Many West Bank communities are facing acute water shortage that has lasted for months. In the Salfit, Jenin and Hebron governorates, some villages have gone as long as 40 days in a row without running water. Israel implements a policy of water cuts on Palestinian territories each summer, but this year, it reached an unprecedented peak.
- Lord, open the heavens and let your mercy rain down upon our fields and mountains in this dry land, as our neighbors have stolen our water and left us thirsty. Lord in your mercy…
Around the world, the month of October is dedicated to raise awareness on Breast Cancer. The Palestinian city of Ramallah turned pink as many initiatives were launched to raise money for a much needed mobile clinic. The clinic will help early cancer diagnose in the West Bank isolated communities. Breast cancer is the leading cause of death for women in Palestine. Also, Gaza has only four mammography machines – one of which is out of order – for a population of two million.
- Lord, on the cross you worried about your mother (John 19:27).We pray for our mothers, sisters, daughters and wives who are struggling with breast cancer. We ask you to strengthen them and give them healing in body and spirit. Lord in your mercy…
On the twenty seventh of October a video was released showing Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank throwing stones at Palestinian schoolchildren in the village of al-Tuwani. The Israeli soldiers are supposed to protect the children from attacks from Israeli settlers in the area, but instead, as the video shows, the soldiers throwing stones towards the children.
- Lord, the way to school for Palestinian children is dangerous and filled with traps. The soldiers have no mercy and are lost. Lord, grant us courage to open the eyes of the oppressor and make change.Lord in your mercy…
Christians are returning with the hope to rebuild destroyed structures as well as their lives as Iraq’s largest Christian-majority town of Qaraqosh has been liberated from the Islamic State. The majority Assyrian Christian population in Qaraqosh, a town 20 miles southeast of Mosul, use Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke, for worship services. There were about 50,000 Christians in the town before the Islamic State captured it two years ago.
- Lord, we wish to remember the people of Iraq who have been experiencing increasing levels of violence in the past years. Merciful God, we see the deep fractures in this society and the intense pain caused when neighbor rises up against neighbor. We pray that your love and peace would prevail, that your presence would unite the people of Iraq in mutual understanding, and that the bloodshed would come to an end. Lord in your mercy…
- We join the World Council of Churches by praying for the Indian Ocean Islands: Comoros, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles. Lord in your mercy…