Welcome to My World

17 Feb 2011

This morning, after a long weekend away from school, we resumed our regular daily prayer time to start off our day in Grade 3.  Here are just a few of the prayer requests – and praises – that came up. 

Sending friends off with prayer... and morning prayer times in groups

• Pray for our Bibleless People Group (we go through one each week with the Akebu to Zapotec Book for Bibleless People Groups book, by Wycliffe), and that they would send someone to their language to get the Bible translated so they can read it.  And that they would want to know Jesus.
• Praise because I got to go to Zanzibar over the weekend and it was really fun!
• Pray for India.  You know how we talked about social classes?  Well, the people there aren’t fighting other people or other countries anymore but are fighting each other now.  Like a civil war.  (I learn a lot about the world through our daily prayer time - though it's always good to go check my facts afterwords!)
• Praise that my mom got back last night safely.  And pray because she leaves for the UK tomorrow morning, because our house (missionary family from the UK) got flooded and the people renting it are moving out.
• Pray for my mom – her toe is still hurting and now she’s hurt her ankle too.
• Pray for the people in the blast last night when bombs accidentally went off in Dar near the airport.  Someone my dad knows was at work when it happened, and his wife and kids ran away when things exploded, and now the guy can’t find his family. 
• Pray for peace of people in charge.  And good decisions.
• Pray that people wouldn’t use bad words.  (We’ve been discussing the 10 commandments this week…)
• Pray for the kindergartners for their assembly tomorrow.
• I have two; a prayer and a praise  (Holding up to fingers to show intent clearly.) I pray for the Bibleless People Group (this one usually gets offered up several times a day).  And praise that we can read the Bible in our own language.
• Pray for Egypt, especially the believers there because they're having a hard time.
• Praise that my little sister slept through the night last night!  And that she’s learning to make silly noises.  Not talking really, but her own kind of talking.  It’s really funny.
• Praise for RAIN, and pray that we’d have better power now that it’s rained.  And pray it keeps raining, except not when we have swimming.
• Praise that the cut on my leg is feeling better.  And, Miss Lucas, can I get a plaster (Bandaid) for my finger?
• Pray that Miss Lucas’ back feels better.  Oh, wait, praise because it is!
• Pray for all the people in the world who are hurt or sick that they would feel better.
• Pray for the auditions for The Sound of Music because they’re today and I’m really nervous.
• Pray for our car (dubbed “The Beast”), since it stopped working yesterday and my mom doesn’t like driving a manual, which is the kind we are borrowing from someone today.

It’s funny to read over things like this.  These are regular 8 and 9 year old kids, with real hurts, real fears, real joys… and a very real global perspective.  They love going on jumping castles just as much as the next kid, and could probably play soccer barefoot with more skill than most kids in the United States can play with their shoes on... but they are also the first ones to help their classmate to the nurse when they fall down, or to share their extra books with a local school that has none.  They watch the Disney channel and have sleepovers for their birthdays just like anyone their age in the States or the UK, but they also “get” that there’s a life out there much bigger, much wider in scope than they understand.  And they get that these things might affect them, or might not… but most are not naïve to the fact that there is SOME sort of life outside their own little world.  Their parent’s home country might be having troubles, or their own family may need to go on an extra furlough this year due to a lack of funding.  One day at a time, we get to lift these praises, prayers, hurts, concerns, and laughter up to the Lord, together.  And as we do, we learn about faith, trust, frustration, and relying on each other and on God to make it through, whether life that day is “great” or in the pits.

This is grade 3.  Welcome to my world!!!