A Prayer for Central America
Offered by Jo Pendleton in morning worship,
Sunday, September 7, 2003

Dear God,             We come before you with hearts, minds, and spirits more and more attuned to the mysteries and the incomparable value of your gift of water.  We heard your call to rest beside still waters.

And we are grateful.  Grateful for safe water to drink, clean water in which to bathe, and even the luxury of beautiful and refreshing water in which we can play.

            But, Lord, our minds are sobered and troubled by our increasing awareness of our brothers and sisters all over the globe who don’t have such access to safe water.  We are thankful for that awareness.

            Today we lift before you our sisters and brothers in Central America .  We pray for the tens of thousands in Nicaragua and Honduras who are still suffering from the devastation of Hurricane Mitch four years ago, who are still struggling to rebuild.  We pray for the hundreds of thousands who live, like Hilda Moreno’s family in the mountains of northern Nicaragua , who must hike down a mountain to get water in buckets, and who suffer constantly from infections.

            We pray for those who have watched helplessly as lakes dry up.  We pray for those who make their living by fishing, when their rivers or lakes are polluted.  We pray for children who must cross the open sewage in their dirt streets in order to walk to school.

            We pray for an awareness on the part of the governments, to develop a vision that will address the problems and reverse the trend—that will put action behind the campaign phrase “Agua es vida”—”Water is life.”

            We pray for those organizations, agencies, and individuals who have gone to Central America from our country, and from Sweden, Japan, Switzerland , and Germany .

            We lift all these prayers in the name of the one who was the living water for all of us.  Amen.