Pray for Mexico on Sunday May 13, 2012

Pray for Mexico on Sunday May 13, 2012

Prayers for Mexico: John 15:9-17

Beloved God,

We give you thanks for the gift and example of your abiding love.  We ask for your grace and guidance so that we may more fully experience, and express, that love. 

Enable us to be instruments of your love for our migrant sisters and brothers.  May we see the face of the migrant Jesus in their faces.  May we give them water when they are thirsty and food when they are hungry.  May we lift up Jesus’ prophetic voice for justice and challenge economic policies that force farmers to abandon their land and workers to assemble products for low wages. 

Guide us to bear fruit that will last by welcoming the stranger into our communities, our states, and our country.  May we resist laws that create discrimination, and may we transform walls that divide us into bridges that bring us together.

We ask for strength and compassion so that we may fulfill Jesus’ commandment to “love one another as I have loved you.”

Amen       

Mission Moment from Mexico:

One hundred eighty three of our migrant brothers and sisters laid down their lives in the desert of southern Arizona last year in their attempt to enter the United States and provide for their families.  Nearly 130,000 unauthorized immigrants were arrested by the Border Patrol in Arizona during 2011 for seeking work and/or to be reunited with their families.

The Hogar de Esperanza y Paz (Home of Hope and Peace – HEPAC) is a community center in the border city of Nogales, Sonora.  HEPAC works to improve the quality of life for residents of an impoverished neighborhood in the city.  The goal is to help prevent people from feeling forced to risk death and arrest in the desert in order to provide for their families.  

The staff and volunteers of HEPAC express their love for the community by providing lunch for 120 schoolchildren, adult education for 500 people that are completing their elementary and high school education, workshops on conflict resolution and non-violent methods for seeking justice, and Kid’s Camps during school vacations.  The HEPAC women’s cooperative produces medallions that commemorate the migrants who have died in the desert and feature the inscription “No Más Muertes” (No More Deaths).

Jeannette, Marycruz, Tito, Polita, Manuel, Elias, Rode, Esther, Lupe and Camelia have taught me a lot about love and community, and they’re an inspiring example of our shared mission of Critical Presence.  

 (Prayer and Mission Moment by Scott Nicholson)

Global Ministries International Partners in Mexico:

  • Alianza de Iglesias Cristianas Evangelicas (Discipulos de Cristo) en Mexico (AICE)
  • Centro de Coordinacion de Proyectos Ecumenicos (CECOPE)
  • Confraternidad de Iglesias Cristianas Evangelicas (Discipulos de Cristo) (CICE)
  • Iglesias Cristianas Congregacionales de Mexico
  • Instituto de Estudios e Investigacion Intercultural, A.C. (INESIN) 

Global Ministries Overseas Associate in Mexico:

Scott Nicholson has enjoyed the blessing of accompanying the Hogar de Esperanza y Paz (Home of Hope and Peace) community center in Nogales, Sonora since November 2010.  He also participates with the Tucson Samaritans in hiking the migrant trails of southern Arizona to provide aid for people in distress.  Scott is a member of University Congregational Church in Missoula, Montana and is very grateful that Amy Carter guided him to pursue his vocation as a missionary.