Children & Poverty: The Bishops Initiative

Prayer Guide: March 2005

Prayer

Prayer Focus: That all children will have health care.

• March 1-5: Pray for children who may die from preventable childhood diseases because they have not been fully immunized.
• March 6-12: Pray for children who are born infected with the HIV virus or who live with chronic, debilitating diseases.
• March 13-19: Pray for teenagers who have eating disorders.
• March 20-26: Pray for children and teenagers who have no health insurance.
• March 27-31: Pray for children and teenagers who have a parent with mental illness.

Call to Action

Learn more by talking with a nurse at your city or county Department of Health. Ask for information about immunization rates, well-baby exams, prenatal and postpartum care for low-income mothers. Find out about your state's Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Read Health for All: A Congregational Health Ministries Resource (#4573 at the Service Center, scorders@gbgm-umc.org or 1.800.305.9857).

Identify issues related to health in your own neighborhood, the wider community or around the world.

Act by putting up posters in your church that tell parents how to enroll their children in the state's CHIP. Work with other congregations and neighborhood groups to organize a health fair for the community. Volunteer to visit with a chronically-ill child. Organize your church to put together Health Kits for distribution by UMCOR. Work with others in your congregation to develop a prayer calendar for 2005-2006 on children and the poor.

Plan to subscribe to New World Outlook through the Service Center (scorders@gbgm-umc.org or 1.800.305.9857) for articles and resources on critical issues, i.e., sustainable agriculture, refugees.