Wednesday, June 13, 2012

CITIES

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From an essay titled
How to : Pray for Your City
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Within Canada we’ve been learning to pray, do mission and seek justice in our cities. Aaron and his community in the downtown east side of Vancouver have been praying and working with the poorest postal code in our country for many years now. They spend their days and nights living life with drug addicts and prostitutes. Jill and Kirk just moved into a community house in Hamilton, Ontario to pray and serve their city. They just spent the last 2 weeks praying in a Uhaul moving truck next to a youth center with anyone and everyone interested in joining them. Dave and Brian have been praying and working to change the city of Brantford. They have their church service in the old downtown mall with a prayer room storefront, have a BBQ every Friday night in the streets, are working to unite the churches in Brantford and they have even created their own super hero, Captain Kindness, who makes regular appearances at city events and leads random acts of kindness events. These are just a few of the stories of how we’re learning to pray and make a difference in the cities across Canada... and there is still much more ground to break!
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I leave you with this challenge... Wherever you are...
 I challenge you to get to know your city!
Take a walk, read, talk to people, learn what’s happening.... and then, as Jeremiah said, start to seek the welfare of your city. Pray for what you learn, and then take it
 to the streets and put it into action.
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Daria Nardozza
September 5, 2011
From the www.24-7prayer.com website
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When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices;
 when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy. 
 Proverbs 11:10
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A PRAYER FOR THE CITY
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God of peace, in Jesus you wept for the city,
you loved the city,
place of human greed, violence, wealth, and poverty,
but also a place of hope and human gathering.
We pray for New York City, for New Orleans,
and for their metropolitan areas,
that the needs of all for food, and shelter, and work,
for justice and dignity, might be met.
We pray that the diverse people living here
may join their efforts to seek the good of all.
Minister to these cities through the hands of your people,
as they feed the hungry,
heal the sick, and comfort the sorrowing.
We pray for people living in cities around the world,
who have come seeking to work and to survive.
We pray for refugees and for those who have been driven off the land.
May they too find what they need to live.
Keep alive in us that hope of the new Jerusalem,
of the city that finds its light from your presence,
and its joy in doing your will,
where tears are dried, and violence is destroyed.
Through Jesus Christ, Let it be! Amen.
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Ruth Duck 
 Touch Holiness: Resources for Worship
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Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted.
 Proverbs 11:11
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