A Prayer Walk around the West Africa Food Crisis countries. Once again the Sahel region of West Africa is being plunged into a food crisis, due to drought, failed harvests, high food prices in countries that were already among the poorest and most vulnerable in the world. Please join us in prayer and mobilise others to pray for the millions of people facing hunger as a result and for Tearfund partners dealing with this ongoing disaster. To help you pray we have created this virtual prayer walk around four of the countries affected by the current food crisis; Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Chad. How to use this guide / Instructions. This prayer walk guide is to accompany the online West Africa photo gallery at www.tearund.org/pray. Each country has three sections; reflect, pray and act and these include Bible verses, prayer points, creative prayer ideas and other suggestions to get further involved. Each photo will have a caption but please download and print this virtual prayer walk guide to help you reflect, pray and act in response to the food crisis. Alternatively you may like to just use the photos in the online picture gallery to stir your prayers for the West Africa food crisis. Before you start ask the Holy Spirit to help you pray into the needs in the photos. What do I need to do to facilitate this for a group setting? You can use this prayer guide individually or in a group setting such as a home group or prayer group, or even in your Sunday service. You can adapt the material and create your own prayer walk around West Africa. The choice is yours. Here are some suggestions: - Read through this prayer walk guide and create your own interactive display of West Africa. For example you can print out a large map of West Africa, download some current statistics from www.tearfund.org/news, have a laptop showing the photos from the online photo gallery. - Plan for a 30 or a 60 minute prayer meeting. Either pick a country to focus on over a series of days or meetings or cover all four in one session and use the powerpoint. - Ask different group members to read out loud some of the stories, prayer points and Bible verses, followed by a time of prayer. - As you pray encourage your group members to either pray in smaller groups of 2 or 3 or out-loud in a larger group. Give the option of writing prayers down on post it notes and these can be added to the map. - Create your own PowerPoint and select some of the prayer points and needs you want to pray into.

www.tearfund.org/praying

1

Whatever you choose to do we simply ask you to remember the people of the West Africa in your prayers and to ask others to join you as you pray. We would love to hear how your prayer meeting went – please contact [email protected] with your feedback. Opening prayer: Lord, you made us to know what hunger is, but also to know the goodness of your provision. We pray for those who share this earth with us, but for whom hunger is a crippling, life-threatening danger. Please help us as we pray for those who have nothing. Teach us how to pray for those who have too little to eat. Guide us as we walk alongside those affected by this current food crisis. Would you help them and allow us to be part of the solution? Amen. Overview of the West Africa Food Crisis Hunger has the people of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Niger firmly in its grip. There is a chronic food and nutrition emergency which is being exacerbated by this year’s poor and erratic rains which have damaged harvests. High food prices are making matters worse. These drought-affected countries are among the worlds poorest and this is the third time in seven years they have faced this scenario.

• • •

• •

•

•

•

For each of the countries in the West Africa Food Crisis please pray for the following: Please pray this cycle of misery will be broken. Ask God to be present with communities and across Africa facing a desperate struggle for food today. Pray that rain comes at the right time and in the right amounts for crops and livestock across the world this year so that good harvests will be produced to bring down food prices and to prevent millions more people being pushed into poverty. Pray for a speedy and compassionate international response to the West Africa Food Crisis, so an even greater food crisis can be averted. All over the world, rural communities rely on rain to water their crops and keep their animals alive. When the rains fail, many have no Plan B, and yet our changing climate means that failing rains are common in some of the poorest communities on earth. Please pray for governments to take stronger action to prevent climate change, and help poor communities adapt to changing weather patterns. Please pray for wisdom for leaders and experts around the world working to tackle hunger, pray for them to make great progress in identifying ways to combat food insecurity, especially around World Food Day on 16th October 2012. Praise God for the work of all the Tearfund partners in West Africa and pray for wisdom and strength as they continue to work and build the resilience of communities affected by drought. Pray for a generous response to Tearfunds appeal for funds as we respond to this food crisis. For more information on the countries listed (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Chad) in this West Africa Food Crisis prayer walk please visit our country profile pages at http://www.tearfund.org/en/what_we_do_and_where/countries/west_africa/

www.tearfund.org/praying

2

Burkina Faso. We begin our prayer walk in Burkina Faso. Reflect: Deteriorating food conditions in parts of Burkina Faso are leaving people eating just one small meal a day. Some villages are even being abandoned as hunger forces residents to leave in search of food. Tearfund partners in the West African country say the traditional gap between when food stocks run out and when the next harvest is ready has started several months earlier than usual, leaving locals extremely hungry and increasingly desperate. Read and pray over Isaiah 58:6 – 12 for Burkina Faso and the images you see. • In the village of Konbindo, farmer Ouedraogo Yacouba said he hadn’t harvested anything and that he had abandoned the land to look for a job at a local gold mine. In the meantime, his wife and family were resorting to eating leaves. This response is echoed by many farmers across different villages in Burkina Faso. Pray for God to bring comfort, hope and provision for the many families experiencing hardship. • Pray for women looking after their children and other extended family members as they wait for provision and news from husbands working in different cities. • Give thanks for the work of Tearfund’s partners in Burkina Faso such as ACCEDES and CREDO as they set up measures to help communities overcome hunger such as creating community grain banks, and start up market gardening to diversify food production. Pray that these will be successful in providing food for those most in need. • Thank God for their determination to help communities overcome poverty and hunger and work towards a better future. Please pray for wisdom as they respond to the short term and long term needs ask that God will bless and increase their efforts to bring a meaningful difference to those most in need. • Use the photos relating to Burkina Faso to help you pray. For example, if it is of a photo of a young child, pray for their future; for their hopes and fears, their education, for their families and the support they will have to give by working on the land to help feed the extended family, the chores and the jobs they have to do before even getting to school. Creative prayer idea: From your cupboards take out flour, sugar, salt and oil, and put these out in front of you. Pray for those who are at this moment receiving emergency food parcels in Burkina Faso because they are unable to find enough or buy food to feed themselves or their families. If you are in a small group you may want to pass these around as you pray. Please pray for multiplication of these items so that there will be more than enough to satisfy those who are receiving food parcels today. ACT When we are really hungry, it's not just the stomach that lets us know: heads get dizzy, mouths water and thoughts turn to food. We don't have a body: we are a body - created by God to feel, to worship, to serve with all that we have. Today, choose a day later in

www.tearfund.org/praying

3

the week when you can fast from a meal and let your body join you as you pray for the work of Tearfunds partners in countries suffering food shortages like the West Africa Food Crisis, you could consider giving what you save on your food bill to the West Africa food crisis appeal at www.tearfund.org/westafrica MALI is the second country we visit on this prayer walk Reflect: In Mali, the food crisis has been made far worse by conflict in the northern part of the country. The Tuareg rebellion this spring, following years of latent conflict and resentment of a southern government. A powerful element in the conflict, apart from the Tuareg military group MNLA, a fundamentalist militia known as Ansar Dine which has a mission to impose Sharia law in the towns where it now has control. A military coup in March ousted Mali’s president and created a power vacuum that led to two thirds of Mali being taken over by MNLA and Ansar Dine. Over 300,000 people have had to leave their homes due to this conflict. Half have fled as refugees over Mali’s borders, while the rest have been welcomed by host families, churches and elsewhere in Mali. This inevitably puts severe pressure on resources like water and grain that were already scarce. In the north of the country there are serious food and water shortages and electricity supplies are cut off. Transport links are also no longer working and there is deep concern over the rising conflict and its future effect on this fragile, long-suffering country. PRAY: Read and pray Psalm 46 over the churches and for Tearfunds partners in Mali as you cry out for peace for Mali. • The church in Mali is in a crucible, with the triple crises of food, politics/security, religious persecution and more deeply, a spiritual crisis. She is rising up stronger, but she needs our prayers. Please pray for Tearfund's partners in Mali to be strengthened and encouraged at this troubling time. Pray for good leadership and decision-making and for provision as partners strive to respond to the food shortages and the conflict. Pray for them to use their positioning to speak out boldly for peace, justice and compassion. • Please pray for AGEMPEM, the co-ordinating body of Mali protestant churches, and its leader Daniel, ask God to grant wisdom for the months ahead. Also lift up in prayer Issouf; their prayer coordinator, who has organised a prayer chain and 24 hour prayer relays for Mali churches. • Pray for those who have fled the fighting pray God will be a comfort to them as they face the uncertainty and hardships ahead. Please pray for a humanitarian corridor to be opened quickly from the south to the north so that help can be provided. • Praise God for families who are opening their homes to those in need. Pray for wisdom and courage for Tearfund partners as they respond to the crisis and let us join with them in praying that God will use the situation to bring unity throughout the country for his people.

www.tearfund.org/praying

4

Lord, the scale of global poverty is beyond our understanding. Give bread to those who are hungry and a hunger for justice for those of us who have bread. Grant us the faith and persistence to sow seeds of righteousness that might take years or even generations to bear fruit. Amen. Creative Prayer Idea: Imagine what it must be like to leave your home; a place of safety, because of the lack of work, food, safety. Where would you go? Who can you call for help from family/ friends/ or the local council? Write these down on a piece of paper and give thanks God for all the comforts and people He has provided you to turn to for help and comfort. Act: Go on a prayer walk around your local neighbourhood. Just start walking out your door and try not to have a particular destination in mind. Ask God to give you the eyes and ears to see and hear what He wants to say to you. As you walk, imagine that your brothers and sisters many miles away are simply having to uproot and go, often in fear of their lives due to insecurity. As you walk pray with them in mind. Share your experiences with another person from your home group or church and encourage them to do the same- consider imitating the Mali inter-church prayer chains. Is God challenging you to join in with the Mali church in this way? NIGER is the next country that we visit on our prayer walk. REFLECT: Azourfa, 42, from Kamrey village, Niger, already lost one child to hunger ten years ago. She has had to collect goat droppings to sell as fertiliser. It takes her four days to collect enough to sell –which doesn’t even earn her enough to pay for one meal for her family. But even that source of income, like the surrounding landscape, has now dried up as her buyer can no longer afford to pay her. Her baby Rufaida is so small it is almost impossible to believe she is almost two. Drought is ravaging the land of Niger. Families who usually harvest 900kg of millet in a year are harvesting as little as 15kg, if any. It’s nowhere near enough to survive on. Malnutrition is rife, which means children’s development slows, and if a child goes to school they struggle to learn because they have no energy. The only thing that grows here right now is hunger. Read and pray Colossians 1:9-12 for the churches in Niger. “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.” Please pray: • Recurring droughts are another reason why people in Niger are hit so hard. Low levels of nutrition have become endemic, weakening people’s strength and ability to cope. Pray for the effectiveness of Tearfund’s partners as they increase people’s resilience, by introducing people to new ways to grow food.

www.tearfund.org/praying

5

•

• •

•

High prices for everyday foods – increases of 40 per cent are not unheard of – are a regrettable fact of life which has pushed people to the limits of endurance. Tearfund partners have reported that villagers are eating the leaves of wild plants because there’s no other food available. Pray for prices to stabilise and ask the Lord to send rain at the right times and in the right quantities so the next harvest will be successful. Join with Binta from Niger in praying: ‘My prayer is that God will provide so many things for us – the rain and the harvest – so I can take care of my children.’ Conflict has exacerbated the food crisis in West Africa. The uprising in Libya led to many thousands of people returning to Niger, while a rebellion in northern Mali has displaced hundreds of thousands of others, many of whom have sought sanctuary in hard-pressed Niger, as well as Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Algeria. Pray for peace to prevail. Give thanks for an association of 25 local congregations in south Niger called UPEEN, which has been tackling food scarcity and poor sanitation in the Dosso region. Communities have been helped to start market gardens, set up grain banks, install latrines and reforest land to halt soil erosion.

Creative Prayer idea: Watch this video clip of Slanwa Gaston, Tearfunds country rep for Niger available at www.tearfund.org/westafricanews. Afterwards write out this prayer below and put it on your fridge where you can see it each day. At the end of this week write down what God is telling you to do and commit to sharing this at your home group or at church. “Dear Lord, help West and Central Africa’s food-deprived countries break the cycle of drought and hunger. Open my eyes to what I can do to help, give me your heart to pursue justice on behalf of those who are hit hardest. Amen.” Act: Firstly, keep in touch with the latest on the food crisis and find out how you can pray and give to support Tearfund’s relief work in the region by regularly visiting www.tearfund.org/news Secondly, talk to your Church leader to ask for a Sunday service slot to talk and pray about the food crisis in West Africa. If you have any questions about how to do this please contact Tearfund at [email protected] we look forward to hearing from you.

www.tearfund.org/praying

6

CHAD is the fourth and last country we visit on this virtual prayer walk. REFLECT: Pressure on meagre food stocks in Chad is growing as a hunger crisis once again looms over large parts of West Africa. The landlocked country experienced little rainfall during its May to September 2011 rainy season. As well as southern areas, new reports suggest northern districts are experiencing a food squeeze. Levourne Passiri, Tearfund Country Representative for Chad, says people in OumHadjer are expecting poor harvests after inadequate rains. Added to their woes, locusts and grain-eating birds have been attacking crops; ‘This has increased the despair of the local population,’ he said. Tearfund partner PEDC has provided growers with new seeds so they can plant crops to sell. Chad suffered a food crisis in 2004 and again in 2009-10 when it experienced a belowaverage cereal harvest, but also a second consecutive year of poor rains in pastoral areas. People in Chad, most of whom live on US$1 a day according to the United Nations Development Programme, are also having to contend with higher staple food prices. Since last autumn, rice is up 24 per cent and sorghum has risen by 30 per cent. Pray: Read Matthew 14:13-21 as you pray for Chad.
People in Chad, most of whom live on US$1 a day according to the United Nations Development Programme, are also having to contend with higher staple food prices. Please pray urgently for food prices around the world to stabilize and to fall, so that these countries do not fall into extreme hunger.
Chad suffered a food crisis in 2005 and again in 2010 when it experienced a below-average cereal harvest, but also a second consecutive year of poor rains in pastoral areas. Please pray for plentiful rain and God’s protection of families across the Sahel region who are being forced into ever more extreme survival strategies. Pray for Tearfund partners: for God’s strength as they equip communities to prepare for the worst and lessen vulnerability to future droughts.
When food and other resources such as water are scarce, neighbouring communities can get desperate and turn against each other - fighting over and stealing resources such as water and livestock as a last resort. Pray for Tearfund partners working with communities to develop long-term solutions to hunger and chronic poverty, so that resource wars can become a thing of the past. Please pray for Chad: that God will bring peace and stability to this increasingly troubled country.
Gender inequality means girls in some developing countries don't have the same opportunities as boys to get an education or build a better life for themselves. Pray for all Tearfund partners and churches working to bring justice and empowerment to girls so that they become respected members of society.

www.tearfund.org/praying

7

Dear God, I pray for everyone who is hungry today - whether they live thousands of miles away or in my local community. Please show me and my church new ways to join with you in your mission to end injustices such as hunger. In Jesus' name, Amen. Creative Prayer Idea: Remind yourself of some of the other amazing miracles that Jesus did by flicking through one of the gospel accounts in the New Testament. Now use what you have read to inspire you to pray with courage and faith as you spend time in prayer interceding for Chad and the other countries affected by the West Africa Food Crisis. Act: Whatever your skills and talents you can support local churches worldwide as they bring God-given transformation where it is needed most. Join us and you’ll be connecting with thousands of Tearfund supporters across the country who have chosen to Make Time... to be part of a miracle. Visit www.tearfund.org/maketime to find out more.

Thank you for joining us in prayer. For further updates on the West Africa Food Crisis please visit www.tearfund.org/westafricanews Keep on praying as part of One Voice Global Prayer Movement at www.tearfund.org/pray

www.tearfund.org/praying

8