Prayer Requests for the Team

“Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches;
Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.
Lift your hands toward Him for the life of your young children
Who faint from hunger at the head of every street.”   Lam 2:19

Jeremiah wrote these words watching the suffering of Jerusalem at the hands of invaders.  Scott has been leading our team in a study of lament, which challenges us to cling to God.  As we also bear witness to the harrowing effects of sin and sorrow, we invite you to cry out in prayer, to pour your heart before the Lord.

1. For the life of children.  Would you pray specifically for Christ School, as we near the end of the second term?  We all knew it would be a rough summer with the transition in leadership, and we praise God that the riots which erupted this time last year were avoided, that in spite of a major theft, struggles with the food service, shortfalls in funding, and student suspensions for misconduct . . .the Pierces have weathered their inaugural term with grace, vision, and even a spark of humor.  Please pray specifically for the staff and missionaries to have wisdom to teach and model godly sexuality.  When you take over 300 pubertal human beings emerging from a culture where sex is viewed as a commodity for transaction and an essential component of normal body function . . . Well, we realize that the spiritual beauty of the creation of humans as male and female, and the spiritual safety of the placement of sexual relationship within the commitment of marriage, is lacking in these students’ minds and actions.  This has become starkly apparent this week as we cared for a girl who nearly bled to death, possibly from a botched abortion.  Pray for their lives.
2. Who faint from hunger.  The pediatric ward has been running at 150% of capacity for most of the summer.  Rising food prices, unreliable weather patterns, dissolving family safety nets, increasing awareness of the hope of help . . All have brought many more desperate children to our attention that we have the resources to care for.  Praise God that the team of former missionary Scotticus, summer interns, and Ugandan university students conducted an illuminating evaluation of the BundiNutrition programs which confirms the wisdom of expanding the use of locally produced peanut/soy paste that Stephanie pioneered.  We distributed another batch of Matiti project goats (organized by Karen), and another round of supplementary food to HIV-positive women and children (still funded by Pamela’s advocacy, in absentia).  PLEASE PRAY that UNICEF would confirm their commitment to provide milk-based therapeutic food by signing their agreement and sending our next shipment THIS WEEK.  Pray for Heidi, my right hand help and friend on the front lines, who has to spend two months’ “internship” in Kampala for her nursing license, and for me to persevere, to see the fainting revive and live.
3. At the head of every street.  Bundibugyo is more of a maze of paths than a grid of streets.  And the political system reflects that obscurity, with funds and accountability being hidden behind twists and turns.  Yet your prayers are beginning to shake things up.  In the last two weeks, a crisis has boiled over, pitting one seemingly “good guy”  against some entrenched local corrupt politicians. Three fairly influential and notoriously dishonest civil servants were “interdicted” (fired) this week.  Would you please KEEP PRAYING FOR JUSTICE to prevail?  For the Lord to hear the cries of the hungry and remove from power those who embezzle their aid?  For a true turning to the Lord in the hearts of the people, so that they rely on God and not on stealing for their security?  Your prayers have the power to bring about real change in Bundibugyo.
4. Pour out your heart.  The season of sorrowful goodbyes cycles around again, as Katie, Jesse, and Nick finish their internship and depart tomorrow with their leader Kim.  The Massos have tentatively scheduled their long-anticipated (but I admit serious denial in my own heart) departure for Sudan in the beginning of October.  And very close to home, Luke will enter Rift Valley Academy’s 11th grade class the first of September, our oldest off to boarding school.  The waves of grief are building once again.  Pray for hope, for the daily assurance that God leads and loves even in loss.  We had hoped for another couple (the Clarks) and two more single guys (Jason and Nathan) to be here by now, picking up some of the threads that will be left dangling as our team fabric is torn with these departures as well as the others over this year.  Pray for their support to come in God’s timing, and for us to recognize mercy in the apparent delay.
   

Thank you for being our watchers, those who cry out in the darkness and strain to see the dawn.  We know that your prayers are moving in the lives of students, hungry families, politicians and team members.