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Environmental Missions Prayer Digest
March 2011 |
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Greetings!
This year I'm working through a devotional published by the Upper Room Books entitled: A Guide To Prayer for All God's People. The theme two weeks ago was, God's Transforming Power. Interestingly enough, many of the readings were about prayer. The publishers have recognized a vital truth. There is power in prayer. There is the power for social reform, for political change, for the salvation of souls, for healing, for endurance. As we pray God answers and rescues and redeems. Families find each other, rescue attempts are successful, miracles happen. Prayer really does, inspite of the trite adage, change things. The situation in Japan is breaking my heart. As of yesterday, National Public Radio reported that 2 million people are without electricity. 1 million without drinking water. And 500,000 are now displaced refugees. Those numbers are huge. Staggering. I cannot wrap my heart around it. The images in the news have me weeping. The suffering is huge. And yet.... "...we dare not place any limitation on what is possible in prayer. We dare not waver from the childlike faith that knows without reserve that all things are possible in prayer." --from Merton's Palace of Nowhere by James Finley --Quoted in A Guide to Prayer for All God's People, pg 112. It is also agonizing that the news media insists on reporting on the tragedy in Japan as it relates to us. How will the damaged nuclear plants affect us? Will the price of Ipads and laptops now skyrocket as Japanese factories are closed and parts no longer available? Will the Japanese economy now adversely affect ours? This is not about us. This is a real life devastation that affects PEOPLE. They are hurting. They are suffering. Ipad and laptop components, GM parts, the Nikkei Index or the Tokyo Exchange are the last things on their minds. The Japanese are battling for survival. Let us enter their suffering with empathy. Let us not insist on making everything about us. This is about the Japanese. Here our prayer Lord Jesus. Have mercy. Have mercy.
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The Earthquake in Japan and the ongoing trauma...
On Friday, March 11, an earthquake of 8.9 magnitude struck 80 miles offshore of northeast Japan and unleashed an equally deadly tsunami. The official death toll quickly rose from "hundreds" to 10,000 on Sunday and is rising fast enough to indicate that any news we report in this Prayer Digest will be quickly out-dated. We asked an Eden Vigil friend, a professor of Landscape Architecture, to coach us on how best to pray for the Japan. He alerted us to some internet tools that his colleagues use to stay informed:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/pager/
This is a running record of seismic activity around the globe. When you click on the specific event, you can read detailed data about alert and impact assessments. Note the aftershocks--some quite severe. Note the seismic activity in Arkansas and West Texas too
http://www.arcgis.com/home/gallery.html
This site, arcGIS, offers some the web's best on-line mapping. Adding layers (in add: add layers: In: The Web) can create links to real time data.
Eric encouraged us to pray in regards to the "multiplier effect" of damage. The earthquake multiplied its impact through a tsunami. But nuclear power plants, high population density, and heavy reliance on its transportation system are also things which make the suffering caused the earthquake more severe. (LB)
Please join us in praying: - Eric said "--that fear would not preclude love." The Japanese have experience with both earthquakes and radioactive disaster. They are genuinely afraid. Successful evacuations which don't multiply the damage are dependent on citizens looking for each other.
- For miracles! Pray that survivors would still be found, that families would be reunited.
- Pray against fear. Grocery stores even in Tokyo are being depleted of basic commodities because people are hoarding essentials fearing the worst. Pray for pervasive peace.
- Pray for the availability of drinking water.
- Pray for the displaced. Pray for comfort. Pray for hearts and souls to turn to the One Source of hope in these deeply troubled times.
- Pray for the Japanese Church to rise up in care for their neighbours and colleagues. Pray the love of Christ would shine brightly in the darkness.
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The Capetown Commitment
"Such love for God's creation demands that we repent of our part in the destruction, waste and pollution of the earth's resources and our collusion in the toxic idolatry of consumerism. Instead, we commit ourselves to urgent and prophetic ecological responsibility. We support Christians whose particular missional calling is to environmental advocacy and action, as well as those committed to godly fulfilment of the mandate to provide for human welfare and needs by exercising responsible dominion and stewardship." (from The Cape Town Commitment.)
The Lausanne Movement has a long history of encouraging "the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world." The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization saw 4,200 evangelical leaders from 198 countries meet last October in Cape Town, South Africa. Delegates met to consider the needs of the twenty-first century and the document they produced, the Cape Town Commitment, includes historically-unprecedented language on creation care.
In March, the official English language publication of the Cape Town Commitment will be released. In April (4-6th), U.S. Lausanne delegates are reconvening for Orlando 2011 to brainstorm how to implement the Commitment among North American Christians. In a new development, Ed Brown (of Care of Creation) and Mitch Hescox (of Evangelical Environmental Network) have been asked to co-host a Creation Care Working Group. (LB)
http://www.lausanne.org/ctcommitment Please join us in praying:
- That everyone who needs to be there would come. Registrations are still being accepted.
- For unity of purpose.
- That real practical outcomes would be agreed on and implemented.
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"Prayer challenges us to be fully aware of the world in which we live and to present it with all its needs and pains to God. It is this compassionate prayer that calls for compassionate action. The disciple is called to follow the Lord not only into the desert and onto the mountain to pray but also into the valley of tears, where help is needed, and onto the cross, where humanity is in agony.... In prayer we meet Christ, and in him all human suffering. In service we meet people , and in them the suffering Christ." --from Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life by Donald P. McNeill, Douglas A Morrison and Henri J.M. Nouwen --Quoted in A Guide to Prayer for All God's People pg 112-113
Jesus, have mercy...where are compassionate action is curtailed by distance and space... have mercy. Raise up your people to minister in the face of profound suffering and sorrow. Have mercy, sweet Jesus.
Robynn Bliss
Eden Vigil
Links: Contact the editors, Eden Vigil website, Donations to Eden Vigil
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