The sad truth is that the issues we work on don’t just affect adults - children also suffer discrimination, harassment and worse, because of what they believe.
This week, as we mark World Children’s Day on 20 November, bring the children we’ve mentioned here before God.
Pray your own prayers over these children, asking our Heavenly Father to protect and bless them, and deliver them from all evil.
Kevin from Mexico
was just eight years old in 2018 when he and his family were forced to leave their home in Chiapas State because of their faith. It’s always been his dream to be a doctor one day, but being uprooted from his home meant that he missed over a year of schooling.
But in September 2019, Kevin went back to school! Pressure from an international campaign. and lobbying by a local organisation, meant that Kevin was able to resume his education.
Chang Weiping’s son
is only seven, and he and his mother are being harassed at home because of who his father is. His mother said he is 'scared to the point of insomnia…He even asks what he would do if the police hold a gun to his head.'
His father, Chang Weiping, is a Chinese human rights defender who was arrested last year and has been charged with ‘subversion’, purely for his human rights work. Chang has defended members of the banned spiritual movement Falun Gong, and Christians who attend unregistered ‘house’ churches.
Farzana Khan1 is an Ahmadi Muslim teenager in Pakistan.
She told us, ‘A few of the children in my school told the other students, “She is Ahmadi, don’t play with her or eat with her, and stop treating her normally.’’ They punished me, they used to strike me with sticks, and tell me not to sit with the other kids. I haven’t told anyone in my new school that I am Ahmadi.’
The Ahmadiyya community is the most persecuted religious group in Pakistan - discrimination, harassment and even violence are regular occurrences.
Download a printable copy of this week's Prayer Diary.
1Name changed for security reasons.