CFC Missions Partners Prayer Requests | January 2018

Bobby Parschauer

KRISTA IN CENTRAL ASIA

Praise

• God’s faithfulness.
• Thankful to practice spiritual and physical rest.
  
• Not being alone and having a team to work with.
  

Requests

• Continued language growth.
• Diligence in pursuing new goals.
• Continued discussions with spiritual seeking village friend.

WATER STREET MINISTRIES

• Pray for a guest who is having surgery in February. We have seen fellow guests rally around her, love on her, and encourage her during these weeks leading up to the surgery.
• Pray for those who are on their way to Water Street but don’t know it. Pray they will openly receive the love and care offered here, and that they will allow it to tear down their walls so God can restore them.
• Pray for several guests who have been encountering roadblocks in their journeys out of homelessness. Pray that God will show them His better plan and that they won’t get discouraged.

HOPE INTERNATIONAL

• Pray that God would work in the hearts of Muslim clients served by Turame, HOPE’s microfinance institution in Burundi. This year, Turame is seeking to start more groups within the Muslim community in the capital city of Bujumbura. Pray that Turame staff will clearly reflect Christ through how they serve.
• After Robert Mugabe’s 40-year regime came to end in November, this new year brings the potential for a new political era in Zimbabwe. We earnestly pray that transparency, growth, and trust in Christ would reign in the country. We also pray for wisdom for HOPE Zimbabwe staff to navigate the challenges of these uncertain times, as well as for security for staff, clients, and families.
• I also wanted to share this quote with you from one of our clients in Rwanda - he’s talking about what happened when he joined a savings group: “I was far away from people, from myself and even ever thinking I would ever love anyone. I would stay alone. I was isolated. But during one meeting, I shyly raised my hand. When people started building on the idea I had given, it was the first time I started feeling human.” Praise God for stories like this!

LIFE CYCLES

• Gratitude to God for His provision, protection, and wisdom that directs us.
• Gratitude to the 49 leaders who give of their time, hearts, and energy.
• Gratitude to the 56 boys who invite us into their lives with care, encouragement, and the live saving grace of Jesus.
• Gratitude for the growing maturity and increasing optimism in many of the boys we serve.
• Gratitude to the families who trust us with their sons.
• Gratitude to the organizations who partner with us in common cause (Community Fellowship Church; Rainbows End Youth Services in Mount Joy; Teen Haven and Water Street Mission; Victory Church Youth Group; Lanc Velo bicycle shop; the Cycle Works bicycle shop).
• Request that God would continue to draw me, Marcie, and our team closer to Him (John 15:4-5).
• Request that God would arm our leaders, our board, our boys, and Marcie and me against any spiritual attack the enemy brings in 2018.

ORPHAN CARE

• Our primary prayer request this time around is for James and Laura Schadewald. They will be leaving for China on January 25th to meet their new son, Luke. We are praying for a quick adjustment and safe travels.

INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE MISSION (IJM)

• Africa: Pray for the IJM Gulu team in Uganda as they launch a new pilot project to assist women who have experienced extreme forms of domestic violence. Pray for the women we will be working with during the course of the year ahead, pray for the communities that surround and support these women and pray for the public justice officials who will be responding to these cases.
• Latin America: Please pray for an 11-year-old Bolivian survivor of sexual violence who will be sharing her testimony in court. Early this week, a hearing was scheduled to evaluate her testimony but they ran out of time before she was able to share. A new hearing has been scheduled; pray that the hearing will actually happen and that the judge will take her testimony as valid evidence in the prosecution of her case. Please pray also for God’s overflowing peace in her life and for continued healing as she shares her story once again.
• South Asia: Ask for God’s wisdom as our team works on a complicated case of two girls who are possibly being held in bonded labor slavery at a spinning mill. These two teen girls had been working to help support their impoverished family, but have been trapped in filthy conditions and have not been allowed to leave. Our studies show high levels of trafficking in the textile and garment industries, and we need God’s help to discover the truth, protect these girls and bring attention to this abusive industry.
• Southeast Asia: Praise God for the first conviction this year: Two traffickers were convicted for exploiting three young teens, 14 to 16 years old. The convictions this week ended a two-and-a-half year trial. Praise God for the Senior Assistant State Prosecutor in the Philippines who led that trial, with support from IJM’s team in Manila. Pray that these three young women, now living back in their community, will find strength and peace knowing justice has been done.