Whether you find yourself with several hours of extra free time during this pandemic or your days are even more busy with children at home trying to do school work, each one of us needs prayer. Let’s find time to devote to prayer, whether you get up a few minutes earlier or stay up a few minutes later or you take part of your lunch break to pray, let’s be intentional about praying for others during this season of Lent and of isolation.
Today, let’s pray for those who serve the church in visible and invisible ways. Pray for our elders as they try to figure out how to care for the church and lead it while not being able to meet face to face. Pray for our deacons who serve behind the scenes. Pray for those who serve in the nursery and sacrifice time in the gathered assembly that they might bless families who are able to worship distraction-free. Pray for our children’s teachers. Pray for our worship team leaders. While many of these folk cannot serve currently due to the quarantine, they have been serving faithfully and we should thank God for them and ask him to protect and care for them during this social upheaval.
Pray for those who serve the church elsewhere. Pray for Jonathan and Noella Kleis and their children Samuel, Emma, and Luca, as they serve in Italy. They continue to be under near complete lockdown, with very limited movement allowed. Pray for their health. Pray for their encouragement and for fruitfulness even in this time in which their church plant cannot meet. Pray that many Italians who have heard the gospel of Jesus from Jonathan and Noella would turn to Jesus in the midst of this pandemic. Pray for their ongoing faithfulness and for God to continue to provide for them.
Pray for Kizombo and Wababili Kalambula as they serve in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Pray for the many churches they have planted and for the pastors of those churches who have been trained by them. Pray for the village of Kitindi and the surrounding villages. Pray for the gospel of Jesus to continue to be faithfully proclaimed. Pray for the school run by the Kalambulas. Pray for funding for it as the government does not provide for public education in the DRC. Pray for Kizombo and Wababili’s health as they desire only to continue serve the Lord with their lives.
Finally, pray for our church. Pray that God would enable us to be faithful in our community as we seek to shine the light of the gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Pray that God would provide the resources we need to make an impact in our community. Pray specifically that God would enable us to pay off the mortgage on our building. This would free up resources that could be spent caring for others, both inside our church and those in the community.