Pray with Greece on Sunday June 24, 2018
Lectionary Selection: Mark 4:35-41
Prayers for Greece:
O Creator God, it can be hard to find grounding when we feel as though our lives are adrift with storms swirling all around us. Please, fill us with your comforting presence and show us the way forward. Open our hearts to follow your call and help us to work for justice in the world around us. At this time, people around the world are more aware of human migration than ever, but there is still so much to be done on a practical level. Great Creator, help us to pray with our hands and our feet, not just with our hearts, in the midst of this heartbreaking situation.
For leaders around the world, we pray that they will handle the current situation of refugees with sensitivity and care, remembering that these are individual people with innate human dignity, created in the image of God. Help our leaders to have sound hearts and minds when making practical and financial decisions about this work – for it will impact millions of people for generations to come.
For our partners at Perichoresis, a refugee response organization related to the Evangelical Church of Greece, we pray for wisdom as they interact with so many people and difficult cases. We ask you to bless them with a spirit of sensitivity towards their beneficiaries from around the world, all seeking shelter and safety. Give them clear minds to make loving decisions in matters big and small. Help them continue to develop a spirit of inclusion not only in their work but in their daily lives.
Mission Stewardship Moment from Greece:
The Perichoresis Community Food Bank is a vital resource for all in Katerini, Greece.
One Sunday, I arrived at the local church to find an Iraqi family sitting out front speaking with Perichoresis staff. They had crossed the Turkish/Greek land boarder in the north and walked for days to reach Katerini. The parents were worried and frazzled, their two young children exhausted and wary of the strangers around them. They needed help.
Assorted staff members who happened to be at church that Sunday sprang into action. They called a translator to come and support the family and a driver to take them to the nearest refugee camp to be registered. In the meantime, the father was then taken to the local food bank in order to gather supplies for the family to take with them to the camp.
It is because the Perichoresis Community Food Bank is fully stocked that it is able to respond to critical needs such as this in the community. The food bank regularly serves 575 individuals from local Greek and foreign families, as well as 550 people from refugee families as needed, plus those who are passing through the city. Global Ministries has generously donated the funds to keep the food bank supplied and running for the next six months, so that Perichoresis staff here can respond to a variety of families and needs.
(Prayer and Mission Moment by Kearstin Bailey)
Mission Partners in Greece:
More information on Greece: https://www.globalministries.org/greece
Global Ministries Mission Co-worker:
Kearstin Bailey, a member of David’s United Church of Christ, Canal Winchester, Ohio, serves with the Perichoresis of the Evangelical Church of Greece as a Global Mission Intern.