by Tony Peterson
In the immediate wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, GBOD staff asked, "How should we respond?" The result was Prayers for Hope, an Upper Room resources patterned partly after the Upper Room Daily Devotional magazine. The 32-page booklet includes eight pages of devotions similar in style to the parent magazine, with suggested scripture reading, a personal story, a prayer suggestion and a thought for the day. The balance of the collection is mostly scripture. A few prayers and a particularly helpful reflection page round out the collection. All focus on the hope we can draw from in times of natural disaster.
The Upper Room staff had some experience with this sort of resource. At the announcement in 2003 of the of the current Middles East war, GBOD also asked the question "How should we respond?"
The result was Prayers for Courage, the first in a series of booklets called Pocket Prayers. Prayers for Courage was billed as an extra issue of the Upper Room Devotional magazine. This first offering was actually a collection of prayers and scripture The prayers were drawn largely from the archives of Alive Now another spiritual magazine published by Upper Room Ministries.
Developed in less than two weeks, the booklet was sent to chaplains overseas for distribution to those serving in the armed forces. They were also available for churches to acquire to encourage prayer for those serving .
The value of these resources came home to me recently. Before I even took my seat on the flight home from Detroit, the young man who would be my seatmate extended his hand. "
Hi, I¹m Carter," he said. Thus began an hour-long conversation, which touched on topics including family, war, faith and duty.
Carter was on a short pass away from his US Army post. He has yet to see action in the current conflict, but already he was introspective. He said to me "You know, it¹s not easy trying to fit with your Christian faith with your duty to obey a command to kill someone." Carter¹s introspection was refreshing. Too often we gloss over those complexities on the way to our particular ideologies concerning war in general or any war in particular.
The Upper Room actually had in mind people like Carter, who was trying to reconcile his faith with his occupational and patriotic duty. And they thought of those who have been directly affected by hurricanes and other natural disasters But the developers also had in mind the loved ones of those directly involved. Those loved ones may be family friends, or strangers who become pray-ers. We all need, as the subtitle states "Words of Faith for Difficult Times."
Tony Peterson is a New Solutions Project Manager at the General Board of Discipleship in Nashville, TN.
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