Day 17 of 40 - Carolyn
“Today’s prayer request contains mentions of self-harm and suicide. It is an important challenge to understand, but parents may want to listen first before sharing it with younger children.” - Pinky
Greetings. My name is Carolyn and my husband is George. We serve wherever we are needed. The prayer request I have is to stand together against the spirit of self-harm and suicide. Committing suicide years back was hardly heard of. As the years have gone by, and particularly this year in 2023, so many cases of self-harm and of suicide have come to our attention. The increase is within our children, our Primary Caregivers, and the Care Workers within Africa. They lose hope that they, they think that things are way beyond their abilities. Even the spirit of suicide - witchcraft - is heavy in our community. Recently, we had a young boy of 12 say he heard a voice telling him to commit suicide right there at school. This is the type of thing I would love everybody to pray against - the spirit of self-harm and suicide that is going around our communities in Africa and in the world. Stand with us. Stand in the gap for our children, our Gogos, our Care Workers, our Primary Caregivers. Stand for our friends across the world that they who are are struggling will have the ability to be able to share with others, to know that we have a Father that cares for us deeply. Jesus loves each one so passionately. He wants the very best for us and does not want us to go before our time. So I trust that this will be a day where we can stand together, we can pray against those feelings and temptations. That we can bring hope and surround people. That God will speak to others, like he did with the young boy’s friend, and intervene . Thank you for taking the time to pray with us today.
Sometimes people can feel so sad and troubled that they can feel like there's no hope. Sometimes people can be ill physically but also spiritually and emotionally - this can cause people to feel hopeless.
This is so sad. Please pray that people that find themselves in this position will know they are loved and there IS hope. Pray that everyone feeling like this will have someone they can talk to about how they feel
Day 19 of 40 - Busie
My name is Busie Jones from South Africa, currently based in Australia. Today we are praying for Hands at Work Life Centres across Africa. When Three Essential Services begin in a community, children gather daily at a Care Point to receive food and care. As some of you might know, many years ago, we began pushing towards transforming these Care Points into Life Centres.
The very word “Life Centre” speaks of the purpose - to bring a taste of God’s peace, a taste of life and care to our communities, and their orphaned and vulnerable children. We dream of our Life Centres to embrace a culture of care.
Let us pray that this dream becomes a reality in many of our communities as our local offices, Regional Support Teams, and international teams visit our communities, working alongside Care Workers and supporting them in developing these Life Centres for the benefit of our children. Let us pray that our Life Centres would be places where the broken, the wounded, and the hurting would run and find hope, love, and care.
Let us pray that our children, the Caregivers, and the Care Workers would experience God’s healing in these Life Centres through different activities that are happening daily. Let us pray that these Life Centres would be beacons of hope and that they would shine the light of God so brightly in our communities, that the communities that were once known for darkness would be known for light. That people would experience what it means to walk in the light.
Lord, how we long that our Life Centres would be like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. That people would experience God in his fullness, in these Life Centres. That they will be a taste of heaven for many, many people. This is Your dream! We believe it and we trust you with it because you have come to give salvation to our children, to our Care Workers, and to our Caregivers.
Where do you go for help when you are in trouble or scared? If you need someone, who do you run to?
Where do you have the most fun? Where is the place where you laugh and play with your friends?
Busie mentioned in her prayer requests that Hands at Work want to create Life Centres. Life Centres are where children can experience fun, laughter, play and care. Pray that each community Hands at Work supports will have a Life Centre - places where our children love to be.
If you could design your own life Centre for your community, what would it look like? Draw a place you would love to attend. What would it have?
Day 21 of 40 - Sam
Okay, so I’m with Pastor Sam Shin from Wellspring Church in San Francisco, who’s been a partner with Hands at Work since 2006, even before we started Hands at Work. Sam and a group of his men from his church visited us, and since then, sam has been in Africa multiple times and sent multiple teams, and he’s still supporting the work very strongly. We are in Zambia right now. Sam, I wanna ask you, “Out of your heart, how would you ask the international community to pray for Hands?”
Thank you, George. And first of all, it’s been a privilege to be here. I could not have imagined after almost two decades of life together with Hands, still being always surprised by what the Lord shows me about his heart for all of us. And I think knowing Christ is absolutely the best motivation by which we do what you’re doing, and by what we see.
Prayer-wise, I was thinking about this question and I thought this, until Jesus returns, it’s not going to get better. That means even after you are gone from this world, the problem will still be the same. I see you and I see a man who loves the Lord deeply, and I’m so thankful for just your ministry and heart as you run into the fire getting ready to go to Goma. My heart’s prayer is that that desire for why Hands exists, which is for Christ and His glory, and what he has done for you and for all of us, that that motivation would continue. And so, unless those all around the world are praying that the Lord would bring about an individual or a group of individuals who have that same heart, first for Christ, and out of that heart, having a, a burden for the most vulnerable, the poorest of the poor, if that happens, Hands will be in the safest, most productive, most God-glorifying place. It’ll be a place that will, Lord willing, even exceed anything that you’ve had an opportunity to see in your lifetime.
Do you have any family traditions that have been passed down through your family? Maybe you always celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December, or every Sunday you sit around the table and have lunch.
Sam shared that his prayer is that the same heart that George and Carolyn have for Jesus and the most vulnerable will be passed down to more and more generations and that the work will carry on. We are going to need to continue caring until Jesus comes again. Pray that we will be joined by more and more people who have a heart for the vulnerable in the years to come.