September weeks 3 & 4 Pray for Operation Christmas Child

During the 3rd week of September we are praying for Moldova, Poland and Romania.

Moldova’s request is: Pray for the children who have heard the Gospel through OCC and the follow-up work with them. Click here for a video link: Moldova OCC Video

Poland’s requests are:
*Pray God will provide a new vision for OCC in Poland. Pray that He will open the hearts of more children and their families.
*Pray for wisdom as the team prepares for the national volunteer meetings in Sobieszowo.

Romania’s request is: Pray God will provide someone to serve as a volunteer leader in the Moldova area. For Livia's Romanian Shoebox Story click here: Shoebox Stories! 

Romania Operation Christmas Child Distribution

During the 4th week of September we are praying for Serbia and Slovakia. 

Serbia’s requests are:

OCC Distribution Serbia

* Pray God will bless the children who receive the shoeboxes and their parents. Pray they will accept God and follow Him.
* Pray the volunteers and other believers are able to teach the children how to apply biblical principles they learn through TGJ to their everyday lives.
* Pray for the new national volunteers as they begin to serve in their new roles.
* Pray the people from the new Roma house group that formed after the distributions will increase in the wisdom and revelation of the knowledge of God.
* Pray OCC will reach more children in the coming season.

Solovakia is a locked central European state south of Poland. Only 1% of the over 5 million population is Evangelical Christian. There are 20 different people groups that speak 13 different languages. Slovakia’s requests are:
* Pray for the new OCC season in Slovakia. Pray many children will become true disciples of Christ through TGJ.
* Pray God will open the doors for OCC Outreach Events to occur in the places God has put on the heart of the local church pastors.

* Slovakia Shoebox Testimony: Dominika was raised in Slovakia, and her family was very poor. When she was four years old, her father left them, and her mother had no money to buy gifts for Christmas. That year, Dominika received a shoebox gift from Operation Christmas Child. For the first time, as she read the note in her box talking about Jesus' love, she felt that someone loved her. 

For the History of Operation Christmas Child Timeline Click Here: https://www.samaritans-purse.org.uk/who-we-are/our-history/history-of-operation-christmas-child/ 

Sweet Hour of Prayer & Romania

Aren't you so thankful that we can go to our Heavenly Father for a sweet time of prayer! As the old hymn says "I'll cast on Him my every care and wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer." Prayer is essential to give us the strength, guidance, knowledge, and protection as we go into spiritual warfare every day. I am so thankful that my prayers are heard and answered.  He always hears and He always answers. Ask Him to guide you in whatever you need then wait, expectantly, for Him to answer you in your sweet hour of prayer. 

This week join Operation Christmas Child in praying for Romania.  5.4% of Romanians are Evangelical Christian. There are 23 different spoken languages in Romania. Stories of the hundreds of thousands of orphans and abandoned children in the 1990s broke the hearts of many. While this is still a great need, churches and missions do an increasingly good job caring for these young people, praise the Lord! The relevance of Christianity to youth is a challenge – this is more an issue of church culture and tradition than openness. Churched youth are often dedicated and effective in ministry. Unfortunately, most church programs are not attractive to unbelieving young people. Pray for effective programs and pastors who are willing and able to mobilize the youth into ministry, an area of ministry surprisingly lacking until now.

Specifically:
1. Pray for the regional volunteer leadership team. Pray they are able to find solutions to the challenges they are facing.
2. Pray The Greatest Journey discipleship program will have a great impact in Romania.
3. Pray for the children who have graduated from the program this year.

Give thanks to God for Alina and her story. We are thankful that she is now living in the USA instead of Romania and that God is using her story to touch lives!

NEA Requests:
1. Our 2015 goal of 10,200 - it's shoebox time!!!! Pray we will do abundantly more this year, in Jesus' Name!  National Collection Week is November 16-23.

2. All of the year-around volunteers to be rooted and strengthened as the season is quickly approaching.

3. Pray for the churches that are participating in packing shoeboxes, that they will have success and see good fruit in their efforts!

4. Hobby Lobby will be promoting OCC in their 700 stores nation-wide Labor Day through National Collection Week. Pray for God to multiply this effort.

5. Upward Sports is sending OCC promotional communication to the 625 churches that have a Fall Upward League.  Pray for this to multiply Gospel Opportunities (Shoeboxes).

6. War Room will send an OCC crafted and dedicated eblast to 7 million to promote National Collection Week. When the War Room releases on DVD, it will include at least one OCC/TGJ bonus feature. War Room was the #2 movie at the box office opening weekend and #1 the following (Labor Day) weekend. Praise God for the power of prayer!

7. Lifeway and 5 other bookstores will have Go Boxes and "How to Pack Your Shoebox Gift” brochures, and Jesus Loves Me musical lambs for purchase as a shoebox items this year!  Pray this produces abundantly more shoeboxes than we can imagine!

"But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!" (Psalm 66:19, 20 ESV)