The Prayer of the Children by Kurt Bestor

In October I attended a concert by Kurt Bestor. His performance included this song and had a similar video to accompany it. It touched my heart. I hope it does the same for you.

Bestor served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Serbia during the 1970s. He wrote the words and music of this song years later when the Yugoslav wars broke out in the early 1990s as a tribute to the country's children. In Bestor's original performance on his Innovators album, he sings all the harmonies simultaneously by passing his voice through the chords using a vocoder. To make the effect more surreal, the song is performed a capella. Meridian Magazine described it this way:

Later when war broke out, and Yugoslavia splintered into warring factions with Serbs, Croatians and Bosnians hating and butchering each other, Kurt's heart was aching. What came to him--haunted him--were the faces of the children he had known. "Those children didn't hate anybody," he said. "They didn't care about who owned the land, or who had the power or the money. These are adult neuroses. They just wanted to have a mom and dad and a place to play."

Prayer of the Children

Can you hear the prayer of the children?
On bended knee, in the shadow of an unknown room
Empty eyes with no more tears to cry
Turning heavenward toward the light

Crying Jesus, help me
To see the morning light-of one more day
But if I should die before I wake,
I pray my soul to take

Can you feel the hearts of the children?
Aching for home, for something of their very own
Reaching hands, with nothing to hold on to,
But hope for a better day a better day

Crying Jesus, help me
To feel the love again in my own land
But if unknown roads lead away from home,
Give me loving arms, away from harm

Can you hear the voice of the children?
Softly pleading for silence in a shattered world?
Angry guns preach a gospel full of hate,
Blood of the innocent on their hands

Crying Jesus, help me
To feel the sun again upon my face,
For when darkness clears I know you're near,
Bringing peace again

Dali cujete sve djecje molitive?
(Croatian translation:
'Can you hear all the children's prayers?)
Can you hear the prayer of the children?