Prayer for the World

At Lincoln, every full-time student is required to be a part of an SFG (Spiritual Formation Group) that meets once a week. Each group is either all guys or all girls and usually has 6-10 people in it. SFGs are meant to help foster growth in us as we live life in community on the campus of LCU. I have been a part of an SFG every year as required. The group I was in freshman year dissolved. And then the group I was in for my sophomore/junior years dissolved to marriages, transfers, internships, etc. So, this year I was faced with a dilemma. Do I join a new group as a senior and have to go through the awkwardness of getting used to a new group? Or join the new SFG prayer elective that the school started? Well, I chose the prayer elective. And am so grateful I did.

This month we are focusing our prayers on the world. Last week we prayed for Rapha House Ministries in Cambodia. And this week we simply prayed for the world. We had a slide show of 30 slides with pictures and categories of things to pray for. Here's the list:

President Obama
World leaders
Unreached people groups
Bibleless people
Youth of the world
the 200 million street children
the Hindu, Buddhist, Atheistic and Muslim worlds
the Middle East, Africa, Asia, South America, Europe, South Pacific, North and Central America
the Hungry
those who are being persecuted
Persecutors/terrorists
Victims of genocide/war
Children of war
Sexually-exploited children
Child laborers/owners
Haiti
the Imprisoned
those affected by HIV/AIDS
that the LORD would raise up missionaries and partners for missionaries

That is a huge list, but it still could be bigger. As I prayed for the continents and regions of the world I found myself praying for very specific nations. When we got to South America I about cried. That is where my heart is. I think that if doctors were to open me up and look at my heart it would be in the shape of South America. David Livingstone had his body buried in England, but before it was sent back the people he worked and lived with had his heart cut out and buried in South Africa because his heart belonged to the people there. Rachel Saint was buried in the jungles of Ecuador with the Waodani people she lived and served with when she died. Rachel and David gave their hearts to the people of Ecuador and South Africa. And I am positive that my heart has already been given to the people of South America.

At the end of the slide show there was a prayer by E. Stanley Jones a missionary who died in the 70s. The last statement in the prayer says,

"For the world is sick and I want to be a part of the cure instead of the disease."

This is one of the best ways I could ever hope to say what my desire is, what the cry of my heart is. I want to see the world be healed and made whole again. I want to be a part of the solution, not the problem. And the idea that God has called me to a life of ministry in the world may be a crazy one at times because I often feel so inadequate. But I know that I have a role to play. Even if it is a small one that won't make much difference. This is my heart. This is my desire. To see the world cured, new, whole, healthy and full of Christ's light.