Operation Christmas Child & Rwanda

This week join us in praying for Rwanda. It is a fertile, mountainous country similar to its southern neighbor, Burundi, in Africa. It has 13 people groups with 23% unreached. There are 5 languages in Rwanda. Challenges for Prayer include praying for the children and young people were deeply scarred by the events of the 1990s, but they are now the young adults and future leaders of Rwanda. They carry a painful legacy and difficult burdens no young people should have to bear. 

Pray for:

1. Pray God provides all of the resources needed during the coming year and continues to strengthen the Operation Christmas Child Teams’ commitment and trust in Him.
2. Pray God’s peace and presence will dwell over the teams. Pray He will bless everyone who works with this project and bring the children a deeper knowledge of Christ.
3. Pray for the ministry to university students. Most Bible study leaders lost their lives, but a new generation of workers is being raised up. Pray for more workers and resources for the task. 
4. Young people’s ministries, which work across denominations. Bible reading programs, prayer groups, youth camps, alternate education programs, AIDS awareness as well as assisting orphans, street kids and child heads-of-households are all aspects of current work.
5. Orphans from genocide, war and AIDS may number up to 900,000 – 30% of all Rwandan children. There are over 30,000 child-led households caring for 100,000. They are the most vulnerable to exploitation. 
6. Pray for counselling for those who witnessed or suffered traumatic experiences and for those who must live without parents. Their numbers are vast, their pain is deep and the church is still learning how to offer such ministry.
7. Social networks – such as the extended families of these children – to offer love, mercy and kindness to them, treating them as their own. Pray also for friends for these orphans; 74% say they have none, and 40% feel life is meaningless. 
8. The children of genocide perpetrators. Pray for the breaking of any ties that might carry on the legacy of guilt and violence; pray for freedom in Christ and a new identity. 
9. Models of family and community, which these children have not experienced. Pray for churches, ministries and relations to teach and show them how to live as part of a family, a community and a society in a manner that glorifies God. Missionary presence continues to increase! 
10. Pray God will help the team to fulfill their three year strategic plan to reach more children in Rwanda.
11. Pray God will provide volunteers who are committed to the mission of Operation Christmas Child.

Shoebox gifts collected in the United States in 2015 will be delivered to 145,584 children in Rwanda. Praise God that over 643,129 children have received a shoebox since 1994, when Operation Christmas Child began distributing gifts here.  Rwanda has 12.6 million people.  42% of the population is 14 years old or younger.  

A boy in Rwanda receives his shoebox gift!