Congregational God Sightings 2011 & Prayers for 2012

Each year at Community Presbyterian's annual meeting we collect God Sightings from the previous year and prayer for the congregation in the year to come. Slightly condensed, these are this year's God Sightings and Prayers.

God Sightings for 2011
Our contributions to local missions
The way the congregation held together spiritually and financially through a year of economic distress
Church on the Road (2)
The three sages in the Christmas Pageant (1)
The energy brought by new members (4)
Craft Fair (4)
Lenten series on prayer
Advent/Christmas activities
Working together on the boiler (7)
Near balance of the budget
Our pastor (3)
Health of family & friends
Having God to guide my life
Thrift Shop ladies
Fellowship activities (2)
My baptism
Meeting and overcoming obstacles
Everyone who helps keep the congregation going
Use of Elders for preaching
Increased number of children in church
Growing partnerships with other congregations on youth ministry

Prayers for 2012
That we continue our good deeds and spread our love (2)
Growth of Little Blessings Preschool (4)
Membership growth(12)
Spiritual growth (2)
Meet the church budget (3)
Continue participation of young families
Continued blessing of the Lord's love
Growth in wisdom & generosity
Build up Sunday School (2)
Continue on as a congregation
Become a more vibrant, exciting pathway to a close relationship with God

National Day of Prayer

Today (Thursday, May 6th) is the 49th annual National Day of Prayer.

A prayer for our nation taken from the Presidential Proclamation marking today as the National Day of Prayer:

On this day, let us give thanks for the many blessings God has bestowed upon our Nation. Let us rejoice for the blessing of freedom both to believe and to live our beliefs, and for the many other freedoms and opportunities that bring us together as one Nation. Let us ask for wisdom, compassion, and discernment of justice as we address the great challenges of our time.

Let us remember in our thoughts and prayers those suffering from natural disasters in Haiti, Chile, and elsewhere, and the people from those countries and from around the world who have worked tirelessly and selflessly to render aid. Let us pray for the families of the West Virginia miners, and the people of Poland who so recently and unexpectedly lost many of their beloved leaders. Let us pray for the safety and success of those who have left home to serve in our Armed Forces, putting their lives at risk in order to make the world a safer place. As we remember them, let us not forget their families and the substantial sacrifices that they make every day. Let us remember the unsung heroes who struggle to build their communities, raise their families, and help their neighbors, for they are the wellspring of our greatness. Finally, let us remember in our thoughts and prayers those people everywhere who join us in the aspiration for a world that is just, peaceful, free, and respectful of the dignity of every human being.

Read the entire Proclamation.

National Day of Prayer web site

Hedge of Protection

When I first started praying with my colleagues at The Bowery Mission I noticed many of them using the phrase "hedge of protection," especially when lifting up a person or a program going through trying times - a client in danger of relapse, staff faced with unruly clients, etc. It was especially used in situations where the darkness of evil was a real and genuine threat. "God," they would pray, "please put a hedge of protection around so and so."

At first I was puzzled by the imagery and then came to use it myself. It is not biblical, although some link it to the cloud and the fire that God used to protect the Israelites from the Egyptians as they escaped from Egypt.

Hedge of protection language echos the fortress language of the psalmists and picked up by Martin Luther in his famous hymn. I see the hedge of protection as a mess of brambles between us and the evil of this world which threatens us and our faith. I take comfort in God's promise to protect me and keep me secure.

Congregational God Sightings for 2009

At the annual meeting on January 24th, members of the Community Presbyterian community expressed the following God sightings from the last year of their life together. Have your own? Share it in the comments.

• The quilt was appreciated and great friendship and cooperation developed in its making.
• Our many accomplishments as a small congregation – Outreach, fellowship etc.
• Our ability to meet our budget.
• Involvement of some folks not ordinarily active.
• The many happy faces of the seniors who came together at the first “social” at the village hall.
• We are still here when some thought we would go under
• Prayer meetings for Stan
• Love and support of the church family through difficult times.
• Our church continues to welcome all people who wish to join us. We continue to welcome those of the different background, faith and race. Our good pantry work and our mission working in this country and abroad.
• Accepted into colleges,
• Pinebrook Clean up;
• Baby Eric Thomas Nelson and Elisabeth back in church
• We did not close this year in the red, we are financially okay.
• A thriving thrift shop
• Our church is not static – with Fritz and the Elders’ leadership, CPC seems to constantly renew and revitalize itself. It is really amazing how mission has become the focus and purpose of our activities and prayers
• Our church fellowship and continue to prosper in many ways. And my life with my mom… blessings from above.
• The SWAP – generosity abounds on all sides
• Stan’s memorial service
• Thanks for being alive to experience all the beauty of the world and the wonderful people I know
• Our ability as a small congregation to make substantial differences for people in need
• All the accomplishments and goals that were made
• Health for many in Haiti
• That we respond to the disaster in Haiti and the needs of the neglected of the world empowered by the Holy Spirit
• Service and the great time we had at the Craft Fair
• Caroling for the shut-ins this past Christmas of the joy and healing brought to them
• Our prayerful vigil for Stan
• Craft Fair
• Choir
• Birth of Eric Thomas Nelson
• Bringing our daughter through a difficult pregnancy

Prayers for the Congregation 2010

At the annual meeting on January 24th, members of the Community Presbyterian community expressed the following prayers for the Congregation. Have your own? Share it in the comments.

• May we grow and do more deeds of service
• To continue to grow and to be as productive as we were this past year.
• Continued solvency, continued mission outreach, continued blessing for us all
• That we continue to increase the size of our congregation so that in turn our mission work will increase as well.
• Pray for peace on earth
• That the church will have a positive effect on the world, Long Island and Malverne
• Continued solvency for our church and continued welcoming into our presence people from the community to join us. Give us the strength to carry on His work. (We are few but we need to be strong.)
• Help us welcome
• Help us stay financially afloat
• Help us increase membership.
• Continued growth in spiritual and physical areas
• That we continue to grow, that we are able to discern God’s mission for our church and to carry it out.
• We remain welcoming and generosity
• We widen our circle of faith
• We bring more families back
• For everyone to stay safe and healthy for 2010. A good year
• To continue our mission work and to keep thinking of ways to invite our community into our church
• That giving continues
• Outreach is successful
• More young people come out to church and know our Saviour

Pray global, pray local

There weren't many of us at church on Sunday and I was debating whether to say anything about the conflict between Georgia and Russia during the prayer time when an elderly member of the congregation raised her hand and requested prayer for her aid, whose family lived in Georgia and whose 18 year-old son was at risk for being called up in the draft. Another person just had a close relative return from Baghdad. Yet another had a husband serving in Afghanistan.

In my sermon I played an excerpt from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s sermon Why Jesus Called a Man a Fool. I played the end - where King quotes from the spiritual There Is a Balm In Gilead to make his point about the need to rely on God to make through difficult times. Earlier in the sermon, however, King speaks about how dependent and connected we are with others around the world. "You can't leave home in the morning," King says, "without being dependent on the rest of the world."

It seems easier to pray for the troubles that are in our face rather than those half way across the world. It seems easier to pray for seemingly manageable things - such as successful surgeries performed by top rated doctors - than unmanagable things such as war and peace. But I was reminded on Sunday that what is far is also near. I was also reminded that what seems impossible is possible.

So we should pray for peace - whether in Afghanistan, Georgia, Iraq or anywhere else, knowing that not only are we praying for the world, but we're praying for our immediate neighbors as well.

On the Ground in Kenya - cont.

I haven't heard from the Judd's recently - the person who forwards me their letters has been quite busy of late. But I did receive a note from Marta Bennett, a PC(USA) Mission Co-worker who is on the faculty of Nairobi International School of Theology. Here are excerpts from her note from January 10, 2008.

We had a living room full of people at our house watching the [election] returns over the that weekend, including Kikuyu, Luo and Kamba, the tribes of the top three presidential candidates. One of the Kikuyus in our gathering started commenting: "Where are the returns from my area? All around Mount Kenya, nothing is coming! What is happening?"

In the midst of questions about the election tally, the Electoral Commission of Kenya chairman announced that Kikaki had one. Then an hour later, Kibaki was being sworn in at a basically private affair at the State House. We were stunned and dismayed in our living room, Kikuyu, Luo and American alike.

This election - it was such an act of injustice, laced with irregularities and illegalities. We really hoped we would prove that Kenya had taken a major step towards democracy with this election. But instead we have been set back year and fanned the flames of ethnic hatred among neighbors who up till now had lived side by side peacefully.

On Sunday, December 30, I was reading Proverbs 29 before the final results were announced. As alarming questions were starting to surface, the scripture was such a direct word from the Lord:
"By justice a king gives a country stability, but one who is greedy for bribes tears it down... The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern ... If a wise man goes to court with a fool, the fool rages and scoffs, and there is no peace."

We are praying, fasting, crying out that somehow God would intervene. Yesterday (Jan. 6) many churches were praying. In the afternoon, many of the pastors and others met at All Saints Cathedral in town. It sounds like it was a remarkable time with representatives of each ethnic group standing and confessing the sins of their particular ethnic group, asking forgiveness and praying for God's intervention, truth, justice and mercy, and embracing with tears the representative of their "opposite" tribal group.

Complete text of Marta Bennett's letter
Marta Bennett's web page

On the Ground in Kenya

Missionaries LeRoy and Joann Judd work with African Inland Mission in Nairobi, Kenya. LeRoy is a seminary professor and Joann runs programs for children. Below are excerpts from emails they have sent over the last few days chronicling the violence broken out due to the results from the recent election.

12/30/2007 - 11:00 pm
For several days we have been asked to stay mostly at home due to the election results and violence. This morning we did go out to our church and spent much of the service in prayer. .. Much of the city is dark except for the fires (arson) raging in some slums, including Kibera, near our church, where many of our students and friends live. Some have taken refuge in an Assembly of God church. Pray for protection for God's people and for calm to be restored.

One of our friends says his room has been filled several times with tear gas as the police try to control the crowds. All live broadcasting has been suspended. We expect there could be further trouble tomorrow as the candidate who lost is declaring a victory rally.

1/02/2008 - 10:00 am
We have been basically indoors for almost a week now with just brief trips out to a small mall a few blocks away during the lulls in the violence. One of our gate guards got a phone call from his wife who reported that their neighbor's houses had been burned, the two supermarkets and the hardware store, but that their house and the other on the street were still standing.

We never know what a day or night will hold. We are concerned that the quarrel over the election has taken increasingly tribal lines and there is a terrible backlash against Kibaki's (the candidate who "won" the election) people, the Kikuyu.

Last night it occurred to me that this violence is also spiritual warfare. Churches and mosques and Hindu temples are becoming places of refuge, as as the burning of one church with its occupants shows, Satan is at work here. A spirit of evil and violence is controlling people. We need to pray earnestly that our God will restrain and hold back this evil spirit and that His people will be protected.

1/02/2008 - 5:00 pm
Tomorrow is a critical day, because Raila (the candidate who "lost" the election) has called for a mass rally of a million people in Nairobi tomorrow. The government is saying the demonstration is not allowed, but the opposition is planning to go on with it anyway. This sounds ominous to us. As Kenyans hide in their homes and churches, we urge you to stand with them by gathering in groups for prayer.

1/03/2008 - 7:00 pm
Today the opposition party had called for mass action. their party headquarters are within easy walking distance of our apartment and Bishop Tutu was meeting with them. By noon we had reports that marchers were just a few blocks away and we were grateful for all of you standing with us in prayer. They actually passed on our street and came to our gate asking the guard "what kind of people are here?" Our guard is of the right tribe and political party, so they passed by.

Our night guard just arrived and says that last night he had moved his family. That very same night people burned the block of 13 rooms where they had been renting.

We were greatly saddened to watch on TV the burning of one of our sister churches.

Pray that the international community can bring pressure on the president to allow another tally of the votes and bring in mediation to quell the tensions. Thank you for standing with us.

Virginia - Evening Prayer

Earlier this year our congregation was selected to participate in the Summer Collegium for the Small Church at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, VA.   This is an intimate gathering of 25 small church pastors and many of their spouses to discuss some of the cultures of small churches and the challenges and opportunities for ministry.  It will also hopefully be a time of spiritual renewal for me.  Periodically I'm going to be posting thoughts and observations.

One quick observation:  Last night during a "get to know you" exercise we were each asked to name an exciting thing happening in our churches.  And a silence filled the room.  We've been so trained that exciting things happen at big churches with tons of cool programs that we forget to seek excitement from how God is working among us.   Elisabeth and I did mention program things - myself, the leadership training we are doing in October and Elisabeth the just completed food drive, but perhaps the most exciting thing is how everyone is lifting Mrs. Burns up in prayer and is supporting Joe with the death of his mother.  God works as we relate to one another.

Finally - an evening prayer:

Lord,

It is night.

The night is for stillness.

  Let us be still in the presence of God.

It is night after a long day.

   What has been done has been done;

   what has not been done has not been done.

   Let it be.

The night is dark.

  Let our fears of the darkness of the world

  and of our own lives 

  rest in you.

The night is quiet.

  Let the quietness of your peace enfold us,

    all dear to us,

    and all who have no peace.

The night heralds the dawn.

  Let us look expectantly to a new day.

    new joys

   new possibilities.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

Shootings in VA

Jon Stewart summed up my feelings when he started his show last night speechless, laughless and in doubt about the place of comedy and then went on to crack a joke about how he was simply going to repress it all and act like it didn't happen. While eating lunch today - not at the Diner but at the little Greek gyro stand in the parking lot of Trader Joe's on Long Beach Road - some guys at the counter asked to change the channel from MSNBC to the Food Network. They couldn't handle any more of the shooting and Paula Dean was total comfort.

It's hard to doubt the existence of evil when a young English major turns from writing about the darkness inside to acting out that darkness by spreading death around the campus. And that what seems so tragic here is but a daily occurance in the neighborhoods of Iraq. Paula Dean smother me in your southern charm and help me forget.

A note in my email box this afternoon from Linda Valentine, the Executive Director of the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly Council reminded me that for Christians repression is not an option. We serve a God who on the cross stood up to evil and defeated it. We hold in our tradition the Gospel of peace, the gospel of light. We are called not to repression but to acknowledgement and action. Elder Valentine informed me that a special response team from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is on its way to Virginia Tech to help console and council. Local ministers and laity are also responding.

Rev. Valentine also called us to prayer - prayer for the families, prayer for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are facing the evil of that day head on, prayer for our society and our world.

An elder at Community Presbyterian recently mentioned to me that we're not praying enough for Iraq in church. That elder was correct. I'd pulled the covers over my head, I'd been repressing and when we repress we can't pray. So I call myself and all who read this to a ministry of prayer - to acknowledge evil and batter it to a stand still with our prayers.