City Prayers
You are invited to join us in praying for needs in our city!
We believe the gospel compels us to love the city by showing up where things are broken and helping to bring healing in Jesus’ name. We want to be a people committed to asking Jesus to work through us to bring more of His Kingdom into San Diego—and celebrating when He does!
Join us as we pray for
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4 Key areas of need in our city—Homelessness, Foster Care, Sex Trafficking, & Immigrants/Refugees. See below for more info.
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Ministry partners serving in these areas
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Other gospel-centered, city-serving churches in San Diego
Homelessness
Overview
With nearly 20,000 unhoused men, women and children, San Diego ranks fourth among U.S. cities in homelessness. Each person has his or her own story—often a series of traumatic events that include such complex issues as unemployment, mental health challenges, physical disability, addiction, abuse, and serious health crises. Being unhoused often exacerbates these underlying problems, creating a vicious cycle. Helping individuals re-integrate into society and stay off the street permanently requires an approach that cares for the whole person and addresses the underlying heart issues that led them to becoming homeless in the first place.
Ways to Pray for Homelessness:
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That the local Church and all Christ-followers would unite around this critical social issue and feel compelled to see all men, women and children living on our streets as Jesus sees them – as beloved sons and daughters of the King, created in God’s image, for a purpose! And that we would all be humble enough to say, “there but for the grace of God go I.”
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Against the shame, isolation and obscurity that keeps many from seeking help.
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That God would give Christians a vision for what shalom in our city would look like and a burning desire to see all individuals in our city flourish.
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That God would give us his own heart that cares for men and women experiencing homelessness, and his courage to leave our own comfort to love and care for them.
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That God would give our civic and business and political leaders wisdom and empathy in addressing this incredibly complex issue.
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That God would touch the hearts of our vulnerable neighbors so they might seek after and follow Him down a path of healing and wholeness and new life.
Ways to Pray for our City Partner, the San Diego Rescue Mission:
- Praise - The powerful stories of God transforming lives and hearts of the graduates of SD Rescue Mission's 12 month Academy program, like Fatima. Their biggest graduating class ever is coming up this summer with over 30 people stepping into permanent stability.
- Request - SDRM is opening Navigation Centers in Oceanside, National City, and East County which will all feed people to their Academy site downtown. They are currently at 46% student success rate and desire to be at 75% success with 400 people off the streets permanently this year - you can pray for this!
Foster Care
Overview
70% of adults in prison, 33% of homeless men and women, and 60% of trafficking victims have histories in child welfare and foster care systems. In San Diego County there are currently 3200 children in the foster system, with 64% under the age of 6. The system is overwhelmed, but the number of children continues to multiply. Many parents are at risk of losing their kids to county services as they face poverty, unemployment, lack of affordable housing, and rising living costs—often combined with issues of domestic violence, mental health, and addiction. Once in foster care, 48% of girls become pregnant by age 19, with few resources to break generational cycles of poverty, abuse, trauma and tragedy.
Loving foster parents can provide the care, stability and mentorship kids need to heal and flourish. But there are not nearly enough, and the average foster family takes in just one child, quitting after one placement due to the overwhelming task. More foster families are needed, and those families need more support.
All through scripture God expresses his care and concern for the orphan and the fatherless. What would happen if hundreds of local churches and thousands of individual Christians shared God's heart for these kids?
Ways to Pray for Foster Care:
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That God would give us a heart for the orphan and the fatherless, precious boys and girls made in His image. Pray through these verses: Hosea 14:3, Isaiah 1:17, Psalm 82:3, James 1:27
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That God would raise up many Christians to become foster parents and/or a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA)
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That public awareness and concern for the plight of these children would grow.
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That God would raise up and sustain caring Child Welfare Service workers.
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That our city's leaders would pursue wise policies that protect children and help break cycles of poverty.
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For organizations like Restoration 225 and David's Harp, and local churches like Redeemer, Trinity and Risen, who serve families and kids in foster care.
Ways to Pray for our City Partner, Restoration 225:
- Praise - Restoration 225 launched Care Portal this year which allows county-wide social workers to connect with local churches in order to meet the needs of the kids and families they serve. It's beautiful to see the county recognizing the church as a key resource of love and service for the community.
- Request - Restoration 225 wants to see 175 churches deeply involved in foster care by the end of 2024, currently about 30 engaged at this level. They need capacity to expand resources (staff/funding) and churches need to respond.
Sex Trafficking
Overview
Sex trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery in which individuals are forced, deceived or coerced into commercial sexual exploitation. Sex trafficking is a multi-billion dollar business annually and is the fastest growing sector of organized crime.
"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound." Isaiah 61:1
In San Diego:
- An estimated 3,400-8,100 trafficking victims in San Diego alone
- An estimated $810 Million in annual revenue from the underground commercial sex economy in San Diego alone
- According to the FBI, San Diego is one of the top 8 cities for commercial sexual exploitation of children in the country
- 110 gangs were identified in San Diego to be involved in recruiting and selling women and children in the sex trade
- 20 of 20 schools studied in San Diego reported recruiting activity on their students, often via "boyfriending."
Ways to Pray for Sex Trafficking:
- That God would shape our hearts to abhor sexual exploitation as He does.
- That God would give us opportunities to serve, and the wisdom and courage to follow through.
- That God would break the arm of the wicked and evildoer and call his wickedness to account (Psalm 10:15)
Ways to Pray for our City Partners, GenerateHope and Alabaster Jar:
- Praise - This year Generate Hope and Alabaster Jar have served 50 women survivors in their residential programs in the past year and have seen massive strides of healing, including school graduations, employment, and several baptisms.
- Request - There is a massive gap in Emergency shelters for immediate safe housing. Pray for 2 trauma-informed shelters to be firmly established in north/south county this year to cover the massive gap in beds needed.
Refugees & Immigrants
Overview
All through the Bible, God calls his people to love and serve the vulnerable immigrants and refugees who live among us and who arrive on our doorstep.
- Just 7 miles away from Harbor City Church, the number of people arriving at our southern border seeking safety is overwhelming our government and creating a humanitarian crisis, especially for children and families.
- The men, women and children living here without documents are regularly exposed to exploitation, danger and injustice.
- San Diego resettles refugees from all over the world, including between 1500-3000 Afghan refugees expected to arrive over the next year. These are men, women and children who escaped horrifying danger, leaving behind home, extended family, language and way of life; and who made it through the obstacle course of US immigration only to land in one of the most fast-paced, expensive cities in the US with severely limited financial resources and few job prospects.
Ways to Pray for Refugees & Immigrants:
- That God would shape our hearts to love immigrants & refugees as He does
- That God would give us opportunities to serve and the wisdom and courage to follow through on them
- For Hope for San Diego, who serves many refugee families and works to connect local churches to serve as well.
- For San Diego Refugee Tutoring and the work they do to help refugee kids do well in school so they can grow up to succeed in this country and break cycles of poverty in their families.
- For David’s Harp and Servant Church— both of whom serve a community where immigration status can be complicated and decisions are difficult.
Ways to Pray for our City Partner, World Relief:
- Praise - 2 years ago World Relief didn't exist in San Diego, this year they served over 1,600 refugees through 161 volunteers in ongoing opportunities from 24 local churches and are continuing to expand.
- Request - World Relief wants to hire an Attorney and Advocate to expand services to more diverse clientele. Educational luncheons and 2-day border trips are starting for church leaders—pray for a massive response from churches to become regularly involved.