Ready, Set, PRAY!

As you may have heard, this weekend is our World Weekend of Prayer for children at risk. Around the world millions of people – the majority of them children! – will be involved in prayer events in churches, hospitals, orphanages, city streets and around breakfast tables.

But you don’t need to hold a special event to pray - if you’ve got a minute you could even just spend 60 seconds devoting prayer to children at risk. If the same numbers as last year are involved, then that would mean more than two million people taking a minute to pray – which amounts to almost 4 years’ worth of prayer for children over one weekend! Very exciting. So let’s look at what we can pray about...


First, let’s pray for the child who needs a family. A child’s first emotional attachment (usually to his or her mother) is considered to be the blueprint for all later emotional attachments as the child learns how to love and be loved. But according to UNICEF, at least 2.2 million children are growing up in institutional care. Who will they become attached to? Psalm 68 says that “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing.”

Some things we can pray for:
• Children who live in institutions like orphanages in the country where you live
• Ministries, organisations and churches working to help children find families
• Society to respond to the needs of children who need parents
• Children to overcome the difficulties facing them, no matter what they have been through

Next, let’s pray for the child suffering from violence. Children throughout the world are facing more violence in their own homes than you may have ever faced in the most dangerous neighbourhoods. According to UNICEF millions of children run away from home because of abuse – in Latin America, 80,000 children die in their own homes from severe violence every year. Does God care about abused children? Jeremiah 29 says, “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

Some things we can pray for:
• Children who suffer abuse from their parents or other adults, that they would be given strength and that the violence would end
• Good teaching for parents to discipline their children without resorting to violence
• Governments to acknowledge the importance of families, to honour marriage and pass laws that protect families

Now let’s pray for the child with no educational opportunities. There are about 700 million children in the world of primary school age, but 121 million of them aren’t in school. Poverty and family death often force them to become the heads of their families, forsaking their own education and future. What does the Bible say about education? Isaiah 54 says, “All your sons [and daughters too!] will be taught by the Lord, and great will be your children’s peace.”

Some things we can pray for:
• Children who live in families so poor they can’t afford school uniforms or books
• Children who work during the day to feed their families, missing out on school
• The ministries working to develop and educate children;
• Governments to keep their MDG commitments to provide universal primary education for all children

Next let’s pray for the child suffering through hunger or poverty. You know the statistics are shocking: more than 140 million children are malnourished, and 5.6 million starve to death every year. The International Labour Organisation estimates that 12 million children are the victims of trafficking every year, a direct result of poverty. But Jesus cares so much for these children, in fact for everyone who is living in poverty. In one of his parables, he says, “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’” God doesn’t just care for the poor: he demands that we do too.

Some things you can pray for:
• Governmental practices that improve aid distribution so that more needs are met
• Societal commitment to end preventable disease and provide food for the hungry
• Laws that favour children and create opportunities for them to break out of poverty

Finally, let’s pray for the child affected by loss and death. Have you lost a close relative? Around 17.5 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS. These children are extremely susceptible to poverty, homelessness, school dropout, exploitation and abuse. What does the Bible say about loss? 2 Corinthians 1:13 says, “All praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the source of every mercy and the God who comforts us." And King David, in distress himself, says in Psalm 56, “You have kept count of my trials, put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?”

Some things you can pray for:
• More local church congregations will welcome AIDS orphans into their homes
• Government programmes to provide antiretroviral treatment for pregnant mothers with HIV/AIDS, to prevent their children from being infected
• Children in other situations who are suffering loss, such as in war, disease or natural disaster

It’s not all sad news and horrible statistics though. There are lots of organisations out there working really hard to end hunger and disease, provide education, and keep children safe – and they need your prayer too! In fact, you can read some of the Viva blog’s previous posts to see how we’re helping out and getting organisations to work together and be more effective. But please, please pray. We can’t do much at all without the help of God.


~ Prayer Team, Oxford


To hear more about how the World Weekend of Prayer started, listen to an interview with our CEO at www.viva.org/wwp.aspx and click on “Listen to …”

For more ideas on how you can pray and get your friends or kids involved, visit www.viva.org/wwp.aspx and click on “Download Prayer Guide Booklet”.