Prayer letter- November 2023

People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them.  When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”  And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them. Mark 10; 13-16 

Dear Friend

The above reading from Mark is a beautiful reading. It draws a picture of Jesus welcoming children, hugging them and blessing them with his hands. It is a story of welcome and great love. It is a story reflecting the preciousness of all children in the eyes of Jesus. 

What a contrast this story is to the ugliness of the story of traffickers with children and young people. It is the contrast between good and evil, light and darkness, love and abuse. 

In the October prayer letter I asked for prayer to rid the world of trafficking. In the letter I wrote the following 

“We believe that as we out work our Ohfi vision and build a Culture of Life in a community where children are loved, safe and well educated the risk of trafficking is negated.”  

In response to our prayer letter the Ohfi Director in Kolkata, India, Lun Misao, wrote the following— 

“Unfortunately, according to our West Bengal state records Dum Dum area in Kolkata is in the highest position where kids and women are trafficked for sex and other evil jobs. 

But by God's grace from the time we started our children centres in Basanti, Sapui Para, Dum Dum cantonment and in Durga Nagar we have no incident of a child being trafficked from these areas.”   

My heart sang with joy when I received this statement from Lun. For me it underlines the value of the Ohfi ministry undergirded by your prayers.  

Lun has two prayer requests for his Kolkata ministry.  

1 Malaria, typhoid and dengue are causing a lot of sickness among our children. We talk a lot about personal hygiene and cleanliness, but living in the slums where there are no proper walls and doors it is difficult for us to keep ourselves away from rats, mosquitos and cockroaches. Kindly pray for our good health and that our drains and sewers be maintained by our government. 

2 Due to Covid we have not been able to properly celebrate Christmas for the last three years. This year we want to celebrate the birthday of our Lord Jesus, but we are worried how to arrange 300 gifts for our children as we have very limited funds. Kindly pray for the blessing of miracles for the kids.     

Some of the children Lun supports in Kolkata

Rwanda 

Prayer requests 

1. We pray for all those people who supported the recent very successful fund raiser in Wanganui for the needs of impoverished communities in Rwanda. Lord we thank you for the open hearts of these supporters and ask that you will continue to bless them, and the work ahead in Rwanda made possible by their generosity.

 2. We pray for the communities in Rwanda of Kivumu and Cyungo, that 60 women parenting alone, through the provision of a goat each, will be able to improve their lives and the future of their children. We pray that they will be nourished with the goat milk and that the income from goat offspring will enable school fees to be paid and meet health needs. 

Romania 

As mentioned in the October prayer letter Ken and Alice Winter are currently in Romania to support the work of their organisation HANNAH. Recently Alice wrote- 

“Praise God for special beautiful moments at the HANNAH 'camp' last week. For the children and parents, coming from very poor areas, being creative through clay work and painting was like therapy for them and an expression of their individuality as well as their connectedness within family and friendship. Creating a big artwork after a visit to the zoo brought everyone together.” 

Alice asks prayer for Kati, the HANNAH social worker, as follows. 

Kati our social worker has taken on a lot of extra responsibilities outside of HANNAH. This is putting pressure on her personally as well as on the work of HANNAH. Please pray for wisdom for Ken and I as we discuss these issues with Kati. 

An art therapy session with the children and their parents was led by Ken (an artist) and produced this beautiful, shared work.