces of Children
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Please keep Lori,
the sister of Faces of Children prayer partner Donna Preston, in prayer as she
is treated for severe complications from hernia surgery. Lori has experienced
four surgeries in less than three weeks and is now in an induced coma. Pray for
God’s healing touch to be upon Lori during this difficult time. Pray she will
regain her strength and make a full recovery. Pray for her family and loved
ones as they care for her.
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Give praise to
God that 16-year-old Clare, the granddaughter of a Faces of Children intercessor,
is doing well and making friends at the public high school she is attending.
Please pray for God’s continued healing mercies on this precious young woman
who recently graduated from a residential treatment facility where she had been
for several years. Pray for her parents and siblings as they adjust to having
Clare back home.
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Please pray for
Faces of Children prayer partner Margaret as she undergoes knee surgery this
week. Pray for her complete healing from this surgery. Pray for her husband and
family as they help care for her during the recovery process.