Pray for furloughed workers

A lot of people have learnt a new word in the last few months, ‘furlough’.

Some of us may have heard the term when a missionary came home from overseas, or possibly in an Academic context but with indications showing that one in four UK workers (over 9 million) are expected to be furloughed it is a word indelibly marked in the mind of the nation. Similar schemes are also operational across the globe, but employers in the UK can give thanks over a scheme which is as comprehensive as any in any major world economy.

Millions of requests for state aid to temporarily pay staff wages during the coronavirus crisis have flooded the government's furlough scheme, which opened officially earlier this week. with 67,000 job claims in the first 30 minutes, in the rush to get paid before payroll on April 30. We also pray that these IT systems will hold together as it has been built to process up to 450,000 applications an hour.

We would ask you to pray for Furloughed workers that they would be able to apply Philippians 4 verse 8 to their lives - some will have added childcare responsibilities but other will have more time on their hands than they would normally. We want you to pray that God would use this season to have furloughed workers discover who Jesus Christ is and seek to know him better.

Philippians 4:8, NIV: "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things."

One furloughed worker in Belfast has done just this. Roupen Pilibossian has decided to spend his time supporting Food4Belfast a project we heard about earlier in the week.