OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
Psalm 68:5
• Thank God that He loves all Malawians, and that He cares for Malawi’s widowed and abandoned women as well as her orphans.
• Pray for the 1,000,000 orphans in Malawi and those who care for them.
HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.
Psalm 29:2
• Call on God to work in Malawi so that He will receive the glory He is due.
YOUR KINGDOM COME, YOUR WILL BE DONE,
ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN
Arise, Lord, in your anger;
rise up against the rage of my enemies.
Awake, my God; decree justice.
Psalm 7:6
• Pray for a new generation of trustworthy Malawian leaders. Between 2009 and 2012, political leaders stole 206 million USD from government accounts.
• Malawi’s 2014 GDP was 3.7 billion USD. Each year, Canadians spend 23 billion CAD on fast food. Pray for economic justice.
GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD
But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted;
you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless.
Psalm 10:14
• Pray for the over 4 million Malawians who live in extreme poverty, earning less than 1.25 USD/day. Ask that God would provide for their needs.
AND FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS AS WE ALSO HAVE FORGIVEN OUR DEBTORS
Help us, God our Savior,
for the glory of your name;
deliver us and forgive our sins
for your name’s sake.
Psalm 79:9
• Ask God to forgive us for our selfishness and lack of concern for those who are suffering in Malawi and other poor countries.
AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION,
BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL
This is what the Lord says:
“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
or the strong boast of their strength
or the rich boast of their riches,
but let the one who boasts boast about this:
that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,”
declares the Lord.
Jeremiah 9:23 & 24
• Ask God to teach those of us who are among the world’s wealthy, not to be tempted to be selfish and proud because of our material wealth but to be shaped by walking closely with God as people of kindness, justice, and righteousness.
Pray
At the Launch Celebration of Love a Vilage, we asked our friend Pastor Albert Chung if he would offer a prayer of blessing and dedication. What follows are Pastor Albert Chung's words as he led us in prayer. Just before Albert led in prayer from Isaiah 58, Trevor annointed Julie's head, hands, & feet.
"As we come around Julie as her friends and family, the most significant support we can provide is spiritual—namely, prayer. Today, we want to do something special. We want to anoint her with oil. Oil has significant symbolic meaning in Scripture.
First, we see that God used oil to consecrate, to set apart, his servants. He gave Moses and Aaron instructions to grind together a beautiful, aromatic, perfume like anointing oil. They would then pour it over the servant’s head to set them apart for God’s service.
Second, we see that oil is a symbol of God’s blessing. Like wine and bread being the fruit of a good harvest and God’s blessing of favourable seasons, so too oil pressed from olives and the like was a literal picture of God’s blessing.
Third, we see that oil was a symbol of beauty in Scripture. There are many references to the oil of myrrh and the like being used to beautify the maiden.
So Julie, as we come around you as friends and family and anoint you with this oil, may you be strengthened in the knowledge that you are consecrated for God’s purposes. May you find power in the knowledge and experience of God’s blessing and provision. And may you be affirmed of your beauty in the sight of God—beautiful not only outwardly but inwardly with the gentle and quiet spirit that trusts God.
Let’s pray.
Isaiah 58:6-12
6 “Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am. ’
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
11 And the Lord will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail.
12 And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to dwell in.
Amen"