By now many of you have heard of the horrific land slide in Sierra Leone. Luke Laari, our brother in Christ and colleague on the International Board of NCFI sends this petition for prayer:

It is my prayer this email meets you in good health. A couple of days ago our brothers and sisters in Sierra Leone experienced a Mudslide disaster and over 467 have lost their lives, 600 unaccounted for and over 3,000 individuals are rendered homeless. In times like this, it is easy to look at the numbers as statistics, but take a minute and think, if you had lost one of your family members. Be prompted that, these are fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, children and friends who were and now no more. Paul in Gal. 3: 28, reminded us that, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Taken a clue from this proclamation I call on you to say 5 minutes prayers to our fellow humans in Sierra Leone.  This is to retell us also that our lives are just but a hired asset. Someone owns it and decides when it should be taken. It is only sad it happened this way, but that is a caution to the living, this could have been any of us. The least we can do is to pray for them and few of our members there. May those who lost their lives find their maker, those missing be found and may the Lord render shelter for those rendered homeless.

Romans 12:15. “Weep with those that weep!”

As the chair of the Prayer and Care Committee for NCFI, I not only share this petition with you, but take this opportunity to elicit regular prayers for our global family. I would ask that every time you hear of a natural disasters, acts of terror or a breakout of illness and disease that you take a few moments to pray. Follow Luke’s suggestion and pray

-victims and families would come to know the Lord Jesus Christ

-the missing or wounded would be healed

-the Lord would bring shelter and supplies.

I would also suggest that you pray for the health care and emergency workers. As nurses, we know with every tragedy there are men and women whose work and calling puts them in harm’s way and work tirelessly giving of themselves for their patients. Pray

-strength and health to care for others

-protect their families, so they may not worry

-grace and love as they are witnesses to the tragedies and evil in our world.

Unfortunately, tragedy has become common place in our world today and as the Lord’s workers we are the hands and heart of Jesus. His hands grows larger and his heart expands when our prayers join the Holy Spirit who intercedes for all of God’s children.

“With every prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and to this end be alert, with all perseverance and requests for all the saints.”   Ephesians 6:18