Edition 54: 15th Dec 2008
ORPHANOS
5,325 people attended the 3rd annual "Memphis Messiah" this past weekend.
What a great delight to see so many thousands of underprivileged children
enjoying their first experience with a symphony. Handle's classic piece is
simply Bible verses set music to tell the wonderful story of God's blessed Son,
our Messiah! Thank you for praying. Thank you for attending.
- Praise God that so many children were able to attend.
- Praise God for sponsors who underwrote the majority of the
event.
- Pray that the words sung would impact the children, as well
as the singers and players; many of whom have never met the Messiah in person.
MERRY CHRISTMAS –
We would like to thank you for your faithful support in prayer over the last
year. This will be the last Children at risk prayer email for this year due to
the Christmas holidays and we would like to take the opportunity to wish you a
Merry Christmas.
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
In New York recently, an international pro-life and pro-family coalition
delivered a petition at United Nations (UN) headquarters signed by 437,000
members of civil society in 168 countries urging UN member states to return to
the original understanding of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR)
as a document which protects unborn life and the traditional family. The
petition was launched on September 29th by C-FAM
The petition highlighted several articles of the Universal Declaration.
Article 3 of the UDHR asserts that everyone has the right to life. The
delegation emphasized that when the declaration was negotiated, pro-life nations
such as Lebanon and Chile defeated attempts to remove consideration of the
unborn, ensuring that national pro-life laws were protected by the UDHR to this
day. Article 16 asserts that the family is the fundamental group unit of society
and entitled to protection by society and the state. This article is coming
under fire from the European Union. Similarly, Article 25 guarantees special
care and assistance for motherhood and childhood. The French plan to deliver a
non-negotiated “political” declaration that aims at reinterpreting all UN human
rights documents to include sweeping new rights on the basis of “sexual
orientation” and “gender identity.”
- NOW is the time to be praying into
these issues. Please agree in prayer that the UN member states return to the
original understanding of the UDHR.
- Pray for those who are lobbying
over these issues, that they would know wisdom and favor.
- Pray for protection over those who
raise their voice for the voiceless.
- Pray that the family unit will be
honored and supported and acknowledged as the critical unit it is for the
sanity of society.
CHILDREN AFFECTED BY WAR
Over this Christmas time it would be good to keep in prayer the children who
for all sorts of reasons are caught up in conflict situations. Sadly we don’t
have to think too far before we become aware of conflict situations or war.
In Nepal there are an estimated 3000 child soldiers still living in camps
housing former Maoist fighters. In Uganda many children are forced to fight and
are held and abused by the Lord’s Resistance Army. As recently as this week
we’ve learned of a 13 year old suicide bomber causing the deaths of 2 British
soldiers in Afghanistan.
- Let’s pour out our hearts for this
generation and pray that somehow there would be some reprieve and that the
power and love of Jesus would break through into children’s lives.
- Pray for the release of the
Nepalese children and their reintegration into society. Pray for their
families and friends. Pray that society will learn to accept them back into
the community.
- Pray for those who are reaching out
to children affected by war, that they would be protected themselves and be
able to help restore children’s hope and trust in humanity.
BLESSINGS FOR 2009
May the peace and presence of Jesus be close and may 2009 be a year where we
continue to make a difference through our heartfelt prayers.
The Amplified version of James 5 v 16 encourages us that: ‘The earnest
(heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power
available (dynamic in it’s working).’