Praying for Unaccompanied Children
June 8, 2021
By: Judy Douglass
Last month, a number of Christian churches and ministries in Central Florida partnered to help examine and pray for the plight of unaccompanied migrant children who have been arriving in significant numbers at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent months. Some local Christians are responding by partnering with Bethany Christian Services to open their homes as transitional foster care settings to one or these children. But while not everyone is in a position to take in a child, all of us can – and should – pray. These are some prayer points, originally prepared by Judy Douglass, that we encourage you to adapt to your local context. You can also view conversation in its entirety below.
Prayer Points for Unaccompanied Children
- Pray for sponsors to come forward and open their homes to these children.
- Pray for churches to respond to this opportunity and need.
- Pray for safe reunification with parents and/or close family.
- Pray for healing from trauma for these children.
- Pray for protection for the children–from cartels, traffickers, others who could do harm to them.
- Pray for parents making hard decisions to send their children alone in caravans or with smugglers out of desperation.
- Pray for factors of violence and poverty in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Venezuela and other countries that are pushing these children to flee.
- Pray for God to prevent destructive hurricanes from making situations worse over the summer.
- Pray for this effort to open many hearts in US to consider fostering, for unaccompanied children, or generally for the many children in need of care.
- Pray for our President, Congress, Customs and Border Protection, Health and Human Services and other agencies to make wise decisions about our border crises, to care for vulnerable people, to address the issues causing the crises, to act justly and love mercy and walk humbly.
