Prayers 3 23 2014
*Welcome
*All-Church Event was great; gathering over 135 people to fellowship, worship and learn about the work and progress of the Long-range Planning Committee; stay tuned for more information soon
*Next Sunday, March 30; Pastor Peter Lee will be bringing the message at 11:20 Worship while I’ll be leading 33 people to visit the Highlights of Italy with a focus on religious art; come and support Pastor Lee
*All-Church Clean-Up; Saturday, April 5; volunteer your time to get our church ready for Easter
*After the Clean-Up, the OYYAs invite everyone to stay to meet and hear the author Sylvia Sun-Minnick on her book, Never a Burnt Bridge
*Membership Meeting, April 6th; hear testimonies of candidates for Baptism and church membership
Prayer Concerns
*Nico Tom; received blood donations; cauterization and preparing for surgery this week
*Tom Wong
*Tristan Feng who is having a difficult time in school and for Laura Tom and Tom Feng to be able to care and love
Prayer of God’s People
All-knowing God, come into the smallness of our minds with your divine greatness. Break through the boundaries of our present understandings of your love, your will, your ways, with your creation.
All praise and glory go to you for the gathering of your people yesterday at the All-Church Event. We sang spiritual songs, prayed for one another and for the world, dreamed about future possibilities of how you are calling us to ministry and mission and we played and discovered how you are making us one in Christ. We pray that you continue to call us into service of obedience and discipleship. We pray for the 9 persons who will be going on mission to Thailand this June that they go with the heart of Jesus and the compassion to care and love. Guide and bless them as they make preparations and for us to support them in prayer and resources.
We lift up our loved ones who are in need of your grace and mercy. We pray for Baby Nico Tom as he receives surgery so that he may thrive and bring joy to his parents. Strengthen Eunice and Kenneth Tom at this critical time. Abide with Tom Wong to welcome each and every day with thanksgiving in the knowledge that you have been with him all the days of his life. Grant encouragement and patience to Maureen as she helps Tom. Grant solutions to the challenges that Tristan Feng faces in school and that his parents would be able to persevere on his behalf to grow up healthy and with joy.
Lord Jesus, you come to us in surprise encounters and, like the woman at the well, we only gradually recognized who it is that you must be. You reveal your knowledge of us and our past lies bare before you, even as you speak to our present need. Help us to see our lives as you know them and to acknowledge the sin within us.
We confess the arrogance in thinking that we humans have discovered all there is about God and creation. We confess that we close our minds to your ongoing revelation of who you are, of what life is all about, and to the possibilities beyond what we now conceive. We confess the limits of our mental capacity and experiences, in this life and the next. Save us, forgive us, and free us, as we pray in the name of Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together, “Our Father…”
Benediction
May the God of living water drench you in grace,
Lift you from fear,
Satisfy your deepest needs,
Empower you for ministry,
And let you say, “Ahh!”
Amen.