Global Day of Prayer for Children at Risk 2005

The Worldwide Day of Prayer for Children at Risk will be observed on Saturday 4th June. Organised by the Viva Network, a UK-based 81 network initiatives in 48 countries helping 1.2 million children, thousands of Christian individuals, churches, and agencies from over 90 countries will hold prayer meetings to intercede for children.

An English version of a free resources pack is now available on request through the official website to help churches or organisations to arrange a local event. Other translations such as Chinese, French, German, Norwegian, Romanian, Russian, Slovak and Spanish are also offered for free download.

Stepping into the tenth anniversary of the prayer initiative for children at risk, the Viva Network celebrates the success of the event in raising the global awareness for the children at risk as well as the amazing work of God through fervent prayers.

Feedback from 2004 indicates that over half a million people prayed for 1.6 million hours on or around the World Wide Day of Prayer for Children at Risk. A total of 50,493 prayer resources packs were sent out to 95 countries. It has successfully drawn the attention from people of all ages with 43 percent of adults and almost the same percentage of children who are under 12. The rest were youths aged 12-18.

Many participants across the world testified that the prayer day has brought unity between denominations as Christians gathered for one aim for the children at risk. The Lord's Prayer format was also found to be very useful to teach children to pray and to be aware of God's Fatherhood and love for them.

More importantly, the prayer initiative has not just ended as a one-day event, but it has motivated many participants to take further action for children as a sustaining effort. Many new projects for children were developed in local churches across the world after the prayer day last year.

For any prayer request for children at risk, the website (http://www.facesofchildren.blogspot.com/) was built to share with all participants.

"Viva Network enables us to pursue goals that transcend organisational boundaries," Paul Stephenson from World Vision International said.

In the UK, the prayer day will be endorsed by the evangelical Christian group Oasis Trust. Oasis Trust is currently running the Children@Risk Campaign, which is an international project to help the world's most vulnerable Children. A KEEP HOPE ALIVE wristband similar to that of the MakePovertyHistory campaign is produced to raise fund for the projects.

Prayer meetings will also be held by some local churches across the UK on this Saturday.