On Tuesday, Nov. 3, sixteen church members departed McGhee-Tyson Airport for east Africa. The travelers comprise the 8th team sent by Holston Conference to Yei, Sudan. The Rev. Jeannie Higgins, Sudan Action Team leader, wrote the following prayer for supporters to pray here at home:
CREATOR OF ALL, Author of all living things,
Thank you for writing us into each other’s story.
Thank you for giving us hands and feet
To serve alongside and walk with our neighbors.
Thank for you challenging us to love you by loving your people.
Lord, your children hunger for you.
We hunger for your mercy and compassion.
We thirst for your hope and salvation.
Nurture emaciated spirits.
We need the Bread of Life to fuel our souls.
Your people hunger, Lord.
Hear the prayer of the mother whose breasts have run dry,
Who holds a sickly child,
Praying for the miracle that we will keep her breathing.
Hear the prayer of the father whose back is bent
From working long hours for small coins
So that he might feed at least one open mouth.
Give her strength. Give him hope.
Hear the prayer of the young child
Whose parents were stolen by death,
Who hungers for education and drams of a future
In a place where the ring of death's bell is far too familiar.
Hear the prayer of the faithful who love you, God
And who love your people.
Keep them dreaming. Keep them near.*
And God, we thank you that you are already at work in Sudan.
Thank you for your watchful care of our missionaries and all those who
work on Your behalf; those who proclaim the
Gospel there and everywhere.
For our team who has just departed, we thank you for safe travel, for good health,
for victories that they will experience because of the work of Your hand.
We await with joyful expectation the news of the great things You are doing through
this servant team. Thank you for the great privilege to see where you are
already at work in the world and inviting us to work with You.
In the powerful name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, we pray. AMEN.