First Saturday Prayer

             

World Vision Hope Prayer Chain

News — November 2010

In New Testament times, when people heard that Jesus was coming to town, they did everything they could to get their sick loved ones to Him. They knew He had compassion and the ability to heal. More than 2,000 years later, children and families living in poverty still suffer from diseases:

The estimated number of people living with AIDS and HIV is nearly 40 million, more than the entire population of Canada.

Around the world, 8.8 million children die each year before their fifth birthday. The majority of these deaths are from preventable conditions such as birth complications, pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, and measles.

Worldwide, malaria kills more than 2,000 children every day.

Jesus' compassion is still with the sick and suffering. And as Christ's followers, we can pray for healing and fullness of life.

Suggested prayer points
This month, prepare for World AIDS Day (Dec. 1) by joining us in prayer about some of the most critical issues of global health—specifically HIV and AIDS, malaria, and maternal and child health.

Pray that we would see those who suffer the way God does-as His precious children. The number of those affected by HIV and AIDS is so big that it can be mind—numbing. But Scripture tells us that God knows every hair on the head of every one of those people. Thank God for His boundless love, and ask Him to give you a heart that prompts action for the sick.

Pray for angels of protection. The number of children orphaned by AIDS is soon expected to pass 20 million, according to the United Nations. Without their parents to protect them, these children are at extreme risk for malnutrition, exploitation, and physical and sexual abuse. Ask God to surround them with angels of protection and guide them to loving caregivers they can trust.

Praise God for medical researchers. Thank Him for their knowledge, their commitment of resources, and their tireless dedication to develop inexpensive antiretroviral therapies for those living with HIV. Ask God to guide and sustain the dedicated healthcare workers who get these life—saving drugs to people in remote villages.

Ask God to end the injustice of malaria. Malaria was eradicated in the United States 60 years ago, but it is still one of the leading causes of death for children under 5 in the developing world. It primarily affects the poorest people, who tend to live in malaria—prone areas and lack access to prevention and treatment tools. Ask God to ease their suffering as they battle the disease. Thank Him for the 77,000 World Vision—trained volunteer caregivers who assist with malaria interventions in 62 malaria—endemic countries.

Thank God for the miracle of birth. The psalmists tell us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made by our loving God, who knows us even when we're in our mother's womb. Ask Him to give wisdom to the midwives and childbirth attendants in developing nations who bring babies into the world every day, usually without the medications and technology that save mothers' and infants' lives every day in the developed world.

Learn more:
Child health: Visit ChildHealthNow.org to learn more about World Vision's global efforts to end preventable child deaths. While there, add your name to the Child Health Now petition and tell President Obama that 24,000 preventable child deaths a day is unacceptable.

AIDS: Take a virtual journey into the lives of real people affected by the pandemic in Africa through the interactive site, World Vision Experience: AIDS. Or get involved in assembling Caregiver Kits, a hands—on way to show the unconditional love of Christ by providing a year's worth of materials to equip a volunteer AIDS caregiver.

Malaria: Watch a video, Africa's Deadliest Predator, about the heartbreaking experiences of children in Mozambique suffering from malaria. Learn more about malaria and find many ways to mobilize others to action through World Vision's ACT:S to End Malaria site.