Kenya

• Give God thanks for the work of the staff and volunteers with I Can Fly International (ICFI), a non-profit organization that serves children and women in some of the poorest rural communities of the Machakos District of Kenya. Thanks be to God for the life changing opportunities available to children and women through ICFI’s education, life skills, and healthcare programs.  http://www.shagivens.com/
• Pray for ICFI staff and volunteers as they launch the Butterfly Project, a new program that provides at-risk girls ages 13 to 17 years old free education, housing, and enrichment activities. Pray God will guide the project’s leaders as they determine which 100 girls will be invited to participate in this program. Participants are potential victims of child marriage or female genital mutilation, live in extreme poverty, or are orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

Pakistan

• Please pray for the 170 families affected by a recent assault against a Christian minority neighborhood in Lahore, Pakistan. Pray for children and families who lost everything when their homes in the Joseph Colony were set on fire by a mob of protestors. On March 9 an estimated crowd of 3,000 people rampaged through the Christian colony protesting alleged blasphemous remarks against the Prophet Mohammed by a Christian.
• Pray for Presbyterian Education Board (PEB) support staff member Anthony and his family who lost their home in Joseph Colony during this attack. More than 160 homes were destroyed in fires set by protestors.
• Give God thanks for the arrests made in this case and pray for justice for the families affected by this violence. Pray families may be able to rebuild their homes and live in peace with their Muslim neighbors.
• Please keep in prayer all Christian children and families in Pakistan as they often experience the threat of violence from false accusations of blasphemy.
• Pray for an end to violence and hatred in the name of religion. Please pray for peace and reconciliation throughout Pakistan.  http://tinyurl.com/cuouzd8   http://tinyurl.com/bj2tz9v

South Sudan

• Keep in prayer girls in South Sudan who are married off at a very young age, some as young as 12 years old. Pray for the estimated 48 percent of South Sudanese girls (between ages 15 and 19) who are married.
• Pray for girls whose education has been interrupted or denied because of an early marriage. Pray for those who aren’t able to seek employment opportunities because of early marriage.
• Pray for girls who are at risk of domestic abuse and violence from much older husbands. And pray for girls who refuse early marriage and are at risk of verbal abuse or physical violence, including murder, from their parents or other relatives. Please pray God will protect girls who resist early marriage or try to leave abusive marriages.
• Pray for girls whose health is damaged by bearing children before they are physically or emotionally ready. Girls younger than 15 years of age are at tremendous risk of dying during childbirth.
• Pray God will bring healing to girls who contract sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, from their much older husbands.
• Pray all girls are given the choice to marry when, and only when they are able and willing to consent freely. Pray the cycle of poverty created by marrying girls off when they are too young will be broken through education, public awareness, and government support.  http://tinyurl.com/bsx9223

United States

·         Please pray for Pastor Willie Cockroft and his wife the Rev. Jini Kilgore Cockroft as they reach out to an impoverished community in South Los Angeles, California through HighWay Ministries and HighWay House. Give thanks to God for the compassion and dedication of this couple, the staff, and the volunteers with this ministry in a neighborhood that struggles with issues of poverty, substance abuse, homelessness, and, often, hopelessness. Pray for the children, youth, women, and men who are served by this ministry. Pray God will provide the resources needed to continue the work of HighWay Ministries in South Los Angeles.  http://hwmin.org/

WMU created a downloadable Children’s Ministry Day booklet with project suggestions, planning tips, a skit, and learning activities to enhance your project as well as colorful posters for promoting your event ($8.99). Other free resources like clip art, flyers, and a Powerpoint presentation overview are also available for download.

Ready to plan a project that kids can carry out in your community? Make sure to invite others to assist you. If you can’t hold your event on February 16, pick a day that works for you. Here are 10 ideas to get those creative juices flowing:

• prepare hygiene packs at a ministry center
• serve a meal at a homeless shelter
• provide snacks for children at a local ministry’s after-school program
• sort clothes at a clothes closet
• collect canned goods and donate to a local food pantry
• collect gently worn toys/children’s books and donate to a homeless shelter that houses families
• collect baby diapers and donate to a homeless shelter that houses families
• collect white tube socks and donate to a homeless shelter
• collect and donate school supplies to an organization that provides these to families who cannot afford them
• plant a community garden

Invite your church leaders, teachers, and parents to be involved by praying for your kids and the people they will serve. And don’t forget to take lots of pictures!

Engage your kids in learning about this issue and becoming a part of the solution. We presented this topic to the elementary kids at my church last year in connection with a service project. It grew into a 30-minute lesson for ages 5-11 called Choose Shoes. We created a PowerPoint to introduce kids to shoe issues around the world. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. The lesson also includes a small group activity, Bible time, prayer, and project suggestions.

If you decide to do a suggested project, the lesson also has related books and movie clips to keep the momentum going. Since our project spanned several months, we created a bulletin board graph. Our goal was 400 pairs of shoes. I cut the shoes off four bulletin board children and gave them construction paper bare feet. Every time we collected 50 pairs of shoes, the bulletin board children received one of their shoes back.

These projects are fun because they are so hands-on, but don’t forget the spiritual aspect. During your project wrap-up, have a shoe dedication ceremony. Let your kids hold a pair of shoes they donated. Lead your children in praying for those who will receive the shoes. Pray that they will have the opportunity to learn about Jesus and follow him for a lifetime.

God’s Heart for Children

Just a Minute: In the Heart of a Child, One Moment … Can Last Forever by Dr. Wess Stafford and Dean Merrill, (Moody Publishers, 2012). Inspiring stories reinforce the value of children in God’s eyes and demonstrate how our interactions with them can change them forever. Hard cover, 224 pp. Adult. Available from Amazon.com.

Poverty

A Hungry World: Understanding the Global Food Crisis, (World Vision, 2005). Booklet provides 8 hours of material for teaching about global food insecurity. Includes background information, case studies, group activities, prayer materials and action ideas. Grades 6-12. Available from www.worldvisionresources.org

Not Just a One-Night Stand: Ministry with the Homeless by John Flowers and Karen Vannoy, (Discipleship Resources, 2009). Based on the ministry experiences at their own church in Texas, the authors gives creative approaches to ministry among the marginalized. Paperback, 128 pp. Adult. Available from Amazon.com.

When Do We Eat? Understanding World Hunger and Doing Something About It, (World Vision, 2010). 1-hour lesson to help children understand the causes of world hunger and learn how they can make a difference. Grades 1-3. Available at www.worldvisionresources.org.

Refugees

Home Away from Home: How Children Find Hope When they Lose Their Homes (World Vision, 2010). 1–hour lesson explores reasons for homelessness with an emphasis on refugees. Grades 1-3. Available from World Vision at www.worldvisionresources.org.

• Stand4Kids: Every Last Drop lesson addresses issues that children without access to clean water face. Includes demonstrations, photos, a Bible passage, prayer time, and optional Week for Water giving project. Ages 5-10.

• LifeWater International: WASH (Water, Sanitation Hygiene) Around the World 5-lesson download includes short stories of real children in five countries with discussion questions. Ages 3-11.

• WaterAid: Water Around the World Slide Show. Ages 5-8. Pumping It Up lesson with an experiment that demonstrates how a well pump brings up underground water. Ages 8-11.

• Blood:Water Mission: Lemon:Aid project to raise money for wells, water filters, and rain tanks for communities in Africa.

Starvation: Starvation caused by famine, like the one currently threatening families in the Horn of Africa, is the most extreme form of hunger. Starvation often leads to death, especially in children.

Food insecurity: Not all hunger is caused by famine. For millions, lack of access to sufficient amounts of nutritious food is an ongoing, daily reality. Families eat the bare minimum to stay alive. Children go to bed each night, not knowing where their next meal will come from.

Hidden Hunger: In addition, two billion people exist on a limited diet. Because children eat the same thing every day rather than a variety of foods, they don’t get the vitamins and minerals needed for healthy growth and development. The resulting malnutrition has serious consequences. For example, children with Vitamin A deficiency have severe problems with eyesight and some become blind.

Here’s a map put out by the FAO. It shows that state of undernourishment in countries around the world. Did you know that there’s more than enough food to provide adequate nutrition to everyone on the planet? Here’s a simple simulation you can do with families in your church, school, or homeschooling group. It shows that hunger is more about an imbalance in food distribution than a shortage of food.

I learned the 7 m’s, an easy way to remember what animals provide: meat, milk, materials, muscle, manure, money, and motivation. I also learned about a great program called Read to Feed ®. It gives kids the opportunity to combine leisure reading with helping hungry families around the world. We’ve featured it as our June/July Take a Stand opportunity.

Here are some books kids could read during the program to help them learn more about poverty and hunger-related issues:

Beatrice’s Goat by Page McBrier

Cups Held Out by Judith L. Roth

Faith the Cow by Susan Bame Hoover

Give a Goat by Jan West Schrock

The Good Garden: How One Family Went from Hunger to Having Enough by Katie Smith Milway

Kids Against Hunger by Jon Mikkelsen

A Kid’s Guide to Hunger and Homelessness: How to Take Action by Cathryn Berger Kaye

One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference by Katie Smith Milway

This Child, Every Child by David J. Smith

At the end of the Read to Feed program, I’d plan a way for your kids to CELEBRATE! Invite parents to take part as well. Here are a few ideas.

• Visit a local farm or the petting area of the zoo to experience farm animals up close and personal.

• Attend a demonstration of sheep shearing, spinning wool, milking cows, making butter, etc. Check for these kinds of programs at local historical museums.

• Have kids make animal masks and have each “animal” explain what materials they provide for people.

The Denver Nuggets decided to continue Jacob’s Nothing but Nets project; instead of soccer nets, it was basketball nets.  On January 19, the Denver Nuggets donated $6 from each ticket sold in the upper level section of the Pepsi Center toward His Nets.  KUSA- 9News in Denver told Jacob’s story. Take a moment and watch this story.

Jacob’s mother, Sheri, said, “It doesn’t have to be big, but it can make a big difference in the lives of others.” How is God calling you to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable children?

Share your ideas with us!

The Denver Nuggets saw this story in the Denver Post, and decided to continue Jacob’s Nothing but Nets project; instead of soccer nets, it will be basketball nets.  On January 19,  the Denver Nuggets will donate $6 from each ticket toward His Nets.  If you live in the Denver area, please consider attending this game and being a part of Jacob’s project to help vulnerable children in need.

To order tickets visit

http://www.pepsicenter.com/groups/nuggets/hisnets

One Hen has an interactive website for children to explore after they’ve read the book.  The website includes games related to the story, a video of the real Kojo (now all grown up), and lesson ideas for educators. Kids can earn beads by playing interactive games on the website. Each bead (equal to one cent) donated at the end of the game turns into real money. “Bead money” is saved and goes towards real microfinance loans.

I’ve used this book with several groups of children. We even acted out parts of the story. Then I challenged kids to work together to earn money to buy a chicken, pig, duckling, or other animal that will help provide a livelihood for a family in poverty. You can go online to find gift catalogs from organizations like Compassion International, World Vision, Samaritan’s Purse, Partners International, and Heifer Project. I printed out pages from several of these gift catalogs to show the children how much these animals cost. The children were amazed that they could order animals from catalogs and excited about this unusal way of helping the needy.