The spiritual battle for young people is incredibly intense. As part of our daily rhythm of prayer, this week we are looking at schools. Here are three current stories from Birmingham.
- One teenager had to be brought into school and comforted by a Christian we know well after his father came home drunk, kidnapped one of his siblings and went on the roof of his house and started throwing tiles at the Police. The house is now inhabitable, the family is torn apart and the young guy is severely traumatised.
- A school where one of the team is a governor is having to stop all pupils going into the park next door because former pupils are selling drugs and trying to get teenagers addicted, linked to gangs and their lives ruined. It makes this park a spiritual battlefront.
- Local councillors are saying we have lost the drugs war. Many parents across the city are seeing a dramatic breakdown in their relationships with their children who are being linked to gangs and live at home but lock themselves in their rooms.
We cannot stress enough what a critical issue this is – we are fighting for the current teenage generation. They are being devastated with spectacular growth in mental health problems and trauma. Several weeks ago, a young man was stabbed to death in Birmingham, he had been part of a church youth scheme and was mentoring young people but got caught up on the fringes of gang life. He fell into an argument with a fellow gang member over money – it was not aggressive but it was in public on the streets. As they argued another young man from a different part of the city intervened and stabbed this young man to death. Many teenagers carry knives but walk in fear.
The spiritual battle is intense and schools have become the key place to rescue young people from a destructive lifestyle. This makes the teachers and pastoral staff’ s work incredibly challenging and stressful. Increasingly we recognise that whilst many of the symptoms are seen in secondary school a lot of the causes occur earlier as younger children are traumatised by issues around them. Let’ s pray:
- Mobilise us, your people, to persevere in prayer for our teenagers.
- Stir up prayer in the teenagers across this nation, let there be an “awake cry”. This generation needs a move of God
- Pray wisdom and deep peace for Christian teachers, school workers, social workers, and Police you know. May they know God’ s encouragement and enabling. We pray for Christian parents of teenagers for deep trusting relationships and opportunities to build faith.
- Lord have mercy, bless our schools.
At WPC, we see this battle for our children as critical. If you have any thoughts or feedback let us know. Please encourage your church and your small groups to pray. We thank God there are wonderful pockets of light across the nation but we need much more. May His Kingdom come.
