Gang Violence Continues to Increase

Metro Vancouver has an obvious and serious gang problem.  While the current pattern of gang members shooting each other in broad daylight is disconcerting enough, it's only a matter of time until innocent bystanders are killed and wounded.  This week's murder of a young mom while her 4 year-old watched from his carseat underlines the fact that the situation is more far gone than many expected.  Vancouver, Surrey, Prince George, Williams Lake and many other communities are dealing with the same issues minus the kind of violence currently underway in Vancouver.

Our primary focus is to see the violence come to an end in Metro Vancouver before any innocents are killed.  That requires several things.  The police will need some significant investigative break throughs so that the most dangerous and most likely to offend can be taken off the streets before harm comes to anyone else.  In some cases, all that is necessary is for known members to begin to talk about certain issues.  In other cases, the police will need to discover previously hidden evidence that will allow them to arrest and imprison gang members.  Pray that God would help our law enforcement officials to gain ground in this battle for our streets so that citizens can live in peace and safety.

Pray for our political leaders.  In particular pray for the Solicitor General (Hon. John van Dongen) and the Attorney General (Hon. Wally Oppal) as they provide leadership at a provincial level as well as the upcoming mayors summit in Surrey this Thursday.  These men and women need tremendous wisdom and courage as they move forward in developing a plan to deal with this issue in their communities.

Finally, there is a reason why young men and women involve themselves in gang related activity.  The rewards for being involved outweigh the obvious risks that come along with this kind of a lifestyle.  Part of the solution is for the church to be pro-active at a grassroots level by engaging these young people before they are ensnared by gang life.  What they need is to experience a genuine expression of God's love, hope and purpose through the lives of other people.  Pray for boldness for the church to step into this dangerous world and begin to make a difference now.

PrayBC Provincial Issues

Welcome to the first post of PrayBC Provinical Issues.  As PrayBC continues to develop, it's become more and more apparent that we needed to add a track that focused on issues of public concern.  The premise behind PrayBC is to serve as a resource and to provide leadership for those who want to take on the task of strategically praying for our province.  The intent of this prayer resource is to bring various issues to the attention of our prayer network so that we can begin to pray strategically about the social, economic, and environmental issues.  Most of the material presented here will come from the news and from our observations at the Legislature.  Our hope is that the Church in British Columbia will begin to rise and pray over these isssues believing that as we do, God will hear from heaven and respond in significant ways.