Church Displays over 350 Handwritten Prayers for Children Suffering Abuse
When we find out about problems in our communities that are monumental, it can be difficult to know where to start to make a change. A report in Kentucky recently informed readers that Kentucky was #1 — but for a very sad reason.
“According to the report, Kentucky had 22,410 child-abuse victims in 2017, the last year for which data is available,” Kentucky Health News wrote. “That equates to a rate of about 22 victims per 1,000 children in the commonwealth, which is more than twice the national average rate of nine. Ten child fatalities were attributed to abuse in Kentucky in 2017.”
“Kentucky’s child-abuse rate has increased annually from 2013, when it was 17.3 per 1,000. That’s an increase of more than 27 percent over the four-year period. Among the victims in 2017, more than 15,000 were first-time victims, meaning more than 7,000 children had been abuses in previous years.”
That news hit many people hard, but especially a group at Christ Church United Methodist of Louisville. Bill Cooper, a member there, was once a lawyer and now spends time advocating for social reform.
“I just kept saying, ‘I’ve got to do something,'” he told the Louisville Courier Journal. Since it was Christmas, a time when many people are either eking out an existence financially or already donating to other causes, he thought a “first step” might be good to prime the pump.
“Everyone’s always asking for money,” he said. “What if we just ask the church to do what it’s best at doing — pray?”
Church members of all ages were asked to write prayers and submit them. Even those too young to write letters drew pictures.
But this outreach was for more than the immediate church.
“We hope the community will come in and write prayers,” Rev. Leanne Hadley, the children’s minister, said.
Director of Outreach Shelah Woodruff also told The Christian Post that “we believe that God transforms lives and situations through prayer.”
“Through prayer, we believe God can change the lives of children suffering from abuse, the lives of their abusers, the lives of their caseworkers, and even our own lives,” she continued. “Prayer shapes who we are as God calls to us and we respond.”
“We have a number of partner organizations who work specifically with abused and neglected children, and as a congregation we believe that blessing children — meeting their needs for food, shelter, education, hope and love — is essential to our vision as a church and as the body of Christ.”
“We recognize this takes time. We also recognize that we have a long way to go,” she continued. “We don’t know where this will lead us. We are taking this first step in faith, trusting that God will open our hearts and reveal how we might respond with our individual gifts and graces, and as a church.”
According to The Christian Post, the church display featured over 350 prayers. Along with providing the opportunity to jot down a prayer, the church put together an informational display on child abuse statistics and how to change them.
The church’s Facebook page shared a short video highlighting the project and encouraging people to submit their own prayers up until Dec. 24.
“Take 30 seconds and watch this slideshow, then ask God how you can pray for the abused children,” they posted. “We are accepting ALL prayers. You can write them down and bring them to church, you can comment below or send us a message.”
“Jesus would have never looked the other way,” Cooper said. “It is evil and it’s ugly.”
“This is just the first step,” Woodruff admitted about the prayer project. “If it were the last step, it would be ridiculous.”
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