Bristol Diocese
Prayer Page
PACONG DIOCESE – SOUTH SUDAN - MOTHERS’ UNION
PLEASE IMAGINE – THEN PLEASE PRAY July 2023
What it be like to be permanently
HUNGRY
THIRSTY
SICK
GRIEVING
OVERWHELMED WITH REFUGEES
THREATENED BY SOLDIERS DUE TO CIVIL WAR
FRIGHTENED – even a Bishop attacked, robbed, and car burnt out
To be lacking in resources for
EDUCATION
SKILLS’ TRAINING
SUBSISTENCE FARMING
SMALL BUSINESSES
SIT A WHILE AND ASK GOD FOR WHAT TO PRAY
THEN do your own research on the situation for our Brothers and
Sisters living in South Sudan; and continue to pray.
KENYA - A Prayer Request from Barnabas Aid April 2023.
Extended drought conditions after successive rainy seasons fail.
Drought conditions in northern Kenya call for urgent prayer.
Five rainy seasons in a row have failed. Kenyan Christians are
praying that the March-May 2023 rains will be good and restore the
dried-up land.
In the drought-affected northern region, schools no longer
have enough water or supplies to provide pupils with a daily meal of
maize and beans. As a result children are dropping out of school and
are helping their parents to forage for what little food they can
find. The situation is so bad in some village that people are dying.
Many cattle have also perished in the drought, which has led to a
rise in thefts of the surviving cattle. Christians are praying for rain
to restore the land. They hope that February’s rains in South
Africa, which caused flooding in parts of that country, will move
north to end the successive seasons of drought in Kenya.
JOIN OUR KENYAN BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN PRAYING
FOR RAIN for those afflicted by drought. Cry out to the Lord to
cause the land to bear fruit once again (James 5 v 17-18) Pray for an
abundance of wisdom for the country’s leaders at this difficult time.
From our linked diocese of Pacong in South Sudan, February 2023
1. Prayer Request for Rain from the Mothers Union
The diocese and the area in general have not received
adequate rains in 2022. This is very worrying because it
means that if enough rain does not fall there will be
severe famine in the area. With severe famine it will
mean that many people will face starvation in the
coming months. We therefore ask you to join us in
prayer as we ask God to send the rains in the area.
2. Prayer Request from the Diocese for Training of
Pastors and Lay Leaders
The Diocese still faces the challenge of training of its
pastors and many of the pastors serving in the diocese are still untrained. We pray that God
will open opportunities for the Diocesan pastors and Lay Leaders to attend theological
training within and outside South Sudan. We also thank God for the pastors that got the
opportunity to study at the Bishop Gwynne College in Juba.
3. Prayer Request from the Diocese for Total Peace and trauma healing
Inter-communal fighting and revenge killings are still occurring in the Diocese. The victims
of these fighting and killings have been traumatized and need trauma healing. We pray that
God will bring total peace in the area and heal the traumatized people. We also pray that God
will provide the Diocese with the financial and human resources so as to enable it continue to
conduct peace building promotions and trauma healing sessions in the area.
4. Thanksgiving prayer
We thank God for the growth that the Diocese has witnessed since it was founded. This has
been witnessed in the increase in the Archdeaconries, deaneries and parishes in the Diocese.
We pray for and thank God for all the people serving in the Diocese as pastors, lay leaders,
youth leaders and mother’s union leaders and our children in Sunday schools.
Yours in Christ
Bishop Joseph Maker Atot
In the light of the visit by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the senior figure from Church of Scotland and the Pope, to South Sudan, it would be appropriate to read the document from Mothers' Union in Pacong (our link Diocese) and use these areas as a focus for our prayers.
From Barnabas Aid, 20January 2023
Nigeria
Presidential and parliamentary elections will be held on 25 February. Christians are
concerned that one of the main political parties has selected two Muslims as its
presidential and vice-presidential candidates. Nigerian political parties customarily
select one Christian and one Muslim as their candidates for these two most senior
positions.
A church minister, Isaac Achi, was burned to death, after armed men set fire to his
home in Niger State, in the early hours of Sunday 15 January. Another minister who
was at the house was shot and injured as he tried to escape the blaze – he is
recovering in hospital.
Also this month, gunmen abducted 25 Christians who were attending a Sunday
service in Katsina State.
At least 39 Christians, including six entire families, were killed in attacks on seven
villages in Kaduna State on 13 and 18 December 2022. Among the dead was 105-
year-old Monica Kunal Ajuwai. The attackers burned down 102 houses.
Kenya
Large parts of northern Kenya have been severely affected by drought, resulting in
poor harvests and acute food insecurity. For the last four years, the two rainy seasons
each year have been erratic – not enough rain and at the wrong time in some areas,
while others suffered destructive flooding. An estimated 2.5 million livestock have
died. Rain did fall in October-December 2022 but it was insufficient to restore the
pasture, so wild animals are invading the farms that were just beginning to revive.
“It is very hard times for the people. The food shortages are still continuing. There is
so much suffering,” Anglican Bishop Daniel Qampicha Wario of Marsabit said
recently.
Christians are a minority in northern Kenya and often excluded by the majority from
receiving food aid given out by the local authorities. At the same time the Church is
gradually growing in various unreached people-groups, despite persecution.
_______________________
17th January 2023
A Nigerian Church Minister, Isaac Achi, was burned to death, after armed men set fire to his home in Paikoro Local Government Area, Niger State, in the early hours of 15 th January 2023. Another minister who was at the house was shot and injured as he tried to escape the blaze – he is recovering in hospital.
_______________________
Pamila Wauna, MU Leader in our linked Southern Nyanza Diocese, Kenya.
Pamela says
“We have planned to do a project that could help the needy children on their education but we are still not able to start due to financial constraints. We are really struggling – life is very hard since election period (August 2022).
Please Pray for Us”
