Each month we focus on praying for two of the charities we support through Gift Day, one from the UK and one that works internationally. This month we are praying for The Swan and A Rocha International.

The Swan Youth Project
The Swan youth project aims to provide a happy, safe supportive and engaging place for young people in Berkhamsted It is a safe alcohol and drug free environment in which to meet and discuss any issues. They run after school drop in sessions and other events.

Let us pray:

• for all staff and volunteers that they might continue to have wisdom as to when and how to speak to young people
• for all the young people who visit The Swan
• that as a Church we might maintain the link that Luke so successfully developed

A Rocha International
This is a global family of conservation organizations working together to care for creation. It operates in three principal fields. In Nature conservation, through residential field study centres and site-based projects where they carry out ecological monitoring and research in areas of high value for wildlife. By Church engagement, it supports Christians in environmental action through conservation projects, resources for churches and involvement in global networks. In Environmental education, it encourages appreciation of nature and participation in its conservation, through environmental education and community outreach. Prayer is requested in three ways, so please pray for:

1. the A Rocha India team who have been seeking to raise funds to buy their field study centre since 2020 when the owners lost their income due to the covid pandemic. Due to their financial difficulties, they need to sell the centre to repay other loans. Despite pressure from potential commercial buyers, they have already kindly extended the sale deadline and A Rocha India is negotiating with the landlord for more time to raise the necessary funds.
2. the A Rocha Czech Republic team have plans to develop their field study centre, Kruparna, into a certified ecological institution, adding content on climate change to their environmental education work and enmeshing it with biodiversity. In order to fund the project, they have set the goal of raising just over €200,000, which would then be multiplied five-fold by an EU grant for which they are applying. They currently need another €70,000. Please pray for God’s provision in this project.
3. the outcomes of the recent UN Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) COP15. After four years of negotiations and nearly two weeks of intensive talks in Montreal, Canada, the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) was successfully adopted at CBD COP15. We thank God for this momentous commitment from nations around the world to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. We pray that governments will be able to successfully implement its targets in a way that is fair, inclusive and equitable. A Rocha look forward to being a part of this process alongside the communities where we live and work.