How to Pray the News: Praying by Theme/Praying the News Summary 28

Summary: Country of the Week: Morocco

Source: Link

The grouping for this week's prompts is praying by theme. Instead of grouping pray requests by continent, we can group them by the topic. For example, we can pray for those affected by natural disasters, accidents, intentional acts of violence, sickness, and mental anguish/lament. 

Before we jump into this week's headlines, let's take a moment to unpack these categories. Natural disasters include weather events and the destruction caused by them, such as hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, and the like. Accidents involve suffering caused by people, but not intentionally or maliciously. For example, a car accident or a building collapsing due to neglect. Intentional acts of violence are deliberate attacks on a person or people, typically as a result of hate, prejudice, or other negative aspects of our humanity. Examples include attacks on people of Asian descent or Muslim heritage. Sickness includes the pandemic we have been experiencing, as well as health problems caused by unequal access to medical care or poorly constructed utilities that harm residents in an area. Our last main category is mental anguish or lament. There are things in the world that grieve our souls, such as racism and genocide. This is a space to mourn with those who mourn. I did include a bonus miscellaneous category, because there always are exceptions to our attempts to categorize things. 

Natural Disasters

Summary: Pray for those affected by the heatwave and wildfires in the northwest US and Canada. Pray for those without access to running water in the midst of a heatwave
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Summary: Pray for those affected by wildfires in Cyprus
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Summary: Pray for those in the path of Tropical Storm Elsa
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Summary: Pray for those missing after a mudslide in Japan
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Summary: Pray for those affected by a mud volcano explosion in Azerbaijan
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Summary: Pray for Australian farmers as they fight off a plague of mice eating their crops
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Accidents

Summary: Building Collapse: Pray for the rescuers, those trapped, and their families as they wait for updates about the Miami condo that collapsed. Pray for the counselors serving the families of the missing and the dead as the search for survivors officially ends

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Intentional Acts of Violence

Summary: Pray for the armed groups to not have stand-offs with the police on the side of an interstate highway
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Summary: Pray for a peaceful transition of power as foreign troops leave Afghanistan
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Summary: Pray for the 140 schoolchildren who were kidnapped in Nigeria. Pray for the kidnappers to repent and return the children safe and sound
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Summary: Pray for a just investigation and trial for the 9 people arrested for a plot to plant bombs around Hong Kong
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Summary: Pray for those involved in the Capitol Riot to be held accountable for their actions even as we pray for them to repent
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Summary: Pray for Haitians as they undergo turmoil after their president is assassinated. 
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Summary: Pray for peace in Venezuela as police and gangs fight
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Sickness

Summary: Pray for those in Indonesia facing an oxygen shortage in the midst of the virus surge
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Summary: Pray for places that are beginning to reopen, such as the UK
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Summary: Pray for those struggling with a strict lockdown in Malaysia. PRAISE: people are asking for and receiving help
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Summary: Pray for those who want the vaccine to be able to get vaccinated. Pray for high vaccination rates
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Summary: Pray for rural ambulance services to be able to offer reasonable prices as well as have enough volunteers
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Summary: Pray for Australians, especially the children, who are stranded abroad due to the cost of quarantining upon their arrival
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Summary: Pray for the countries and their citizens waiting for access to vaccines
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Summary: Pray for people in lockdown in Australia
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Summary: Pray for places experiencing the Delta variant of the virus
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Summary: Pray for Tokyo, Japan as they are under a virus emergency as the Olympics approach
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Summary: Pray for schools preparing to reopen in person
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Mental Anguish/Lament

Summary: Pray for those grieving the 50+ people who died when a plane crashed in the Philippines
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Summary: Pray for those grieving the 43 people attempting to migrate when their boat sunk off the coast of Tunisia

Source: Link

Summary: Pray for a decrease in farmer suicides as many farmers in the Western US deal with drought conditions. Pray for a decline in all suicides
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Summary: Pray for those reconsidering the ban on swim caps designed for black athletes in the Olympics. 
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Summary: Pray for those struggling to keep/find/reclaim their indigenous names
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Summary: Pray for Palestinians who are unable to claim citizenship in the land where they live (Israel). Pray for eligible people who apply for citizenship to have it granted
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Summary: Pray for those grieving the 28 people presumed dead after plane debris was found in Russia
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Summary: Pray for companies to consider paying employees the same amount for fewer hours worked, after a 4 year study in Iceland shows its benefits
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Summary: Pray for an end of hate crimes against black people
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Summary: PRAISE: A girl became the first African American to win a national spelling bee in the US. Pray for the people who are grieved that it took this long due to unequal educational opportunities
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Summary: Pray for the people grieving 3 people shot dead on a golf course in Georgia
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Summary: Pray for the women and children who suffer from gender inequality. Pray for gender inequality to end
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Summary: Pray for just voting laws that do not make it more difficult for eligible voters to vote 
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Summary: PRAISE: the statue which sparked the protests & counterprotests that left a woman dead is being taken down 
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Summary: PRAISE: As Broadway reopens, it will feature plays by black playwrights
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Summary: Pray for the 40 prisoners in Guantanamo, especially the ones who have yet to be charged with a crime and have a trial that convicted them
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Whereas last week's theme showed us where a lot of prayer requests were coming from, this week's theme allows us to see that people all around the world are going through the same things that we are experiencing. This allows us to be aware of our connection to people on the opposite side of the globe. 

I hope that we intentionally PRAY FOR the people experiencing these events. If we hear about a disaster or sickness or cause of lament and our response is a prayer of thanksgiving "Thank You Lord that I am safe from this disaster" or "Thank You Lord that my family is not sick", then we are not praying FOR other people. Now you can find this prayer in Scripture, in one of Jesus' parables (the prayer of the tax collector and the Pharisee), but Jesus held up the Pharisee's prayer as an example of how NOT to pray. When Jesus saw people, He was moved with compassion. He did not rejoice that He wasn't crippled or suffering like those around Him. So be sure that we are praying FOR the people involved in these situations.