DIY Sunday Service Kit 16/10/22

 

Welcome to the DIY Sunday Service Kit for today, October 16th., 2022.

I've been away in Bosnia-Herzegovina for the last two weeks, preaching, visiting old friends and visiting family ... and in order to share that experience with you there'll be brief mention of things to pray for in the churches there in the Prayer Points below, along with a few other needs for prayer both at home and overseas. We certainly live in a needy world where the cause of God can sometimes seem to be on the back foot ... but mercifully we have a God we cn both know and (therefore) trust, which is where the Book of Esther takes us in the Bible this week.

But let's start by committing this time to the Lord in prayer.

Lord and loving Heavenly Father, we come again to you conscious of 

our weakness and your greatness, 

our inability and your omnipotence and of 

our sinful failure as well as your awesome holiness.

Wash us once more we pray from our sin.

Grant us real repentance that leads to amendment of life.

Inspire us with your person, works and grace to persevere with living in committed relationship with you.

We ask for Jesus sake.

Amen.

Let's worshipfully focus our minds for prayer ...

Uganda

You may have seen in the news that Uganda is being troubled by an outbreak of the Sudan strain of the haemorrhagic disease, Ebola. There is no licensed vaccine to protect against this strain and to date four health workers have lost their lives in this outbreak, which has now spread to the capital, Kampala, with one case having been identified as far away as Israel. 

According to Saturday's Daily Mail (LINK here):

• Uganda's President has introduced an overnight curfew to stem the Ebola spread
• Two districts will be subject to orders as the nation fights to get the virus under control 
• Places of worship and entertainment will also be closed for at least 21 days
• The impacted districts are Mubende and Kassanda in central Uganda 

Covid facilities are quickly being repurposed to treat Ebola patients

• 54 Ebola cases have been detected since September 17. 
• Of those, 19 have died 

Let's pray for an end to people who've been infected fleeing from hospital and spreading the disease

Let's pray that the churches will both respect the 21-day ban on meeting and find ways t sustain faith and care for the vulnerable in spite of church closures

Let's pray that the Lord will support His many faithful people seeing Him in Uganda during this health crisis.

And let's pray that the Lord soon delivers this part of Africa from this highly contagious and often deadly disease.

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Simon preached a week last Sunday in two churches in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina where this ministry was warmly received and a number of people sought meetings in the following week to discuss issues raised ... for which we gave thanks to God.

Please pray for these friends and also for those non-Christian friends with whom coffee was drunk and Gospel truth shared. There is still a devastating amount of Post Traumatic Stress in BiH thirty years on from the end of the conflict there. Please pray for those still suffering, with whom we were able to share Christ.

Please pray for the mission this week that is being held at the Mostar Baptist Church through an English Language course by a team travelling over to serve there from the U.S.

And also pray for fruit from a significant conference held this week in a hotel in Čaplina which drew people scattered in small groups from Western Herzegovina, Dalmatia and which Ben attended from Mostar. 

The potential for this conference to establish and encourage Christian meetings in some pretty rural places must be exciting. Please pray good things come out of these new relationships that are being built across rural Western Herzegovina?

y GRWP

The premises we are hoping to rent to restart a café outreach in Llandovery have been pretty much renovated now and made watertight ... there are just a few snags left to resolve with that where some persistent small leaks need attention but it ought to be pretty straightforward ... and it's all starting to feel much more 'real'!

Please pray that this goes through, that we will be able to fund it and 'staff' it and that the Lord will get us boots on the ground in Llandovery again so that we can co-operate with churches in Llandovery whilst ourselves reaching out to attempt to develop small meetings in the villages and work to establish the Gospel at grass roots in local communities with people living and working beyond the town itself.

Would you please also pray for wisdom for our mart volunteers needing to respond quite a bit more at the moment to medical emergencies in livestock marts and to listen to a lot more psychological trauma and seek to help with that too. Wisdom and compassion and the ability to cope with hearing troubling things for ourselves are significant needs to pray for. 

Simon was on All Things Considered for BBC Radio Wales when in Bosnia- Herzegovina last week. LINK here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001cx5r Farmers who heard it have responded positively and made a point of coming over to chat about it. Unusually, most of the Bible content put into the mix didn't get cut this time, for which we give thanks to God. Please pray that bears fruit?

The week before this a well-known person in the Llandeilo farming community was tragically killed by a bull. Simon has been deeply involved with the bereaved family there and knew the farmer well. The family themselves say they are not 'religious' but have asked Simon to lead the funeral, at which we can expect a large crowd. Please pray that Simon is able to give SOME Biblical content and hope in the service in what is not likely to otherwise be a very hopeful situation?

This tragic incident led to Simon being interviewed for BBC Wales evening news about the accident and at the request of the family he was able to raise issue of concern for them on air and also in the UK farming press, which has comforted the family and strengthened bond between the rural chaplaincy and the local farming community. Please pray that bridges will be strengthened sufficiently to carry the weight of significant Gospel-orientated traffic that leads to good hope in Christ?

Father, hear the cries of our hearts for the need we see in your world and bring Gospel faith, life, hope and healing we pray. 

In Jesus Name.

AMEN.

Click here for the sermon podcast

The Sermon Studiocam is here ...

Let's sing

Let's pray

Equip us Lord as we head into another week in your service to persevere in cherishing and reflecting the passions of your heart in a world that often seems untouched but the tender grace of God.

May we bring honour not to our names but to yours.

May we step up to the things you have prepared for us to do for your cause and Kingdom in the coming week.

May we always lean not on our own resources but on the sufficiency and strength of our Sovereign Lord.

And may the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be with us and upon us this coming week and for evermore.

AMEN.

Huge thanks for sharing in this act of online worship this week.

Please continue to pray that we shall have a great place to meet in shortly to worship face-to-face and to reach out from to people who are as yet without God and without hope in rural Wales.

If you would like to add generosity to your act of worship today please click the link below to be taken to the Giving Page, and if there are things we can pray about with you or other ways we can help you please text or call us on 07748 644958 0r email HoWChaplain@gmail.com

God bless you - have a great week!