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40 Days of Prayer with World Concern
We want to invite you to join World Concern staff in intentional prayer every day for 40 days, beginning Nov 11 and ending on December 20. What we're calling Prayer 10:10 was inspired by the scripture found in John 10:10: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full."
As we move through these 40 days, many of our staff and friends around the world will be praying at 10:10 AM or PM, but we invite you to join us at any time that works for you. We'll be praying for God's intercession for various needs, including staff, projects, and global opportunities, but we also hope you use this time to pray for whatever God leads you to, allowing time for personal reflection - we encourage praying for whatever is on your heart.
What a gift it is that God meets us exactly where we are, knowing just what we need before we ever whisper a word. I look forward to this impactful and full season, stepping forward in His truth, hope and love!
In Christ,
Kelli Tolf
President, World Concern
Day 1: November 11
Ephesians 4:2-3, NIRV: "Don't be proud at all. Be completely gentle. Be patient. Put up with one another in love. The Holy Spirit makes you one in every way. So try your best to remain as one. Let peace keep you together."
Pray today that World Concern staff in every place would model Christian unity, loving one another, listening to each other and to everyone, and bathing every endeavor in prayer.
Day 2: November 12
John 15:7, CEV: "Stay joined to me and let my teachings become part of you. Then you can pray for whatever you want, and your prayer will be answered."
Pray today for World Concern's program in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Ask God to bless the leader of our programs, Irene Nyambura, our staff, and the leadership teams of our local partners. Pray that they may be joined to Jesus and pray with power.
Day 3: November 13
Matthew 27:55, NIV: "Many women were there, watching from a distance."
Pray that in Christ God will lift up women and draw them in, allowing them not only to watch but to participate. Pray that World Concern staff will receive grace to see, hear, and learn from women.
Day 4: November 14
Psalm 27:1, NRSV: "The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"
Pray today for World Concern staff and communities facing conflict, asking that God would deliver them from fear and bring peace.
Day 5: November 15
Luke 18:7, CEV: "Won't God protect his chosen ones who pray to him day and night? Won't he be concerned for them?"
Pray for World Concern's program in Myanmar. Ask God to shield and guide our country leader, Khin Sandar Bo, our senior leadership team, and all our staff. Ask him to sustain them with unfailing love as they work amid oppression and unrest.
Day 6: November 16
Psalm 61:3, ERV: "You are my place of safety, a strong tower that protects me from my enemies."
Pray for World Concern staff and communities who face pressure and opposition from family members, neighbors, and governments, that God will protect them and give them grace and strength.
Day 7: November 17
1 Thessalonians 3:10, ERV: "Night and day we continue praying with all our heart that we can come there and see you again. We want to give you everything you need to make your faith strong."
Pray today for World Concern staff as they travel within and between countries, that they will receive the necessary government approvals, and that God will keep them safe and healthy.
Day 8: November 18
Colossians 1:9-10, ICB: "We ask God that you will know fully what God wants. We pray that you will also have great wisdom and understanding in spiritual things. Then you will live the kind of life that honors and pleases the Lord in every way. You will produce fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of God."
Pray for World Concern's program in Kenya. Ask God to bless and strengthen our country leader, Harun Mutuma Ringera, our senior leadership team, and all our staff. Pray for wisdom, understanding, discernment, God-honoring lives, and fruitfulness that will continue to produce Christian leaders.
Day 9: November 19
Isaiah 43:1-2, NIV: "But now, this is what the Lord says – he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: 'Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.'"
Pray for communities where lives and homes, animals and property have been swept away by floodwaters. Ask God to strengthen World Concern staff as they provide emergency aid, help to rebuild, and renew hope.
Day 10: November 20
Philippians 1:9, NIV: "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, . . ."
Pray for World Concern staff and communities in places where it can be dangerous to be a follower of Jesus, that the Holy Spirit will give them discernment and sensitivity as they share Jesus' love with their neighbors.
Day 11: November 21
Revelation 2:19, CEV: "I know everything about you, including your love, your faith, your service, and how you have endured. I know you are doing more now than you have ever done before."
Pray today for World Concern's program in Haiti. Ask God to protect and encourage our country leader, Efanor Nore, and all our staff and partners. Pray that he will strengthen their hands as they face numerous challenges.
Day 12: November 22
Jeremiah 30:17, NIV: "'But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,' declares the LORD, ‘because you are called an outcast, Zion for whom no one cares.'"
Pray that God will work through World Concern staff and communities to gather the outcasts and all who are marginalized, and to heal their wounds.
Day 13: November 23
2 Corinthians 9:10, AMPC: "And [God] Who provides seed for the sower and bread for eating will also provide and multiply your [resources for] sowing and increase the fruits of your righteousness [which manifests itself in active goodness, kindness, and charity]."
Pray that God will supply World Concern with funds and guide us in using them in his life-giving harvest. Ask him to bless with fruitfulness all those who sow into this work.
Day 14: November 24
1 Thessalonians 1:9-10, CEV: "Everyone is talking about how you welcomed us and how you turned away from idols to serve the true and living God. They also tell how you are waiting for his Son Jesus to come from heaven."
Pray today for new believers in our communities, that they may stand strong, abounding in joy and hope. Ask for many opportunities to share the hope we have in Jesus with those who are still seeking.
Day 15: November 25
Romans 12:12, NLV: "Be happy in your hope. Do not give up when trouble comes. Do not let anything stop you from praying."
Pray today for World Concern's program in Bangladesh. Ask God to sustain and refresh our country leader, Glorious Gragory Das, our senior leadership team, and all our staff. Pray for jubilant hope, perseverance, and faithful prayer.
Day 16: November 26
Hebrews 11:9, NIV: "By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; . . ."
Pray today for all those displaced by war, persecution, and natural disasters, and for World Concern staff who welcome them with shelter, aid, health care, and good news of an eternal city.
Day 17: November 27
Philippians 1:4-5, TLB: "When I pray for you, my heart is full of joy because of all your wonderful help in making known the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now."
Pray that God will draw churches and individuals to partner with World Concern, over time, through prayer, collaboration, and funding. Pray that God will continue to bless existing partners and bring them joy in this work.
Day 18: November 28
Philippians 2:1-2, Message: "If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care — then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends."
Pray today that World Concern's communities may overcome all divisions of tribe and caste and history, to live and work together in Christ.
Day 19: November 29
2 Corinthians 1:11, NIRV: "You must help us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because of what will happen to us. They will thank God for his kindness to us in answer to the prayers of many."
Pray today for World Concern's program in South Sudan. Ask God to guide and bless our country leader, Rose Ogolla, our senior leadership team, and all our staff. Pray for the work of God in this young nation.
Day 20: November 30
Daniel 7:27, NIV: "His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him."
Pray today that national, regional, and local governmental authorities will welcome and support World Concern's work among the poor.
Day 21: December 1
Matthew 18:5, NIRV: "Anyone who welcomes a little child like this one in my name welcomes me."
Ask God to give World Concern staff and communities truly welcoming hearts toward children, and the will to seek them out, protect them, nurture and educate them, and advocate for them.
Day 22: December 2
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, Phillips: "May the God of peace make you holy through and through. May you be kept in soul and mind and body in spotless integrity until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is utterly faithful and he will finish what he has set out to do."
Pray today that World Concern staff and communities will receive strength to hate sin and resist temptation, despite cultural pressures. Pray that they will give themselves fully to God and his good work.
Day 23: December 3
2 Thesssalonians 1:11, CEV: "We pray for God's power to help you do all the good things you hope to do and your faith makes you want to do."
Pray today for World Concern's headquarters in the USA. Ask God to fill and lead our president, Kelli Tolf, our senior leadership teams, and all our staff. Pray for vision, sensitivity, unity, and power to complete each task.
Day 24: December 4
Lamentations 1:11, GW: "All the people are groaning as they beg for bread. They trade their treasures for food to keep themselves alive. ‘O LORD, look and see how despised I am!'"
Pray for communities that are hungry, and for World Concern staff who are working to provide immediate relief and long-term agricultrual sustainability. Ask that God's grace would abound and that provision would be made for those who are desperately in need.
Day 25: December 5
Isaiah 53:3, CEV: "He was hated and rejected; his life was filled with sorrow and terrible suffering. No one wanted to look at him. We despised him and said, ‘He is a nobody!'"
Ask God to give World Concern's staff and communities Jesus' own compassion and kindness for those who have suffered rejection, violence, and other kinds of trauma. Pray that we may have grace to come alongside them and point them to Jesus.
Day 26: December 6
Isaiah 42:3, ICB: "He will not break a crushed blade of grass. He will not put out even a weak flame."
Pray today for World Concern staff, individuals we serve, and entire communities, in whom faith and hope are weak and unbelief is strong. Pray that our loving Savior will stoop down and lift up the broken.
Day 27: December 7
Ephesians 1:16-17, TLB: "I have never stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you wisdom to see clearly and really understand who Christ is and all that he has done for you."
Pray today for World Concern's program in Chad. Ask God to encourage and uphold our country leader, Ali Esaie Angobona, our partners, and all our staff. Pray for wisdom and understanding, leading to joy and worship.
Day 28: December 8
Matthew 19:13-15, MSG: "One day children were brought to Jesus in the hope that he would lay hands on them and pray over them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus intervened: ‘Let the children alone, don't prevent them from coming to me. God's kingdom is made up of people like these.' After laying hands on them, he left."
Pray for young women in girls in many communities who are pressed into early marriages for economic and cultural reasons, jeopardizing their health, happiness, and life choices. Pray that World Concern's programs to safeguard girlhood and keep young women in school will glorify God through fruitful lives.
Day 29: December 9
Deuteronomy 8:18, ISV: "But remember the LORD your God, because he is the one who gives you the ability to produce wealth, in order to confirm his covenant that he promised by an oath to your ancestors, as is the case today."
Pray today for the savings groups and small businesses in World Concern communities, that God will enable them to break the cycle of poverty, provide for their families, and contribute to the work of God.
Day 30: December 10
Isaiah 63:9, Message: "In all their troubles, he was troubled, too. He didn't send someone else to help them. He did it himself, in person. Out of his own love and pity he redeemed them. He rescued them and carried them along for a long, long time."
Pray today for World Concern staff and communities who are grieving, that God will meet them in their pain.
Day 31: December 11
Ephesians 6:19, NLV: "Pray that I might open my mouth without fear. Pray that I will use the right words to preach that which is hard to understand in the Good News."
Today we lift up World Concern's program in Laos. Ask God to visit and cheer our country leader, Joshua Pascua, our partners, and all our staff. Pray for wisdom and grace as they love and serve the people of Laos.
Day 32: December 12
Psalm 126:1-2, NLV: "It was like a dream when the Lord brought back to Zion those who had been held in another land. Then we laughed with our mouths, and we sang with our tongues. Then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.'"
Pray today for victims of human trafficking, and for World Concern staff and programs attempting to prepare families to resist the deceitful tactics of traffickers. Pray that God will frustrate the plans of the traffickers and liberate their captives.
Day 33: December 13
Isaiah 54:2-3, EHV: "Make more room for your tent. Tell them to stretch out the curtains of your dwelling. Do not hold back! Make your tent ropes longer. Make your tent stakes stronger, because you will spread out to the right and to the left. Your offspring will take possession of nations, and they will repopulate devastated cities."
Pray that God will give World Concern leadership and staff both bold faith and humble wisdom as fresh needs arise and new doors for service appear to open.
Day 34: December 14
Isaiah 58:8, EHV: "Then your light will break forth like dawn, and your healing will spring up quickly. Your righteousness will go out ahead of you, and the Glory of the LORD will follow you."
Pray today for the health of World Concern staff, families, and the communities we serve. Ask for an awareness of God's sustaining presence.
Day 35: December 15
2 Corinthians 13:13, ERV: "I pray that you will enjoy the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit."
Pray today for World Concern's program in Uganda. Ask God to watch over our staff member Florence Aketo, and the leadership team and field staff of our local partners. Pray for outpourings of grace and love to extend and deepen fellowship.
Day 36: December 16
Jeremiah 14:3-4, NABRE: "The nobles send their servants for water, but when they come to the cisterns they find no water and return with empty jars. Confounded, despairing, they cover their heads because of the ruined soil; because there is no rain in the land the farmers are confounded, they cover their heads."
Pray for communities stricken by drought. Ask God to send rain, and to guide World Concern staff as they seek to provide clean, safe, readily available drinking water.
Day 37: December 17
Proverbs 20:29, NLT: "The glory of the young is their strength; the gray hair of experience is the splendor of the old."
Pray for the local leaders in World Concern's communities, that our staff may develop good relations with them and that God would endow them with godly wisdom.
Day 38: December 18
Philemon 6, NIV: "I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ."
Pray today that God will strengthen and deepen World Concern's relationships with local churches in every place. Ask that we will serve them, support them, encourage them, learn from them, and love them well.
Day 39: December 19
Romans 15:13, AMPC: "May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope."
Today we lift up World Concern's program in Somalia. Ask God to bless and strengthen our country leader, Peter Mutua, our local partners, and all our staff. Pray for abounding hope, spilling over into communities and neighbors.
Day 40: December 20
Psalm 136:1-3: "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever."
Join World Concern in giving thanks to God for his faithfulness, provision, and steadfast love. Pray that we will remain in a posture of dependence and gratitude as we look towards 2025 with hope and anticipation of all God has planned!