Prayers of gratitude and intercession

  • We thank you, God, for Assembly!
    Thank you for the opportunity to gather in person despite many barriers to cross.
    Thank you for the chance to invite participants from around the world to join through their screens at home.
    Thank you for the hospitality of our Indonesian hosts and for the lessons of interfaith harmony they modelled.
    Thank you for all the staff and volunteers whose generous and cheerful service enabled the event to happen.
    Lord God, nurture the relationships that have been planted through this event. Grow fellowship between our churches to strengthen us as ministers of reconciliation and beacons of shalom.
    Photo: Loyce Twongirwe

  • Pray for solidarity, fellowship and discernment as leaders of European churches prepare to gather in person at the end of October. Praise God for the ways Mennonite organizations have cooperated across barriers to respond to the war in Ukraine and refugee crisis in Europe. Pray for their continued hospitality to refugees in their regions.
    —submitted by José Arrais, MWC regional representative for Europe
    Photo: Henk Stenvers

  • We pray for the churches and servants of God to be protected from persecution in India.
    Photo: Sunderland Mennonite Church Dhamtari

  • We pray for a just peace in Ukraine. Pray for courage and perseverance for people in Russia who work for peace. Pray that refugees may find safety and welcome.

  • Associacão dos Irmãos Menonitas de Portugal (the MB church in Portugal) has been looking for a new place. Pray that God will guide them, and help them with the knowledge to deal with all this process and the funds to purchase another building.

    Two of their churches used to function in different buildings: one used to be an African-based church, and the other Portuguese. Both are now uniting to become one. Pray that this process will be smooth and healthy and that will see spiritual fruits from it, especially unity and love. During the month of August, they will have outreach activities every Saturday in the new location of Massam·.

    Pray that God will start meaningful relationships between the church and the neighborhood and that Christ will be known and accepted by many during the time. On 11 September 2022, they will have a big celebration to start the church year (which follows the school year): two teenagers will be baptized and there are more people interested. Pray for spiritual protection and that this day will be a day to witness Jesus to many of the non-believers that we intend to invite. May God bring some of them and impact their lives.

    There are new and young leaders in our team of church leaders, pray that God will bring maturity, faith, encouragement, wisdom, and especially team spirit and unity, as well as training opportunities.

    —ICOMB August Update

  • We pray that the churches may be instruments of peace, justice, and reconciliation for the people of Colombia.

    Photo:  José Antonio Vaca Bello, Ibagué Mennonite Church, Colombia.

  • We pray that Christians would seek the unity of the Spirit, showing grace and forbearance in a politically divided culture. 

    Photo: Tiz Brotosudarmo 

  • Please pray for willing workers to serve the Lord, and for wisdom to take on the challenges of 2022. 
    —submitted by Susana Garrido, Uruguay

    Photo:Karla Braun

  • Renewing Spirit,
    Help your church to be open, in fidelity to the gospel of Jesus,
    to all possibilities in the coming of the new kinship – the kin-dom of God – on earth.
    Help us to align our ways to sharing, social cohesion,
    and symbiotic co-living between humans and the rest of creation;
    to see creation as a cosmic web of living beings,
    in which all creatures live in mutual interdependence.
    Help your church to abide in a harmonious bond between the Source of being and all things.
    —Nindyo Sasongko, Creation Care Task Force

  • Conflicts in some of our member churches continue to divide and discourage brothers and sisters in Christ. Please pray that the armour of God as in Ephesians 6:14 will be put on and the armour of actions given in Galatians 5:20-21 will be laid down for the church to be an effective witness to Christ in India.
    —submitted by Cynthia Peacock, MWC regional representative, South Asia
    Photo: Tiz Brotosudarmo

  • May we help each other in our task of witnessing to God’s grace by serving others, caring for creation, resisting conformation to the powers of evil, and inviting all people to know Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. 
    Photo: Teo Kresna 

  • We pray for God’s help to continue as a koinonia that transcends barriers of nationality, race, class, gender, language – and time and space. We pray for connection: that online participants in Assembly would not experience technical problems and that they would encounter the Anabaptist-Mennonite family at the event. We pray for the planting and cultivating of friendships that make space to learn, encourage each other and be mutually transformed. May we help each other in our task of witnessing to God’s grace by serving others, caring for creation, resisting conformation to the powers of evil, and inviting all people to know Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. 
    Photo: Harry Unger