|
|
Environmental Missions Prayer Digest
April/May 2011 |
|
Greetings!
I've recently discovered a new author: Barbara Brown Taylor, thanks to my friend Jill. I love how she captures hope and our ministry of reconciliation in light of the fact that we're crammed into this planet, our modern day ark: "In our time, the ark does not look so much like a barn floating on a choppy sea. It looks more like a blue-green ball bobbing on the dark ocean of space. Inside its gauzy atmosphere, there are black rhinos prowling the thorn bushes of the Serengeti and garlands of monarch butterflies hanging from eucalyptus trees in California; there are baby chimney sweeps cheeping in suburban fireplaces and coyotes howling in desert canyons. There are children in the Sudan eating hibiscus blossoms because there is nothing else left for them to eat and there are war-wrecked men and women who never leave their post at the small window of the ark, wondering when, please God when, will the dove return with the olive leaf in her beak. We have all of us got a place in that ark--not because we, like Noah and his crew, are all that righteous, but because it has pleased God to preserve our lives. Because life is sacred to God, and having destroyed it once, God has promised never to do it again. If we go on perishing, it may have less to do with divine fiat than with our own amnesia. We have forgotten who we are and what we are supposed to be doing. We have forgotten whose covenant partners we are and how that covenant-- not to mention that God--- means for us to be bailing water and handing out life vests as fast as we can, so that every living creature who rides this ark with us may share the unmitigated joy of walking down the rickety ramp to plant a foot, a paw, a hoof on dry land. ...We need (a rainbow) too, a reminder of the covenant between God and all creation, between us and every creature who shares the breath of life with us. However stuffy the air may be inside the ark, we can still, like God, remember. We can search the sky for the sign we know is there, even when we cannot see it. We can stay awake to it, and to God, and to one another, until the next time we look up and see it-- a perfect curve of color, stretching clear across the sky: God's everlasting Yes to all (who choose to) live in its embrace." from Refreshing God's Memory a chapter in Barbara Brown Taylor's book Gospel Medicine, 1995 I don't know about you, but I'm keeping my eyes peeled for the rainbow reminders---
.
|
For all those washed from the Front Page
A (secular) environmental news service commissioned me (Lowell) to write a newspaper column on "A Christian Missionary Looks for the Human Face of Climate Change." I chose to build the article around the image of a young Pakistani girl-a cerebral palsy victim-whom I had encountered during the 2005 earthquake relief effort. Five years later, in the summer of 2010, thirty-five people were reported dead in Battagram, her district, due to a nationwide flood widely attributed to the effects of climate change. In the article, I wondered whether she was part of that statistic. She is a human face for me, and I find that I love her from a Christ-inhabited place of my heart.
The news service had schedule to release my column to 4000 U.S. and Canadian newspapers on Monday, May 2. President Obama, however, announced bin Laden's death on Sunday evening, May 1. It's hard to drum up interest for events that happened ten months ago when a story as big as bin Laden's is less than a day old. But it's also hard to drum up compassion for earthquake or flood victims in a country which most people look at accusatorily. Only two newspapers to date have picked up my column.
The 2005 Earthquake in Pakistan is old news as is the 2010 flooding, or the earthquake in Haiti. But then so is, remarkably, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. I try to stay "current" in my prayers and so I'm interceding for peace in post-bin-Laden Pakistan as I am praying for the flood victims in Memphis, TN. But recovery and restoration are current events in places like Pakistan, Haiti, and Japan. We need to discipline ourselves to stop and call forward that which too quickly is retreating into long term memory. (LB)
Please join us in remembering in prayer: - Ongoing efforts to rebuild in Pakistan's north that which was destroyed by the 2005 earthquake. Pray for the south of Pakistan which was largely erased by flood last summer. Pray the church wakes up to mercy and the calling of compassion to reach out to their neighbours. Pray for Muslims to cry out to the Living God who restores all things and redeems our lives and our sorrows.
- The continued work in Haiti to rebuild that country's infrastructures. Pray for faith for believers. Pray for hope in the face of despair. Pray for the church to open her doors to the hurting for it is only in Christ that people experience true recovery.
- Japan continues to reel from the devastation of her earthquake and tsunami. People are still missing, families are still grieving, homes and belongings are still destroyed. It will be a very long long road back to normal for this small island nation. Pray that Jesus, the Source of true Peace will reveal Himself to the Japanese. Pray for safe drinking water, stable electricity, safe shelter, adequate clothing. Pray for the fragile Japanese church to rise up and to boldly proclaim the message of Hope and healing ---. Pray for wisdom for relief agencies and Non-Government Organizations to know best how to proceed.
- Pray with us for Pakistan and Afghanistan in the aftermath of Osama Bin Laden's death. Pray for Peace and a prevailing sense of calm. Pray for the next wave of Taliban leadership to know a deep sense of disillusionment in their current convictions. Pray for troubled spirits and disrupted sleep. Beseech the God of Damascus-Road-Experiences to reveal Himself in powerful ways to these very lost souls. Pray their eyes would be opened to the Truth--that they would knock and the Door would be opened for them.
- Pray also for the citizens of Memphis and the surrounding area. Pray for quick thinking officials to make decisions in the best interest of human lives. Pray for those that are "stuck" that they would be rescued. Pray the flood waters would soon recede.
- Continue to remember in prayer those in Christchurch, NZ still recovering from their own earthquake and those in the northern states of Australia as they continue to rebuild after their unusual season of flooding earlier this year.
|
Walmart
I'm sure you've not spent a lot of your prayer air time interceding for Walmart or the effects Walmart has, not only on this nation but, on the world. Until a week ago I hadn't either.
Lowell recently declared that we needed to stop shopping at Walmart. In an effort to buy in to his latest conviction, I asked him what one book I should read, or what one movie I should watch. Allow me to recommend to you the documentary that Lowell suggested entitled Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices. The documentary builds a case that suggests that Walmart successfully exploits the working poor here in our nation as well as the working poor in various countries where they have their products manufactured (China, Bangladesh, Guatemala etc). According to the film makers they also tend to drain community resources, provide health care that their employees can't afford, refuse to pay their employees a livable wage, push local competitors out of business, and give back much less, if any, to the cities where they establish themselves. As a result of sexual discrimination and environmental negligence they've been engaged in several lawsuits and fines from the EPA. This documentary will break your heart with compassion and disbelief.
Perhaps it's time to start buying tvs, toasters, toiletries and towels somewhere else.
I felt moved to confess my "greed" for lower prices as I watched. Ignorantly shopping there, as part of a pledge to frugality, I became complicit in a much larger horror. I told God I was sorry. We recognize it's not just an issue with Walmart. Other multinational empire businesses are guilty of the same. We're committed to tracking things down--as much as possible-- outside of Walmart now. We're going to make the effort to do what some economists call, business on a human scale.
Watch the movie. See what you think.
Please join us in praying as the Spirit leads:
- that those with the authority to make these decisions would be convicted to pay their associates, both here and abroad, a fair livable wage.
- for the working poor here in the US & Canada-- pray for hope and restored dignity, pray for wisdom in using their resources, pray their voice would be heard and their plight attended to, pray they would find God who in His tenderness has a special place for them in His plan.
- for those working in factories in China, India, Bangladesh, Guatemala, Mexico and other places around the world. Pray they would be protected. Pray for an advocate for them. Pray for their health and safety. Pray for God to raise up believers in those places that can reach out to these factory workers with the Truth and with hope. Pray for a wide sweeping move of the Spirit in those factories.... what an amazing thing that would be!!
- for Christians that do work at Walmart to be a testimony to their fellow employees, that they would be a sweet fragrance that would influence the entire company.
- for the Walton Widow and her four surviving children to be swept off their feet by the Generous God of the universe who loves them so much.
|
Here at Eden Vigil we pray. We're praying actively for Japan, for Memphis, TN, for Pakistan and Haiti and now we're praying for Walmart!
This is one way we bail water-- as Barbara Brown Taylor reminds us to do. It's also how we keep before us
"whose covenant partners we are". It's imperative that we remember God in all of this: who He is, how He acts.
And we join with Him, through prayer --which can be our biggest and best activism (although certainly not our only activity... we must also be "handing out life vests as fast as we can") -- "so that every living creature who rides this ark with us may share the unmitigated joy of walking down the rickety ramp to plant a foot, a paw, a hoof on dry land." Alleluia!!
Robynn Bliss
Eden Vigil
Links: Contact the editors, Eden Vigil website, Donations to Eden Vigil
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
