Please pray with us

 Sabeel Wave of Prayer – June 20, 2013 

Lord, this week, as we take time to honor World Refugee Day this Thursday, we remember the dignity, courage and strength of refugees around the world. With 43.7 million refugees and internally displaced people, our hearts break at the injustice done to so many globally. We pray in solidarity with them for just governments to work for provision for temporary needs and for their repatriation. We pray especially for all the refugees here in the Middle East – for Palestinians still hoping for the day they can return home to their lands, for Syrian refugees struggling in camps in neighboring Arab countries, for Eritrean refugees who have undergone torture in the Sinai peninsula and now face racism within Israel. Lord, accompany these people in their suffering and bring about solutions quickly! Lord, in you mercy...

God of peace, equality, and justice, we bring before you our worry and our grief at the continued racism that seems to increase week by week within this land. Just this weekend, two Palestinian women were assaulted by an Israeli man as they attempted to buy tickets for the Jerusalem light rail. Tuesday brought news of an unexpected  attack by Jewish extremists on the peaceful Arab-Israeli village of Abu Ghosh, during which extremists painted racist graffiti like “Arabs out!” in the village. Lord, would you bring an end to this racism and violence! Please bring justice to the victims of these acts and widespread change to racist currents of thought within society. Lord, in your mercy...

Lord, as settlements expand, as new roads connecting settlements are built, and as members of the Knesset make strong statements about their plans to annex Area C and build upon more West Bank land, we are desperate for these destructive decisions to end! As John Kerry visits Israel and Palestine in the coming weeks with intentions of restarting peace talks, we pray that you would give him the ability to bring people together in serious negotiations. Would you open the eyes of all the leaders to see the absolute necessity of building policies of peace and justice according to international law. Lord, in your mercy...

Here at Sabeel we lift up this week’s upcoming events: Thursday’s Nazareth youth meeting with Rev. Hatem Jeries, Friday’s Clergy Wives meeting in Beit Sahour, and the Beit Saida excavations and tour with Sabeel Nazareth and a visiting group from Australia on Friday and Saturday. Lord, may we never get caught up in idle programming, but would you lead us always into work that bears much fruit. We pray this for these events as well as for the global young adult festival, as final preparations are made to welcome young adults from all over the world. Lord, in your mercy...

Finally, we pray alongside the World Council of Churches for the country of Brazil. Lord, in your mercy...

Each Thursday at noon in Jerusalem, Sabeel holds a Communion service that is open to the community. It is a time to join together to celebrate the Eucharist, to discuss how the scriptures apply to our lives today, and to pray for the specific needs of this region. Following the 2006 Sabeel International Conference, the Friends of Sabeel coordinators met and discussed the idea of "Waves of Prayer." The premise is that in their respective time zones, individuals and groups around the world will pray together at 12:00 on Thursdays, in solidarity with Sabeel in Jerusalem and with "Friends of Sabeel" worldwide. Starting in Australia, passing through Palestine, and on around the world we will pray for Peace with Justice and focus on specific issues each week.