Contact: Janet Magee, 956-299-0564

PORT ISABEL, Texas, April 1, 2015 /Christian Newswire/ -- In 1994 founder Janet Magee searched for a faith-based child abuse prevention organization to learn how she could help. She found relief efforts such as orphanages and shelters, but no actual prevention organizations at that time.

She believed the faith community was the sleeping giant in the battle against child abuse. She felt the call to help churches recognize the mission of abused children living in their own cities.

With that goal in mind, Blue Sunday Day of Prayer for Abused Children was launched. On the last Sunday in April (which is Child Abuse Prevention Month), churches are asked to pray for the victims of child abuse and for those who rescue them. It is free to participate and they offer videos, prevention materials and even church bulletins at no cost.

Having the faith community become involved in prevention efforts is our goal and we are seeing positive results from their participation. We are witnessing a rise in awareness and community involvement that is nothing short of a miracle. For the first time, we have more people praying than new victims. In 2014, Blue Sunday had 7.3 million people registered to pray and there were 686,000 children reported as abused in the United States.

Child abuse related deaths are down in Texas. In Texas, child abuse related deaths fell from 239 to 156 in 2013, and in 2014, they fell again to 151 according to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. The same source reports no child abuse related deaths in Cameron, Hidalgo, Willacy, and Starr counties in 2014. For Cameron County, home of Blue Sunday, it was the second year in a row to claim that victory.

We attribute this miracle to community involvement being at an all-time high with law enforcement, medical personnel, educators, the judicial system, child protection agencies, local media, and the faith community all working towards a common goal to keep children safe and to help broken families heal.

The giant is awake but there is still much more to do. Please ask your church to join us for National Blue Sunday Day of Prayer for Abused Children on April 26th. Register your church and access free resources at www.bluesunday.org.