Prayer Meeting 17.4.1984 — George Verwer

As probably most of you know, even as we're sitting here, the Libyan embassy is under siege down in central London. This morning an anti-Qaddafi demonstration took place. April is a very important month in Libyan history and it was the month the students revolted and then a year later it was the month that Qaddafi wiped out the students by hanging a whole load of them.

And so both the anti-Qaddafi forces and the pro-Qaddafi forces during April get a little excited. Now this morning a peaceful demonstration took place, just for those of you who haven't followed this, and suddenly from inside the embassy someone opened fire with a machine gun on the anti-Qaddafi demonstrators and killed a woman policeman who was just standing there, a 25-year-old, in her mid-twenties, woman who had been with the force just seven years.

Her mother said ever since three this woman had only one desire her whole life, was to be with the police. In fact she was short and couldn't get into the police, tried even to get into the Hong Kong police, and eventually got accepted into the London police.

I think they changed their rules some time ago about height. Quite amazing. And right now as we're here praying, this building, which is not sort of an official embassy, it's been changed into sort of a people's embassy, though it still has all embassy rights.

And according to law police cannot go in there without permission, and according to law if the man who fired that gun is a diplomat he cannot be arrested and tried, he can only be declared persona non grata and sent out of the country.

So it's a complicated situation. About ten other people were wounded, and of course over the past years there have been so many of these Libyan incidents, as Gaddafi has declared, war on all people killed.

Praying for Libya and the Muslim World

Maybe we could just start our prayer time for the Muslim world by praying for Libya. So hard isn't it to pray, there are thousands of... years ago the United States sent all these sort of special embassy groups out of the country, but Britain has not done this because of trade agreements, a lot of exports go from this country to Libya, and because there are thousands of Libyans, a few of whom are believers in Libya, a very, very semi-closed country.

So let's just pray right now, I understand that in Libya also the British embassy has been surrounded or something like that. Let's pray right now for Libya, realizing that there are a lot of consequences in what's happening right now for the whole of North Africa, such a difficult place where a high percentage of all those who've ever gone there have within a few years been out because of visas or sickness or death or something else of that kind.

Let's especially pray, maybe even this incident will just awaken believers to see this news, to immediately pray. So let's have several people just lead us in prayer right now for this crisis down in London, for the situation in Libya, for the British people who are there, for of course some films, Jesus film that's in Libya, I think in videocassette form, there's a witness there, it's not large.

If you know anything else about Libya, this is a good time to pray. Amen, let's pray. Father, we do cry together now as a company of your people for this situation in central London to be resolved with a minimum of violence and death.

We pray as we know there are believers in the police force in London. We know, Father, also that they're attempting, some of them, to try to witness to their fellow policemen and policewomen. God is a challenge to us when we see these people often very dedicated to police work, risking their lives, never knowing when a bomb is going to go off, as it did in front of Harrods over Christmas, as it has again and again in London at different times, killing people.

Lord, we long to know a deeper commitment in our own lives, not to just play games, little religious games. We pray that even as we pray tonight, it may be with faith. As we know, prayer is work, it is hard.

We do want to pray in faith. Guide us now as we consider the challenge of Islam and really praying for different parts of the Muslim world, in Jesus' name. Amen. Now often when we pray for the Muslim world, the whole thing gets a little bit overwhelming because we're often praying for places where there hasn't been yet too much of a breakthrough, apart from individuals.

Also, I've noticed that some of our praying for the Muslim world gets rather repetitious because as we haven't seen much of a breakthrough, we tend to have to pray for workers and for hearts to be melted.

Women Missionaries Reaching Muslim Communities

I thought it would be good to just share something a little different, especially since when we think of Muslim work, we also tend to think about men. A lot of the Muslim work that you may know about, we hear things like women not even coming out of their houses, so they're difficult to reach, though I'm sure you know that some of them are being reached.

But I want to just share from a case study made in the Philippines among the Surani people where they have seen a breakthrough. This report is a little bit out of date, so I hope to bring an update sometime.

Maybe some of you know more than I do, but it's the story of two single women missionaries who teamed up because of their common conviction that Muslims can and must be one for Christ and they began their team effort among women and children in a town, this is in the Philippines by the way, of 25 ,000.

That is the center of all the villages in a 15 to 20 mile radius. Apparently these people speak a dialect. At the time of this writing a couple of years ago, there was nothing written, nothing could be read, though according to this 10 million people were involved, 10 million people.

These two women carry out a program that would exhaust four men. They have seen approximately 250 people put their trust in Christ. This is in an area of 100 Muslim, 100 Muslim. And they are in regular contact with 156 of them.

This is a couple of years ago, five years ago. Discipling them through a full-fledged program. Let me just tell you a little bit about their methodology. Using a dispensary, they presented the gospel both verbally and in their lifestyle.

Early they flew in the face of both culture and religion by insisting that one, everyone would be treated equally in order in which they came to the clinic. No one would receive medical treatment without also hearing the gospel.

In that culture only the poor masses will stand in line. The upper class minorities expect to cut in and be waited on first. Of course, as Muslims they objected to being forced to hear the gospel, at least the upper class.

The effect of this procedure was basically only the poor majority came. Christianity was presented as a religion in which poor men had equal rights, quite in contrast to the prevalent practice of Muslim society in that area.

Three, the gospel was heard over and over again since most patients came back frequently. Experience over the years shows the initial hostility of the gospel soon turned into curiosity and finally into understanding.

A respect for the gospel and for the missionary's convictions about Christ was generated because they did not tolerate any heckling or open opposition to their preaching within the walls of the dispensary.

This is consistent with the Muslim cultural pattern of non-tolerance of any open attack on the love of Christ was clearly on display in the care in which the medicine was dispensed. Another part of the initial approach of the two missionaries was the expansion of house-to-house preaching of the gospel throughout the area on the days that the dispensary was closed.

This is really interesting. Several significant factors need to be pointed out in regard to this. Other missionaries were horrified and strongly objected to two young unveiled single women going into remote areas and Muslim homes without any men to protect them.

By the way, the toughest decision we had to make concerning our work in Pakistan five years ago was to bring in single women. We also have seen some miraculous breakthroughs, not in terms of a lot of fruit yet, but in terms of getting some credibility and being able to even carry on that kind of work.

Perhaps they exposed themselves to dangers, but by the grace of God, no harm came to them. They have demonstrated that women can effectively reach the Muslim family with the gospel. When a man, missionary or national, goes to visit in a Muslim home, he is received by the men in the front guest room, has no access to the rest of the house or to the women of the home.

Muslim men very much enjoy discussing and arguing religion, and in most cases the presentation of the gospel by a man is interrupted so frequently with arguments that it is rendered meaningless. In contrast, when these women missionaries enter a Muslim home, they are taken into the women's section where all of the women and children are.

Since the missionaries do not wear the Muslim veil, the men of the house feel free to enter the room and listen. They do not feel free, however, to enter into much conversation with a woman. Since Muslim women are not supposed to do much thinking and certainly not much speaking in the presence of their husbands or father, they also quietly listen while the gospel message is clearly presented to the whole family.

Sometimes during the serving of tea, one of the men might ask the usual argumentative questions such as, if Jesus is the son of God, then who is his grandfather? These two servants of God usually responded to such derogatory remarks by refusing the tea being offered, leaving the house amidst the pleas of their hosts to please not be offended.

A general awareness of the presence of Christians and respect for the basic truths of the gospel was established in the area through this approach. Praise the Lord. That's something encouraging, isn't it?

Developing Muslim Fellowships and Local Leadership

A fellowship and worship service has begun with the men separated from the women by a curtain. I think our social policy is rough. I wonder where the preacher stands. I guess he has to stand by the curtain.

In front of it. The women on one side, the men on the other. I've heard of it. I've talked to a pastor in Scotland who has something like that. He built a petition between his side of the bed and his wife's.

I think they had a problem. This past year, the average attendance of both the women's worship service and the joint worship service has been from 40 to 50. He talks about some of the difficulties, especially baptism and marriage, in order that the young people would not get in trouble.

They would not baptize a young person without a parent being present. That's created some obstacles. The group of believers is still a long way from being a church with its own leadership and program.

The greatest weakness at this point is the lack of male leadership. Phil Parshall, one of his reasons in going out to the Philippines, I think, is to be involved in Muslim work in the Philippines where there has been seemingly some breaks, some openings.

I think it would really be good right now if we could pray, especially for this people's group, the Surani people. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing it correctly, Surani. These two women, anybody else that may be working there.

It says the Surania region is 99 Muslim, and as I mentioned, 10 million souls. I'm sure a lot has happened since this was written. It says also that 88 of the Surani are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school.

Praying for Individual Muslim Seekers

Sometimes we need to just focus in on single individuals. I had a phone call a few days ago from a friend in the Gulf, and he said you must meet a particular person, a young woman actually. He didn't know much what it was about.

Then this woman called me, quite insistent that she have the opportunity to speak to me. So when I went in to take a meeting last night, a Christian Union meeting, I had her meet me at the meeting. I'd like to really pray for her.

She is a Muslim, her father is an Orthodox Muslim, is definitely seeking. She's read two or three books. My friend gave me the idea she had professed faith in Christ, but she told me she was just seeking.

Her name is Gazala. Gazala speaks a couple of languages, including Urdu. She's from Kenya, but is obviously of Pakistani background. Her whole family lives in London. Her mother seems to be losing her faith in Islam or God, especially since the death of her older sister.

She's from a large family. My burden is, and she's agreed to this, put her in touch with Manjula, who I think actually lives over somewhere near her. I'd like to have two people really pray for Gazala, because she is seeking the Lord.

She sat through the whole meeting, which wasn't mainly evangelistic, but it certainly wasn't generally anything that would hinder her, what she heard. It's just frightening to think of what would happen if she professed faith.

She also works. She's a secretary and works for a strong Muslim company. One of the employees saw this Christian book on her desk. Said, you know, if the boss sees that, we're going to be in trouble. She seems fairly strong-minded.

She told the guy to go. I don't know exactly how she put it. But you can imagine, if her family discovers what she's reading, I was able to give her a copy of, is it Manjula, which she's probably reading now, as well as Logic of Faith.

So can two people pray for this particular girl? I would say she's probably mid-twenties, maybe early twenties. Maybe we could just open this after two people pray for this woman. If there are others that would like to pray for individuals right now, that would be good.

So let's keep this session open. For any that would like to lead in prayer, especially for individuals of Muslim background. And as you know, there are thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands just in the London area alone.

So this is a real challenge. Amen. Let's pray. We need to pray for Roger Molstead. One of his many jobs is to help promote the work among Muslims in any way possible. Now, how a trip to Poland fits into this, I'm not sure, but it's indicative of Roger's job, and maybe we could pray for him, that he has just a lot of different responsibilities.

The job originally was born out of just trying to save me or preserve me or whatever. As I have so many things coming from every part of the world, I just had to just give over things and let someone else get on with it.

But if we could pray for Roger, especially as he has been to the Middle East again this year and is working on different things. He's just drafted up a memo about how we can increase training people for longer-term work among Muslims.

And then if we could pray for each area. We're not going to be able to cover each area, but maybe some of the main sending countries, maybe your own sending country you come from, that the Lord will show them what they can do in connection with this challenge.

Maybe it's a leaflet. Maybe it's a greater use of a film strip. Maybe it's a Muslim awareness weekend. But we obviously can't just create a whole new structure just to take this particular vision. We've got to work through the existing structure just as we now have that team in Brussels.

We have some speakers going out and taking meetings to present the challenge of Islam. I met Brother Job. He's a man from Singapore who is the brother of Yang, the chief engineer on Dulas. Job was affected by the challenge of Fred Perry and he is now opening the new trade commission in Dubai for the Singapore government.

Tentmaking as a Strategy for Muslim Ministry

He took this job specifically, really, to get into that part of the world to share Christ. We might just remember this effort we have to challenge people to be tent makers in the Muslim world. There are all kinds of jobs in these countries.

You can pick up any of the papers where they advertise jobs, overseas jobs, and you'd just be amazed. Praise the Lord. Slowly, slowly, Christians are getting that vision to take some of these jobs. I was just reading how some of the Koreans have made an impact in Saudi Arabia, something I hadn't heard.

I knew they were there, but it does seem to amaze the Saudis that here are people coming from Asia. They expect people from Britain or America to be talking about Christianity. They expect us actually to do it more than we do.

But to meet Koreans of that background and have them share Christ, I think has made some degree of impact. So if we could really cry out to the Lord and believe that there could be more workers, further breakthroughs.

Some of the countries we're working in, there's very little literature written, really, for the Muslim mind. We now in Bangladesh have a number of items, but some other languages, there's very, very little.

We can include in this prayer for our own AV department here where we're producing some items in Arabic and Turkish and other languages. And these things do get out into the Gulf and into different countries.

And if we could just really pray for finance, we seem to be hindered in so many ways because of the financial situation. For every time that you hear of a lack of finance hindering the work, there are five other times that you never hear about.

That's, of course, just a guess figure, but it may be more than that. If not time, we don't make lists. Again and again we see, it seems to be almost ludicrous, that here's a task which the whole church who are dedicated and believe God's word basically at least acknowledge is a priority, evangelizing in those hands.

You see, so little manpower, so little finance. You'd almost think that we'd get more money designated to the Muslim work than we'd ever be able to use. Well, the problem really would be workers. But in fact, a number of people have turned back and then in other cases projects have been canceled because of lack of finance.

So let's pray for our own involvement in this decade of Muslim emphasis. What are some things we should be doing? Maybe we could tie into this a little prayer for Easter evangelism in Germany. I don't think I'm going to get to that, but they're expecting 800.

And I'm sure, I think Dale Roton's involved in that, others are involved, there will be a challenge about the Muslim world. Pray that more Germans get that vision for the Muslim world. It's also presented on the ships.

Pray the Lord we'll use that. Okay, let's pray. I think it'd be good if we split up into groups.

Praying for Young People in China

You know, if you are really hungry, if you're really thirsty, you will eat anything. And you've got to really pray that the spiritual hunger and the need in China finds the right food. So let's pray for the young people.

I think that's where I want to center our attention. There's a high unemployment, a lot of dissatisfaction. Only a few percentage of young people can ever get to higher education. There's a lot of frustration in addition to the young people.

There's also a policy in China. It's not actually part of the written code, but it is policy that you're not allowed to indoctrinate people under 18, which cuts out 400 million. But let's pray for parents, Christian parents and their children, that relationship.

Let's just focus in on the young people, that God will do a great work amongst them. So I'd just like us to spend a couple of minutes, just one person next to you. Let's just pray for young people. And that many of them at this particular stage will find Christ.

Three Ways the Gospel Is Spreading in China

So let's just spend a few minutes doing that and I'll go on to a few other things. One of the recent prayer focuses from China itemized three main ways in which the Gospel is being spread. And we just want to emphasize on those three.

The first is itinerant evangelists. And over the last couple of years and in the next two or three years, people project there has been a strong crackdown on itinerant evangelists. The government has itemized six different groupings of people who are to be arrested.

And number five of those six sort of covers people like itinerant evangelists who move around, who hold unofficial meetings, who minister in places where they're not supposed to be. The Chinese like to keep their hands off people, keep them in one place.

That's very difficult out in the wilds of China. People can just move. But there are reports, particularly in this area right here, hidden from us. We pray for these many evangelists who have been put in prison.

Let's pray for those who have been arrested. Different areas in China, different local authorities will have a certain quota of people that they have to arrest. Whether there's anybody who's done anything wrong or not, you have to arrest so many people.

And so the Christians, anybody who's doing something slightly not quite nice is arrested. And let us pray for those who are still working, these evangelists who have been going for a whole month, just one evening after another, all night.

We remember in Acts 20 where Paul just preaches all night at Troas. That's happening all over China. Let's pray for these men. They're usually in their 20s. They know what suffering is. They know what hardship is, they know what endurance is.

They're under a lot of pressure. They apparently have been replaced in a lot of places by young women. As the men have been put in prison, young women of 18 to 25 have been raised up in many of these places to take their place.

There's also a great need for training of these people, a need for leadership. And we can pray for three seminaries at Nanking, Shenyang, and Fuchao. Most of these three, there's just a huge number of people who want to go there.

And we can pray for one particular thing that Nanking Seminary does. It sends out a sort of Bible study, and it goes to about 40 ,000 people, most of whom are house church leaders. And this is a tremendous help to many of these house church leaders.

There's a tremendous need for training and leadership. So that's the first, itinerant evangelists and their training. Lay evangelism, people just simply talking about their faith. Boldness for the young, and again what I was mentioning about parents and children, particularly for Christian parents as they try to reach their children.

If you can imagine that you're not supposed to speak to your child about their faith until he's 18. Healing, there's a third main way in which through gospel families and communities come into faith as non-Christians are just delivered.

Christian Families and House Churches in China

I'd just like to mention two other things. One is the family life. You've probably heard about this before, but I think it's worth praying again for it. Chinese policy is sort of one child per family.

And the Chinese tradition is such that each family wants a son. And this has led to horrendous results, particularly in the south, where children are just being killed. Daughters are just strangled at birth.

And there seems to be in China a real attack on the family. Wives are sent to one part of the country to work, and the husband is sent to this part of the country to work. Children are sort of tossed about all over the place.

And this can be a tremendous challenge to Christian families. And we need to pray for them. If you can just think yourself into that kind of situation. A couple have to go to the authorities to find out whether they can get a child or not.

And the government says, well, you can have a child now or perhaps later on. But I think there's a real satanic strategy against the family. I mean, the communist ideal to break down all kind of ties.

And that is very deeply rooted. The family is very deeply rooted in the Confucius background of China. But it's also, you know, that's what God has built us for. The whole family structure, God's institution, let alone Christian families.

And also, let's pray for the relationship between house churches and the official churches. Because again and again we hear of very different conflicting reports coming out of China. The official church, which is the organ of the government, and the house churches.

I've heard one major authority defend the official church, might up to the hill. And some other eminent authority condemn it right out of hand. So it's very difficult to find out exactly what's coming out.

But there does seem to be a stronger emphasis on getting house churches to close. Now that is where 80 of the Christians are, in house churches which just are flourishing all over China. We'd like to get them all into causing a lot of tensions.

We can praise God that amongst the house churches there is a greater unity than there's been for a long time. Some of the official churches that are Christians, let us pray for the pastors working within that system.

There are godly people within that. And we need to pray that somehow God's people will not be set one against the other. There's also a great need for the teaching that the official church gets through these seminars to get into the house churches.

Where there's a great tendency towards heresy, because there's a lack of Bible teaching, because there's a lack of trained people. They can easily get into wrong teachings. So let's just quickly pray for those two areas, family life and the relationship between God's people.

China's trying half a dozen policies.

Mongolia: An Unreached Nation

And I'd like to share about this unique land of Mongolia. Just look up here, north of China, and you'll see one of the most unreached nations in the world, Mongolia. This nation, which is at least the capital city about 4 ,300 feet above sea level, is very, very unreached.

Hardly any believers are known to exist there. It's a communist country, pro-Russian. The only country in the world, by the way, where there are more horses than people. Even though this article I have is Christian, the teaching is on evolution.

But they say numerous deposits of dinosaur eggs, some as old as 60 million years, have been found in Mongolia's Gobi Desert. In the 2 ,000 years since the birth of Jesus Christ, outer Mongolia has never had an established Christian religion.

Now Satan just waves this, tries to wave this in our faces. One of the great missionaries who went there, and there's quite a bit about him in this little article, was John James Gilmore, a Scotsman, who with tremendous tenacity worked there in the late 1800s, in the early part of this century.

Let me just read this little bit about him. Less known than these three, it was referring to some other men, Stud, Hudson Taylor, Livingston, but of equal heroic proportion was John Gilmore, missionary to the Mongolians from 1870 to 1890.

His extensive diary and numerous letters to friends and family have left us a record of calm, humble toughness, utterly sincere love for God and patient service to the persistently unresponsive Mongolians.

Typical of a man is his comment in 1886 regarding his health and his work. All July I was poorly, had some fever, could not eat much, but was able to go on with my missionary work as usual. Think how some people these days can get the sniffles, you don't see them for a week.

What he considered his usual level of work is seen in his sober statistical report to London, the London Missionary Society, described his work in Eastern Mongolia between late March and early December of the same year.

Patient seen, 5 ,717. Preached to, 23 ,000. Books sold, 3 ,000. Tracks distributed, 4 ,500. Miles traveled, 1 ,860. All of this he did without assistance. He didn't even have a secretary, poor guy. Traveling by foot and horse, he attended to his own medical needs in unsanitary conditions without vaccinations, including personal dentistry.

At one stage, a molar that had been bothering him for days required extraction. Gilmore decided to pull it himself. I sat down with a little Chinese-looking glass before a candle, got a good hold of it with the forceps, and after a good deal of wrenching, out it came.

It's something we ought to include into our intensive training program, I'm sure. He was a deep-pronged fellow, and he did bleed. After all this difficulty, the only burden he felt was the lack of response to his message.

Out of all this, there are only two men who have openly confessed. Gilmore was a Scotsman, of course. But despite all his hardship, he was not dour. In fact, when he had the company, he was a lively conversationist, a skillful and fascinating storyteller, a lover of jokes, and a devoted husband and father.

Like many Christians from Scotland, he enjoyed a good argument and infrequent opportunities for debate. On one occasion, he traveled in a Chinese mule caravan with a fellow missionary. Chinese mules would walk only in file, never abreast, and so Gilmore sat backwards so that he could debate theology face-to-face.

Gilmore had a way with words and tremendous powers of observation. One contemporary described him as a sort of Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, in his power to make the reader taste, touch, smell, and hear what the writer had gone through.

He was widowed in 1885 after 11 years of marriage, and his letters to his sons, written over a period of five years until Gilmore's own death in 1890, are gems of perception, gentle humor, and keen faith.

He tells Jimmy and Willie about Buddhist festivals, the Mongols, endless attempts to please the gods, the drunken, immature lamas, the persecution faced by potential converts, the crowded, filthy tents, and the stories, habits, and lives of the Mongol people.

He describes the sort of directions he received in the middle of the Gobi Desert, leaving my head, turning in a maze of three-mouthed wells, great roads, crossroads, and stone folds, etc., etc. Well, this is the land that we want to pray for right now.

I can't remember much prayer going on for Mongolia. I have been presenting and praying for this country off and on, probably more off than on, for the last 25 years. I have been in touch with one or two who were up there.

I'll spend some time there someday myself. I was looking for the population. I think it's 1 .7 million, according to this article, in about 590 ,000 square miles. It's one of the most least densely populated nations on Earth, but there's still 1 .7 million people there.

Mongolia. I hope we can continue to remember that country a little more frequently, perhaps in the future. I'd like to give something out now. I don't have enough for everyone, but this is just about the Rwanda Mission.

Praying for the Rwanda Mission and East Africa

I'm going to be speaking at the annual devotional conference of the Rwanda Mission in November. I went down there last week. I think I already mentioned that. It was from their missionary work that the East African Revival was born, which totally revolutionized men like Roy Heshin.

All of his books really have their roots back in the East African Revival. Other men like Joe Church, one brother, I think Butler, who lives near here and has come here in Minnesota. Bill Butler. There are some things on this sheet about the Rwanda Mission.

Instead of me giving some requests, you can just look at this. The second section perhaps leans more to specific prayer requests. If you could just read this, and as you're reading perhaps lead in prayer, especially for the church in East Africa.

In some of those countries, especially Uganda, there have been just enormous trials. We have prayed, I think, a fair amount for some of those countries, because we do tend to get some people back from there.

But if we can pray specifically for this mission, because they really feel their work is sort of leveling off and they haven't gotten the ear of many young people right now, and yet they need workers.

If we could pray the Lord would send the right workers, that people will not live in terms of revival in the past, but that they may know the personal revival also of the present. Stanley, is it Stanley Volk?

His book, Personal Revival, formerly called Reality, also comes right out of the East African Revival. So let's thank God for what he's done there. Other names you know, Festo Kavandri. Just such a vital ministry.

And so make use of this leaflet, and let's pray for East Africa and some of these related issues. Yeah, Major. Yeah, with this mission to East Africa. Good. All right, let's pray. Praise the Lord. Now we're going to turn our minds to something quite different and spend some time in prayer for the children of the world.

Child Evangelism, Global Health, and Compassion

That's a big subject. But I'm thinking especially of the ministry of the Child Evangelism Fellowship. A number of Exo-Emers are involved with that, and I had the privilege when I was a student at Bible College to take their training course to work among children.

It is an effective ministry. Some of you perhaps know people who are in it. But I'm thinking also of the tremendous amount of starvation and poor health among the children of the world. I wanted to read just a few excerpts from this article.

It's been a year since I got a hold of this, but the facts are still similar. It is generally controllable given proper nutrition and medication. New hope for youngsters. Yet half a billion children, mostly in...

He's on to say, along with disease like measles, tuberculosis, polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, it claims the lives of nearly 15 million children annually. 40 ,000 children to die like this every day is unforgivable.

That's not the word used here. That's the word I used. In a world which has mastered the means of preventing it. According to UNICEF's annual State of the World's Children report released last week, things could be different if developing nations implemented or expanded four basic low-cost health techniques.

It suggests they could, by the end of the century, save at least half the children who now perish. Most of the five million youngsters who each year die of dehydration caused by diarrhea, for example, would survive if they were given a simple mix of clean water, glucose, and salt to replenish fluids and enable their bodies to retain water.

Cost per dose? Ten cents. The treatment called Oral Rehydration Therapy, ORT, was perfected in the 1960s. The systematic use of ORT has cut in half the infant death rate from diarrhea in many regions.

At least 40 countries are developing comprehensive ORT programs and UNICEF urges more. There is also great progress in the drive toward universal immunization against childhood diseases. I won't read any further, but I think we should pray for people who are committed to this kind of work.

Even those that may not be believers. We know there are Christians in all these different relief works. There are Christian agencies as well. But we should pray, because not to pray is such an exercise of lack of compassion.

If these were our own children, or if we saw this right in the streets of Broadway, it would probably hit us very, very hard. But the fact that we can only read about these things, see it on television, makes it very, very distant.

Yet how can we go on eating and doing what we do if so many children are starving or dying of malnutrition or some disease that has come upon them? So let's pray now for the children, twofold. One, for this whole thing of health, feeding them, the whole worldwide medical push, immunization.