Hong Kong is in its ninth week of consecutive mass protests, a deepening political crisis that has seen clashes between police and protestors, and intensifying division. Protestors are determined to defend what they say are shrinking liberties in Hong Kong, which has maintained a “one country, two systems” relationship with China, allowing the people of Hong Kong to enjoy rights and protections that mainland Chinese do not have. Chinese authorities this week have come out strongly against the protests, holding a firm line on the intensifying dissent.
God, we pray for freedom, justice, and ultimately peace for the people of Hong Kong. Continue to be with Christians who live in Hong Kong, where the church has grown and flourished, whose role in the protests is important. Give them wisdom, send your Holy Spirit to guide them. We pray for the powerful leaders whose decisions will so deeply impact the freedoms of the people of Hong Kong.
A person with a gun -- 21-years old, white, male -- opened fire at a busy Walmart store in the US border city of El Paso, killing at least 22 people, including eight Mexican citizens. The mass shooting, the seventh deadliest in US modern history, is being called a hate crime. Police cited a "manifesto" attributed to the arrested suspect in which centered around hatred for immigrants and Latino people, and echoed statements made by U.S. President Donald Trump about an “invasion” by immigrants into the U.S.
God, we cry out to you. We feel afraid when we truly consider how common mass shootings have become. We feel afraid to understand the powerful, violent, and extreme ideologies that seem to be flourishing -- on the internet, but also on campuses, in churches, in communities -- and are normalized and enabled by powerful people like President Trump. We feel paralyzed to stop the ways this has impacted immigrants and Latinos who have daily, legitimate, and deep fears of violence. God, empower us to speak boldly, to stand up for justice, to see with clear eyes the danger of this moment.
Colombia has said it will grant citizenship to more than 24,000 children born in the country to parents from crisis-hit Venezuela since 2015, as well as to those who will be born over the next two years, in a move aimed at preventing them from being stateless. These children have been stuck in legal limbo with no identity documents or proof of citizenship in any country. There are few Venezuelan consulates abroad and travel home is often difficult and dangerous, leaving migrant parents, including many who left without a passport, with no way to register their newborns for documentation. The UN calls the move 'a very important step' in guaranteeing 'the complete protection' of the children of Venezuelan parents.
God, we give thanks for good news for these families in Colombia, who have endured so much since being forced to leave Venezuela. We pray for people in similar situations all over the world -- like Haitians in the Dominian Republic, or Dreamers the U.S. -- that those in power might use their role to give protection and hope to those who have been living without it.
Ethiopia has planted more than 350 million trees in a day in what they believe is a world record. The Prime Minister is leading the project, which aims to counter the effects of deforestation and climate change in the drought-prone country. Some public offices have been shut down to allow civil servants to take part. The UN says Ethiopia's forest coverage declined from 35% of total land in the early 20th Century to a little above 4% in the 2000s.
God, we give thanks for the natural world. We don’t even understand all the mysteries of your creation, all the ways it is woven together to sustain and protect the flourishing of life. We pray that this initiative in Ethiopia will bring healing to the ways the land has suffered, and would bring hope to creatures and people. We pray that people all over the world would creatively respond to the destruction of the environment in hopeful, life-giving ways.
"Communities and entire nations who do the least to contribute to rising greenhouse gas emissions bear the enormous burden of climate disaster first and worst on their bodies and their livelihoods."
Melody Zhang who traveled with the Office of Social Justice and World Renew's Climate Change Bootcamp to East Africa and serves as the Climate Justice Campaign Coordinator at Sojourners reflects on some of the learnings of her trip.
We finished out our “Immigration is Our Story” audio series this summer with an invitation to listen, learn, and love. Learn about how you can use this series in your church’s adult education schedule here.
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