Prayer Requests: Belarus and Moscow's Children

I am sitting at work, and I need to post the blogs I have written about my last two weekends, but I just got back from a meeting. It was a human Rights Focus meeting that played a few documentaries about post-Soviet society. First, they spoke about Belarus, as Irina Bogdanova, the sister of a candidate in the last Belarusian presidential election, and Marina Adamovich, the wife of a candidate in the previous elections, were present. These women shared their stories as well as details about December 19, 2010. A photographer was there with his exhibit on the families of those arrested as a result of the elections. Then we watched a movie about December 19. It was very powerful to see people who were speaking out for a fair government, who were raising their voices, be arrested, leaving their families with literally no word as to their whereabouts. Men and women stood outside prison gates just for that moment when the gate would open for a car and they could try to get a glimpse and see if their loved one was there. Ms. Bogdanova told a story about how thirteen teenagers were on the street, going to buy bread or milk or something, and they were randomly arrested and beaten. They were given no reason why, they themselves had no reason why. It was just another example of the persecution of the government. Hearing these stories was heartbreaking.

Even more heartbreaking than those, I think, was the documentary they showed about children in Moscow. Since the end of the Soviet regime, somewhere around 4 million children fill the streets of Moscow, homeless. The video showed them sleeping on metros, living in dumpsters, etc. A number of these children said their papers had been stolen from them, so they had no where to go, no way to escape the life they found themselves in. A number of them talked about how they missed their mothers. These kids look for any way to escape the realities of their life. They have no money, but they have found ways to get high (that was the most horrifying, terrible scene, I thought). They drink themselves to oblivion. They attack other people, trying to get food or money or something. They steal from homeless adults, taking their clothes. The depravity of this lifestyle I cannot explain. I sat watching with that yucky feeling in my stomach, wanting to throw up, to hide my eyes, to get their faces out of my head. It is so void of hope. Honestly, this is going to sound extreme, but I felt Satan's hand all over their lives.

So I sat there, crying, and I prayed for them. And I ask you to pray for them, even right now as you read this. Who will tell these children the Good News? Who will offer them hope? Pray that God's light would shine on them, that He would speak to their hearts, that He would send someone to tell them about His love for them and His salvation and His plan and His dreams for them.

Pray, too, for places like Belarus. So many are fighting against injustice. Please pray for the families of those who are imprisoned. Please pray that God would work in the hearts of Belarusians at this time, that they would seek His face and His peace and His hope. Please pray that here, too, God would send workers to spread His name and the freedom that comes from knowing him.

I know I probably sound very dramatic about these things. But having just watched those movies and heard personal testimonies and seen photographs and read letters written from prison, my heart is heavy for these people. And I serve God, whose heart is even heavier for His people, who is not content to leave them forsaken, but who has SAVED them, and who longs for them to know His love. And I also know that the power of prayer is great, and that no matter what else I could do, praying will do more.