DAY 200
Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic
A series of daily reflections for people of faith
by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor
Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland
pastorrobert@paxpres.org
Week Twenty-nine Wednesday 30 September 2020
Mission Focus: Papua New Guinea
The MAF (Missionary Aviation Fellowship) plane hit the grassy clearing that sloped upward, providing natural resistance that helped bring the plane to a halt on a short runway carved out of the jungle. The entire small village was out to greet us, and supplies were unloaded. I was introduced to the ‘pastor’ of the village church, a man with a broad smile borne of a vibrant relationship with Jesus. The collection of basic rough wood homes, with windows and doors with no windows and doors were scattered around the clearing. With no electricity and no running water, no store and no clinic, it was a classic definition of primitive, and I shall never forget it.
While located in Irian Jaya, the Indonesian side of New Guinea on this second largest island in the world, the village shared the same terrain and culture of countless similar villages just a few miles away in Papua New Guinea.
PRAYER FOCUS
+ Pray for a country riddled with corruption, ethnic animosity, witchcraft and ignorance.
+ AIDS is becoming a pandemic through sexual immorality. Pray for the churches seeking to
address the issue and in the process lead people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
+ Pray for the bulk of the Christians who are illiterate, susceptible to a blending of superstition
and the Gospel. Pray for patient literacy teachers combining a teaching God’s Word.
+ Pray that the Holy Spirit will raise up committed, mature leaders in the many ethnic and
linguistic church groups in isolated primitive villages to stabilize and grow the church.
+ Pray for a healing of divisions between missionaries and church groups.
+ Pray that as they sing their national anthem, below, the words will be alive and true for all.
Jesus’ Prayer Request each Wednesday:
“’The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest,
therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Jesus - Matthew 9:37-38.
For additional information on praying for Papua New Guinea
go to: operationworld.org.
Reflective question: Will you commit to pray the next seven days for Papua New Guinea?
Reflective Scripture: Ephesians 4:23 – “…be made new in the attitude of your minds,…”
Reflective hymn:
“O Arise, All You Sons” – National Anthem of Papua New Guinea
Thomas Shacklady (1917-2006)
O arise all you sons of this land, let us sing of our joy to be free,
Praising God and rejoicing to be Papua New Guinea.
Now give thanks to the good Lord above for His kindness, His wisdom and love,
For this land of our fathers so free, Papua New Guinea.
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