Children & Poverty: The Bishops Initiative

Prayer Guide: September 2004

Prayer

Prayer Focus: That all children will have a good education.

• September 5-11: Pray for children entering school for the first time.
• September 12-18: Pray for children around the world that have no opportunity to go to school.
• September 19-25: Pray for teenagers who have dropped out of school and those who might.
• September 26-30: Pray for children who are attending or will attend the new schools built or being built through Hope for the Children of Africa.

Call to Action

Learn more by reading United Methodist Women's Campaign for Children - Phase III: Let's Go Back to School, #3223 at the Service Center (scorders@gbgm-umc.org or 1.800.305.9857) and Education: The Gift of Hope (Cokesbury, 1.800.672.1789). Organize a group to study one or both of these resources with you. Visit with a school principal in a low-income area to find out more about school funding and other educational issues. Ask about ways individuals or groups can support the children's learning.

Identify education issues in your neighborhood, the wider community or around the world.

Act by becoming a tutor for a child achieving below grade level or a child in a special education classroom. Encourage others in your church and community to become tutors or to participate in the local school councils/parent organizations. Provide space in your church building for children and teenagers to do their homework every afternoon. Work with concerned citizens, schools and advocacy organizations to advocate with your state legislature for increased and equitable funding for school districts across the state.

Plan to share with families in your church and neighborhood the resource, Whose Birthday Is It Anyway?, for their use in planning more Christ-centered Christmas celebrations. Call Alternatives for Simple Living at 1.800.821.6153 to obtain this booklet.