Daniel entered the lions’ den but this Pentecost Sunday thousands of Christians will enter the Millwall Den.
The London football stadium is the venue for the biggest UK event in the Global Day of Prayer when millions of Christians worldwide join together in intercession.
The event in the capital is being supported by Tearfund and aims to unite Christians to pray for the `healing and blessing of the nations’.
Healing, for example, to overcome the ravages of material and spiritual poverty and to bring people hope.
Tearfund is working with the church with this mission in mind.
HIV
It’s work being done on many fronts but one is in the field of stopping the spread and reversing the impact of HIV.
It’s estimated there are 32 million people living with HIV globally and 14 million children who have been orphaned by AIDS and live in child-headed households.
The childhood of these kids is not one most of us in the West would recognise.
Here’s an insight from one girl called Rachel from Uganda who at the age of 13 looks after four brothers and sisters plus three other children:
`I cook and dig and I take care of the house so that people don’t come and steal things. I feel that I’ve missed a lot as a child.
Emotional support
`I’ve missed school and though we have some time for playing, we don’t have anything to play with.’
Through our global network of partners, Tearfund is helping pastors and churches provide practical assistance to such children, from help with food supplies to money to pay for education.
As a result, Rachel and her family have moved into a house with adult care. She has received financial support to go back to school and has passed Year Seven exams.
Rachel’s also receiving emotional support and spiritual strength from the pastor and his wife.
It’s the kind of story that shows your involvement, both financially and through prayer, can work a miracle in people’s lives.
Miracle
The Global Day of Prayer gives us all a chance to pray for this miracle to be writ large in a world with so much need.
- Please join Christians in London and at other events around the UK and the world in praying this Sunday for the healing of the nations.
- Pray for the work of Tearfund as we work to see 50 million people released from material and spiritual poverty through a worldwide network of 100,000 local churches.
- Pray for the spread of the gospel message in every nation so that governments will rule with justice and righteousness.
- Pray for the transformation of the church into the image of Jesus.
- Pray that we use the earth’s resources for the well-being of all.
To find out more about Tearfund’s work with child headed households and children orphaned by AIDS, click here.