"I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." - John 16:33 NLT
The parents of 545 children who were separated from their families at the southern border of the United States cannot be found. A policy situation that has had the real effect of keeping children from being reunited with their families even after a 2018 court order to reunify families seeking asylum whose children had been removed from them.
Father God,
You gave the parents back their children.
Time after time. (Gen.21, 1 Kings 17, Luke 7, Mark 5)
Jesus, where we as citizens are complicit with meeting need with cruelty and trauma, convict us and rebuke our ways.
Move upon hearts to craft better policies and move hearts to vote for policies that ensure this does not happen any longer, ever again.
We pray that these children would be reunited with those who love them and that healing and restoration are the end of their story. Reunite families in a way that leads to a good future for them.
We do pray for the spirit of compassion that moves you to be the restorer of children to their parents throughout scripture to be the spirit that moves us.
On Friday 23 October 2020, the Federal Court of Appeal heard arguments on the Canadian government’s request to stay the decision finding that Canada is violating the rights of refugee claimants it returns to the U.S. under the Safe Third Country Agreement. The July Federal Court decision is otherwise due to take effect in January 2021. The Canadian Council for Refugees, Amnesty International and The Canadian Council of Churches, alongside the individual litigants, are arguing that the stay application must be rejected and the Safe Third Country Agreement set aside based on legal and humanitarian gorunds.
Merciful God,
We ask that you move to uphold these court decisions that will keep the rights of refugee claimants at the centre of their fates.
Reveal the truth of detention facilities and policies of other countries to the citizenry so we can better advocate for a safe process in their search for a new home.
Help us to all remember that we welcome strangers because we were once strangers. Help us to welcome others, to provide for others and advocate for the sojourner as you have called us to.
60 First Nations in Canada live under a boil water advisory and have so for many years. The Neskantaga First Nation in Northern Ontario has had to evacuate its residents to Thunder Bay due to a further deterioration in the water quality making it unusable.
While solutions still seem far off and far too late, we pray:
Creator of Heaven and Earth
You created this world to provide us with water and you said you have living water.
Undo us and our policies and indifference where they have kept clean water from our neighbors. We pray for a quick resolution and the political will to provide promised facilities so that water is accessible for all. We pray that while the residents Neskantaga are far from home that you would keep them safe and strengthen their spirits.
And ultimately, as you work miracles inside our hearts and throughout the land, may the water that flows in Neskantaga become a living spring to bring health and hope to your creation.
Praying in the last week of the 2020 US. Presidential Election
To the One who affirms all Life,
As the United States finishes this polarized, violence tinged campaign season, we pray for your ways to prevail. We can’t possibly hope to get to your truth unless we go by your way. We pray for your ways of humility, of compassion, of healing, of mercy, of generosity, of welcome, of restoration, of peace, of justice, of forgiveness, of agape, embodied love over ideas and ideology to be what inspires your followers to vote.
We pray for your Spirit to shed light onto the dark places of us as individuals, and of groups and of systems that need to be repented of and brought into the gracious life of the Beloved Son.
We pray for peace at the polling stations. We pray for no hiccups in the counting process. We pray for righteousness and justice to mark the acceptance of the results.
In this last week, may it be your spirit be the hope-enflaming power that causes your goodness and mercy to be what shapes the society we create.
Have Mercy on us, oh God.
Becoming (part of) the Answer to our Own Prayers
The president still has not signed a final refugee admissions goal for FY2021. Please join us in calling your members of congress to urge the president to welcome 95,000 refugees. Call here!
The first episode of season 2 of the Do Justice Podcast released yesterday! This season is a collaboration between World Renew, the Office of Social Justice, and the Centre for Public Dialogue. Listen on your favourite channel today!
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