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Join with us as we lift up in prayer those in need around the world. Receive prayer requests with a special focus each month. You can have a part in ministering to those in need, through our most powerful tool, prayer.
Women in Asia wrestle with many challenges, such as gender discrimination, illiteracy and extreme poverty. They yearn for love, support and wisdom—universal needs that we can identify with but many in Asia never experience. GFA workers seek to minister God’s love and dignity to these precious women.
Join us this month as we pray for women in Asia.
Women’s Fellowships operate in every GFA local church. These groups are the heart of compassionate and loving ministry to women. At these fellowships, ladies from the community, who are often first-generation believers, gather for worship and instruction in God’s Word. It’s at these gatherings they are able to find support and encouragement from other women in the church, especially significant in times of crisis like the current pandemic. Women’s Fellowships also equip these believers to share God’s love and offer practical help to the community through programs such as literacy training.
Pray that GFA Women’s Fellowship groups nurture new believers in their faith, teaching them God’s ways and helping them grow as godly wives, mothers and daughters. Praise God that Women’s Fellowship groups have been a source of strength and comfort to thousands of women during the COVID-19 health crisis.
It is common for widows in Asia to face exclusion from society and even from their own families. Abandoned and living alone, many widows are forced to beg for their daily bread. In the current crisis of COVID-19, they are one of the most vulnerable to starvation and illness. Care and compassion for such women by GFA workers replace the shame, rejection and loss that are so unbearable for many widows in Asia with love and dignity.
Pray for widows to find love and comfort from their Father in heaven. Ask God to help GFA workers uplift these women during this time of pandemic, providing meals and groceries. Pray for income-generating gifts and vocational training for a better future and pray for believers to become the family that many widows have lost through the death of their husbands.
Vocational training teaches women basic skills that allow dignity and competency to replace feelings of helplessness. By learning a viable trade, women find new paths to improve their financial situation and gain a better life for themselves and their loved ones.
Pray many women’s lives will be transformed through vocational training and ask God to use their lives to impact other women in their communities.
Of the 781 million adults estimated to be illiterate, two-thirds—or 496 million—are women.1 Many of them live in countries where GFA workers minister. Illiteracy makes it more likely for women to be robbed of fairness in shopping and signing contracts. Illiteracy also limits job opportunities for women, trapping them in the cycle of poverty. Literacy classes offered by GFA workers open the door for women to step into new opportunities and provide for their families in God-honoring ways.
Pray more women would have the opportunity to take literacy classes despite the challenges of balancing studying with home obligations or time spent working as daily laborers. Pray for the Bridge of Hope staff members, Women’s Fellowship groups and Sisters of Compassion who teach literacy classes.
1Ford, Liz. Two-thirds of World’s Illiterate Adults are Women, Report Finds. The Guardian. https://unstats.un.org/unsd/gender/News/English/The%20Guardian_Two-thirds%20of%20world%27s%20illiterate%20adults%20are%20women,%20report%20finds%20_%20Global%20development.pdf. October 20, 2015.
Women missionaries faithfully labor among the women of Asia, offering empathy and hope in the name of Jesus to those who are abused, mistreated and living in despair. Doors that would be closed to a man are opened in welcome to women missionaries who can relate well to the difficulties other women experience and who are able to encourage them through God’s Word. Thousands of Asian women have discovered the love of Christ through the faithful ministry of a woman missionary.
Pray that God will raise up more women missionaries, instilling within them a passion for ministering to their fellow women. Pray also for safety and protection for women missionaries.
Join with us as we lift up in prayer those in need around the world. Receive prayer requests with a special focus each month. You can have a part in ministering to those in need, through our most powerful tool, prayer.
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