Saturday, February 9, 2013

The Power of Prayer: Every Country


 
We live in a world full of blind, falling people: my neighbors, my fellow students, my relatives, my rural Missouri County. Jesus told us that the fields are ready for harvest; the fruit is ready to be picked though we may have to sow in tears.
It is so easy for me to make good intentions; to make great, noble and ineffective plans. And while I sit, thinking rosy thoughts, people literally die and go to a literal, Godless, burning eternity.
I feel so small and so incapable of the great work needing to be done. One thing I can do and should do first is pray.
Operation World, an excellent organization which documents the prayer needs of each country, is beginning a 60 day prayer movement praying through the world’s countries in alphabetical order. Amazing, right?
Today is Afghanistan. Please click here to discover ways you can pray for the Afghani people.
Operation World’s Facebook page added this: “The status of [Afghanistan] women especially warrants prayer. They were effectively banned from public life by the Taliban. Widows endure particularly harsh plights, and depression and suicide are common. Worse, they have a life expectancy of only 44 years, with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Female literacy is under 20%, over one-half of Afghan brides are under age 16, only 5% attend secondary school and one-third are subjected to violence. Many still suffer the traumas of years of war and of pressures such times brought upon women in Afghan society.
Although employment and social engagement can be very sensitive issues, younger girls are increasingly attending school; one-third of primary students are girls. Special radio programmes minister to women by communicating from the Bible the love and value that God holds for them. Pray for the disenfranchised women of Afghanistan, that they might receive justice, opportunity and freedom from fear and oppression, but especially that they might find Christ amid their suffering.”
Mary Slessor, missionary to Africa, said, “"Prayer is the greatest power God has put into our hands for service — praying is harder than doing, at least I find it so, but the dynamic lies that way to advance the Kingdom."
Let’s pray like it really mattered . . . because Jesus says that it does.
          Love to you!
                   Frannie
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