{"id":38707,"date":"2021-03-01T13:45:56","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T18:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/?post_type=resource&p=38707"},"modified":"2021-06-07T15:51:02","modified_gmt":"2021-06-07T20:51:02","slug":"pray-with-thailand-march-7-2021","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/resource\/pray-with-thailand-march-7-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Pray with Thailand, March 7, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lectionary Selection:<\/strong>  Psalm 19<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Prayers for Thailand<\/strong>
Your Law, O God, does revive the soul. It is the Law of Love and the Law of Creating. We human beings are too quick to damage your best work. But bring us back, we pray, to seeing your light and your glory all around us. The sun stills lights the sky day by day. It is beautiful from its rising to its setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But more beautiful even than the sun, is your Law of Love\u2014loving others as Christ has loved us. Give us hope and courage to set aside our frazzled nerves and our anxieties in these difficult times. Give us eyes to see that you have never stopped loving this world you have made; you have never stopped loving all who live here. Give us the power to turn again, and be your workers for reconciliation and healing. Through Jesus Christ, we pray.  Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mission Stewardship Moment from Thailand<\/strong>
Just like the rest of the world, we are having a resurgence of COVID-19 in Thailand.  It felt very personal at Wattana (pronounced WATT-tuh-nah) Church, where I serve. We had been back to worshipping in-person since August, with social distancing, masks, pre-registration online, and all the strictures. So, we were all ready for Christmas week, including an outdoor worship service with masking and social distancing, on the church grounds, and a boxed dinner provided for attendees. It was not going to be our normal, open-house, all-you-can-eat dinner for everyone who would come, but it would still be joyful. Everything shut down nation-wide, though, just before the 4th Sunday of Advent, and we were back online. All schools are again closed; several provinces have checkpoints at every road bordering another province; large gatherings are prohibited, etc., etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One silver lining for me was this year\u2019s main project for the Christmas Eve worship and celebration\u2014a play done with church members as actors, and done quite professionally. It was filmed for streaming online. It was about a family who finally found their way back to one another after a painful estrangement. Sort of like the Prodigal Son, except that the estranged daughter made a mistake, and was cast out by her older sister. The older sister finally repented, and the family was reconciled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It speaks volumes to me, in a time when there is so much anxiety and people\u2019s nerves are frazzled, that those with a little power may well be the ones who need to admit their own fault and reach out to others who are hurting. We are all hurting these days. But love never ends, and God\u2019s Law of Love has the power to heal. Even now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prayer and Mission Moment by Anne Gregory<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mission Partners in Thailand<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n