Displaying items by tag: Children

It has been six years since the world had a famine, but now UNICEF report that nearly 1.4 million children are at ‘imminent risk’ of death from famines in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. The World Food Programme says over 20 million lives are at risk in the next six months. Time is running out. Famine was formally declared on Monday in parts of South Sudan, mired in civil war since 2013. The conflict has split the country along ethnic lines, leading the UN to warn of potential genocide. South Sudan has also been hit by the same east African drought as Somalia, where six years ago 260,000 people starved to death. A World Food Programme report said, ‘By 2050, climate change and erratic weather patterns will have pushed another 24 million children into hunger. Almost half of these children will live in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is ‘saddened and shocked’ by the Government’s decision to take only 350 unaccompanied refugee children. He said last week, ‘We believed that the Government was committed to welcoming up to 3,000 children. To end the scheme now, when such a small proportion have actually entered the country, is regrettable.’ The immigration minister, Robert Goodwill, has stated that after consultation with local authorities, the UK will take just 350 children, including more than 200 already transferred from France. The Labour MP Yvette Cooper described the move as ‘shameful’, while the Conservative MP Helen Whateley said that Kent was already looking after more than a thousand unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. MPs have challenged the Government’s assertion that local authorities cannot take more children, and suggested that other groups (including faith organisations) could help. Archbishop Welby urged the Government to reconsider, saying, ‘We must resist and turn back the worrying trends of seeing the movement of desperate people as more of a threat to identity and security than an opportunity to do our duty. We cannot withdraw from our long and proud history of helping the most vulnerable.’

‘Parents, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.’ (Eph. 6:4) Earlier in this letter, Paul urges husbands and wives to love and respect each other, laying down their lives for each other. When this is our aim, we go a long way to providing the role model that our children need to be witnesses to the love of Christ, encouraging them rather than ‘exasperating’ them, and building the kingdom of God as a family.

(written by Father Simon Penhalagan, Sion Catholic Community for Evangelism)

An outcry by Christians over plans to register and inspect Sunday schools is forcing the Government to ‘tread carefully’ over the matter. A recent consultation of this matter received 18,000 responses. The Christian Institute, CARE, Christian Concern, Evangelical Alliance and Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship have been raising awareness about the proposals, and urged supporters to respond to the consultation when it was announced. The Government’s controversial plans were engineered by former education secretary Nicky Morgan in the wake of the Trojan Horse affair, and are part of a wider counter-extremism strategy. They propose giving Ofsted the legal power to investigate any setting in England that provides instruction to children for more than 6 to 8 hours in any week. This could include Sunday schools, youth groups, or one-off events such as holiday Bible clubs. They would also apply to a whole host of secular settings such as music lessons and drama groups.

Many Christian children in Pakistan face discrimination, abuse, hostility and even violence at government schools. A class of schoolgirls in Pakistan were taking an exam in Home Economics. The examiner was tasting the food they had cooked. But when she got to the Christian girls she refused to touch what they had cooked, saying it would make her unclean. She tipped the food in the bin, and the girls failed the exam. Four Christian girls at a Punjabi high school were forced to bring their own drinking glasses and water bottles to school after Muslim students complained they were unclean. There are also many who cannot go to school at all because their parents cannot afford the fees. Instead, children are forced to work as menial labourers, often in high-risk jobs.

Sunrise Prayer Relay

As we wrote earlier in the week, many interdenominational groups of praying people will greet the dawn of the New Year with others from all around the world as the sun rises in your own community this Sunday morning, January 1. Please join with brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for your church, city, nation and our world, trusting the Lord to do new and extraordinary things in 2017.

For more information about participating now or next year, please see this brief video and website that our Australian friends have created:

New Year’s Day 2017 Sunrise Prayer Relay Short Promo Video 1:23 Secs:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF0cvSl8UcE

 www.sunriseprayerrelay.org  

Great Commission Prayer Summit

Prayer and mission to those who have never heard the Gospel are integrally linked. All the great breakthroughs in mission have been preceded by united prayer from the book of Acts till the present. With this in mind, the Great Commission Prayer Summit will gather those with a heart for both prayer and mission in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Jan. 19-22. Please pray for a spiritual “critical mass”, a divine explosion of His presence and power that will propel a new thrust of taking the Good News of Jesus Christ to the unreached peoples of our world. Pray for all who will be speaking and those attending to be guided clearly and stirred deeply as we prepare to take part. Here is more information about participating on site if you are able to register and come:

Theme: "Contending For Global Harvest" Expectation is Rising! We are expecting a powerful time in the presence of God from January 19-22, 2017 as we discern His heart and learn more about how to align with Him in spiritually contending for global harvest. Plan to join us in beautiful Chiang Mai, Thailand and catch God's fire of devoted prayer and intercession for the nations

http://www.svm2.net/special-events/great-commission-prayer-summit/ 

Youth and Children’s Prayer Movements- A Request for your Prayer Support 

Please pray for crucial meetings that will be held in and near Jakarta, Indonesia, January 22-26, to plan for the further development of both the youth and children’s international prayer movements. International teams who focus on the Next Generation along with some from the IPC leadership will gather to seek the Lord together for the growth and expansion of both these movements throughout our world. Please pray with us for the following:

1. God’s wisdom, clarity and unity as we pray and deliberate together on the best ways to go forward.
2. The possibility of a world youth prayer assembly, including children, in 2018.
3. That Christian leaders and churches worldwide will realize the importance of nurturing the prayer experience of the Next Generation and partnering with children and youth in tri-generational ministry.
4. That as He has in the past, the Lord will move powerfully by His Spirit upon children and youth worldwide, calling them into relationship with Himself and using them to do great exploits in revival of the Church and reaching those who have never heard the Gospel.