prayer

Pray for Mauricio Funes

From an email sent by a Mennonite missionary in El Salvador:

On June 1 Mauricio Funes, president-elect is scheduled to take office as the first FMLN president after 20 years of right wing government in El Salvador. The percentages didn’t really change much from what I wrote last night – more than 51% to less than 49%.

The things he said in his victory speech were noble. My summary of what the newspapers say he said is: ‘We will respect the constitution… We will listen to the other political parties… We want a good relationship with the United States… We will work hard to favor everyone, especially the poorest of the poor…’

And that brings me to my prayer request for these next 2½ months before he takes office. During his campaign Mauricio Funes, a TV talk show host for many years, consistently had a more moderate response than the ‘die hard’ left wing of the FMLN. As a new comer to the party he was not tainted with ‘civil war skeletons’ which is one reason that he was chosen. Mauricio has always insisted publicly that he will choose his cabinet based on skill and that the FMLN party will not dictate to him who he chooses to help him run the government. In the past, the FMLN has tended to choose people for key political positions based on their participation in the 12 year civil war rather than being gifted political leaders. We don’t know how free he really is to freely choose.

So that is my request to you… Please pray that the people that are chosen to be a part of this government now in formation would be people who have the best of the El Salvadoran people at heart and that a climate conducive to the growth of the church of Christ would prevail. Thanks again for being our prayer partners.

Montenegro: Still LAPD MW?

Los Angeles Police Department: Most Wanted: Fermin Omar Montenegro
Still most wanted by LAPD?

I was surprised to see the LAPD’s page for Fermin Omar Montenegro still unchanged since I first saw it back in early December and posted about it here.

It is my understanding that almost three months ago, Montenegro met in Nicaragua with Detective McKnight. In fact, here is a photo that a reliable witness claims to have taken of them at the end of their meeting:

Montenegro and McKnight

I don’t know McKnight. I don’t know Montenegro. I’ve never met either of them. But I’m curious about what Montenegro’s official status is with the LAPD.

PS: I went to Interpol’s site but didn’t learn anything there either.

Pray for My Young Friend

He’s 24 or 25 years old with a wife and three children. He lives in northwest Mexico. I’ve known him since (his) babyhood. His initials are GS.

He has been trying to get help for his back injury from the government hospital. (Such help is supposed to be facilitated by and paid for by his employer.) Neither has been helpful, at least not much at all.

So, after receiving a money gift from up here, he set out to get some tests and opinions from a private (as opposed to a government) specialist.

The specialist can’t proceed without some sort of signed paper from the government hospital. GS went to get that on Monday.

As I understand it, when the government hospital/doctor learned why GS wanted that paper, they changed their tune and said they would help him. (Apparently, the private doctor could get them in big trouble for not helping him.)

So GS was admitted to the government hospital on Monday. He’s still there. He’s afraid of the notorious carelessness and cold-heartedness of so many doctors and nurses in that system. In an earlier “event” with them a year or more ago, they worked on one of his fingers and left it worse. Understandably, he’s very leery of them working on his back (or ruptured disc or cracked vertebra or whatever the issue is).

I texted him for more details a few minutes ago, also asking how he wants us to be praying for him. Here’s my translation of his reply:

It looks like they are going to do some tests on my spine to learn what really is my problem. Pray that God would show Himself in all this.

Thanks,
Mark

How to Pray for Them

Secret Service agents guard President-Elect Obama

Here are some ways to pray for President Bush, Vice President Cheney, President-Elect Obama, Vice President-Elect Biden, and those who guard them.

  1. Pray for their protection.
  2. Cover wives and children in prayer.
  3. Pray that they will govern with God’s wisdom.
  4. Ask God to keep them humble.
  5. Pray for wise and righteous advisers to surround them.
  6. Ask for the spirit of reconciliation.
  7. Pray that they will adopt pro-life convictions.
  8. Bind all evil forces assigned to manipulate our leaders.
  9. Pray that their door will remain open to the church.
  10. Pray that our nation will enjoy God’s peace and blessing during their administration.
  11. Pray that God’s people would honor them as the Master commands.

I modified these from Presidential Prayer. And I added #11.

What would you add to the list?

Voices and Prayers and Life Truths

Andrée Seu posted another good piece over at WorldMagBlog:

As I listened to John McCain giving his gracious concession speech last night I realized that, from here on in, his voice will fade, fade, fade away into the ether (where is Geraldine Ferraro?), and Barack Obama’s voice will wax.

But eventually Obama’s own voice will disappear into the slipstream of history, like a ship’s wake that rushes away from us even as we watch from the stern. We are but froth on the sea.

And how about A Prayer for the President-Elect? It concludes this way:

For the sake of your own Son, who intercedes every moment for your people, give us grace to honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear you, and to honor President-elect Barack Obama. In the name of King Jesus, we ask. Amen.

And to close this post, I call your attention to some Life Truths I posted earlier this morning.

How to Pray?

Things keep looking worse and worse for McCain-Palin:

Real Clear Politics Polling Info 10-03-08

I don’t suppose the above numbers reflect on last night’s VP debate yet.

So how should God’s people be praying concerning this election?

The Democrats have fielded a very leftist team.

The Republicans have a centrist for the #1 spot and a woman for the #2 spot. He’s centrist at best; she, “conservative.”

But whom does God intend to raise up to the highest elected offices of the land?

I. Don’t. Know.

So how should I be praying?

(No, I am not voting.)

Private
Above all, love God!