Viva Network Calls on the World’s Intercessory Prayers for Suffering Children

Viva Network will hold the 10th World Wide Day of Prayer for Children at Risk this year. The event will take place on Saturday 4th June. During this time, intercessory prayers will be dedicated to roughly 1 billion children who are suffering in this world.

Viva Network is requesting that all Christians around the world organise and participate in local prayer gatherings to intercede for children at risk.

In order to inspire prayers and to support the planning of prayer events, Viva Network has produced materials in several languages for participants. Thousands of Christians in over 90 countries are estimated to be taking part in the event.

Last year, this event was held in at least 95 countries. A total of 50,493 prayer packs were sent out to 95 countries by Viva Network. 45,010 packs were sent in Portuguese, 3,404 packs were sent out in English, 1,867 packs were Spanish, and the rest stretched out to many other languages. The actual figures may be significantly higher, because many churches and groups photocopied the materials to distribute to other ministries.

Estimations derived from feedback forms says that about 43% of the participants were adults (18+), 13.5% were youths (12-18), and 43.5% were children under 12.

The approximate calculation shows that around 609,874 people prayed for 1,646,661 hours in total. There were certain things that stimulated people the most to go out praying. For example praying together, knowing that thousands around the world were also praying as one Body of Christ. Seeing children pray with sincerity and passion - and particularly seeing former "children at risk" praying for those who are at risk now. Knowing how much God has already done for the children being prayed for. These reasons encouraged many people to participate with a sincere heart.

Many prayers were answered after last year’s World Wide Prayer day. For example, there was a story from Lucenec, Slovakia, where a group prayed for a family who had been told that their unborn baby would die soon after birth - the child was born entirely healthy soon afterwards

Children at Risk are defined by Viva Network as minors who suffer from child labour, any form of violence or abuse and exploitation, diseases, neglection and extreme poverty.

Some general examples of suffering children in need of prayers this year are:

-Orphaned children in Indonesia caused by several natural disasters in the past few years including a devastating earthquake and tsunami in December 2004.

-Children weakened by famine and drought in Burundi. Burundi is a country bordered by Tanzania and Rwanda in central Africa. Please pray that enough food aid will be send to this country.

- Children in Burma who must scavenge in fields after dark to provide food for their families.

-Children refugees in Burma on the run with their family from the Burmese government.