Orphans First Prayer Requests March 15th, 2002

Dear Prayer Warriors,

        My time in Budapest was fruitful, thanks to your prayers.  I
received photos of the Christmas project in Baku.  Awesome!  Children
receiving their ONLY Christmas present.  I hope to post these and those
from Russia and Albania on the website soon.  Meanwhile, I want to share my
heart very personally concerning the suffering children.  The pains they
suffer are so great, we cannot imagine, and the world is getting worse. 
Please read on and embrace this burden, turning compassion to intercession.
 Please take time to read.

CHILD-SLAVES
        In Afghanistan, children are being sold on every street corner for
food or money.  One man had ten children, couldn't feed them, so he sold
two of his sons, 10-year-old Sher and 5-year-old Baz.  Once they were sold,
the father went into the town to see if he could see them working.  He saw
Sher working hard, and when he saw his father, his eyes welled up with
tears.  "They treat me badly.  They beat me.  I work hard and yet they make
me sleep outside with the sheep".  How can any of us conceive of the pain
in this child's heart---and his little body!!!  Child selling and slavery
takes place in many countries.

SEXUAL ABUSE OF BABIES
        In France, another case of child prostitution was uncovered.  A
father raped and then rented out to other pedophiles his TWO-year-old baby.
 We cannot begin to imagine the pain.

ABANDONMENT/ ADOPTIONS
        Below is the story of a little boy, Valery, who we've been praying
for.  Please read and feel how urgently this child needs a family..
        Valery is currently residing at an orphanage in St. Petersburg,
Russia. He is 8 years old. His parents abandoned him on the city streets
where a police officer found the crying child and promptly placed him  in
an orphanage. The parents were finally tracked down in 2000 and their
rights were terminated. He will soon be moved to another orphanage because
the education program where he is is  designed for gifted students and
Valery is only "average." His caretakers believe that he lacks motivation
in school because he does not have parents to emphasize the importance of
his education.  Like many orphanage children he suffers from a feeling that
no one wants him or cares so why try? At the same time, he has many friends
and is happiest playing soccer and chess with them. He is a handsome boy
with no health problems. Anyone wanting more information on Valery please
emailJoyce Schaller at joyceschaller@...

STREET CHILDREN
        Recent photos of young children in Moscow show eight-year-olds
sniffing glue to desensitize their hunger pangs and cold.  When asked why
they lived on the street, they answered that they were abandoned or that
their alcoholic parents beat them so bad, they ran away.  Pray for laborers
to reach street children all over the world, or for God in His mercy to
take them Home quickly to Heaven. 

SIMPLY PRAY...........................
        My request is simple:  Pray for Christian adoptions to happen big
time.  Pray for God to deliver children being enslaved, sold, abandoned,
abused.  Pray for God to intervene in the lives of suffering children in a
dramatic and enormous way.  Pray for Him to take suffering children Home to
Heaven really quickly and painlessly where He can love them, or that He
send out laborers to do that for Him here on earth.  Pray for angels to
minister to the children.  Pray for miracles.  

*****Pray for a Women's Seminar I'm teaching tomorrow night in Sête, France
(for souls specifically to be saved).

        Finally, for those who want to read on,  below the signature line
is a story about my cat's kittens.  These thoughts serve to stir us into
deeper compassion as we sense  the fragility of life and the essential
parental role that so many children lack, leaving them abandoned, afraid,
helpless.  So, scroll down below signature if this interests you.  And
thank you for praying for the suffering children with me.

Janey

Janey L. DeMeo
Founder/director of Orphans First, freelance writer.
ORPHANS FIRST website:  http://www.OrphansFirst.org/
E mail:  janey@...
Subscribe to the free weekly Orphans First prayer list:
http://WeLoveGod.org/digests/orphansfirst/
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                                        MISTY'S KITTENS

         Misty, still a kitten herself,  gave birth to twins while we were
all away---- two white mini-Misty clone kittens, male and female.  But the
birth was traumatizing, following a fight with the dog, squabbles with the
other cat,, Bijou, and a week of pining because we were away.  Misty began
labor by going crazy running up and down trees to the point of hurting her
hip so badly she can only now walk on three legs.  And she continued
pining, not eating, until I got back Sunday.  The presence of her Mistress
brought peace so she would eat again.  
        As I see a kitten with kittens, I remember Jane in S. Africa, a
street girl of maybe 15-years.  She had a baby, and the baby was ripped
away from her by police.  Jane has no parents to love her, and the only
thing she had in the world was her baby.  Her countenance revealed such
deep dispair.  Jane is one of the many street children in S. Africa, with
Shadrack, Visu, Jeff, Small and, of course, millions of others.  None of
them know love.  All are afraid, lonely, in despair.
        Now, what a lesson can be learned watching Misty with her babies, .
 If she takes a stroll, and they wake from their sleep, they cry.  They are
afaid until she runs back to comfort them.  They are secure and nurtured by
her warmth. She would not think of abandoning her babies.  She would not
beat or abuse them.  They are so fraglie, and they take total comfort in
the presence of their mother She naturally loves them, and would sacrifice
everything to protect them.  And yet, we live in world where people sell
children to feed others, or abandon them.  Or where children leave home
because they are so badly beaten by parents.   
        I imagine the many abandoned babies in China, left on streets
because of their female sex, or because they are the second child.  I
remember those I've seen on videos DYING in orphanages where they starved
to death.  I think of little Pankaj in India, abandoned on the streets of
Bombay at only 5 years old.  I imagine the incredible fear and insecurity
as these little ones cry, waiting for a mother to come back and comfort, to
protect and hug them.  But no-one ever comes.  
        In some cases, Christians rise to the call and go and create
orphanages of someone adopts the abandoned children.  But in many cases,
they remain hungry, lonely, afraid, suffering.....Oh, may God help us pray
as never before for the children in the world.  Every child deserves to be
loved.
        Orphans First......because God desires for us to show that He is
indeed the Father of the fatherless and that to Him, the least are first. 
Let's continue praying that God would show us how to reach many, many more
children.

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