A Prayer for Haiti
Offered by Sharlande Sledge in morning worship,
Sunday, January 17, 2010

  God of mercy, hear our prayers.
We hold before you the people of Haiti.

Our laments are shaped into prayers too deep for words
each time an image of terror sears itself onto our hearts,
each time a cry from a collapsed building
piercing the air in Port-au-Prince reaches our ears.
They rise from a place that is hollow, numb, full of tears.

Every time a crowd of arms reaches for
a single bottle of water,
every time cry of lamentation from
a Caribbean Rachel weeps for her children,
the echoes take root in our lives and will not let us go . . .
because we are human, because these are brothers and sisters.


We come to offer our common prayer
and stand in solidarity with your children in Haiti.
We pray for those for who are used to getting food
day by day, like manna, and can’t find any today.
those who have lost their homes, livelihoods, and loved ones.
We pray for those who look for answers
where there are none,
for those sleeping on the ground
because roofs no longer symbolize safety
and for all who bury their dead.
We pray for those who have lost their lives,
that in your mercy they may be called by
name in your presence and embraced in your eternal care.

Though helplessness may try its best to haunt us
when our distance from Haiti seems an impassable chasm,
let us choose helpfulness.
In whatever way you can, work through us
to bring healing to broken and distorted lives,
peace to those thrown into despair,
and hope to those who fear.
We desire at the core of our being to offer what we can –
money for shelter, cases of water, the summer clothes in our closets.
Give us generous and discerning hearts,
as we listen for how to give,
for we know that whatever the cost,
You, Jesus Christ, call us to your side to help.

We pray for those who are working right now where we cannot go --
for the Haitian people who are helping each other
because that’s what humanity naturally calls us to do;
for the medical personnel, engineers, search and rescue teams from a
community of nations; those who bring water; those who bring clothing
and food; missionaries aid organizations who long ago committed
to serving alongside their Haitian neighbors.

And we pray for those who are gathering this Sunday morning,
even in the midst of rubble and chaos,
to sing the hymns to you that they have been singing
in the make-shift camps to get them through the nights.
In their songs and in their tears and in their struggles,
in our songs and in our tears and in our prayers,
unite our spirits with theirs.

We pray in the name of Jesus,
in whom all life and healing is found,
Amen.