Brazil

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 1 November 2018

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:1-2

And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. Ezekiel 47:9

Dear God our Creator and Redeemer,

Help us to live in awe in this world, this day and in this moment. Help us to understand with new eyes how you spoke the world into being and as it unfolds, even now, in this season, as wind and water move over earth. Help us to hold sacred the lands. Are we stewards or despoilers? Help us to understand how you restore and renew the world. Help us to see your grace at work. We read of TheKofan people of Sinangoe in the Amazonwhoprotecting more than 79,000 acres of primary rainforest in their ancestral homeland in Ecuador. Theyhave won a landmark legal battle to defend one of its’ largest and most important rivers from mining claims.

And when will peace come like fresh water flowing through the many rivers of Ethiopia where 1.4 million of its 100 million people are displaced? Help us to hear Ambassador Shalework Zewde’s words, “When there is no peace in country, mothers will be frustrated. Therefore, we need to work on peace for the sake of our mothers.” Help us to see your grace at work as the two Houses elected their first female head of state. Sustain this ancient land, stop the bloodshed and renew its peoples.

Be with the people and lawmakers of Sri Lanka, Germany and Brazil as leadership is changing and uncertainty grows.

And when will peace like the rains that come to Gaza in winter bring reconciliation and an end to the bloodshed and deprivation for the near 2 million Palestinians? We mourn for the 210 killed and more than 18,000 wounded in the past 6 months during the weekly Friday protests along the Israeli border. We pray for the brokering by Egypt for peace as refugees live with undrinkable tap water and only a few hours of electricity a day. Only your mercy can cause these and other injustices to fall away. In these days and weeks to come may your truth be known and received.

We watch and pray as the United States government has been ordered by the International Court of Justice in the Hague, Netherlands to halt sanctions that it had placed on the exporting to Iran of medicine and medical devices such as incubators, food and agricultural commodities such as wheat and spare parts and equipment necessary to ensure the safety of civil aviation. Open our eyes and hearts. Help us to bend and bow to your commandment: to love you and to love one another.

Awaken us from the suffering and deep misery, the horrible loss of opioid addiction and death so prominent in both the United States and Canada. We pray that the US legislation signed into law this week known as the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act will indeed work swiftly, prioritizing children, adolescents, and families as this public health crisis continues to unfold. We call on the Holy Spirit to guide our discerning as neighborhoods, towns, schools and workplaces find new resources to turn around this epidemic. We lift the tens of thousands who have experienced loss of loved ones. Lord have mercy.

Shed your mercy on the grieving families and their community in Louisville, Kentucky, United States as an attempted break-in at a church and murder of two people raises the alarm of violence so often fueled by hate. Forgive us for our sins Lord.

We weep, we grieve, we shake our heads and we come together once again. The world watches as a young man’s ashes are laid to rest twenty years after a hate crime ended his life. Again we despair, we groan and grieve as eleven worshipers at The Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA are murdered and six are injured. Guide us in these dark days where fear and hatred seem so common. Will this violence end? Help us to continue our resolve for peace making amid such hate and deadly force. In this time of mourning may we comfort each other as you have comforted us. In the days to follow may we commit to the words of Micah, “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Help us to take those steps no matter how hard it seems and how impossible the way.

And as this day becomes night let us remember your tender power amidst all the little things: the birds in migration, the little ones yet to be reunited with their families, the least of these, the forgotten, the unnamed, the isolated and imprisoned, those on the road and in hiding, the many suffering – we pray for these and call to You. Hear our prayers.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, September 6, 2018

Do not fear, for I am with you,

do not be afraid, for I am your God;

I will strengthen you, I will help you,

I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.

For I, the Lord your God,

hold your right hand;

it is I who say to you,

“Do not fear, I will help you.”

Isaiah 41:10, 13 (NSRV)

God of Comfort, each of your children come to you with unique hearts and minds and experiences and of every feeling imaginable. While we may not know the feelings and experiences of those near or far, you know what lies in every heart. We ask that you rest your comforting hand on each of your children.

God of Strength, lift up those who can hardly carry on. We pray for the refugees on the Island of Lesbos, Greece who suffer under horrendous conditions in the Moria Migrant Center. We pray especially for the children who do not have the strength or will to live any longer, who are attempting suicide wishing to leave the burdens of earthly life. May your hand of comfort lift them up. Give them your mighty strength.

God of Presence, be with those in Japan who have experienced a terrible typhoon. As your people experience this destruction, be with those who have lost loved ones and with the injured. May your healing presence and abundant love be made known. Help us to understand that your presence is so necessary in every human life: in typhoons and other natural disasters, in a hospital room or hospice, in broken relationships and among defeated souls.

God of Help, at times the lives of your people and the things they care about completely fall apart. Be with the people of Brazil who have lost years of history after the fire at the National Museum of Brazil destroyed over ninety percent of the collection in Rio de Janeiro. As priceless pieces and singular specimens are utterly gone and with the research, work and livelihood of so many upended we ask for comfort as they mourn and try to understand this great loss.

God of Hope, we ask that you sustain the people of Venezuela as rampant inflation continues, that they might know stability and peace. While hope might seem distant, lift up those who have had to live under extreme poverty, increasing crime and daily hunger.

God of Life, be with those in Syria as battles loom imperiling more lives. We ask that you protect all who are in harm’s way. Sustain your people as they face the loss of loved ones and destruction of their communities. End the suffering and may the blessings in life prevail as talks of rebuilding begin.

God of comfort and strength, of presence and help, of hope and life, be with your people around the world and in all the ways needed whether it is to receive comfort or rejoice in new seasons of life. May each of your children know your loving hand. While others might hurt or harm, help us to know that your victorious hand will never harm and will always offer hope.

May your words “Do not fear, I will help you” continually ring as an anthem of hope in our lives.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, August 23, 2018

God of compassion

God of green earth and snow
God of darkness
And illumination
God of new things
And of things torn apart
God of waters and maker of dry land
God of tender souls clinging
God in this moment and across all sunrises and the universe

Help us to understand our place in this troubled world, this vast and complex mystery. We ask for a deepening of our caring for our neighbor.

Be with the people of Kerala, India, with nearly 800,000 living in 4,000 emergency relief camps. Sustain them as monsoons continue to cause massive flooding, landslides, and strain resources. Be with rescue teams as they move people to safety. Support community leaders as they discern where to turn their attention in this catastrophe – to straining dams, deforested areas, impassable roads and railways. Comfort those who mourn the over 350 dead and missing.

Bring comfort to the people of Ghazni, Afghanistan, under siege as war continues. Be with those fleeing, those in harm’s way and those unable to leave. Have mercy on the suffering and be with those who have lost over 400 loved ones. Comfort those in the Shia neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi who mourn the 34 people killed in a suicide bomb attack in front of the education center in Kabul. Bring relief to the injured and those who mourn as a cease-fire offer receives further rocket launches, killings and abductions.

Come Holy Spirit, walk the streets of Pacaraima, Brazil, as residents are attacking migrant encampments of people fleeing Venezuela. Open the borders of our hearts to recognition of the universal need for a home.

Care for your people in Indonesia and especially on the quaking island of Lombok. Landslides, unstable and stressed buildings, people moved to living in tents, so much loss in this catastrophe. We ask for your compassion for those who mourn for the dead, 436 and rising. Sustain the hearts and hands of those who rescue and tend.

Teach us to love in powerful ways, in earnest ways that speak out against malice, prejudice and injustice. Bring wisdom, right action and compassion during the unprecedented worldwide displacement of over 68.5 million people. Protect and sustain the 44,000 people newly displaced today and each day around the world. Open the hearts of those who want to deny refugees a place of safety – in the US, for example, where President Trump’s administration is rumored to be considering a second sharp reduction in the number of refugees who can be resettled in the country.

Be with the people of Assam, India, as their leaders sort citizens from non-citizens. Help us to grow in humanity, called insaniyat in Hindi.

Sustain the teams who courageously work at the wildfire front lines day and night, with nearly 2 million acres burning in the US and 2,500 hectares in Canada, with yet more fires around the world, from The Great Dividing Range, Australia, to the coast of Greece. Comfort those who flee waiting to return uncertain of what they will find. Bring strength to those involved in the longer-term care, as overwhelming anxiety and grief is sorted and sense made of loss. Protect the wildlife. Protect us all from the consequences of the ashes spreading through the atmosphere, even to places distant from the fires themselves.

Holy Spirit come beside us. May we speak words that offer dignity and R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Inspire us even in these times of dread to make a joyful noise and walk in your light.

God of Love
God of fields and harvests
Of clouds, rivers and forests
God of night
And of broad noonday
God of the broken, sick and near death
God of the healed
God in this moment and across all sunsets and the universe
We call to you with these prayers for the people.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, May 10, 2018

Lord, we come before you

Prayer is communication that invites at-one-ness with You, the source of our being. We call you God, and as revealed in the flesh, Jesus. We ask for empowerment. Transform us with the life-giving force of the Holy Spirit. Make us channels of the your Eternal Love, Light, and Grace. Help us to continue this work of transformation, of ourselves and of all creation.

Lord, in your mercy hear us

As You are One, You call us to this oneness yet we are so divided by what should unite us, our religious beliefs, diverse cultures, resources and desires. You have shown us glimpses of Yourself according to what we are willing and able to receive, then, too often, we become exclusive and possessive. Thinking we own the truth, we denigrate others.

We see this in the tensions in India between Hindus and Muslims leading to the torture, rape and murder of young girls. Coptic Christians being attacked in Egypt. Conflict and sectarian violence continuing in Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Nigeria and elsewhere around the world.

Lord, hear us and forgive us

You call us to care and nurture all creation, yet so often we treat it cavalierly and out of greed, abuse our resources. The continuing deforestation of huge swathes of Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil, and even in protected ancient forests such as Poland. New gigantic off-shore platforms near Australia are drawing natural gas resources to meet our insatiable greed for energy.

Lord, teach us stewardship and how to touch the earth lightly for the benefit of all and generations to come.

Lord, hear us and forgive us.

We give thanks for the work in the United Arab Emirates by scientists from Norway who have developed a method to pump liquid clay nano-particles into sandy desert so that crops are planted in seven hours instead of seven years. Water required to grow these crops is also reduced by up to 50%. The blooming of the desert is a closer reality.

We give thanks too for the female armed rangers in southern Zimbabwe who are protecting highly endangered elephants from poachers. Unlike their male counterparts, they are not succumbing to corruption or pressure but are arresting poachers even from their own villages or families. Often having survived abusive relationships, these women can now send their children to school and support them.

Lord, continue to strengthen those taking such creative action in solving problems we humans so often have created.

Lord, we bless your holy Name: hear us and bless us.

We continue to remember all who fear. Remember those experiencing natural disasters such as in Hawaii, U.S., and dust and electrical storms in India. Guide our leaders as we watch such political posturing as between North Korea and the rest of the world. Give us discernment in the Iranian nuclear discussions and in the latest financial crisis in Argentina. Comfort those experiencing the devastating wave of knife crimes in London, England among the young. Be with those imprisoned throughout the world without trial or justice, those lonely, those who feel they have no self-worth.

Help us to reach out as need presents itself in all its forms. We have heard your Truth. Prompt us to act on it and live it in our daily choices and decisions.

Lord, hear and answer our prayers for the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ who opened the way for Your kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, April 12, 2018

[Jesus] stood among them and said to them, ‘Shalom be with you.’ ~ Luke 24:36

God of creation and creativity, you’ve given us the gift of language and communication so that we might speak of and learn about you, however feeble our understanding might be. We often take the gift of words for granted, forgetting the deep richness of meaning in the words you speak to us. Remind us especially today and always of the meaning of Jesus’ words to his disciples and to us: “Shalom be with you.”

Remind us that the shalom of God means a commitment to peace for all people. Bring calm and reason to world leaders who threaten one another economically, politically, and militarily, especially in Russia, China, and the United States of America. Send people of good faith and compassion to negotiate healing and peace in places of long-lasting and complicated conflict like Syria, Palestine, Myanmar, Central African Republic, South Sudan, and so many other countries around the world where your children continue to suffer.

Remind us that the shalom of God means a commitment to justice for all people. Send your shalom to all governments leaders who are committed to improving lives and working for the prosperity of all. Make us aware of the fragility of our human hearts, so that we can guard against further instances of corruption like those currently playing out in South Africa and Brazil, where key government leaders have been charged or convicted. Remind us of our own role in creating communities of equality, where all people can live in safety and wholeness.

Remind us that the shalom of God means a commitment to health for all people. Bring healing to all who suffer illness in mind, body, and spirit. We pray especially for those who have been abused like Yoshitane Yamasaki, a man in Japan who was kept in a cage by his father for 20 years, and childless women in Guinea, where a scammer sold harmful herbs that made the women’s stomachs swell and told them that they had become pregnant. We pray also for the grieving families of the children who died in a bus crash in Himachal Pradesh, India.

Remind us that the shalom of God means a commitment to wholeness for all people. Embolden us to fight for change as we remember the empty and broken feelings of those who have lost loved ones to violence: the families of students killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, USA; the families of those killed and injured in Muenster, Germany, when a van drove into a crowd; and the families of those who mourn the senseless deaths of people they love due to gun violence, terrorism, and hate.

Remind us that the shalom of God means a commitment to safety for all people. Fill us with compassion for people who live in danger every day in Douma, Syria, where gas attacks threaten lives, and in Offa, Nigeria, where violent robberies have become routine.

Remind us that the shalom of God means a commitment to your future kingdom in all its fullness. Give us the boldness to pray as you taught us, “Thy kingdom come,” and then to act on that prayer, working for peace where there is war, justice where there is need, health where there is illness, wholeness where there is loss, and safety where there is fear and danger. Fill us with your shalom, so that we can carry your message of hope, love, and joy to the ends of the earth.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 12th October 2017

Beloved God,

here in the United States, home of many and mingled people, all of whom we honor, we bring our astonished praise for all the gifts that surround us.

Having just learned the names of MacArthur Foundation Fellows of 2017, we have been at least introduced to marvelous ways our universe and our lives work.

Immunologist Gabriel Victora born in Brazil found after probing the subtleties of piano performance that in science he could unwind how antibodies over time improve their ability to fight germs. We pray in wonder that all unthinking we are protected by more than we understand. We pray in gratitude that gifts of intelligence and perseverance have allowed us to see more and more of how things work.

Writer Jesmyn Ward, lifelong resident of the Mississippi Shore, has distilled the painful and hopeful grapes of the racial vineyard of her home and her life into a drink for us all. We pray for the patience and insight to sip it.

Photographer Dawoud Bey has through his lenses brought the biblical injunction to use our eyes to see into our own time and issues.

Community organizers, artists, musicians, scientists, they all reveal dimensions of understanding beyond what most of us can discern. They exercise abilities beyond what most of us have. Yet they are enough like us to serve as reminders not just of gifts we lack but also of gifts we have.

In a world struggling with mass murder, wildfires out of control, ominous environmental change, all the age-old problems of human frailty and fault, we pray for strength to uphold virtue, persistence to endure suffering, humility to support others, and compassion.

Dear God, we live in a world of many marvels, peopled by geniuses and others. We offer our bedazzled praises and our heartfelt need for your companionship.

Amen

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, October 5, 2017

A note from the writer of this week’s prayers:
I really wrestled with what prayers to write today. Part of me – a LARGE part – wanted to rage at God: “If Jesus’ crucifixion, death and resurrection was supposed to end the power of evil and sin, your experiment has failed. Utterly. It’s time to try again, with something different.” But then I saw Connie Sun’s Blessings of Life cartoon, and all the tangled threads of anguish within me took a deep breath and began to unwind. And I thought, “This. Yes. This is what we need. Blessings. To bless, and to be blessed.”

Cartoon reproduced by permission. To see more of Connie Sun’s work, go to http://www.conniewonnie.com/ or follow her on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cartoonconnie/.

A Litany of Blessings

Bless the conflict
Bless the yearning

Bless the Catalonians who voted to split from Spain. Bless the nation that wants to keep them.
Bless the Kurds who voted for independence from Iraq. Bless the Iraqis who fight the Islamic State beside them.
Bless the ceasefire in Colombia with the Marxist National Liberation Army rebels.
Bless the dreams of every homeland.

Bless the grief
Bless the caring

Bless the victims of the mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
Bless the dead after a stampede on a footbridge at a Mumbai, India, railway station.
Bless children and teachers lost when a day care center in Brazil was set on fire by a guard who worked there.
Bless the troubled. Bless the injured.
Bless the memories of all survivors.

Bless the leaving
Bless the turning

Bless the more than 150,000 from Bali, Indonesia, who are in limbo, waiting to see when and if it will be safe to return to their homes near a possibly soon-erupting volcano.
Bless the lives lived out in makeshift refugee camps around the world. Bless the Rohingya who have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh.
Bless the devastated U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.
Bless the hope. Bless the rebuilding.
Bless the new homes and, someday, those returning.

Bless the danger
Bless the healing

Bless all in Yemen, where cholera cases could hit a million by the end of the year.
Bless the government health officials, World Health Organization, aid agencies and private donors from around the world, now meeting in France to commit to preventing 90% of cholera deaths by 2030.
Bless the 1.2 million “food insecure” in Sri Lanka, where drought has led to the loss of two successive harvests, many small farmers have resorted to eating seed saved to plant next season, and many households are eating just one meal a day.
Bless the hungry. Bless the hurting. Bless the fear-filled.
Bless the aid-workers. Bless the donors.
Bless the researchers. Bless the prayer-supporters.

Bless the night
Bless the morning

Bless the birthdays. Bless new lovers and years-long friendships.
Bless the sunsets and the rainbows.
Bless the achievements, large and small.
Bless the learners and the doers.
Bless the meals eaten, alone and those together.
Bless each hour of rest and slumber.

Bless the hands, and hearts, and spirits
Lord God, bless us all

World News in Prayer for Thursday, 7 September 2017

Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. -Ps.119:34

The commandments…are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” -Romans 13:9-10

Abba, Father of each one of us wherever we are in this blue planet you created for us even as you created us, listen to the cries of our hearts. As I struggle with difficulties and issues in my life outside my control, they are but pale echoes of what others are experiencing. But for each of us, at times the darkness threatens to overwhelm us.

God of love and life, hear our cries, and let a glimmer of your light and love offer hope and clarity about the path to take.

I feel such a deep, burning anger at the ecological disasters yet again affecting so many of the poorest communities in the Caribbean, India, Sri Lanka, the USA; at the suffering of so many without access to medicine, clean water, and food in Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Venezuela, Somalia, Syria, and so many other countries. I am ashamed and appalled at the indifference and inaction of media and politicians. What can I, as one person on a limited income, do to tackle this other than pray, sign petitions to be presented to our seemingly-indifferent governments, make phone calls to my elected officials, send emails, write letters which never seem to get answered?

Jesus, you challenged the authorities by pointing to the difference between God’s laws and those of humankind.

God of love and life, hear our cries, and let a glimmer of your light and love offer hope and clarity about the path to take.

At night, my sleep is broken as I hold up to You the prisoners of conscience disappeared without trace in numerous countries; the murder of so many such as Lauri Gankesh, an Indian female journalist and activist who spoke out against extremist Hindu violence; women and girls routinely sexually harassed and raped throughout the world and then being accused by males in positions of influence or power as ‘inviting it’; corruption in Brazil, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E.- the list seems endless…

Jesus, you contravened the religious ‘correctness’ of man’s religious orthodoxy, preferring always to follow God’s revealed will and laws.

God of love and life, hear our cries, and let a glimmer of your light and love offer us hope and the courage to follow your example.

So many hearts are breaking in the United States at the suspension of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), the act put into place during the previous administration in 2012 to permit undocumented young people, brought to America by their parents, to remain in the country at their jobs or in school or with their families. Uncertainty grips Latino communities as the threat of deportation looms large, loving God, as families fear being torn apart, in the name of national security and immigration reform.

Jesus, you welcomed everyone, including all people into the embrace of your loving care, reflecting the all-encompassing and inclusive love of God.

God of love and life, hear our cries, and let a glimmer of your light and love offer us hope and the courage to speak up for justice.

Why do we, your followers, call you The Servant King but try to emulate, admire, and promote the values of self-obsessed ‘successful leaders’? Lord, forgive us and have mercy on our twisted understanding. So often we proclaim and teach human traditions instead of yours. We give thanks for all who dare to follow You in love and service, abandoning themselves to your will.

Lead us from death to life, from fear to love, from despair to hope, trusting in You. God of love and life, hear our cries, and let a glimmer of your light and love offer us hope and the courage to love our neighbor, whoever and wherever they are, as You love us. Amen

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, August 31, 2017

Do you know what I have done for you? – John 13:12c

And new things I now declare – Isaiah 42:9b

The word of the Lord stands forever – Isaiah 40:8b, I Peter 1:25

Lord, we see what you have done for us, but sometimes it is difficult as we do not know or understand exactly what this is. We only see that something has happened, something is different.

Then there are the times, over generations, when we have acted as if we were gods. When failures to understand and then to correct, once we have understood, catch up with us, we are quick to blame you and slow to mend our ways. As the effects of global warming are felt around the world it is easier to say “an act of God” than “an act of humanity.”Forgive us our failure to be proportionate and well balanced in our assertions. We do not know what you have done when in your steadfast love you declare this new thing: we are forgiven.

The word of the Lord stands forever.

You take the work of human hands and, against all sense but out of unconditional love, you make good what we have done and declare new things. As we face the worst damage that hurricane Harvey is wreaking on Texas, Louisiana and regions in the US; as most States in India and Mumbai suffer collapse of buildings and flooding; regions in Nepal and one-third of Bangladesh cope with monsoon flooding which has killed more than 1,200 people and made millions homeless; as heavy rains flood Niamey, the capital of Niger, Africa; as the second tropical storm in days hits Southern China and Hong Kong; we pray that out of all this horrendous upheaval new attitudes, new ways of living, new things will grow.

Lord, declare new things, now.

The word of the Lord stands forever.

It is strange to those safe in developed countries that even flooded Bangladesh becomes a refuge to the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar fleeing nationalist persecution. It is strange to us in Europe that crossing the Mediterranean in unsafe boats seems a better chance at living than remaining in so many third world countries. It is strange to us in our wealth that Brazil is now opening environmental reserves to destructive mining in parts of the Amazon. Give us a new understanding of wealth and safety and plenty — so that we do not take more resources than we need from our planet.

Lord, declare new things, now.

The word of the Lord stands forever.

As we see the heroes in their little boats in the southern states of the US; as we see the heroes of conservation protecting endangered species in Nepal; as we see heroes pull people from the seas of southern Europe and those who give them clothing, food and respite; as we see those heroes who continue the work of caring long after the journalists have gone – in Freetown, Sierra Leone dealing with the disastrous landslide; among rescue workers in the Alps landslide in Bondo, Switzerland; with medical workers in Yemen – we know that you are constantly declaring the good news of your love for all this, your world.

Lord declare new things, now.

The word of the Lord stands forever

Amen

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, August 3, 2017

The Lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down. Psalm 145:14

There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole;

There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul.

God of grace and glory, God who knows our hearts and minds, you can see, you can feel the pain of your children as we attempt to honestly bring to you our concerns for the people of this world, our sisters and brothers in so many places, people who are striving for good and honest and just government in Venezuela and Brazil, in Syria and Iran, in Kenya and Turkey and Pakistan. We lift up those abducted in the night, those arrested, jailed, and persecuted for speaking out for justice and their stance against the governments they believe are not functioning in the best interests of the people.

The Lord upholds those who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.

Even as migrants continue to risk everything crossing into Europe, preyed upon by smugglers, as people in Central America continue to flee gang violence, human trafficking and threats to their lives, so many national governments are attempting to limit immigration, tightening immigration laws, heedless that our sisters and brothers desperately need both sanctuary and hope, and so we lift up both the refugees and those in government, that hearts might be opened and lives saved.

The Lord upholds those who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.

Send your protective mercy to the firefighters in Western Canada and USA as forests and fields, families and communities come into harms way and a smokey haze fills the region impacting the health of elders and those with respiratory conditions.

The Lord upholds those who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.

Even as our hearts are heavy, you gift us to see glimmers of light which shine from unexpected places: the man who gave a ride to a stranger in need in North Carolina, USA who now continues to offer rides to strangers in need he encounters; the young Wal-Mart employee in Oklahoma, USA who paid for the groceries of a harried and struggling foster mom at the check-out counter; and 8-year-old Roxy Gettes who became the youngest girl to conquer Mount Kilimanjaro, Kenya with her family. We lift up all who continue to inspire us and give us hope in the goodness and beauty of life.

The Lord upholds those who are falling; and raises up all who are bowed down.

As we look toward the wonder of the total solar eclipse later this August, and are reminded how marvelous and consistent are the forces of nature that are outside of our control. We lift up those in Kenya, Botswana, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo who are working to save the elephants, as well as those policy-makers in China who are working to outlaw the ivory trade. Keep us ever mindful of our role as stewards taking seriously our responsibility to care for this amazing world.

The Lord upholds those who are falling; and raises up all who are bowed down.

God of grace and glory, God who knows our hearts and minds, help us in our determination to be the people you have created and called us to be. When we become discouraged, lift us up. When we think it is all up to us, fill us with humility. When our hearts become fearful and fretful, remind us of your unfailing love, which flows even through us.

The Lord upholds those who are falling; and raises up all who are bowed down.

In this promise, we live and move and have our being. Amen and Amen.