Bangladesh
·
Please keep in
prayer girls at risk of being forced into marriage at a young age in
Bangladesh. This South Asian country has the second highest rate of child
marriage in the world. http://tinyurl.com/l6qruue
·
Pray the
Bangladeshi government will reconsider new legislation that proposes to lower
the minimum age of marriage for a girl from 18 to 16 years. Please pray their
government leaders will instead reinforce a largely ignored 30-year-old law
that bans marriage for girls under age 18.
·
Pray for girls
who are forced into marriage before their bodies are mature enough to engage in
sex or safely carry a pregnancy to term. Pray for child brides who are denied
the opportunity to attend school, who are isolated from society, and for those
who are forced into a lifetime of economic dependence.
·
Please pray for
the estimated 74 percent of Bangladeshi women, currently aged 20 to 49, who
were married off before they were 18 years of age. Pray for those who have
experienced rape, domestic violence, and forced pregnancies because they were coerced
into marriage at a young age.
·
Pray the practice
of forced child marriages will end…that the social acceptance of this form of
child abuse will stop.
Syria
·
Keep close in
prayer an estimated 150 children who were kidnapped and tortured by Islamic
State militants (IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL) in Syria. The children, most
from a Kurdish town on the Syrian border with Turkey, were kidnapped last May
as they returned home from taking school exams in Aleppo. http://tinyurl.com/qythj2s
·
Pray for children
who were forced to watch videos of Islamic State militants in combat and
beheading captives. Pray for those who were beaten with cables when they didn’t
conform to the strict religious indoctrination and training forced on them by
these radical Islamist militants.
·
Pray for children
who were singled out by the militants because of their connections to the
Kurdish militia. Children with family members in the Kurdish militia were
forced to give IS the addresses of those relatives and were then told these
Kurdish militia members would be hunted down and killed.
·
Give God thanks
for the release of these young hostages. The last of them were released late
last month when they were told their religious education was now over. Pray
they will find safe shelter and be reunited with their families. Pray God will
provide them with the resources they need to heal from long months of trauma
and torture. Pray for their physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental healing.
·
Pray for the
freedom of those still held by IS militants and for an end to the brutality IS
dispenses so ruthlessly.
·
Pray for peace in
this troubled region.
United States
·
Please pray God
will bring healing and peace to 26-year-old Paige who has been given a terminal
cancer diagnosis. Pray this young mother and her husband Kevin will experience
God’s comforting presence through the love and support of their community. Pray
for their 2-year-old daughter Olivia during this season of confusion and
sickness. Pray God will sustain Kevin as he takes care of his little girl and his
dying wife.
·
Give thanks to
God 17-year-old Taylor* will graduate next month from her therapy program at a
residential treatment facility. Taylor was diagnosed with a serious mental
illness last year and has worked hard to regain her emotional and physical
health as well as strengthen her resiliency. Thanks be to God for this amazing
treatment program and the staff and therapy specialists who have helped Taylor during
this challenging season.
o
Please pray for
Taylor as she returns home next month…that she will remember all the tools she’s
worked hard to acquire in her time away. Pray she will experience God’s peace
that surpasses all understanding as she reenters home life.
o
Continue to keep in
prayer Taylor’s siblings, 19-year-old Ernest* and 13-year-old Melissa*, as they
have been deeply affected by their sister’s mental illness. Pray God will bring
healing to their hearts and minds and their relationships with their sister.
o
Please continue
in prayer for Taylor’s parents as they bring their daughter home. Give thanks
to God for the hard work they have done in family therapy to learn how best to
help Taylor and their family. Pray God will sustain them in this new chapter
and continue to guide them.
*Name changed for protection and/or confidentiality.
