Prayer requests

Last night we went to El Torre Latinoamericana, a tower that is taller than the Empire State Building, and did a prayer exercise where we were given a list of statistics and spent some time praying over the city as we looked down on it. It was incredibly humbling, and my heart was so burdened after realizing how great the need is here for the people of God to reach out and care for the poor, fatherless, and oppressed. I'm going to share just a few of the facts that we were given below, and I ask that you pray for these needs as well, but first I want to share a neat story that resulted from our trip up that tower. One of my team facilitators, Jeff (a 19 yr old Canadian, incredibly gifted in outreach and evangelism) got into a conversation with a young man who had been drinking at the tower, saw us and began to follow our large group because he was looking for a party and thought we were one :) Jeff started talking to him about why he felt the need to drink and party, and ultimately it led to at least an hour long conversation in which this young man just poured his heart out to Jeff. His sister died of lupus, and grief-stricken he didn't go to the funeral, which then led to his family abandoning him because of that action. He has been turning to alcohol, sex, and partying to try and get rid of his pain. Jeff shared the gospel with him and invited him to come to his church. Please be praying for this young man (I think his name was Javier) and that he will come to church tomorrow and get plugged into a community of Christ-followers who will be able to love on him through this desperately needed healing process.
Okay, so now the list:
-Mexico City is the world's most visted religious tourism destination, ahead of the Vatican and Lourdes in France, largely because of the Basílica de Guadalupe, which receives millions of pilgrims each year.
-There is a growing percentage of the educated population turning to atheism.
-Mexico City has almost 2 million underprivileged and street children. 240,000 of these are abandoned children.
-About 20% of the population lives below the poverty line, based on a food-definition of poverty. Asset-based poverty statistics estimate almost 50% of the population lives in poverty.
-The Mexican standard of living is way below the US or Europe. The minimum wage is 46 pesos per day, about $4 US dollars a day (that's less than half of the minimum wage per HOUR in the US!)
-It is estimated that 15% of the workforce in Mexico City are alcoholics.
-Water shortage is an ever-present reality in Mexico City.
-Heavy reliance on automobiles, added to the city being located in a valley, contributes to heavy pollution and poor air quality.
-International organizations fighting child sex tourism say Mexico is one of the leading hotspots of child sexual exploitation, along with Thailand, Cambodia, India, and Brazil.
-95% of Mexico City's 13,000 street children have already had at least one sexual encounter with an adult.
-The majority of girls and women inducted into prostitution wind up in Mexico City.