1 Million Christians Pray for World's 2 Billion Children
A nondenominational movement called the "4/14 Window" is mobilizing one million Christians from around the world to fast and pray for the 2.3 billion children on earth on Saturday to raise up a new generation to transform the world for Christ.
"Global 4/14 Day is an annual day of prayer for the world's children," event coordinator Steve Karges said in a statement. "The focus of our prayers on Saturday will be for kids and we invite Christians everywhere to join the movement and pray."
Christians on six continents will pray specifically for the 4/14 Window, which refers to all children between the ages of 4 and 14 – the decade or "window" during which most children develop their moral and spiritual foundations.
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Research shows that nearly 85 percent of individuals who make a decision for Christ in the United States do so between the ages of 4 to 14, and Christian workers from around the world report similar results. Yet children represent the largest unreached group in the world.
The 4/14 Movement is not only nondenominational, it also operates without any headquarters, formal organization or paid staff. Local churches and organizations employ those who serve within the movement. "Everyone who serves, does so out their love for Jesus Christ and the children in the 4/14 Window," says the movement's website, which is available in 14 of the world's most-spoken languages and invites all Christians to join the initiative.
"The response to Global 4/14 Day from Christ followers is nothing short of a miracle," said Karges, founder and president of Children's Ministries International, Inc. "One million Christians, either praying on their own or with a group, for two billion children worldwide is remarkable. God is using Global 4/14 Day to bring Christians together through love, prayer, children's ministry and the internet."
On Saturday, Karges and his wife Janette will pray with a group at LifePointe Church in Fort Collins, Col. He will then spend the afternoon monitoring reports coming in from Christians from various countries, as they e-mail their testimonies, answered prayers and photos from Global 4/14 Day. In the evening, Karges will pray for children with Christian leaders on an international conference call.
While the movement was launched in 2009, its origins can be traced back to the 1990s and two pioneers in children's ministry, Dr. Bryant Myers, former director of World Vision's MARC Ministries, and Dr. Dan Brewster, a missiologist and former program director with Compassion International. Based on a presentation by Myers on the state of the world's children at the executive retreat for the Evangelical Foreign Mission Association in 1992, Brewster coined the phrase "4/14 Window" in 1995.
