Weekly devotion: A Firm Foundation for Young Lives
Pigs being kept at the centre of Manshiyat Naser, home to the Zabbaleen Community - a slum area on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt
This week we pray for our partner Life Vision and Cairo’s Zabbaleen community with whom they work. The Zabbaleen, which in Arabic means ‘garbage collectors', run one of the most efficient recycling systems in the world. Their work is physically demanding and dangerous, and income is low. Long working hours and poor living conditions create a challenging environment for parents to raise children.
The Zabbaleen community are Cairo’s recyclers – they collect rubbish and take it to the margins of the city, where they sort it for items that can be sold for reuse – recycling a far higher percentage of waste than in the UK. Due to the exhausting and dangerous nature of the work – many turn to drugs to combat pain or tiredness, which in turn can lead to health issues and violence. Low income and poor living conditions add to the stresses on the family unit.
Some parents, feeling unable to safely raise a family in such unstable home environments, make the heartbreaking decision to send their children to orphanages, to ensure their basic physical needs are met.
The emotional impact and long-term trauma of such separations, for both children and parents, is enormous. Life Vision therefore works to help families stay together wherever possible through their project The Rock.
The Rock, offers counselling, parenting classes and mental health support to help families build a nurturing environment where children can form the secure emotional attachments they need. They also provide free nursery care and an after-school program where children can go when their parents are at work. This support enables separated families to reunite, and prevents other children from being sent to orphanages in the first place.
In some cases, it is not safe for children to return to their parents, so Life Vision aims to place them with other relatives or carefully vetted foster families. Experiencing love and care in the early years is vital if children are to become healthy adults. Please join us in praying for these families and our dedicated Christian friends at Life Vision who are helping them stay together and build firm foundations for family life.
Bible reading
‘Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.’
Matthew 7:24-25
Thought
In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus speaks of building on a firm foundation; raising a house that withstands the battering storms. The parable is clear that although hardships won’t leave us alone, our strong foundation of faith will enable us to weather them and survive intact. The storms of life facing the Zabbaleen are immense, and children’s welfare can get swept away in the tides of rubbish that form the community’s only means of survival. Yet Life Vision’s support offers a rock on which children can stand safely – a strong foundation of love and belonging on which to build the rest of their lives.
Ask yourself: What foundations has God built in your own life, and how might he be calling you to help strengthen someone else’s?
Prayer
Lord Jesus,
You call us to build our lives on a firm foundation that can withstand every storm. We lift before you the children and parents supported through Life Vision’s The Rock project in Cairo. Grant them safety and stability and let the love of a family become solid ground beneath fragile lives. Teach us always to listen to your words and put them into practice, building our own strong foundations of faith and compassion.
Amen
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