Prayer from the heart

Lydia with her boys and a "Praying Hands" gift from prayer partners

One thing that I've consistently seen over the last 20 years of working with kids in juvenile detention centers and prisons in America and overseas is how similar the kids are and how broken they are. I just read that 80% of the kids in one juvenile colony in Ukraine are there for stealing food to survive because they were abandoned by their families or left on their own as their parents lost their battles with addiction.

That affliction is here in the States too. Last night, Cheryl and I had a Bible study at a local detention center in Plymouth. When I read the prayer requests from the guys, two of them hit me in the heart and I want to share them with you (I'm changing the names, but God knows them):

Rick-I want to pray for my sister and hope the best for her since she's the only family I have left.

Jimmy-I want to pray for my mom to be safe and to stop using heroin.

When you read about "those type of kids" pray for them and think of what is behind that. "But go and learn what this means, 'I desire compassion and not sacrifice,' for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners" Matt. 9:13.