Praying for the health and wellness of girls

A Word of Hope by Eeva Vähäsarja, Regional Coordinator for Europe and CAMENA

God has created us to be in relationship with him and with each other. It’s a gift from God. As Christians, we belong to God’s family. “But you are citizens together with God’s holy people. You belong to God’s family” (Eph. 2:19).  

We can experience love, acceptance and joy in the family, in the church community and with friends. Sometimes the relationships are challenging. Many marriages are overshadowed by domestic violence, alcoholism or illness. Families, single parents and singles without kids may struggle with financial concerns. Many feel loneliness. There may be controversy in Christian communities. Friends can cheat us. Whatever our situation, we have this promise in Psalm 27:10: “For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.” 

God wants to work through us. My prayer is that anyone struggling with personal concerns would have courage to seek help, to find a reliable person with whom to share burdens, a friend with whom to pray. 

We have the God of all comfort! Paul writes: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too” (2 Cor. 1:3-6). 

Would you like to pray and put yourself at God’s disposal as you walk alongside your suffering neighbor? 

TWR Women of Hope is reaching out to its neighbors in Serbia, a country that is located in the Western Balkans and that was part of Yugoslavia for most of the 20th century. Over a hundred thousand people died during a civil war in the 1990s, and the wounds of Serbia’s recent tragedy are still visible today.  

Violence against women, recognized as a violation of fundamental human rights, is common in Serbia, according the U.N. Women organization. It says every second woman in the country has suffered some form of violence. “Furthermore,” U.N. Women reports, “women with disability, especially those who are deprived of legal capacity and placed in institutions, are often exposed to various forms of violence and treatments without their consent.”  

The TWR Women of Hope prayer movement started in Serbia one year ago, and from the beginning of 2020, Serbian women and men have been able to listen to the Women of Hope programs in their own language. Listeners get good biblical teaching, and the programs give them important information about how to solve family problems, how to raise their children and how to build self-esteem. Women of Hope helps listeners to recognize their God-given value and to develop tools to deal with various life issues.  

Of course, this isn’t available in Serbia alone. Women of Hope can be heard all over the world. Today we give praise to the Lord for the TWR Women of Hope ministry as it continues to bring hope in Jesus to women around the world and across generations.