Sabbath Prayer: Week 3

As we mentioned two weeks ago, each summer we take a Sabbath break from the Word From Below reflections. Instead, we are inviting you to pray with us. (We will resume our normal Word From Below reflections in September).

Here are two prayers that have been helping form us in our call to develop incarnational leaders: The Prayer of Vocation grounds us in our particular call, and the Prayer of Discernment helps us discern the move of the Spirit at work in us and our network.

We invite you to pray one or both of these with us.

Prayer Request (Each week we offer a new prayer)
This week we are praying for the grassroots leaders whom we serve around the world in the 10 cities that are part of the Urban Training Collaborative. Their lives are like roller-coaster rides, as evidenced by the life of Pastor Erwin “Shorty” Luna. Two weeks ago, he buried a young man, Nery, who had become like a son to him. Nery and two of his friends were shot while attending a funeral in rival gang territory. The two friends made it through surgery, but Nery did not survive the night. A few days after the loss of his “adopted” son, Pastor Erwin held his two daughters in his arms at the Guatemala City airport. It was their first hug in the 15 years since he had been deported from the U.S.

Pray for the hundreds of grassroots leaders in the Urban Traning Collaborative that are loving their cities into greatness around the world. Like Shorty, they often live life strapped to a roller coaster of emotion ranging from paralyzing pain to unbridled joy.

Praying
It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.”

– Mary Oliver, Thirst

Joel Van Dyke
Director, Urban Training Collaborative
Guatemala City, Guatemala