SCRIPTURAL ENCOURAGEMENTS

John 10:10 - Jesus said - ‘The thief does not come except to steal, kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.‘

ORPHANOS

• Praise God for this beautiful partnership

• Praise Him for the opportunity to go and serve

• Ask the Lord to bless their effort and keep their focus on Him.

• Thank the Lord for donors

• Thank the Lord for Prairie Ridge and Lar Batista

NEWS UPDATE RE SRI LANKA –

The last prayer news email profiled the situation in Sri Lanka. We have since received several requests from projects on the ground in the north of the country. The Palaam Project in Jaffna reports the desperate need for funding in order to assist those in the IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps. The project has experienced great favour with the ministry of defense and has been visiting the IDP camps since March when there were only 4 camps. Palaam has since been contacted by the local authorities in charge of the growing number of IDP camps requesting urgent assistance. By April the number of camps increased to 12 with between 200 and 1700 people in each. Palaam began taking teams of people from their church ministry team into the camps to provide essential items the army was not able to provide. They came across people who had been hiding in bunkers for months, traumatized, exhausted, and severely malnourished. Those detained in the camps are denied liberty and freedom and reports say that it is heart breaking to see what is happening to the Tamil people.

We have also heard from Royalkids, another ministry working in the North of Sri Lanka who have 170 children living in the area. They are unsure of the number of children who have survived.

• Thank God that the war after 30 years has come to an end.

• Pray urgently that the Nation will be healed and restored.

• There is a lot of unrest in Colombo with many Tamil shops and businesses being targeted. Pray that they don’t end up with an event like the riots that took place back in the 1980’s.

• Please pray that Palaams request that the ministry of defense release children who have no parents or guardians with them in the camps to the Palaam Children’s home in Jaffna will be approved.

• Please pray for the children of Royalkids that there will be great glory and testimony from their experiences.

• Praise God for the unity that is developing between the Tamil and Singalese churches as they assist people in the after effects. Pray that this unity will increase, modeling Jesus’ compassion and kindness. Pray that this next generation will see what is possible when people care for each other rather than war with each other.

Luke 2:52

Jesus grew in WISDOM -

Viva’s network in Zimbabwe links together 30 member projects which work directly with orphans and vulnerable children in and around Harare. Together they reach 3,500 children. They started an educational program in 2007 called the ‘Bridging School’. The aim is to help bridge the gap that has emerged through the political situation with many children missing out on chunks of the school curriculum due to shortage of money to pay teachers.

• For many and varied reasons an estimated 121 million primary school aged children do not attend school. Please pray for the projects and ministries who reach out to teach many children in communities who are missing out on education.

• Praise God that many of the project schools aim to develop children in a holistic way, spirit, soul and body.

• Pray that Godly and wise teachers would be raised up and released to meet the gap there is in children’s development.

STATURE –

New Life Centre is a residential program in Thailand set up to help girls in danger of being abused. Anna had become pregnant after suffering abuse and was eating only small amounts of sticky rice daily. Anna’s baby girl was born tiny and weak and was very ill, Anna thought it was because she had bad milk. The New Life Center agreed that they could live there and the staff were able to teach her that drinking and eating well would improve her milk. In a few days the baby’s skin was pink and not the jaundiced yellow it had been. Anna now works in the business run by the centre and she and her baby are thriving. New Life Centre tell us that If these were the only mother and child they ever helped it would have been worth it.

Three key Millennium Development Goal’s aim to address the issues of children living and being able to grow in stature. MDG 1 – aims to Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. MDG 4 aims to reduce child mortality and MDG 5 – aims to improve maternal health.

• Every year millions of children under the age of five die from treatable and preventable diseases. Praise God for projects and programs such as the New Life Centre, working in communities to address ignorance surrounding nutrition and health. Pray for them as the respond to felt needs.

• Pray especially for those who are working amongst extreme poverty that they would be given divine strategies to overcome the hardships and bear fruit from their labors.

FAVOUR WITH GOD -

CRANE, Viva’s partner network in Kampala, Uganda is made up of 56 projects reaching 14,000 children between them. They have been amazed at the impact their network is having on these children and the wider community.

We know from scripture that where there is unity, God commands a blessing.

• Pray that Christians would continue and increase working to support children at risk and that the world would begin to see and marvel at what is possible when Christians come together to work in unity.

• Pray for the development of more networks who can begin collaborative work to effect long term and sustainable support of children at risk in communities.

FAVOUR WITH MEN –

In Costa Rica, Casa Viva began a Christian foster care program in partnership with local churches and the national government.  Foster care or family-based care is unknown in Latin America, and this represents an opportunity to bring an entirely new method of care to the region.  José is a ten year old Casa Viva child.  He was handed over to the government unwanted by his family and suffering deep rejection. Casa Viva placed him with a family who say that he can now stay long term with them.

• Praise God for the favour that is being shown to Casa Viva and pray for increase and excellence in the model they are piloting.

• Pray that those working for the good of children at risk would obtain favour with men and gain the support of governments and people with influence so that more children can be better helped.

Thank you for praying.