Daily Archive for May 27th, 2006

World Weekend of Prayer for Children at Risk

Published
by
Graeme
on May 27, 2006
in old uksalvationist posts
. 0 Comments

Here is an e-mail I received this morning:

Thank you for your prayer for children at risk - the World Weekend of Prayer for Children at Risk starts today and here is some up to date news from UNICEF to help you pray on 3rd and 4th June…

In addition, remember to look at our website,www.viva.org/pray, for resources in many languages (Bengali, Tamil and Khmer are the most recent additions!).

After the weekend, remember to fill in and send back your feedback form to let us know more about your prayer event - or respond online at www.viva.org/pray

Decline in child labour
The number of child labourers has fallen considerably for the first time, according to a new International Labour Organisation report. Some 218 million are classified as child labourers, down 11% from 246 million in 2002. Numbers fell the most in Latin America, but there was little decline in Africa. The biggest reduction was amongst children working in hazardous environments - the number engaged in this work fell by 26%.

  • Praise God for this change, and for the millions of children whose quality of life has improved so significantly in the last few years.
  • Pray that governments would continue to demand better and safer conditions for young workers, and that the poverty which forces children to work would be addressed by the international community.

Polio vaccination in Afghanistan
Afghanistan is one of just four countries in the world still affected by polio. Earlier in the year, Egypt was declared free of polio after successful immunisation campaigns.

  • Praise God that a polio eradication drive has taken place in Afghanistan this month. More than two million children have been vaccinated, which should lead to an end to the virus in the country.
  • Please pray for polio to be stamped out around the world. Pray that the last few nations would be able to vaccinate their children effectively to achieve this.

Malnutrition in West Africa and the Horn of Africa
Across West Africa, the countries of the Sahel - including Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger - are facing dangerously high levels of child malnutrition. Further east, the nomadic peoples of Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia are also in danger, as drought has caused up to half of their herds to die. With their families’ livelihoods so damaged, 40,000 children are now so malnourished that they could well die in the coming months.

  • Please pray for enough rain to replenish water supplies, bringing good harvests and revived herds.
  • Pray for those supporting these vulnerable communities - for sufficient resources to meet their needs, and for long-term solutions preventing food crises in the future.

Child soldiers freed in Sudan
Since 2001, an estimated 20,000 children from the former southern rebel forces, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), have been disarmed, demobilised and returned to their families and communities. However, there are an estimated 2,000 children still associated with the SPLA, mainly in non-combat roles and in hard-to-reach areas.

  • Praise God that currently, many child soldiers are being released in southern Sudan, as part of a process to disarm children involved with armed forces or groups. 250 children in Upper Nile State were freed at the end of April, and the government plans to demobilise all child soldiers this year.
  • Please pray for children who have fought in Sudan to receive the care and support they need to reintegrate into society. Pray for God to restore them and show them his unconditional love.

Thank you for your prayers,

Cathryn Baker
Prayer Mobiliser, Viva Network

PO Box 633, Oxford, OX2 0XZ, UK
Telephone: +44 (0)1865 320100 Fax: +44 (0)1865 320101 Email: pray@viva.org Website: www.viva.org

Viva Network is a Company Limited by guarantee no.3162776, and Registered Charity no.1053389 registered at 51 Westway, Oxford, OX2 0JE, UK

How do we keep them?

Published
by
Graeme
on May 27, 2006
in old uksalvationist posts
. 0 Comments

I’ve said in a couple of posts that last week we had Christian Schwarz here in Latvia doing an NCD conference. At the time I made a couple of notes and since then have been thinking quite a bit about one particular statistic that he used. According to their research between 85% to 99.7% of new Christians leave the church within the first 12 months! Now that is a scary number!

I firmly believe that fellowship with the saints is one the most essential needs for any Christian. In the light of this statistic though we have to take a look at ourselves and ask what it is about church that causes such a high percentage of new converts leave.

Is it relevancy? Does church actually meet the needs of new Christians, or is the transition from their unchurched state simply too difficult to do? Is it lack of community? I know that in my life some of my loneliest times have been in the midst of church life, so is this a problem that we need to deal with?

Is it that the Christian life is too difficult? All too often the message that seekers get is that if you become a Christian all your troubles will be solved, but that simply isn’t true. The Christian life is not an easy option. Yes we get to share our troubles with the Creator of the universe, but life still has problems. Do we, in our outreach, give out the wrong message?

Or is it simply that new Christians are disappointed by what they see in the more ‘mature’ Christians who inhabit our churches? Do they see our bickering and unChristian attitudes and simply leave the church disappointed?

I suspect that its a combination of all the above, but it is only us who are church that can make sure that these things don’t become a way of turning people away from our communities of faith just when they need it the most!