Praying for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons

Thank you for joining us this week as we at the Baptist World Alliance pray for our global Baptist family and for God's work around the world. If you pray along with us weekly, you will pray for every country in the world in 2025.

Praises and prayer requests listed for each country are provided by local BWA member partners when possible. Statistics provided are reflective of latest data received.

Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons

As we turn our hearts to a New Year, we lift up those who find themselves far from their homes.

There are more than 117 million forcibly displaced people worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations, or events disrupting public order.

This includes 36 million refugees, 73 million internally displaced people, and 8 million asylum seekers seekers. With more than 40 million of the forcibly displaced being children under the age of 18, the need is vast.

Praise:

We give thanks for the faithfulness of those who serve refugees from their own experiences like Kawthoolei Karen Baptist Churches (KKBC). KKBC is BWA's member partner along the Thai/Myanmar border. Born out of the oppression and persecution of ethnic minorities in Myanmar in the early 1980s, KKBC formed in 1983 and is comprised of Internally Displaced Persons living on the border.

Prayer:

Join us in prayer for our sisters and brothers who are living with the daily challenges of life as refugees and internally displaced persons. Join us in prayer that our Baptist communities around the world will be places of refuge. May we open our arms in welcome and utilize our hands to work as instruments of care and comfort for those in need.

An Update from Jamaica

Families across Jamaica are rebuilding after the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa. Thanks to your generosity, hope is already taking root. Your support has helped provide emergency supplies, safe shelter, and pastoral care to families as they begin their recovery.

But there is still much more to do. Watch an important update from Jamaica Baptist Union General Secretary Merlyn Hyde Riley to learn how you can bring renewed hope and healing this holiday season.

WATCH NOW

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A Prayer for Refugees

O as they face this day, O God,

find those who are lost,

separated from those they love,

crossing unknown borders,

without a country or home,

not knowing where to turn:

Find them, God, who always seek for the lost,

and cover them safely as a hen covers her chickens.

As they face this day, O God,

stand among the ones in refugee camps around the world,

in the hunger and despair,

in the crowds and the emptiness,

in the wet and the thirstiness:

Be their hope and their strength

in the crying out for justice

and open the ears of the world to hear their cries.

As they face this day, O God,

may those who live with us,

uprooted from their homelands,

find a new home

where their history is respected,

their gifts and graces celebrated

and their fear departed from them.

May we be their home,

may we be the ones who open our hearts in welcome.

As we face this day, O God,

sing to us your song of encouragement,

paint for us your bright pictures of a new world

where people need not flee from wars and oppression,

where no one lacks a country or a home,

and where we are all part of your new creation.

For we long to be your people, in spirit and in truth.

We pray in the name of Jesus the Christ,

who knew the life of a refugee.

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