Imprisoned for 18 years...

So Josh, this is a little different - it's a prayer request from a girl in my youth group, Becky, who is writing about something God has brought to her attention. In bringing this to our attention, she's being obedient to God.

Hey Everyone. It's Becky.

Maybe you've not heard
Now, I'm not sure if any of you have heard about this, and maybe if you have you've been affected by it, just like me. I'll fill you in just in case you haven't heard it, and if you have, well I encourage you to keep reading.

What happened
18 years ago, there was an 11 year old girl named Jaycee Lee Duggard who was abducted in 1991 from her California street. She was held captive in a backyard, by a registered sex offender who was on federal parole for rape and kidnapping convictions. She fathered his two children while she was stuck inside a camp in his backyard, and his wife even knew he was doing this, but didn't object! I'm going to enclose a URL link to a website, so you can read more if you like. You can read more about the story here.

The same age as us
So, that's basically the gist of what happened. But what really stood out to me when I heard about this, is that she had 2 kids, when she was a kid herself. Her children are now 11 and 15. Those are ages of some of the teens/pre-teens that attend our Youth.

They need our love and support
I felt like God was asking me to pray for these people, and to spread the word about them too. These are kids that have practically never seen the light of day, a church, a friend's house, and even school. When my dad told me about it, I sat crying in the back of our car, because I thought, How can we be dreading back to school time so much, when there's kids around the world who haven't even picked up a pencil? SO. What I am asking you to do, is to pray for these kids that are so close in age to us. They need our love and support and prayers more than ever now. I'm just going to write down some quick prayer points, and of course, you can add your own.

How to pray

• Pray that God will allow them to see everything he has to offer in a new light, and that any anger or frustration they are having to be wiped clean because Jesus loves them.
• Pray that any guilt that surrounds their thoughts is overcome by a realization of the fact that none of this was their fault.
• Pray that at this point, they can start off fresh, and can experience the world through Jesus's eyes.
• And, please pray for LOVE. That love will surround them and keep them together through everything that is to come.

Thanks so much guys. :) I know we can do this.
Becky

Why not forward this to your friends to encourage them to pray too?