UPDATE FROM THE FOUNDATION FOR RELIEF AND RECONCILIATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Prayer Update, February 18 2011    

Dear friends,

Jesus recognised children as central to God's Kingdom.

Today, may we give thanks for each of our children at St George's. We thank God for their simple faith and easy wisdom, their open hearts and pure joy in God.

Please pray for Canon Andrew and lay pastor Faiz in their ministry to them.

Here, guns and bombs, persecution, bereavement, poverty and ill-heath affect young and old alike. Childhood in Iraq is not easy.  

Among our thriving congregation of around 550 families are hundreds of children - our Sunday school is bursting at its seams. Please pray for the children of St George's, and for the children of Iraq as a whole.  

Pray for their faith and spiritual growth, their physical health, their protection.

In a region devastated by conflict, St George's fosters a position of hope and forgiveness for its children, to break the cycle of hate begetting hate.  

Please pray that, in spite of lives spent amid war and conflict, the hearts and minds of the young here will be filled with love, and hope for reconciliation.  

Pray too for their parents and adults around them. Pray for their protection, their trust and hope in God, their health, their employment, their happiness. Pray too that their hearts are filled with grace and peace. Pray for the bereaved.  

Funding

We recieved reports this week of further attacks and killings throughout Iraq and within Baghdad. Please pray for God's protection over the people, and the continued protection of Canon Andrew, Faiz, and the whole staff team at St George's Church and St George's clinic.  

In light of renewed attacks, it's vital that we host another meeting of Iraq's religious leaders soon. We are working hard to secure, and waiting to hear about, funding for the next meeting of our High Council of Religious Leaders in Iraq (HCRLI).  

Please pray. It's vital that the leaders are able to meet regularly, in order that bridges between them, and friendships among them, are strengthened. 

Meanwhile, our daily relief work continues.  Almost of quarter of Iraqis live below the poverty line, on around £1.40 a day. We provide vital relief supplies including food and blankets, and free medical care for those who need it most - whatever their faith.  

£6 will pay for a child's visit to the doctor

£33 will feed a local family for a month

Thank you, so much, for your continued prayers.   

If you have a prayer for our work which you'd like to share,  I'd love to hear from you. Email me at jenny@frrme.org   

Every blessing   

Jenny Williams