Bangladesh

World News in Prayer – August 6, 2020

Dear Lord, help us to hear these voices.

I pray today that my knees and back hold up. I pray that my mom and children are ok in our two-bedroom apartment while I work at a hotel and clean 15 rooms each day. I pray that my paycheck will be enough, that my car holds up, that someone cares about me enough to say “hello” to give a smile.

There are approximately 926,960 maids and housekeeping cleaners in the U.S. Sometimes cleaners are assigned 30 rooms in a day.

Across the barrier of our indifference awaken us to the other, help us to understand the burdens they carry, oh Christ, by your grace. May we understand the equity built into a living wage, the costs of health care and child care, housing and food, transportation, and school supplies.

I was a child soldier in Liberia, but first I was a schoolboy. I still pray for my grandparents. The soldiers arrived and took me away. I was taught to fight. Smoking drugs would energize us. The war is over, long over and many of us are trying to get off of drugs. I pray that I can leave this sad life. What price must I pay for my country’s war. I pray that I am not abandoned and shunned. I pray that God will protect me and hear my voice.

The UN investigates and reports on child soldiers. The top-ranking countries are Afghanistan, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen. Children as young as eight are used as combatants, guards, human shields, porters, messengers, spies, cooks, and/or for sexual purposes. Girl soldiers are often used as “wives” and sexually abused by their commanders and other soldiers. Iraq’s Kurdish and Yezidi children were recruited. Myanmar children are forcibly recruited into the National Army. In Nigeria girls, ages 7 and 8 were used as suicide bombers. In Somalia over 900 children were recruited and posted at checkpoints. Two factions in South Sudan have taken over 17,000 children. In Syria, warring sides have recruited children as young as seven, half are under age 15. They have been exploited in propaganda videos. In Yemen, where we pray that those suffering from starvation will be cared for, boys are recruited to fight on all sides.

Across the world where these horrendous injustices continue against the most vulnerable, their childhood swept away, torn from their families, oh Christ by your grace we call out against war and these atrocities. Help us to take right action. Help us to speak out against militarization. We pray for those suffering and the loss to their families.

Will my land flood and be silted over taking away our livelihood? I feel there is nothing to do but wait and watch. I pray we will be safe and not lose everything. The wind is picking up and the rain has already been falling.

River flooding in population-dense countries includes India, Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, Pakistan, Indonesia, Egypt, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Brazil, Thailand, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, and Cambodia.

Oh, Christ in your mercy, protect these countries from what seems to be inevitable flooding and a cycle of loss and destitution. We pray for those in harm’s way around the world. Give us the ability to work together to share resources and contribute knowledge to reduce this suffering. Be with the emergency transport, the health care workers, the utility crews, the engineers, and their teams as they design and plan and understand the rivers that bring life and death.

We are the over 1,700 health care workers who have died of COVID 19. We did our work, loved our work, trained many years, endured long hours, cried and spoke out and then we too became sick. We were not indifferent or complacent. We pray this pandemic will end that the billions of people under this veil of suffering will find comfort that leaders will come together in reason and generosity of heart and mind.

Medscape publishes the names of workers around the world. We name these few in remembrance of so many. Onyenachi Obasi, 51 Nurse, National Health Service, Barking and Dagenham, London, England. Morteza Vojdan, age unknown, General Practitioner, Mashhad, Iran. Patricia Wilke, 63, Pharmacist, Winslow, Arizona. Valeriu Pripa, 59, Head of Radiological Imaging Department, Chisinau, Moldova. Rosalinda “Rose” Pulido, 46, Oncologist, San Juan de Dios Hospital, Pasay City Philippines. Freddy Pow Hing, 59, Interventional Cardiologist, Hospital IESS Duran, Duran, Ecuador. Anonymous, 62, Organ Transplantation, Wuhan, China. Oh Christ, in your compassion and mercy give us the will to endure, care, and remember.

We’re still in shock; we’re still refusing to believe that something happened. We still think it’s like a dream or something. It was terrifying. It was horrible.

Residents of Beruit, Lebanon are reeling after an explosion of ammonium nitrate leveled the port injuring at least 50,00 people and leaving at least 137 dead. Residents have been working together to clear the rubble and investigations seeking to determine responsibility are underway as residents grieve and begin to rebuild from the devastation.

I am a tree, a forest, a bird, a butterfly, a bumblebee and a bat I have no human voice, my habitat is shrinking and yet I cling to beautiful nature. Hear my song, the wind moving in the fir, the singing wetland, the happy buzz and light wings. Receive our offerings.

Oh Lord, we have trespassed on our own earth, we have stolen and killed, sprayed and paved over, and cut down without thought to 7 generations. Forgive us. Approximately 30,000 species per year — about three per hour — are being driven to extinction. Where is our mindfulness? Nearly 80 percent of species diversity of our world is destroyed because of habitat loss — approximately 5,760 acres per day or 240 acres per hour. Christ in your mercy awaken us to our stewardship. Help us to live and step lightly.

Oh Lord, call us to your table of life. Remind us of the mighty work we need to do to care for each and all. Rest us at night and renew us for this day that is before us.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, July 23, 2020

Ever-creating God, Your glory fills the skies, from the transient sparkle of the fleeting meteor to the unexpected spectacle of Comet Neowise; your glory fills the earth from mountain height to ocean depth. We praise you.

As difficult as it is to find words to express how much your glory thrills and excites us it is even more difficult to turn and face the problems of humanity.

We pray for the war-torn, hungry and pandemic hit country of Yemen; we can barely remember how this situation came about and cannot understand how it is allowed to continue.

We pray for East Africa countries into the Horn of Africa and India and Pakistan as huge locust swarms move across the land. May our desire to act against their destructive force be planned sensibly, taking into account the needs of other wildlife so that the regions’ bio-diversity can be maintained.

We pray for the areas affected by earthquake this week, notably the Aleutians East Borough, Alaska, United States, with the possibilities of tsunami and repeated aftershocks. We pray for the countries of Bangladesh, Nepal and eastern states of India hit by the worst monsoon flooding for many years. Reports that rare one-horned rhinos have drowned seem to news agencies worse than the many human deaths.

So many disasters, Lord, when our instinct to rush to aid those affected are impeded by multi-national lockdowns and closed borders. As Australia, Hong Kong and China re-impose restrictions of movement, we give thanks that research for treatments and vaccines progresses.

Life continues, and for those who have planned new jobs, or moving homes, we pray it goes smoothly. For those forced into unplanned life changes by war, politically-caused famine, and environmental disasters, we pray they may find safe, secure refuges of warmth, shelter, food, and drink. We pray for all known to us suddenly overtaken by an unwanted trauma.

And finally, we pray for ourselves. As we self-isolate, mourn, or rejoice and party, Lord, you know our lives and we place them in your safe and secure hands knowing that our names are engraved upon your palms. (Is 49:16) Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, July 2, 2020

The World in Prayer team member who wrote this week’s prayers has spent the past 6 weeks catching, taming, and finding homes for a litter of feral kittens. It has, she says, definitely affected how she understands God, and how she prays for the world. “You’ll have to forgive me,” she writes, “if these prayers are rather – well – kitten-shaped.”

I. Courtship. They appeared in my yard, the terrified but oh-so-proud young mama cat, and her four just-starting-to-explore adorable kittens. Me, I spent long hours sitting absolutely still. Marveling. Waiting. For them to get used to my scent. For them to get used to my presence. For them to get used to my voice.

And I thought with awe – and wonder – and thanksgiving – about God. Our God, who loves us with such patient adoration. Waiting, for us to notice God with us. Waiting for us to abandon fear, for curiosity. Waiting for us to dare to approach. Waiting for us to dare to be loved.

Holy and loving God, we adore you and we praise you, because you love with infinite patience even those that the world despises, ignores, or rejects:

The Oromo – the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, where unrest has spread after the death and funeral of 34-year-old singer Hachalu Hundessa. His songs advocating their rights have become anthems in a wave of protests in that country.
More than 40,000 impoverished people have been evicted from their homes since March in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia, primarily in communities already displaced by violence, droughts, or floods.
Strawberry pickers brought from Morocco to Spain are not considered essential workers, and are not being provided even the most basic hygiene needed to protect them against the new coronavirus.
Sex workers in Thailand (more than 125,000 of them, from Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam), as well as in Bangladesh (an estimated 100,000) – have been jobless and facing abuse from their dissatisfied brokers since the coronavirus pandemic forced bars and other entertainment venues to close. For many, this illegal work is the only way they can survive and provide for their children.
According to the United Nations, the pandemic is reversing progress on ending child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM). An additional 13 million girls could be married off and 2 million more could undergo FGM in the next decade, beyond what would have been expected.
Indigenous Amazon communities in Brazil, who have no immunity to external diseases and whose communal lifestyle rules out social distancing – and who are not receiving adequate help during the pandemic from the Brazilian government.

II. Trapping. I put out food. Each day, moving a little bit closer. Each day, with breath held, waiting for them to come eat. Then the food went into the cat carrier, and if they wanted it, they had to go inside. And then one day, while they were eating, I gently shut the door, and brought them inside my house.

And I prayed…for all who don’t know if a sweet enticement will turn out to be a trap or an opening to a world of joy. For all who are trapped. For all who are being freed. For all who hold open doors to new life.

Holy and gracious God, whose will it is always to bless, stretch out your protecting arms over:

Hong Kong, as China’s new “national security law” for Hong Kong takes effect, criminalizing what had been protected speech (i.e., the right to criticize the Chinese government), and allowing mainland Chinese security personnel to legally operate in Hong Kong with impunity.
The dead, the missing, and the grieving after a landslide at a jade mining site in northern Myanmar killed at least 162.
The United States, where there are way too many people who believe their right not to wear masks or take other public health precautions to prevent the spread of Covid-19 is more important than protecting one another; and many others who cannot understand that the best way to have a healthy economy is to have healthy population.
Scientists in Canada, South Africa, and Zimbabwe who are helping Botswana try to determine the cause of the “completely unprecedented” deaths of more than 350 elephants since May

III. Delight. As I had known they would, the kittens came to trust. They learned to play, to pounce, to wrestle. They discovered that being petted was Very Good, Very Very Good. The legs grew longer, and the purrs grew stronger, and my arms or my lap were usually filled with a cuddle puddle. They learned to ask – often way too loudly, and way too early in the morning – for the food and loving they craved.

And I heard God’s prayer for us: What would this world be like, if we could hold each other in patient love? If we could trust, without pushing, that just loving and waiting in love were enough to transform the world? What if we could love enough to truly hear one another, and to answer – even if it’s momentarily inconvenient – with infinitely deep love?

Holy and delighted God, smile with us in pleasure, as the restorative power of the Black Lives Matter movement spreads across the world:

In France, where the global anti-racism protests led the armed forces ministry to provide local authorities with a guide to 100 Africans who fought for France in World War II, so that streets may be named after them. Presenting the list, Junior Defense Minister Genevieve Darrieussecq said, “the names, faces, lives of these African heroes must become part of our lives as free citizens, because without them we would not be free.”
In the United Kingdom,where the Lloyd’s of London insurance market apologized for its “shameful” role in the 18th and 19th Century Atlantic slave trade, and pledged to fund opportunities for Black and ethnic minority people.
In Nigeria, where leaders of the Igbo people hope the BLM movement will inspire similar change for their people, many of whom are the descendants of slaves and still face significant discrimination.

IV. Setting free. The time came. I wish I could have kept them all. I wish I could have kept that wild, but maybe-just-beginning-to-trust mama cat, and taught her how to be loved. I fell in love with the kittens, and wished they could have stayed with me forever. But they were ready. Feral mama, still very wary, was spayed and went to live on a friend’s ranch, where she will be cherished and invited into as much love as she can accept. The kittens were chosen with love, and this weekend will be on their way to wonderful families.

And I heard again God’s prayer for us: that incredible, deep, wanting all to be well with us. With every single one of us. With every single fiber of this planet, of this universe. With every single nation. Filling us with love…and then sending us forth, in love, to be love.

Holy and amazing God, rejoice with us at every tiny sign that your love is at work in the world, that the Kingdom of God is indeed at hand:

From Kenya to Tanzania, Ethiopia to Malawi, Liberia to South Africa, tens of thousands of ordinary African women battle Covid-19 in their communities. Recruited and trained by governments and charities, the unsung army of mostly female and mostly unpaid community health workers are going door to door in remote villages and urban slums, talking about the virus, showing residents how to wash hands or don a mask, patiently answering their questions. Regardless of the risk to themselves. They do it in love.

And God said, go forth in love, to be love.
Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, May 21, 2020

Even as the world turns, it seems the world has stood still in the shock of the pandemic. But we know this is not truly so, even as we know that you, Lord, hold all in your hand and love what you have created.

Science tells us that hurricanes and cyclones will continue to get more powerful – this week we are told that the ozone friendly chemicals we turned to thinking they would protect our atmosphere are themselves harmful. Lord, help us get our responses right.

As Cyclone Amphan makes landfall (Wednesday afternoon) on the Sundabans off Bangladesh / India with an expectation that it will track across Bangladesh and India as far as Bhutan. In this supercyclone, the first in the Bay of Bengal for 20 years, people are already dying. Lord help us to remember that science is not always the answer, but only provides a way for us to begin to understand the world you have made.

With shock, we pray for the residents who have been evacuated in the state of Michigan in the United States where dams have collapsed following days of heavy rain. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency for areas near the Tittabawassee River after the Edenville and Sanford dams burst.

Even as heavy rain lashes these areas, so drought builds across parts of Europe and wildfires burn in Arizona, Florida, Britain. Lord, help us get our responses right.

Lord, hear the cries of those in regions we don’t often hear about. Local officials in Russia’s Dagestan region have described the situation there as a “catastrophe”, with reports of a rising death toll and serious shortages of equipment. Officially the region has recorded 36 deaths from the Coronavirus with more than 3,600 cases but health officials say hundreds more have died of pneumonia, including 40 medics.

We pray for the migrant workers of India, faced with walking many hundreds of miles home and dying of exhaustion on the way. Without their labor, modern India would not be built. Lord, the worker is worthy of his hire ; you hear and know the cries of the desperate. Lord, help us get our responses right.

We pray for those whose Government’s response to the Covid 19 crisis is less than compassionate; for the people of Brazil who are faced with “fake news – this is only a mild flu”; for the people of Britain and the U.S. whose governments had dismantled pandemic procedures previously in place; for the residents of Sweden’s care homes who are not being hospitalized when taken ill.

There is good news; we give thanks. On the remote Australian island, the Norfolk Island morepork owl, with an estimated population of only 45-50, has had two owl chicks survive to fledgling, the first to do so in more than a decade. White storks have hatched for the first time in over 6 centuries in England while, on world bee day, Monmouth in Wales has officially become the first ever “Bee Town”

We hear that scientists in Australia may have found a way to prevent coral bleaching – a killing event caused, in part, by ocean warming

Following the maternity ward attack on the Dasht-e-Barchi hospital in the Afghan capital Kabul, killing at least 24 people, including newborns, mothers and nurses, we give thanks for the nursing mothers who have visited the hospital to feed the orphan babies. Lord, help us get our responses right.

Lord of all and every situation we place all this, our environment, our selves in your hand, may we respond to you in love so that our responses are loving and right for your world. Let it be so. Amen

[Read more…]

World News This Week in Prayer – Thurs., October 17, 2019

Be gentle with us, O Lover of Souls.
Be gentle with us, for surely in this fractured and fracturing world,
that above all is what we need:
To (re)learn to be gentle with ourselves.
To be gentle with each other.
To be gentle with our planet.

Be gentle with those – especially with those – who don’t seem to have a gentle bone in their bodies.
Be gentle with the United States, for abandoning their Kurdish allies; with the Turkish forces attacking the Kurds; with the country of Syria in the middle.
Be gentle with the owners of the Bangladesh clothing factory under investigation for abusing their workers.
Be gentle with the leaders of Venezuela, which just won a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council, despite their country’s own horrendous human rights violations.

Be gentle with those whom we cannot forgive.
Be gentle with the South Korean mastermind of the massive “dark web” child pornography marketplace who was arrested this week, along with 337 users of the site from 11 countries.
Be gentle with all who bully and abuse and terrorize, in the schoolyards, in our homes, in our workplaces, in our world.

Gentle them, Beloved, as you would gentle a wild horse.
As you would coax love from the strong muscles and striking hooves of the fearful and ranging stallion.

Be gentle with all who hurt, or weep, or mourn, or fear.
Be gentle with the survivors of Typhoon Hagibis in Japan.
Be gentle with those searching for survivors in the collapsed apartment building in Brazil.
Be gentle with the tens of thousands of migrants applying for asylum in Mexico, now that it appears that the U.S. will no longer be a possible place of refuge for them.

Wrap them in the tenderest love, Beloved, as you would a flurry of newborn kittens.
As you would make a nest of the softest blankets, in which to grow and heal and thrive.

Be gentle with our fragile Earth.
Be gentle with the students in Gambia protesting climate change, because one day, “my city Banjul could end up under water.”
Be gentle with Lebanon, facing the worst wildfires in decades.
Be gentle with Australia, where a growing drought is stirred up a dust storm so thick that day seemed to turn to night.
Be gentle with the lives we have built, with the lives we do not know how to sustain.

Help us to walk gently in our lands, in our lives.
As gently as a drop of dew on a morning flower.

Be gentle with us, O Lover of Souls.
But, oh, we do not need to ask.
For you are our Gentleness and our Beloved.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, Sept. 5, 2019

Kindle a flame to lighten the dark and take all fear away.
~ John L Bell and Graham Maule*

When nations are being riven by fear, lies, lack of trust in political, business
and so many seeming to seek leadership positions for their own aggrandisement rather than the common good:

Kindle a flame to lighten the dark and take all fear away, so justice and truth prevails.

When all efforts have been made to cope with natural disasters:

Hurricane Dorian, devastating the Bahamas and threatening east coast states of the USA;
Severe ice cap melting in Greenland, the Antarctic and Arctic – threatening low lying communities and countries throughout the world;
Bird migrants arriving at their usual time in northern countries (e.g. the UK and Scandinavia) to find food sources already flowered and unavailable due to climate change

Kindle a flame to lighten the dark and take all fear away.

When people are exhausted from the struggles against injustice and terror:

1.9 million people facing losing their citizenship in Assam, India;
Those detained, disappeared or tortured in Kashmir;
Starvation, violence, lack of medical care and hopelessness experienced by millions in Yemen, and in stateless camps throughout the Middle East, Libya, Sudan and so many other countries;
The fear of so many in Afghanistan where the US -Taliban deal does nothing to stop bombings and the use of children as suicide bombers;
Increased xenophobic riots in South Africa leading to deaths, injuries and boycotts;
Thousands of economically disadvantaged groups left without education or medical care after Christian and Muslim schools and health centers were seized by the government in Eritrea;
The desperate and often life-threatening experience of refugees in the US, Mexico, Sweden, the European Union, Canada, India, Bangladesh, Turkey, Australia and so many other countries

Kindle a flame to lighten the dark and take all fear away.

When people seek to care for their fellow human beings in need:

Over 1,000 people in the Central African Republic have become foster parents, like Henriette and Jean-Philippe Idjara. Despite having 4 children, and having lost 5 others through illness, they adopted 2 teenage boys who had seen their father executed by rebels. Alone and in fear of their lives, the boys had fled and walked 150 miles in a week, before being found exhausted and rescued by the Idjaras.
We give thanks for all who open their hearts and homes to brothers and sisters in need of any sort, without checking their balance sheet first. Help us to dare to trust in You, our shield and our defender.
We give thanks and remember all who act as carers (paid or unpaid), ambulance workers, medical staff, police, firefighters, military personnel, ministers and priests of all faiths, and those who keep our communities clean and safe with often little thanks. We pray for their protection and support, praying especially for their mental health dealing with the sights and situations we so often prefer not to see.. Throughout the world, the silent loss of way too many of those helpers of us all, their high rates of suicide and mental and physical illness from so much stress, is a scandal and source of shame..

Kindle a flame to lighten the dark and take all fear away. Bless and strengthen them by your loving spirit and help us provide them with the care and support they need.

When families are changing, new life is being formed and others prepare to leave this earthly life:

Give us all a sense of thankfulness and proportion as to what is real or imaginary;
help us nurture truth rather than deceit;
humility rather than hubris;
tenderness, love and compassion rather than aggression, hatred and division.

Despite all we like to think, we are not in charge. You are.

O God, save us from ourselves, from double standards and divided hearts, and give us light and life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

World News The Week in Prayer- Thursday, May 30. 2019

(6/1/19 Apologies to our readers. Due to my own sheer stupidity – aka, forgetting to restart the emails after changing a setting – the prayers didn’t email on schedule this week. Mea culpa! -Andee, World in Prayer founder)

Holy One,In our prayers, we seek you and in our praying, we feel the air stirred by your Spirit.

Our spirits rise to meet you, and even in the rising, we find you descending as a dove to meet us.

Our hearts drop into disappointment, and even in the falling, we find your wings beneath us, lifting and carrying us forth.

Reveal your Spirit to all who need your presence. Carry us forth to pray for the world.

Reveal your Spirit to those who live in Israel, Britain, India, and other places contorted by frustrations with leaders and wounded by political maneuverings.

Reveal your Spirit to those who live in Nigeria, as they pass the 4 year anniversary of the kidnapping of the Chibok girls and as kidnapping blooms as a business.

Reveal your Spirit to the family and friends of Terrill Thomas, who died of profound dehydration in a United States jail cell, after officials turned off his water supply; reveal yourself to all those who care of someone being held in prison or a detention center—and reveal your Spirit to the prisoners themselves.

Reveal your Spirit to those in Bangladesh riven with despair, anger, and grief over the death of Nusrat Jahan Rafi and the sixteen men charged with killing her.

Reveal your Spirit to those negotiating and debating over the increasingly tense relationship between Iran and United States, Israel and Gaza, and other places of fear, loathing, and historic violence.

Reveal your Spirit in the walking and the words of Hyppolite Ntigurirwa, a genocide survivor, as he walks through his country of Rwanda, hoping to unite the country in remembering and healing from the 1994 genocide.

Reveal your Spirit to those people whom we do not name or even know, but who are held by love in your heart.In all these places, make your presence known.To all these people, reveal your self.

Bear each beloved child on the wings of your abiding Spirit, until all might realize that, no matter what happens, you will never let them go. We need you, O Holy One. So we pray. Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, May 2, 2019

This week’s prayers begin with music. Music composed in the late 18th century by an Austrian composer, using an ancient Latin text. Music sung, this past Sunday, by a touring Russian ensemble, at the beginning of worship in an Episcopal church in California, U.S.

But perhaps a bit of background is in order. The members of the World in Prayer team who take turns writing the prayers come from two continents, and half a dozen different denominations. And I, the writer for this week – my week began with music. The St. Petersburg Men’s Ensemble had performed at our church last Saturday. And when we booked the performance, they had asked – asked! – if it would be ok if they also sang during worship Sunday morning, so that in that way they could celebrate their Easter. (Don’t worry if you’re a bit confused – in the Eastern Orthodox churches, Easter occurs the Sunday after Easter in churches that follow the Western Christian calendar.) As they sang Mozart’s Ave Verdum Corpus, I was transported…into a place where the differences between us in language, culture, nationality, politics all fell away. Where even the words of the text didn’t matter. Where the music itself caught us up into a place so very near to God…

And I thought, “If only we could recognize every stranger as the bearer of amazing gifts.”

Listen.
And then let’s pray.

Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus, performed by the St. Petersburg Men’s Ensemble on their “Live in Newport” DVD. Copyright 2014. Reproduced with permission. (If you have difficulty viewing the embedded video, you can also access the recording by going to https://youtu.be/EblcqRqLV0Q )

Holy One, give us eyes to see every approaching stranger as one bearing amazing gifts.

As United States President Donald Trump proposes charging a fee to those seeking asylum in the US,
As practical, along-the-way support dries up for those in the latest migrant caravan crossing Mexico,
As Pope Francis donates $500,000 to the migrant caravan,
As the number of migrants and refugees reaching Europe – Spain, Greece, Italy, Malta and Cyprus – by sea so far this year exceeds 12,000,
As the United Nations warns of a worsening humanitarian situation facing civilians across northwest Syria, with rising casualties, and “waves of displacement” due to intensifying conflict,

Give us eyes to see past fear and exhaustion, past seemingly-overwhelming numbers and unending needs.
Give us eyes to see the beauty that they bring.
Give us eyes to see the hidden, extraordinary gifts each stranger has to offer.

Risen One, give us ears to hear the music that unites us.

As Israel paused this week to for the annual remembrance honoring victims of the Holocaust,
As a young man spouting Christian hatred toward Jews attacked a United States synagogue,
As an attack on a Protestant church in Burkina Faso kills six,
and 40 Christians were reportedly killed in Nigeria on Easter,

Give us ears to hear beyond the burgeoning hatred and fomented distrust.
Give us ears to hear past religious divisions.
Give us ears to hear that all faiths that proclaim love, sing the song of the One God who draws us.

Beloved One, give us wisdom to succor every endangered being.

As Cyclone Fani makes landfall on the Eastern coast of India, where nearly 1,000,000 people were evacuated yesterday,
As the same cyclone endangers hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees still living in tents in Bangladesh, with no place to go and no resources to get there,
As Mozambique and Comoro struggle through the continuing downpours to try to begin recovery from the two devastating cyclones that hit there in the past six weeks,
As we learn that what was once the second largest breeding colony of Emperor penguins in Antarctica has completely disappeared due to climate change,
and the United Kingdom Parliament declares a climate change emergency earlier this week,

Give us wisdom to hold out our hands to all in danger.
Give us wisdom to share our knowledge.
Give us wisdom to heal our aching world.

Holy One, so fill us with the music of the spheres, that we can do nothing else than joyously sing the song of your unending love.
Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, November 15, 2018

Thanksgiving Prayer

“Oh, may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And guard us through all ills in this world, till the next!”
(verse 2, “Now Thank We All Our God,” by Martin Rinkart)

Holy and loving God, in this season where those in the United States celebrate Thanksgiving, we remember seed time and harvest, bounty and want, “all the ills in this world and the next.” Yet in the middle of all that makes us “perplexed” we come to You in prayer, with grateful hearts.

Along the migrant caravan trails – crossing through Mexico from Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador -we give thanks for the acts of kindness among ordinary citizens who share from their widow’s mite: food, blessing, care.

From the fire-ravaged towns of California, U.S., and flood and landslide-swept path of Typhoon Yutu in the Philippines, the we give thanks for the heroism of firefighters, first responders, search and rescue teams, and medical staff in the long work of protecting and healing. Your “peace which passeth all understanding” includes wiping away all tears of those who have perished, all who grieve. Thank you for hope itself, when all seems beyond hope.

Within the heartache of hate-filled violence in the U.S. against Jewish worshippers in Pittsburgh and college students in Thousand Oaks, amidst the terror with which Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh face the idea of forced repatriation to Myanmar (possibly beginning as early as this week), we find gratitude for such outpouring of love from mourners, families and people of all faith. Bind us together with such strength that the perpetrators of hate will tremble, bow down, and be resurrected in love.

In remembrances of the first World War to end all wars, we give thanks for stories of sacrifice in the face of war, and determination after. May our Prince of Peace yet find a home in the hearts of all. We give thanks for acts of courage and conscience that still seek to turn swords into ploughshares.

Around our own Thanksgiving tables, filled with aromas of abundance, may we smell the cooking fires of refugee camps across the world. We give thanks for aid workers and charities and missionaries who welcome those who have been abandoned, targeted or turned out. Like Jesus with the 5,000, may gratitude for what is too meagre turn into a miracle of more than enough.

Holy God, from Your house to ours, from our house across the world, we receive the gift of love, and determine to share it in word and deed, gratefully.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, July 5, 2018

This week’s prayers are adapted, with permission, from a prayer written for U.S. Independence Day 2018 by Leslie Barnes Scoopmire.

(Inspired by the Preamble to the United States Constitution)

In peace, we pray to You, Lord, God:
from our rising to our resting
we give You thanks and praise for all your blessings.

We give you thanks for the 12 boys and their coach found alive after being trapped in a cave in Thailand by rising waters, for the divers who reached them with food and supplies, for all who are working to rescue them, and for the millions throughout the world who have held them in prayer during the search.
We give you thanks for the breakthrough in-vitro fertilization technique that may save the Northern White Rhino species – now down to two surviving females and no living males– from extinction; for all the gifts of this Earth, and all who work to protect and preserve them.

May we seek to form a more perfect union
with You and with each other,
loving our neighbors as ourselves,
sharing each other’s burdens,
seeking to relieve each other’s wants.

We pray for an end to the posturing and tit-for-tatting in the tariff wars started by U.S. President Donald Trump against Mexico, Canada, China and the European Union. We pray for sanity, caution, compassion and courage among U.S. leaders as Trump threatens to pull out of the World Trade Organization and violate its rules with impunity. We pray for all whose livelihoods are at stake.
We give thanks that all 329 municipalities in Bangladesh have agreed to join the United Nation’s Making Cities Resilient Campaign. Low-lying, densely populated Bangladesh is one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, hit every year by cyclones that are becoming more frequent and more intense due to climate change. The UN Campaign will develop local action plans and improve infrastructures to prepare for disasters.

May we establish true justice as our foundation,
justice that builds and creates
rather than subjugates and destroys,
and work for an end to oppression, poverty, and prejudice,
remembering always the many mercies
we ourselves have received.

We pray for those who would want to make national criticism illegal. We pray for Poland, which has reduced the penalties in its controversial law against accusing the Polish nation of complicity in the Holocaust. In response to international pressures, jail time is no longer among the penalties.
We pray for the five people killed in a shooting at the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Md. (U.S.), and for the courage and commitment of the remaining staff in getting out that day’s newspaper anyway. We pray for the countries where a free press is banned, for those who spread fake news and inflame the public against the media, and for all truth-seekers and truth-tellers everywhere.
We pray for the day when ethics will outweigh profit-making in every business venture. We give thanks that Kenya’s public prosecutor has ordered the arrest of two farm managers and several government officials over a dam which collapsed and killed more than 47 people in May. The dam had been constructed by unqualified staff and also broke environmental laws.
We pray for the day when compassion will universally be valued more highly than conformity. We pray for North Korea, where a high-ranking military officer was executed for giving out extra rice and corn rations to his troops.

May we ensure tranquility
by defending and protecting each other
in compassion and mercy,
that true liberty may be a blessing for all
grounded in our common life together.

We pray for the success of the peace agreement signed this week between South Sudan and rebels, where the past five years of fighting have displaced one in three South Sudanese from their homes. We pray that the promised ceasefire holds, that safe passage is indeed provided through which food, water and medicines can reach those in desperate need.
We pray that Russia, the U.S., and Jordan will use their influence to broker an immediate end to the fighting in southwest Syria – as they did last in persuading the Syrian government and rebels to create a de-escalation zone along the Jordanian border.
We pray for the eventual safe home-coming for the Rohingya people, still trapped in exile in the no-man’s-land between Myanmar and Bangladesh. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres visited the camps earlier this week, hearing “unimaginable” accounts of atrocities.

May we work for the welfare of all
by giving of ourselves in unity, gentleness, and sacrifice,
rooted in God’s love,
grounded in the call to welcome and protect
those who turn to us for help or refuge,
and protecting the least among us always.

We pray for those whose homelands are no longer a place of safety. We pray for those from Africa trying to reach Europe, for those from South and Central America trying to reach the United States, for the many refugees trying to find someplace – anyplace – where they will be welcome.
We pray for the countries in the European Union that have reached a deal in principle on how to handle African refugees and migrants, but differ sharply on the implementation details, with no country yet willing to set up the “secure migrant processing centers” called for in the agreement.
We pray for the families separated by the U.S. “zero-tolerance” policies against would-be immigrants and asylum seekers. We pray for the children – some as young as toddlers – expected to represent themselves in immigration court.
We pray for all who have settled into new countries, only to find that those, too, are not places of safety. We pray for the 3-year-old refugee in Boise, Idaho (U.S.) who died after a man with an extensive criminal background stabbed her, five other children and three adults at her birthday party. We pray for all migrants who face distrust and anger, and all who harbor suspicion and hatred towards them. We pray for all who want to live together in peace.

May we secure the blessings of life, liberty, and happiness
and free ourselves
from all that chains us-
fear,
want,
suspicion,
jealousy,
division,
injustice-
and fully embrace and celebrate each other
in all our diversity.

Bless us and keep us, O God,
that we may dwell in peace, equality, and security all our days. AMEN