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August 2010
1. Tenth Sunday after
Pentecost
We pray for the people of Canada and the United States
of America: for young and old; for the hungry, the
poor, the broken and unloved, and for those who live
with plenty; we ask that your mercy and lovingkindness
may abound.
2 Pray for Olinda and
her neighbors in Mozambique, caring community members
who started a farm project that generates income to
support children orphaned by AIDS.
3 Pray for the new mission personnel who are
being deployed this summer to many corners of the world. Give
thanks for their service to Christ's Church and their devotion
to mission in God's world.
4 Please ask the guidance and direction of the
Holy Spirit for The Rev. Khader Khalilea, assistant pastor
at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, San Mateo, Calif. Pastor
Khalilia is leading an outreach ministry to the Arab and
Middle Eastern community in the Bay Area.
5 Give thanks for Janelle
Domeyer and other staff at Lutheran Volunteer Corps,
providing opportunities for young people to serve with
ministries working for peace with justice across the
nation.
6 Praise God for the work of Amanda Wieland,
who concludes her second year of service in England this
month. Bless her as she returns to her family in
the United States.
7 Give thanks for Allie
Stehlin and Julie Reishus, who served as summer interns
in the ELCA World Hunger office this summer; may their
expeiences there inspire them to continue to serve
God through serving people hungry and living in poverty.
8 Eleventh Sunday after
Pentecost
God of creation, we thank you for the awesome beauty of
the land and sea in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia,
for the rich diversity of peoples, and for your sons
and daughters who seek to live your will.
9 Give thanks for the Rev. Edgar Hatcher and
the team that developed "Care for Returning Veterans" workshops,
and for all the congregations that have conducted the workshops,
becoming centers of hospitality for people who have experienced
the horrors of war.
10 Pray for the Rev.
Bradn and Natalja Buerkle. Bradn is a professor at
Novosaratovka Seminary in St. Petersburg, Russia, teaching
Church History and directing the contextual education
for pastors.
11 Lift up in prayer Lutheran Campus Ministry
staff, ELCA college chaplains, and college and university
students, as they gather this evening to share and explore
diverse stories of faith expression at the "Follow
Me" conference.
12 International Youth Day
Remember in prayer Christie Hanson and Pastor Eric Anspach-Hanson,
serving the English-speaking congregation at Tokyo
Lutheran Church, a church of the Japan Evangelical
Lutheran Church (JELC). Christie and Eric are
also involved in youth programs of the JELC in the
area.
13 Lift up in prayer Pastor Stan Berntson and
Sharon Geldaker, RN, aboard the ship MV Christian, who
visit people in isolated Alaskan villages, bringing God’s
Word, prayer, Bible study, hospitality, counseling, education
and health care.
14 Remember in prayer the Rev. Arden and Janna
Haug as they serve in Slovakia. Arden is the Global
Mission regional representative for Europe. In addition
he serves as interm pastor for the Bratislava International
Congregation.
15 Twelfth Sunday after
Pentecost
We thank you, O God, for the people of the Pacific Island
nations and Papua New Guinea, whose vibrant faith gives
reason to celebrate your goodness. We thank
you for the many gifts of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Papua New Guinea and its historic relationship
with the ELCA. 16 Mary,
Mother of Our Lord
Give thanks for the pastors, staff and members
of St. Mary Lutheran Church, Kenosha, Wis., who
are still on fire with the Holy Spirit, 136 years
into the congregation's life.
17 Give
thanks for Peter Harrits, a graduate of Yale Divinity
School who is returning this month from Malaysia,
where he served his seminary internship in Kuala
Lumpur in a congregation of the Lutheran Church
in Malaysia and Singapore.
18 Pray for 33 ELCA international
camp counselors from 22 countries who complete their
work and return home this month after three months
of service in 28 different ELCA camps.
19 Lift up in prayer Pastor Rowena Wang, Federal
Way Chinese Fellowship, and the relationship this new community
of faith shares with Calvary Lutheran, Federal Way, Wash.,
that they will form bonds that bear witness to God’s
redeeming love.
20 Pray for the staff of Phebe Hospital and
School of Nursing in Liberia, including the Rev. John Lunn,
who accompanies the hospital in strengthening its administrative
capacities. Give thanks for the ministries of returning
volunteers like Carol Rasmussen and Bob Anderson as they
provide support to Phebe health care ministries.
21 Pray for Lipi, who lives in Bangladesh in
a small hut with her husband, two children, and her elderly
mother-in-law. She received a micro loan supported
by ELCA World Hunger gifts that allows Lipi and her family
to earn a steady income and put food on the table.
22 Thirteenth Sunday
after Pentecost
God of grace, look with favor on the people and churches
of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as they face new
challenges and hope. We thank you for the links
in faith and witness that emerge in the companion relationships
between the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church and
the ELCA Delaware-Maryland Synod and the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Lithuania and the ELCA Grand Canyon
Synod.
23 International Day
for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition
Praise God for the pastors of ELCA prison congregations
and for the faithful people from neighboring congregations
who bring the love of Christ to those incarcerated.
24 Bartholomew, Apostle
Pray for the evangelism team working to print Proclaim
His Story into nine Asian languages, that this resource
will be a blessing for Asian ministries in the United
States and around the world, bringing many to faith
in Jesus Christ.
25 Give thanks for the dedicated service of
Christoph Schmidt, who is returning this month from serving
as a volunteer English as a second language teacher in
Slovakia. Ask God to bless him as he returns to his
family in the United States.
26 Pray for new mission
developers: Pastor Philip Johnson, Frazee/Vergas, Minn.;
Pastor Raymond Branstiter, Native American Christian
Ministry and Recovery Worship, Fargo/Moorhead, N.D./Minn.;
and Jacob Mayen, First Sudanese Lutheran Church, Fargo,
N.D., that God will give each the gifts and strength
needed to grow and develop these ministries.
27 August 29th is the five-year anniversary
of Hurricane Katrina's landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi,
and many of those affected struggle today with that recovery
process as well as the current oil spill disaster. Give
thanks for the ongoing work of Lutheran Disaster Response
in the Gulf Coast area.
28 Pray for the Evangelical
Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea and its new head
bishop Giegere Wenge and other new leaders as they
look to the future with hope and anticipation, even
in the midst of numerous social and church challenges.
29 Fourteenth Sunday
after Pentecost
We thank you, O God, for the churches in Romania, Poland,
Hungary and Slovakia, for the Christian education of
children and young people; for increased practice of
Bible reading and prayer in homes, and for perseverance
in confessing the faith in a changing environment.
30 Pray for the ministries
of faculty and staff of the 27 colleges and universities
affiliated with the ELCA, as they return to class this
fall to live out their important vocations.
31 Give thanks for the partnership between the
ELCA Global Mission unit and the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in Canada’s Mission in the World and Global Mission
programs as the two church bodies draw on their long history
of cooperation and move forward together in global mission.
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