Paraguay was technically last week, but I got this from Kara, who worked in the Embassy there:
I could give you some ideas about what they could possibly pray about: poverty, homelessness, disease, drug addiction... These are major problems there, especially with the youth. I hope this helps.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Bolivia
This one I pulled up from the comments so it's easier to see:
a program to pray for ...Bolivia is home to one of the world's largest number of people suffering from Chagas' disease, with 1.8 million already infected and 3.7 million at risk for the disease. It is transmitted by insects that hide in the cracks of poorly constructed houses. Since 2000, a Catholic Relief Services program in Bolivia has been working to eliminate the breeding ground for these insects by improving the living conditions of more than 17,500 families in four communities in the southern region of the country. The program aims to stem the transmission of this disease by helping families to construct new homes or improve their existing homes with new latrines, kitchens and cement floors. In addition to building houses, the project provides training on health and hygiene and helps foster communication strategies within communities.
Thanks, B!
a program to pray for ...Bolivia is home to one of the world's largest number of people suffering from Chagas' disease, with 1.8 million already infected and 3.7 million at risk for the disease. It is transmitted by insects that hide in the cracks of poorly constructed houses. Since 2000, a Catholic Relief Services program in Bolivia has been working to eliminate the breeding ground for these insects by improving the living conditions of more than 17,500 families in four communities in the southern region of the country. The program aims to stem the transmission of this disease by helping families to construct new homes or improve their existing homes with new latrines, kitchens and cement floors. In addition to building houses, the project provides training on health and hygiene and helps foster communication strategies within communities.
Thanks, B!
Peru, part 5
More from Joan:
Just received a note from Italy, where a dear friend and parishioner of Fr. Alfonso is having a well-earned vacation; I’d copied her thinking she might also have some views in case he didn’t get to read his own mail quickly enough. She is a wonderful Vincentian volunteer and leader of a program assisting older people, an organization started by Fr. Alfonso to assist destitute and hungry seniors in the area of Miraflores.
What she says is that she confirms my wish for prayers for a non-contributive pension and supports this issue as one of crucial importance and social justice to older people in Peru. Says the Vincentian volunteers will add their prayers to yours and mine.
Peru, part 4 (and Bolivia and Chile)
Joan is something else! She also copied an Anglican priest she knows, who sent this along:
Jeff,
not waiting to hear from you, here is a website to check on the Anglican communion, or the office of the bishop to inquire, I am rushing, but I think they are part of wcc, so there prayer concerns shsould be listed
and via the anglican connection, you should be able to go to Bolivia and Chile.
for Chile obviously earthquake related issues.
later today I will double back on this and see if I am correct re issues
for the Anglicans and Roman Catholics in Peru a major concern is supporting the many small communities in the hills around the capitol that are struggling to survive and starting interesting economic initiativies.
Peru, part 3
Joan also sent a link to an article in HelpAge's newsletter on the need for a pension for elders in Peru and other developing countries.
Here's the note she sent as explanation (what's the emoticon for blushing?):
Here's the note she sent as explanation (what's the emoticon for blushing?):
As I translated your note to Oscar and Father Alfonso it occurred to me that I needed to THANK YOU sincerely for doing this. It went unsaid, but is very heartfelt on my part.
I would also like to add a specific request of my own: prayers for the Peruvian Congress to, once and for all, sign off on the proposed law that would provide a ‘social pension’ or a ‘non-contributive pension’ to seniors in Peru. To this date Peru does not have such a pension (such as an age-related SSI payment) while countries poorer (such as Bolivia) have been far more advanced and illuminated in making this possible for their older citizens. This has been a UN and World Bankrecommendation for a long time now; it is an unbearable burden for seniors and families for elders to reach old age without any form of assured minimal protection for survival. (See enewsletter from HelpAge International forwarded separately). Some of us consider it a case of ‘institutional elder abuse’ since this was a focus of many world conferences, and was on the agenda even in 1999 with the UN.
I’m sure you will concur with, and understand, this particular need for our Peruvian elders.
Peru, Part 2
One of many times I wish I'd actually studied Spanish:
Subject: Oraciones para el Peru
Mis queridisimos Padre Alfonso y amigo Oscar,
Acabo de recibir una nota muy especial de un colega y amigo de AARP (la anterior “Asociacion Americana de Personas Jubiladas”), Jeff Johnson. A continuacion traduzco su nota porque pense en Uds. dos para los efectos de su proyecto de oracion internacional. Es de cierta urgencia y dice:
Estoy trabajando en un proyecto sobre oraciones para cada pais que se realiza durante un anho. Estoy utilizando el ciclo de oracion ecumenico del Consejo Mundial de Iglesias, que podras ver en www.oikumene.org. y los paises para esta semana son Bolivia, Peru y Chile.
Lo que estoy tratando de hacer, para que este proyecto sea mas real para mi, y para cualquiera que desee unirse, es pedir necesidades de oracion directamente de la Iglesia en ese pais. Es decir, que cosas quisieran agradecer, y que cosas necesitan para la Iglesia y para su nacion.
Si bien es cierto que soy Catolico, estoy procurando entablar comunicacion con la Conferencia de Obispos de cada pais, y ciertamente que agradeceria saber de las necesidades de las iglesias de cada pais.
Asi es que, pense que deberia preguntarte si tienes conexiones con las iglesias de tu pais y estarias dispuesta a pasarles mi pedido de intenciones para oraciones por ellos. Sino, no te preocupes.
Pienso que esta es una linda y muy especial oportunidad que nos da Jef, y les rogaria que si tienen en mente intenciones especiales para esta semana que puedan ser el foco de estas oraciones, se las hagan saber a drays720@yahoo.com. Si me copian a mi, puedo hacerle la traduccion necesaria. He avisado a Jeff que estoy escribiendoles a Uds. dos, y a la Rev. Maggie Gat, de la Iglesia Episcopal/Anglicana.
Por mi parte, creo que voy a pedir como intencion especial para el Peru que las autoridades del Congreso de una vez aprueben una ‘pension social no-contributiva,’que es lo que ciertamente tengo mucho en el corazon para los adultos mayores del Peru.
Con el recuerdo y el afecto de siempre para ambos, y tambien para Pilarcita que seguro todavia sigue en Italia, pero quizas desee responder a nombre del Padre Alfonso si lee esto pronto!
Joan
Peru, part 1
From a good friend and volunteer colleague, who really took my request and ran with it!:
I have a very dear friend, a Vincentian Priest, Father Alfonso Berrade, head of a major church in Lima, whom I see every year and was the head of the church that was destroyed in the 2007 earthquake, where 200 of their parishioners perished.
I believe they are still having a hard time rebuilding that Church and we did a lot of fundraising for soup kitchens and small business loans, to aid his parishioners at the time. I was there last year to see rebuilding efforts, and there was still much need....and enormous thankfulness for the help they’ve received from all over the world. (Just FYI, we presented a poster at 2008 American Society on Aging Conference as part of our efforts to document the resiliency of older adults-- couldn’t help add this, for our ‘aging connection’. As a result of this research project with UNCC’s School of Gerontology, there have been a couple of articles published in aging journals also.)
And another dear friend (Oscar Bravo) is the Latin America Representative in Peru, for an affiliate of the World Council of Churches called Mision Urbana y Rural (MUR); Oscar is working extensively with the elderly and disabled in Peru and am sure he would have some good ideas for you.
And then she (Joan) went and e-mailed these and others for me! You'll see the results.
Venezualan prayers
From a friend who worked with a faith-based organization in Venezuela:
The prayer request, that I would put forward - and, that others I am in contact with always talk about is: the control Chavez has over the country. Therefore, I would pray that all receive an equal chance to employment, education and freedom.
The prayer request, that I would put forward - and, that others I am in contact with always talk about is: the control Chavez has over the country. Therefore, I would pray that all receive an equal chance to employment, education and freedom.
A letter from Argentina - June 24, 2010
I've been away from my computer this week, so I've been unable to do much research about Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay; I'll try to catch up tonight, but I'll warn you, it will be quantity over quality.
I did e-mail the bishops' conferences of all three churches, and I finally got a reply! I asked them what we should pray for, and they gave me a laundry list. It's an interesting challenge for me - I'd like to be able to pick and choose what I pray for, but at the same time, one of the points here is to actually love the people of another country to find out who they are. So here is what they asked for:
I did e-mail the bishops' conferences of all three churches, and I finally got a reply! I asked them what we should pray for, and they gave me a laundry list. It's an interesting challenge for me - I'd like to be able to pick and choose what I pray for, but at the same time, one of the points here is to actually love the people of another country to find out who they are. So here is what they asked for:
Mr. Jeff Johnson:
We have received your kind e-mail.
For Mons . Enrique Eguía Seguí´s indication, I say to you that currently the Catholic Church in Argentina
is praying for the following intentions:
- The decrease of poverty.
- The rejection of the project of gay marrige act which is now at the Congress.
- The rejection of any project of abortion act.
- The social peace.
- The unity of families.
- The fruitfulness of the labour of goverment authorities.
- To encourage a missionary style especially from the parish.
- To prioritize the pastoral missionary one from the catechizing of Christian initiation.
- To promote the missionary commitment towards a just society and responsible initiation christens.
- To recover the respect to the family and to the life in all his forms.
- To advance in the reconciliation between different social sectors and in the capacity of dialog.
- To encourage the formation of responsible citizens who construct a nation.
- To strengthen the republican institutions, the State and the organizations of the society.
- To improve the political system and the quality of the democracy.
- To guarantee the education and the work as keys of the integral development.
- To promote the federalism.
- To deepen the integration of the region.
We look forward to the success of your project.
Sincerely,
Valeria Retondo
Secretaría Privada CEA
Origin: Global Church Project - June 11, 2010
It started in O'Hare Airport. I was coming back from a business trip, and as always, I miscalculated how much reading material I would need for the flight. Usually, I bring way too much. This time, not enough. So I walked through the bookstore and grabbed what looked like an interesting book in the Religion section, David Platt's Radical.
It is a very good book that I recommend. I am in the midst of studyingForgotten God by Francis Chan with a Facebook group, and Radical is very similar in outlook but with different emphases. One of them is on our calling and responsibility as Christians to serve and witness to the entire world. He has tons of stories about traveling on foreign missions and make a compelling case that we all have a role to play in spreading the gospel globally.
Not to give the book away, but one of his challenges to readers is to pray, over the course of the year, for the people of every country in the world. He offers a great resource, Operation World, which is devoted to this and includes a daily country (or region of a country) with scads of information about it.
I don't consider myself an evangelical. I won't go into why, but my evangelical friends will agree with my self-assessment. And I am Catholic. So looking at the Operation World site left me wanting something different. So I went searching.
I found the World Council of Churches, a mainline Protestant organization, has a rotating weekly calendar of countries to pray for (which seemed more manageable than the daily thing), and some good information, and like Operation World has prayer requests.
But what I wanted to know is, not what people in the US think we should pray for, but what the people who are members of the universal Church in that country want us to pray for. And because one of the reasons I am Catholic is the knowledge that there are brothers and sisters in every country on the planet celebrating the same faith, I wanted to find out what Catholics in those countries arethankful for and what they are struggling with.
This week, the WCC countries are Angola and Mozambique. Know what I know about Angola? '92 Dream Team destroyed them in Barcelona. Mozambique? Nada. I have already benefited more in a couple days of praying for these two countries than I have in a lifetime of praying for vague concepts like global missions or the church universal. Throughout my day, I keep being struck by questions: I wonder what time it is in those countries? I wonder what people are doing there? What are the problems that have them both ranked so terribly high in mortality rates, and what can we do to change that? What can be done to address the incredible poverty there? What are their church services like? What is the mood of the faithful, the priests, religious groups that are serving there?
To underscore that the Spirit is really in this, I got an e-mail this week from a friend who is, I guess, a social media pastor. He was e-mailing a big list saying he would miss a prayer meeting due to travel and did anyone have a request for the group. And one person hit "reply all". There's always one. This one, though, is a missionary in Myanmar who gave a brief assessment of the work there and the trouble they are encountering and asking for prayers. I know less about Myanmar than Mozambique. My daughter knows more than me, I'm pretty sure, about Myanmar, and she is in first grade. But this underscored for me that this global vision was real, Spirit-led, and immediate in need.
So I'm hoping to find some help in a project. I'd like to build a resource on each country that coincides with the WCC schedule, that has that kind of information. Some of it is readily available (ironically, I guess, the CIA has great info on its website about each country that these other sites pull from). Some, I think, we'd have to ask people who serve in that country. It seems to me the easiest way to do this is set up a website called a wiki (as in wikipedia) in which collaborators can post pages and information as they find it.
I have looked on the USCCB site, the Vatican site, and several others that popped up in Google searches, and it does not exist. I e-mailed the folks at the USCCB who are responsible for the national collection for supporting the global church, and they said such a project, chronicalling everything the Church does in every country, was way too big. But if there are a few people willing to give a little time over an extended period working together to learn a little more about what life is like in Brazil (next week's country), and what the Church is thankful for and needs there, it seems to me it isn't an impossible task. What do you think?
It is a very good book that I recommend. I am in the midst of studyingForgotten God by Francis Chan with a Facebook group, and Radical is very similar in outlook but with different emphases. One of them is on our calling and responsibility as Christians to serve and witness to the entire world. He has tons of stories about traveling on foreign missions and make a compelling case that we all have a role to play in spreading the gospel globally.
Not to give the book away, but one of his challenges to readers is to pray, over the course of the year, for the people of every country in the world. He offers a great resource, Operation World, which is devoted to this and includes a daily country (or region of a country) with scads of information about it.
I don't consider myself an evangelical. I won't go into why, but my evangelical friends will agree with my self-assessment. And I am Catholic. So looking at the Operation World site left me wanting something different. So I went searching.
I found the World Council of Churches, a mainline Protestant organization, has a rotating weekly calendar of countries to pray for (which seemed more manageable than the daily thing), and some good information, and like Operation World has prayer requests.
But what I wanted to know is, not what people in the US think we should pray for, but what the people who are members of the universal Church in that country want us to pray for. And because one of the reasons I am Catholic is the knowledge that there are brothers and sisters in every country on the planet celebrating the same faith, I wanted to find out what Catholics in those countries arethankful for and what they are struggling with.
This week, the WCC countries are Angola and Mozambique. Know what I know about Angola? '92 Dream Team destroyed them in Barcelona. Mozambique? Nada. I have already benefited more in a couple days of praying for these two countries than I have in a lifetime of praying for vague concepts like global missions or the church universal. Throughout my day, I keep being struck by questions: I wonder what time it is in those countries? I wonder what people are doing there? What are the problems that have them both ranked so terribly high in mortality rates, and what can we do to change that? What can be done to address the incredible poverty there? What are their church services like? What is the mood of the faithful, the priests, religious groups that are serving there?
To underscore that the Spirit is really in this, I got an e-mail this week from a friend who is, I guess, a social media pastor. He was e-mailing a big list saying he would miss a prayer meeting due to travel and did anyone have a request for the group. And one person hit "reply all". There's always one. This one, though, is a missionary in Myanmar who gave a brief assessment of the work there and the trouble they are encountering and asking for prayers. I know less about Myanmar than Mozambique. My daughter knows more than me, I'm pretty sure, about Myanmar, and she is in first grade. But this underscored for me that this global vision was real, Spirit-led, and immediate in need.
So I'm hoping to find some help in a project. I'd like to build a resource on each country that coincides with the WCC schedule, that has that kind of information. Some of it is readily available (ironically, I guess, the CIA has great info on its website about each country that these other sites pull from). Some, I think, we'd have to ask people who serve in that country. It seems to me the easiest way to do this is set up a website called a wiki (as in wikipedia) in which collaborators can post pages and information as they find it.
I have looked on the USCCB site, the Vatican site, and several others that popped up in Google searches, and it does not exist. I e-mailed the folks at the USCCB who are responsible for the national collection for supporting the global church, and they said such a project, chronicalling everything the Church does in every country, was way too big. But if there are a few people willing to give a little time over an extended period working together to learn a little more about what life is like in Brazil (next week's country), and what the Church is thankful for and needs there, it seems to me it isn't an impossible task. What do you think?
Now what?
I started this project on my old blog, Free Agent Voter, which started off as a political blog, morphed into a Christian social thought blog, and then into the intersection of Christianity and social media. By the time it got to this "pray around the world" focus, it had clearly drifted so far from the original intent (and URL), that it made more sense to start over.
I'll repost the genesis of this idea from the original, but in terms of where we go from here:
What I see happening is following the World Council of Churches ecumenical prayer cycle (see gadget, right) to pray for each country over the course of the year. There are a couple of tracks to aid in that: research about the country itself, requests to the church officials for prayer intentions, and soliciting requests from anyone with a connection to that country to reach leaders in that country's church who has a request.
I'm still focusing on the Catholic Church, but on that last part, I say let a thousand flowers bloom. Any Christian church is welcome to send in intentions.
Where this is going, only God can say, but I'd like to get to the point where I can launch a wiki that allows anyone to update their country's own prayer requests. I'd need a domain and server beyond blogger for that, and a lot of time, and I don't have any of that right now, so we'll start with this. Thanks for praying along!
I'll repost the genesis of this idea from the original, but in terms of where we go from here:
What I see happening is following the World Council of Churches ecumenical prayer cycle (see gadget, right) to pray for each country over the course of the year. There are a couple of tracks to aid in that: research about the country itself, requests to the church officials for prayer intentions, and soliciting requests from anyone with a connection to that country to reach leaders in that country's church who has a request.
I'm still focusing on the Catholic Church, but on that last part, I say let a thousand flowers bloom. Any Christian church is welcome to send in intentions.
Where this is going, only God can say, but I'd like to get to the point where I can launch a wiki that allows anyone to update their country's own prayer requests. I'd need a domain and server beyond blogger for that, and a lot of time, and I don't have any of that right now, so we'll start with this. Thanks for praying along!
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