The stark statistics which spell out the poverty of Afghanistan can be found on the web pages of UNICEF and the World Health Organisation:
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/afghanistan_statistics.html
http://www.who.int/countries/afg/en/
Long years of war have impacted particularly on women and children, as is always the case, and a staggeringly high proportion of women die in childbirth. The proportion of children who are malnourished and stunted is also frighteningly high.
Dear Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer for Afghanistan. May the people of Afghanistan be able to achieve a lasting peace. May they be able to send all their children to school for a good and complete education - girls as well as boys, and may they be helped to develop effective health services. Lord, I pray especially for the children of Afghanistan, that they may receive adequate nutrition to grow strong and healthy.
Father, I pray also for our forces in Afghanistan. My they carry out their role with integrity. May their situation be properly understood by the government and people of the UK, and may they all come safely home.
Monday 31 December 2007
Saturday 29 December 2007
Trafficking
Trafficking is the modern version of the slave trade. Instead of picking cotton, most trafficked human beings nowadays are conned and coerced into the sex industry. 120,000 women and children are trafficked into Western Europe every year. Many of these are bought and sold into forced prostitution, beaten, imprisoned, raped and sometimes killed.
Lord, for everyone who is taken against their will to somewhere they don't want to be, who is forced into labour that is not of their choosing, I pray for your command to be honoured:
Remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice and let the oppressed go free. (Isaiah 58:6)
As you used the evil done to Joseph for the good of many, and set Joseph in a place of honour, I pray you would lift your mighty arm to save the slaves of today and bring them to a better destiny.
A relevant web page is:
http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2005/english/ch7/index.htm
Lord, for everyone who is taken against their will to somewhere they don't want to be, who is forced into labour that is not of their choosing, I pray for your command to be honoured:
Remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice and let the oppressed go free. (Isaiah 58:6)
As you used the evil done to Joseph for the good of many, and set Joseph in a place of honour, I pray you would lift your mighty arm to save the slaves of today and bring them to a better destiny.
A relevant web page is:
http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2005/english/ch7/index.htm
Monday 10 December 2007
Starvation
Dear Lord,
How your heart must grieve to see not only the suffering of the hungry, but the complacency of those who have enough to eat. Father I pray that you would disturb all the world on this subject of starvation and malnutrition, until poverty, hunger and ignorance really are history. But Lord, where there are the resources now to feed all the people adequately, I pray that you in your righteousness and mercy will move hearts and minds so that inequality of any kind does not keep women and children hungry.
Thank you for the abundance that I enjoy. I pray that more and more people in our world will come to enjoy such abundance. I pray for farmers everywhere that they may learn how to cultivate their fields without stripping their fertility. I pray especially for subsistence farmers to be able to grow the food they need and to have a surplus to sell. I pray for fair distribution of food globally and locally. And I pray that you would forgive me the little I do to address the huge problem of hunger in our world, and show me how I could make more of a contribution.
God's justice asks:
When I was hungry, did you feed me?
More than 800 million people in the world are malnourished.
2 billion lack essential vitamins and minerals in their diet
Women and small children are disproportionately affected.
For detailed information, he following web sites are relevant:
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/resources/making_a_meal_of_it/
(See "Background information about food and hunger)
www.care.org/campaigns/world-hunger/facts.asp
www.thp.org/women/asianenigma.htm
How your heart must grieve to see not only the suffering of the hungry, but the complacency of those who have enough to eat. Father I pray that you would disturb all the world on this subject of starvation and malnutrition, until poverty, hunger and ignorance really are history. But Lord, where there are the resources now to feed all the people adequately, I pray that you in your righteousness and mercy will move hearts and minds so that inequality of any kind does not keep women and children hungry.
Thank you for the abundance that I enjoy. I pray that more and more people in our world will come to enjoy such abundance. I pray for farmers everywhere that they may learn how to cultivate their fields without stripping their fertility. I pray especially for subsistence farmers to be able to grow the food they need and to have a surplus to sell. I pray for fair distribution of food globally and locally. And I pray that you would forgive me the little I do to address the huge problem of hunger in our world, and show me how I could make more of a contribution.
God's justice asks:
When I was hungry, did you feed me?
More than 800 million people in the world are malnourished.
2 billion lack essential vitamins and minerals in their diet
Women and small children are disproportionately affected.
For detailed information, he following web sites are relevant:
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/resources/making_a_meal_of_it/
(See "Background information about food and hunger)
www.care.org/campaigns/world-hunger/facts.asp
www.thp.org/women/asianenigma.htm
Saturday 1 December 2007
Female suicide bombers
Heavenly Father, I pray for any and all young women who may be at risk this very day of becoming suicide bombers. I pray that you would minister to their angry and despairing spirits, and help them to see that all history and all justice are in your hands. Turn their hearts to prayer, Lord, rather than to murder and suicide. Give their families wisdom and love enough, Lord, to see their daughters' despair, and to comfort them.
Father, we feel so helpless to bring peace and justice to a world riven by hatred, fear and violence. Truly, mankind has created a very hell on earth. Forgive us, Father, whenever we allow injustice and oppression because we are too complacent or apathetic to stand against it. Give us widsom, I pray, to see how each one of us, no matter what our faith or culture, may become a part of the solution, rather than a part of the problem.
And finally, Father, I pray for the families of all the young people who have died as suicide bombers. Please comfort them in their bereavement and give them courage to stand against the forces that would claim for death the young lives that you created for creativity and joy.
Father, we feel so helpless to bring peace and justice to a world riven by hatred, fear and violence. Truly, mankind has created a very hell on earth. Forgive us, Father, whenever we allow injustice and oppression because we are too complacent or apathetic to stand against it. Give us widsom, I pray, to see how each one of us, no matter what our faith or culture, may become a part of the solution, rather than a part of the problem.
And finally, Father, I pray for the families of all the young people who have died as suicide bombers. Please comfort them in their bereavement and give them courage to stand against the forces that would claim for death the young lives that you created for creativity and joy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)