Restored - Ending Violence Against Women

Day of prayer - Maundy Thursday 5th April

Beyond the Streets

Staff: Josephine Knowles, Mark Wakeling, Cia Hughes

Prayer Points:

• To see the women that we are working with experience increased freedom and healing in their situations.  
• To see less isolation in this area, both for women in prostitution, but also for projects who are working in this area.
• For more projects to begin working with women in prostitution in areas where there aren’t any.
• Energy and capacity to work effectively in this area and having wisdom to get involved with the right projects and know which ones to not give our time to

• Olympic Prayer Guide - we would really appreciate you promoting this resource and encouraging people to use it as a guide to pray for those caught in commercial sexual exploitation, particularly in the run up to the Olympics. 
• Thank you for praying for us

Boaz Trust

Staff: Dave Smith, Cat Arundle, Mark Cloherty, Lucy Smith, Nigel Biggs, Raj Brightman, Jo Garbutt, Ros Holland, Suzannah Sammons

The reality is that 75% of our female clients have disclosed physical, sexual or emotional abuse and there are others that simply will not say. The women we work with are often struggling with physical and mental health conditions, sometimes as a result of their trauma, and we have a number of clients living with HIV.

We would really appreciate your prayers

Breakthrough in funding

April is the start of the new financial year and we are in need of breakthrough with our finances. We have a budget of over £280,000, and although we have secured some long-term funding from grants, we have a lot still to raise! This includes finance for salaries, as well as for basic needs and accommodation costs. Please pray for the team and trustees, that we would make wise strategic decisions, and for provision to increase to match our growing need. Please pray for initiatives like 'Friends of Boaz' and 'Boaz 2012', that more and more people would sign up to give regularly to our work in these ways! If you would like to help with fundraising for Boaz, or if you have any creative ideas, please contact us.

A practical way you can make a difference today is by sponsoring Team Boaz on the 'Lent Endurance Challenge'. Last week the team at the Boaz office took on the challenge of living on a Red Cross Food Parcel for a week, and have so far raising £312 as a result. We would love to raise £1,000 in total so please help us meet this target by giving today! Thanks to all who have already supported the team, it's been really appreciated and made a lot of difference! 

Breakthrough with client cases
Our advocacy team are submitting several fresh claims at the moment, and lots of our clients are very anxious about the outcomes. Please pray for positive and quick decisions to be made by those in positions of authority, and for peace for each of our clients as they wait. Please pray as well for those who are struggling to get evidence to submit fresh claims- we particularly pray for the Pentecostal Eritrean community who are finding it difficult to get proof of their persecution because the Church there is so underground.

Breakthrough with health
Lots of our clients have serious health conditions which we would love your prayer for. Let's pray for each person to know God as their Healer and Provider at this time. We particularly pray for a client who was recently released from hospital, that she will quickly recover and get the right level of support. We pray as well for those struggling with mental health problems, including anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, that they would know peace, comfort and rest.

Breakthrough with hosts
The night shelter is due to end this month and we currently have nowhere for most of the residents to move on to. We urgently need more hosts that can host medium to long-term (2 months+) and that can host male asylum seekers. We thank God for the hosts we currently have, and pray for God's blessing on their households this Easter time. Also if this is something you can do yourself, please contact Cat, our hosting coordinator. Thank you!

Sophia Network

Staff: Jenny Baker & other volunteers

Prayer Points

• We’re running an eight-week course exploring what the Bible says about women and men from 7th May. People can sign up to take part in an online discussion each week. Please pray for lots of people to get involved and to be well-grounded in Scripture on this issue. 
  
  
• Our members have held regional meetings in Bournemouth, London, Sheffield and Bourne Lincolnshire in the last month. Please pray for positive, empowering relationships to be built from these days that will result in women leading with more confidence and skill. And pray for more effective regional groups to be set up

• We have changed our strapline to ‘Wisdom for women in leadership’ to emphasise the fact that the network is open to all women in leadership, not just youth workers. Please pray for increased membership and a stronger network

CVM

Pray for each staff member 

• Carl Beech, General Director
• Dave Lodge, Creative Director
• Alex Wilmott Head of Resources
• Joe Mears Operations Manager
• Karen Beech (PA to Carl)
• Mark Lyndon-Jones, Director Wales
• Spud Murphy, Director Northrern Ireland
• Steve Martin, Director Southern England

That they would be refreshed in their vision, renewed in their spirit and restored where they need to be. May God replenish the love they give out to others so that it continues to overflow.

CVM asks for prayer for:

• For guys who have come to faith through cvm in the last few months.
• For wisdom as we expand internationally.
• Financial supplies to stay healthy!
• For new staff joining and that the right people are recruited into key positions

Flame International

Led by Jan Ransom

Pray the staff would be refreshed in their vision, renewed in their spirit and restored where they need to be. May God replenish the love they give out to others so that it continues to overflow.

Prayer for

Burundi - Pray that we, through the Lord, really can make an impact in Bujumbura, the capital, and continue the work on Muyinga that was started a year ago.  Pray we can make contact and see the President again.  

Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) - We go to Kinshasa and Brazzaville 30 June - 14 July and we ask you to pray for our preparations and for the team.  This is proving a difficult mission to set up and I ask you to pray for Val as she tries to work out the administrative arrangements with folk on the ground in DRC. We have a team for which we give thanks;  please pray for 2 more men to join us.  

Funding -Our appeal for DRC funding has gone out on 30 March, please pray it bears much fruit.  Pray that the Kingdom of God will bear much fruit as we seek to raise money. We want seek first His righteousness!  Pray for Paul Brockbank as he approaches people for funding and Gareth as he raises our profile and approaches trust funds and individuals

Somebody Cares – Malawi

Led by Theresa Malila

Theresea says, 'I have been traveling for some time and have been in the US and Fiji islands.  I was invited to Fiji to come and talk to the Government, Indigenous leaders and church leaders regarding VAW, child abuse and trafficking.  It was an amazing time when the Lord ministered mightily and by the time I was leaving the provinces were already talking and taking action on the ground.  I have two Fijians from Homes of Hope and a government official who are coming to Malawi to learn how we are dealing with these issues and also how to mobilize their communities.  they are coming for 2 months on the ground.  I am so grateful to see God move in such a mighty way.  The women and young girls in the province were very thankful as none has dared to challenge the government, indigenous and church leaders before. I look forward to see how God engages these leaders for His glory and kingdom.   It was a very dark place, a lot of spiritual darkness but God prevailed.  

Please also include Malawi as you pray, as you may or may not have heard of the outbreak of violence against women, where women were attached and undressed in public.  This happened in early February this year.  We will join the prayer time.  Please follow us on Somebody Cares Facebook blog.'  

Gods peace and grace in abundance

Schedule

Our focus for this day of prayer is the work of the members' of Restored. The day will run from 9:30am - 5pm BST UK (8:30am - 4pm GMT).

Taking Part

This will physically take place in the offices of Restored member, Tearfund, in Teddington, UK. We are not expecting everyone to attend in person but we hope many of you will join in remotely. We will be updating Twitter and Facebook with prayer requests using the hash tag #RestoredPrayer. You can feed in prayers, feedback, words and pictures using social media or by emailing Mandy.Marshall@restoredrelationships.org  We will share prayers and feedback with others praying.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/restoredrelationships

Twitter: @Rest0red using the hash tag #RestoredPrayer

Email: mandy.marshall@restoredrelationships.org

Schedule

9:30am – 10am                  Opening devotion & reflection on Isaiah 61

10am – 10:30am                World news focus – praying for items on VAW which have been in the news recently (UK family report, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Child Brides, Forced Marriages)

10:30am – 11am                Listening to God, words, pictures, dreams, external feedback

11am – 11:15am               break

11:15am – 12:30pm         Praying for members (3 member organisations)

12:30 – 1:30pm               Lunch break

1:30 – 3pm                       Prayer and listening for Restored staff & volunteers

3pm – 3:15pm                   Break

3:15pm – 4:30pm             Praying for members (3 organisations)

4:30 – 5pm                       Reflections from the day, words, feedback, final prayer