Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
– Romans 12: 12
I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I
will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding.
-1 Cor 14: 14 – 16
Pray continually
– 1 Thessalonians 5: 17
Prayer Tree
Prayer gives us rootedness,
Reaching out …
Discovering in darkness
Sources of nourishment;
Pushing with patient insistence
Against obstacles;
Drawing from strange places
Strength for life that
Grows in light;
Holding us as we bend,
And when we break, offering
Hope, that from the
Unimaginable dark,
New shoots will spring.
Ann Lewin in “Watching for the Kingfisher” (2009)
And so we pray for
- the thousands in Nepal, India, and Afghanistan struggling to deal with the devastating aftermath of the massive earthquake with more anticipated
- the continuing exodus pf peoples from the Middle East and North and Sub-Saharan Africa who face violence, hunger, disease and loss of life as they seek refuge
- the unresolved hostility and violence between police and black/ minority groups in the USA, especially in Baltimore following riots protesting the violent death of Freddie Gray within an hour of his arrest
- the continuing drug war in Mexico, giving thanks that drug-related murders are significantly down for the third year in a row, well as news of the largest seizure in British history of 3 tons of cocaine off the shores of Scotland with 9 Turkish men arrested
- Malala Yousafzai and her work promoting education for girls and women and 10 men jailed for life in Pakistan after attempting to murder her in 2012
- Thousands having to evacuate their homes and farms after Chile’s Calbuco volcano erupts again, even as the forecast of heavy rain threaten more destruction through mudslides.
We give thanks for
- The eradication of Rubella (German Measles) from North and South America – the first region of the world to achieve this – who have reported no home-grown cases for 5 years.
- The fun and joy of thousands of percussionists of all ages gathered in Peru to break the Guinness World Record for playing the cajon
- The progress Mark Jacobsen and others have made at Stanford, USA to devise quiet, small, light weight drones capable of flying up to 100 km to drop 1 or 2 kg of food or medicines to places beyond human help in Syria.
- The 460 Nigerian captives rescued from Boko Haram camps, while still praying for the 300 schoolgirls who are still missing.
- The massive 50% reduction in child and maternal mortality rates in Rwanda over the last 15 years despite its poverty and unstable political climate
Lord, teach us to pray with our spirit, our understanding, our soul, our mind and the way we live so that “your will may be done on earth as it is in heaven.” AMEN
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