CPA Praying Together – December 2021

Please join us and feel free to pass on to friends.

Many of us will be looking forward to spending time with family, friends, neighbours, and community this Christmas season. We anticipate the coming of Christ our Lord who is the Lord of peace.

Thank you for joining us as we give particular focus to the country of Ethiopia and the many who currently live in anything but peace.

Our friend and partner in Ethiopia wrote to us this week.  He mentions the fast pace at which things are moving.

He writes: “Things are better than last week, much of the fighting is over but…

  • There are still a lot of displaced people around.
  • Displaced people are sheltered in the church compound and the fellowship are sharing the little they have.
  • He knows of 24 young people who have lost their lives and seven of them are from the area we know and love.
  • The local town has seen a lot of looting and damage to property and farms.”

Many years ago, when a small team from CPA met with our project partners and church leaders, they climbed the local mountain where they shared communion and worshipped together. A passage taken from Isaiah 52 vs 7 was spoken.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’”

We hold onto this and in prayer ask Father to have mercy on all those who are caught up in the current conflict, who are just wanting to get on with their lives, to provide for their families and see the development of their communities.

We pray for those in positions of leadership and therefore in power. We ask that

  • They would come to realise that you are the creator of all people, regardless of ethnicity.
  • Their hearts would be turned towards a pathway of peace.
  • For a genuine desire to see the poorest of the poor lifted from the dust and given opportunity.
  • That resources would be re-deployed from the destructive ways of war, to the building of diverse and peaceful communities.

May El Shaddai, the Lord God Almighty who loves us, protect us and our African friends.
May Jesus Christ His Son, who died for us, save us.
May the Holy Spirit, who broods over the chaos and fills us with his presence, intercede for us and in us and for others at this time.
Amen.

We so appreciate you joining with us and pray your Christmas will be full of the joy and peace of Christ.