¹   Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
²   I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord;
I have no good apart from you.”

³   As for the holy ones in the land, they are the noble,
in whom is all my delight.

⁴   Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows;
their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
or take their names upon my lips.

⁵   The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
⁶   The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
I have a goodly heritage.

⁷   I bless the LORD who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
⁸   I keep the LORD always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

⁹   Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;
my body also rests secure.
¹⁰  For you do not give me up to Sheol,
or let your faithful one see the Pit.

¹¹  You show me the path of life.
In your presence there is fullness of joy;
in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

From The Mission Year Book:

Taiwan presbytery comes through by sending 300 handmade masks

February 11, 2021

Christine Felts. assistant clinical director at Secen Counties Service / Bellewood & Brooklawn, and Sam Jewell, chaplain. are seen in their masks from Taiwan’s Changhua Presbytery. (Contributed photo)

No sooner had the small delegation from the Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky — its general presbyter, stated clerk and moderator — renewed their passports and booked their flights to Taiwan than COVID-19 postponed their plans. Ever since three representatives from Changhua Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, Mid-Kentucky’s international mission partner, had traveled to Mid-Kentucky in May 2019, the Revs. John Odom, Jerry Van Marter and Angela Johnson had long been looking forward to their reciprocal visit.

While the group’s travel plans necessarily had to wait, Changhua Presbytery’s love, care and compassion did not.

Because Changhua Presbytery had heard of the challenges initially faced by the U.S. in acquiring adequate personal protective equipment and face masks, they sprang into action by sending 300 handmade facial coverings, each with a pocket for a filter, to their partners in Mid-Kentucky, accompanied by their prayers.

In turn, the Rev. John Odom, Mid-Kentucky’s general presbyter — who serves on the Faith Heritage Committee — was similarly quick to respond by answering Seven Counties Services’ call for additional, much-needed facial coverings.

Seven Counties Services/Bellewood & Brooklawn, formerly known as Uspiritus, is a historic mission initiative of Mid-Kentucky Presbytery. The organization provides residential treatment, therapeutic care and adoption, as well as several community-based services.

“Regarding the masks, we all love the colorful and unique variety,” said Missy Fountain, senior director of Advancement for Seven Counties Services/Bellewood & Brooklawn. “They are being enjoyed by clients throughout all of our programs, not just the kids on our Bellewood & Brooklawn campuses. The kids especially liked the ones that had characters on the inside. The masks are also great because of the ties on the side that can easily be adjusted to fit various face sizes.”

Because an executive order issued in July by Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear now requires all Kentuckians, with some exemptions, to wear face coverings, the gift from Changhua Presbytery is needed and appreciated now more than ever.

“We are very grateful for this donation that helps us protect our kids, other clients, and team members during the pandemic,” said Abby Drane, president and CEO of Seven Counties Services/Bellewood & Brooklawn, and a member of Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church. “Our wonderful partnership with the Mid-Kentucky Presbytery has made this gift possible and brought unique relationships to us, like this one from Taiwan, to support our mission.”

In an email addressed to Mid-Kentucky Presbytery, the Rev. Liu Te-hsing, pastor of Changhua Yuandong Road Church in Taiwan, wrote, in part, “Even in a difficult situation, God will always be our strength and help! We are members of Christ ’s family, supporting and caring for each other. … May God’s love and peace be with you!”

Odom returned his gratitude to Changhua Presbytery.

“We are grateful for not only the kindness of our siblings in Christ, but their witness, example and testimony to the power of a whole country that, for the love of their neighbor, committed to wearing face masks, to maintaining social distancing, and to quarantining those infected with COVID-19,” Odom said. “We look forward to a time when we can meet and celebrate with our Taiwanese partners in person. In the meantime, their presence and their prayers are felt every time I see the staff and residents of Bellewood and Brooklawn wearing their gift of colorful masks, handmade with love.”

 Emily Enders Odom, Communications Specialist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Today’s Focus:  Taiwan Presbytery

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Cindy Corell, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Juan Correa, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation

Let us pray:

God of steadfast hope, plant in us the call to justice for all. We pray for the people and their homelands everywhere. Join our hands and hearts to theirs in the work for a just peace and human rights. In the name of Christ, our Redeemer, we pray. Amen.

¹   Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous.
Praise befits the upright.
²   Praise the LORD with the lyre;
make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.
³   Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

⁴   For the word of the LORD is upright,
and all his work is done in faithfulness.
⁵   He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD.

⁶   By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,
and all their host by the breath of his mouth.
⁷   He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle;
he put the deeps in storehouses.

⁸   Let all the earth fear the LORD;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
⁹   For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.

¹⁰  The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
¹¹  The counsel of the LORD stands forever,
the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
¹²   Happy is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.

¹³  The LORD looks down from heaven;
he sees all humankind.
¹⁴  From where he sits enthroned he watches
all the inhabitants of the earth —
¹⁵  he who fashions the hearts of them all,
and observes all their deeds.
¹⁶  A king is not saved by his great army;
a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
¹⁷  The war horse is a vain hope for victory,
and by its great might it cannot save.

¹⁸  Truly the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him,
on those who hope in his steadfast love,
¹⁹  to deliver their soul from death,
and to keep them alive in famine.

²⁰  Our soul waits for the LORD;
he is our help and shield.
²¹  Our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
²²  Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.

From The Mission Year Book:

We’re invited to join in on what God is already doing in our communities

February 10, 2021

the Rev. Stephen Lewis

Speaking during a Facebook Live event on the topic “Courageous Leadership Matters,” the Rev. Stephen Lewis, president of the Forum for TheologicalExploration, told host the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty that in many ways, “our future is rooted in the labors of those who came before us.”

“I stand on the shoulders of those who went before me,” Lewis told Hinson-Hasty, senior director for Theological Education Funds Development for the Committee on Theological Education (COTE) of the Presbyterian Foundation. “It’s not about my sense of purpose, but I am the answer to my ancestors’ prayers and dreams. We are connected to a long history.”

Together with Matthew Wesley Williams and Dori Grinenko Baker, Lewis is the author of the 2020 book “Another Way: Living and Leading Change on Purpose.” In general, he said, leadership is the practice of a community, not an individual, in shaping a more hopeful future for the community.

“Management is about supervision,” said Lewis, who was a banker, relationship manager and project analyst before earning his Master of Divinity at Duke Divinity School.

“Leadership is about organizing and mobilizing a community toward a vision.”

Courageous leadership, he said, involves knowing “that something is at stake greater than and beyond your own self-interest.” The goal, of course, is to help bring about the biblical vision of a new heaven and a new Earth, and it’s “about who we are and how we relate to the Creator,” Lewis said.

The kind of leadership Lewis describes “is something we can all play a role in, and we can all play a role in our community that’s exercising courageous leadership,” he said.

“That’s exactly the kind of leadership that matters right now,” Hinson-Hasty responded. “There is a mutuality, an ‘I am my brother’s and sister’s keeper.’ I am because we are.”

“It’s less hierarchy and more circular,” Hinson-Hasty said, “and the circle grows.”

Congregations and pastors “have to recognize that it’s not about what we do on a Sunday,” Lewis said. “It’s about the ways we go about life and do life together.”

God “has been calling us from our ancestral past until now, constantly pricking our conscience to join what the Eternal is already doing in our communities,” Lewis said. However, “it’s difficult to do that when you are on the hamster wheel doing all the things that are vying for your attention.”

“Leadership and communities — they’re exhausting!” he said. “They are not designed for our own flourishing. How do we stop the business as usual and take a break?”

COVID-19 has helped some people do just that.

“In the midst of tragedy and failure of leadership and loss, it is also a moment when the globe has stopped its feverish pitch,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to ask the deeper questions about life and relationships: Why do we gather? What are trying to do as people of faith? It’s also an invitation to do some self-reflection on what God is calling us to do at this moment, and how the Spirit is inviting us to co-conspire with her.”

“The normalcy we were accustomed to didn’t work for everyone,” he said. “Courageous leadership invites us to take risks … and risk comes as a result of facing the opposition, the powers that be, the status quo we all participate in. Many of us already benefit from the way social structures are currently set up. Our livelihoods depend on them.

“But in terms of bravery, it’s also about overcoming, and there are voices we need to hear, voices of people overcoming trauma and fear,” including those overcoming systems of privilege, “male ways of being” and “heteronormative ways of living out life,” Lewis said.

Courage, he noted, comes from the same root word as “heart.”

“How do we exercise our heart for people?” Lewis asked. “I care for the larger community. That requires empathy, and that always lands on emotional intelligence. Do we have the emotional intelligence to lead right now? Do we have the heart to see empathetically what we must do right now, even when our people are not quite ready? We know that courageous leadership really does matter — in government, in higher education and in religious life.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus:  Courageous Leadership

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Richard Copley, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Yvonne Colyar, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

Blessed Lord, thank you for what you are doing. Bless the children and their families and bring your peace and love to all your people. In your holy name. Amen.

¹   As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
²   My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?
³   My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me continually,
“Where is your God?”

⁴   These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.
⁵   Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help ⁶and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
⁷   Deep calls to deep
at the thunder of your cataracts;
all your waves and your billows
have gone over me.
⁸   By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.

⁹   I say to God, my rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
because the enemy oppresses me?”
¹⁰  As with a deadly wound in my body,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
“Where is your God?”

¹¹  Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.

Mural project brings Rockford together in diversity, unity and hope

February 9, 2021

Mural artist Tia Richardson and SecondFirst senior pastor Rebecca White Newgren collaborated on a 1,700 sq. ft. community mural titled “Rockford Taking Flight.” (Contributed photo)

In 2004, members of Second Congregational United Church, known as SecondFirst Church since federating with First Presbyterian Church, dreamed of building a gymnasium for the community of Rockford, Illinois — and they did it.

“Little did they know that they left us a blank canvas to shine and radiate out to the west side of Rockford,” said the Rev. Rebecca White Newgren, senior pastor of SecondFirst Church. White Newgren recently spoke at a press conference and celebration of the completion of “Rockford Taking Flight,” a 1,700 square foot, 55-panel mural that fills the entire outside wall of the basketball gym and reimagines the city breaking free of racial and class boundaries.

The community mural project was led by SecondFirst Church, Jeremiah Development and muralist and community bridgebuilder Tia Chianti Richardson, an award-winning Milwaukee-based integrative community artist.

“We actually started talking about this a few years ago, thinking, ‘Wow, what could be on that wall?’” White Newgren said. Once Richardson came on board to lead the project in spring 2018, the entire community was invited to dream of a Rockford future that people wanted to see, one that maybe is different than the present. More than 200 people from all over Rockford came together in late 2019 to create the background for the mural on public paint days, using a paint-by-number process. Due to colder temperatures during the painting phase, the panels were prepped and painted inside on the floor of the church.

Some panels for the mural also went on the road to the Jubilee Center, a day center for adults living with mental illness; Christ the Rock Preschool; and Northwest Community Center, to make it convenient for people of all ages and all areas of the city to participate.

Richardson said she was moved by the raw joy that people had just to be able to paint on the separate panels that traveled to their locations. “Just because they wanted to be a part of something this big,” Richardson said. “It didn’t matter to them that the panels were not altogether. They didn’t care that they were painting pieces from someplace in town maybe they’d never been to. Nobody questioned that fact. So, that enthusiasm to be part of something really says something to me.”

From the beginning of the project, Richardson said, she was told the mural isn’t about the church or religious symbols, it’s about community — the life in the community. Richardson said, “To me, we are all part of one community as human beings. We’re all parts of a greater whole, and the more we can participate in life to make something better, the better the whole can reflect its parts.”

This mural is about life, Richardson said. “We all have the same needs in life: to feel joy, to party, to celebrate, to belong and to participate in something bigger. It’s that raw life moving through us as human beings that I believe is the most precious commodity we have,” she said, “because that’s where our potential to create something from nothing comes from.”

“It was like building the plane while flying,” Richardson said, “working together through different challenges meant we had to be flexible, willing to adapt and be open-minded. That’s what it means to create something from nothing.”

White Newgren said, “Tia Richardson uses her art to bring peace and to spark joy.” The project was funded through a six-week community Kickstarter campaign that raised $15,000 in support from more than 100 donors, plus a matching gift from a Rockford community arts supporter and businesswoman, LoRayne Logan. The project also received support from community businesses and local artists, some hobbyists and some professionals who gave a great deal of time over the past year, and to help Richardson with finishing touches on the mural.

“It’s a real pleasure for me to have been part of this,” Logan said. “Anything that brings people together, anything that helps us express our hearts, anything that helps us see the beauty in every other individual is part of what enriches us and what makes me want to continue to be vitally involved in the life of this community.”

Tammy Warren, Communications Associate, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Today’s Focus:  Mural Project

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Nikki Collins, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Paula Cooper, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

Loving God, we marvel at all that can be accomplished when done in your name and with your blessing. Thank you for empowering your disciples to overcome the seemingly insurmountable to extend your love to those in need. Amen.

¹   I love the LORD, because he has heard
my voice and my supplications.
²   Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
³   The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
⁴   Then I called on the name of the LORD:
“O LORD, I pray, save my life!”

⁵   Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
⁶   The LORD protects the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
⁷   Return, O my soul, to your rest,
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

⁸   For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling.
⁹   I walk before the LORD
in the land of the living.
¹⁰  I kept my faith, even when I said,
“I am greatly afflicted”;
¹¹  I said in my consternation,
“Everyone is a liar.”

¹²  What shall I return to the LORD
for all his bounty to me?
¹³   I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD,
¹⁴  I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.
¹⁵  Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
¹⁶  O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the child of your serving girl.
You have loosed my bonds.
¹⁷  I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice
and call on the name of the LORD.
¹⁸  I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people,
¹⁹  in the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the LORD!

¹   O sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all the earth.
²   Sing to the LORD, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
³   Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples.
⁴   For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;
he is to be revered above all gods.
⁵   For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
but the LORD made the heavens.
⁶   Honor and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
⁷   Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
⁸   Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering, and come into his courts.
⁹   Worship the LORD in holy splendor;
tremble before him, all the earth.

¹⁰  Say among the nations, “The LORD is king!
The world is firmly established; it shall never be moved.
He will judge the peoples with equity.”
¹¹  Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
¹²       let the field exult, and everything in it.
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
¹³       before the LORD; for he is coming,
for he is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with his truth.

¹   O LORD my God, in you I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me,
²   or like a lion they will tear me apart;
they will drag me away, with no one to rescue.

³   O LORD my God, if I have done this,
if there is wrong in my hands,
⁴   if I have repaid my ally with harm
or plundered my foe without cause,
⁵   then let the enemy pursue and overtake me,
trample my life to the ground,
and lay my soul in the dust. Selah

⁶   Rise up, O LORD, in your anger;
lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;
awake, O my God; you have appointed a judgment.
⁷   Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered around you,
and over it take your seat on high.
⁸   The LORD judges the peoples;
judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness
and according to the integrity that is in me.

⁹   O let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
but establish the righteous,
you who test the minds and hearts,
O righteous God.
¹⁰  God is my shield,
who saves the upright in heart.
¹¹  God is a righteous judge,
and a God who has indignation every day.

¹²  If one does not repent, God will whet his sword;
he has bent and strung his bow;
¹³  he has prepared his deadly weapons,
making his arrows fiery shafts.
¹⁴  See how they conceive evil,
and are pregnant with mischief,
and bring forth lies.
¹⁵  They make a pit, digging it out,
and fall into the hole that they have made.
¹⁶  Their mischief returns upon their own heads,
and on their own heads their violence descends.

¹⁷   I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness,
and sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.

From The Mission Year Book

After the first day of the Vital Congregations virtual facilitator training, the Rev. Neil Ricketts spoke with elders at the church he serves.

“I told them that we — our church — and denomination are in good hands,” he said. “How we had heard from God and were implementing a plan for a healthy vital church.”

Ricketts, pastor at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Apopka, Florida, was one of more than 40 people being trained to help facilitate the two-year Vital Congregations Initiative in their respective presbyteries.

The initiative helps congregations build authentic relationships of faith as they work together on Seven Marks of Congregational Vitality. As congregations assess both their strengths and areas that need work, they begin to discern what God’s Spirit is calling them to do — and faithfully join Christ in the new thing, or change, that’s taking place.

Ricketts said the seven marks are core values for healthy congregations. As he heard more about how Vital Congregations is tied to the PC(USA)’s Matthew 25 invitation for churches to strengthen congregational vitality and reduce racism and poverty, he got even more hopeful about the future of the PC(USA).

“We can address these issues that are troubling the world and our country. We’ve studied the Word and heard from the Spirit,” he said. “God loves justice.”

The Rev. Carla Jones Brown, pastor and head of staff at Arch Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, was impressed with how well the facilitator training went. She especially liked getting into small groups — and doing a case study of a church around one of the seven marks.

“It made you feel like you weren’t lost on the screen all day,” she said. “It was so practical and nice to have different geographical perspectives on how one might lead them — and what questions they’d ask.”

The Rev. Tamara Leonard Lara of Nuevo Camino at Beth-El in the Presbytery of Tampa Bay appreciated that the facilitator training lifted up voices traditionally not listened to and recognized the diversity of gifts in a faithful community. Nuevo Camino, a new worshiping community in Wimauma, Florida, is made up of migrant agricultural workers and immigrants who have a deep need to access materials in Spanish and English to support leadership training for all church members.

“The VC process is providing me helpful tools to use,” she said. “I am hopeful about leaders within my presbytery meeting together to share what we are learning within our own congregations and ministry sites.”

The Rev. Kymberley Clemons-Jones, pastor of Valley Stream Presbyterian Church in Valley Stream, New York, said she feels better equipped after the two-day training to engage congregations in taking a deep look at themselves as the church, discerning God’s plan for their lives as a community of faith.

Hearing what it takes to engage the adult learner from Dr. Phyllis Sanders was extremely helpful for Clemons-Jones — Especially when the Vital Congregations coordinator for Trinity Presbytery said that “adult learners want to use what they hear.”

“That was eye-opening for me,” Clemons-Jones said. “In all my years of teaching I never learned specifically how to teach adults.”

She too finds herself hopeful of what the VC process will help churches accomplish. She said the many resources and the supportive staff leave her feeling like she can work at her best.

As Brown participated in Zoom worship during the training, she said she realized how much she missed worshiping — without having to lead it. As she facilitates VC training in her presbytery, she plans to provide pastors with the same opportunity that she received — to be in worship together without the responsibilities of leadership.

“We didn’t do this over the two days of training, but I just love that Vital Congregations sends out coloring books around the seven marks,” she said. “To just play with different colors helps my brain out — to be open, to let the Spirit in and try to not control.”

Ricketts said that Vital Congregations is addressing the denomination’s membership decline by getting back to the values of the early church: discipleship, evangelism and outreach, and the raising up of Christ-centered disciples.

“I can’t think of anything more valuable to give my life to,” he said.

Paul Seebeck, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Today’s Focus:  Vital Congregations

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Omar Chan, Office of the General Assembly
Cathy Chang and Juan Lopez, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

Christ, we thank you for being the Word made Flesh. As you ministered to those around you through touch, sight and sound, teach us to make use of our whole selves — body, mind and spirit — to do your work. Give us the courage to take action and the grace to welcome all with a loving spirit. Amen.

¹   I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart;
I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.
²   I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

³   When my enemies turned back,
they stumbled and perished before you.
⁴   For you have maintained my just cause;
you have sat on the throne giving righteous judgment.

⁵   You have rebuked the nations, you have destroyed the wicked;
you have blotted out their name forever and ever.
⁶   The enemies have vanished in everlasting ruins;
their cities you have rooted out;
the very memory of them has perished.

⁷   But the LORD sits enthroned forever,
he has established his throne for judgment.
⁸   He judges the world with righteousness;
he judges the peoples with equity.

⁹   The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
¹⁰  And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.

¹¹  Sing praises to the LORD, who dwells in Zion.
Declare his deeds among the peoples.
¹²  For he who avenges blood is mindful of them;
he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.

¹³  Be gracious to me, O LORD.
See what I suffer from those who hate me;
you are the one who lifts me up from the gates of death,
¹⁴  so that I may recount all your praises,
and, in the gates of daughter Zion,
rejoice in your deliverance.

¹⁵  The nations have sunk in the pit that they made;
in the net that they hid has their own foot been caught.
¹⁶  The LORD has made himself known, he has executed judgment;
the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion. Selah

¹⁷  The wicked shall depart to Sheol,
all the nations that forget God.

¹⁸  For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
nor the hope of the poor perish forever.

¹⁹  Rise up, O LORD! Do not let mortals prevail;
let the nations be judged before you.
²⁰  Put them in fear, O LORD;
let the nations know that they are only human. Selah

¹   O LORD, God of my salvation,
when, at night, I cry out in your presence,
²   let my prayer come before you;
incline your ear to my cry.

³   For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol.
⁴   I am counted among those who go down to the Pit;
I am like those who have no help,
⁵   like those forsaken among the dead,
like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom you remember no more,
for they are cut off from your hand.
⁶   You have put me in the depths of the Pit,
in the regions dark and deep.
⁷   Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
and you overwhelm me with all your waves.               Selah

⁸   You have caused my companions to shun me;
you have made me a thing of horror to them.
I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
⁹        my eye grows dim through sorrow.
Every day I call on you, O LORD;
I spread out my hands to you.
¹⁰  Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do the shades rise up to praise you?                                   Selah
¹¹  Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
¹²  Are your wonders known in the darkness,
or your saving help in the land of forgetfulness?

¹³  But I, O LORD, cry out to you;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
¹⁴  O LORD, why do you cast me off?
Why do you hide your face from me?
¹⁵  Wretched and close to death from my youth up,
I suffer your terrors; I am desperate.
¹⁶  Your wrath has swept over me;
your dread assaults destroy me.
¹⁷  They surround me like a flood all day long;
from all sides they close in on me.
¹⁸  You have caused friend and neighbor to shun me;
my companions are in darkness.

How a Mission Yearbook prayer and other unexpected prayers helped turn me around

January 29, 2021

The Rev. Donna Frischknecht Jackson

Just how powerful is prayer? On Sunday morning I was greeted by an email from a colleague at the Presbyterian Mission Agency with these words: “May you feel the love and receive strength from all the prayers coming your way this day.”

It turns out my name was listed on Friday’s Mission Yearbook devotional — which features short stories on the work Presbyterians are doing and asks for prayers for the ministries being done. I was surprised, touched and then thankful, for I didn’t realize how much I needed this. In an instant, I felt the stress leaving me and my energy returning. As the day progressed, several other emails came from all around the country from people I did not know, all reaching out and telling me that I was in their prayers.

The last email I received was from a new worshiper of my virtual worshiping community, Old Stone Well Farm, telling me how she woke up with me on her mind and that she has been thinking about me and praying for me all day. Her prayers carried me through the rest of my day.

I will always remember the first time I experienced how strong and powerful the connection is between brothers and sisters in Christ when we pray for one another. I was going through a rough patch in life, facing many decisions as to what my next steps would be. Specifically, where was God was calling me to serve next? Was it time to leave a congregation? What did God really want from me? What if I made a mistake? What if I was listening more to my wants and desires? I was making myself sick with all the questions swirling in my head.

One night, after tossing and turning for what seemed for hours, I shot up in my bed to grab my iPhone to see what time it was. Ugh. It was only 9:30 p.m. I kept staring at the illuminated numbers in front of me. They were starting to blur a bit as tears of frustration began to form. But as the time went from 9:30 to 9:31, the tears retreated. I felt this strange warmth wash over me. It was nothing I had ever felt before and, for a second, it unnerved me. It was so unreal.

I soon surrendered and allowed my soul to sink into a sea of calm. A certainty of God’s guidance settled my mind. For some reason, I just knew I wasn’t alone. That was the first night in a long time where I actually slept soundly.

The next day, I went to the gym to get a quick workout in before starting yet another over-scheduled day. As I jogged on the treadmill, I kept thinking about the strange peace that fell upon me and how mysterious it was — dare I say, it was heavenly, divine? This wasn’t just a stressed-out body finally caving in to long-overdue sleep. This was different.

My thoughts were interrupted when one of the gym owners appeared in front of the treadmill, smiling at me. I slowed my pace down a bit and turned down the music playing on my iPhone. What he said next made me come to a complete stop: “We prayed for you last night.”

I stared at him in disbelief. My legs grew weak as I stammered, “What?”

“We prayed for you last night,” he repeated, explaining that for some reason he had a strong nudge to lift me in prayer during Bible study at his church. I couldn’t help but ask what time this was. It was about 9:30 p.m.

Yes, it was that time. I remember well — and always will remember — how in that moment when 9:30 became 9:31, a peace passing all understanding came to me, tucking me in tightly, holding me closely and whispering to me a soothing bedtime story of how God is with me. There is nothing to fear. Nothing to fret.

“We prayed for you last night.”

Yes, I know, I told him. I felt those prayers. I really felt them.

Donna Frischknecht Jackson, Editor, Presbyterians Today

Today’s Focus:  Mission Yearbook Prayers

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Jennifer Cash, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

Teach us to be faithful, O Lord, in hearing your call day by day and in responding with heartfelt obedience, that we may help establish your kingdom in every heart, within each community and all around the world. Amen