Prayer Cycle (1- 7 December 2013) Liberia, Sierra Leone

Intercessions

Give thanks for:

• Christian churches and people who, despite hardships and temptations, retain faith and hope and love, and work for the betterment of all peoples in their nations.
• Those who work for reconciliation and healing, so that people can live with one another again.
• Churches that try to rebuild their communities.
• The councils of churches in Sierra Leone and Liberia and their work towards a renewed Christian witness.
• Those who saved others at great risk to their own lives.

Pray for:

• The establishment of a society where children can live and grow with love and peace instead of hatred and violence.
• The fullness of human life for all men, women and children of all tribes and ethnicities in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
• Refugees displaced by civil war and political instability in neighbouring countries, and those returning after years of exile.
• Women who have been raped and who have otherwise suffered the ravages of civil war.
• Healing for those broken in body, mind and spirit by the brutality of war.
• Orphans, displaced children, malnourished children, and children who live in fear.
• For the renewal of the forests, wildlife habitats and rich biodiversity of Sierra Leone and Liberia.
• For functioning economies emerging from the wreckage of civil war.

PRAYER

A Litany of Renewal

Son of the Living God: 
our God of power and might, 
of love, grace and mercy; by whose spoken word 
the world came into being 
and without whose guidance 
we are lost; 
we stand in awe of you 
and in adoration lift our voices to you: 
We thank you for the people of Sierra Leone.

 

Come, Lord Jesus. 
Come and make Sierra Leone 
a better place for the people there 
and for their children.

 

You have given them a wonderful country 
with lovely landscapes, a coast with beautiful beaches, 
enough rain and sunshine, green vegetation, 
fertile land and mineral resources, 
enough to make each family happy. 
We pray with them, 
“Somehow Lord, 
greed, selfishness and corruption overtake us and destroy us; 
we confess our manifold sins.” 
We lift up our voices to you:

Come, Lord Jesus. Come and make Sierra Leone a better place for the people there and for their children.

After a decade of maiming, killing and destruction 
with deadly weapons of war, 
a once beautiful country is scarred, disfigured and devastated. 
A part of Africa is still groping in darkness. 
Teach them to let go of the old 
and let you into their lives and daily work.

A Child's Prayer

God, what kind of world is this

that the adult people are going to leave for us children?
There is fighting everywhere
and they tell us we live in a time of peace.
You are the only one who can help us.
Lord, give us a new world in which we can be happy,
in which we can have friends
and work together for a good future.
A world in which there will not be any cruel people
who seek to destroy us and our world in so many ways.

Source: oikoumene.org