Our Shared Prayers August

August 27

August 20 -- no newsletter, vacation

August 13

God who separated the waters to create land for us to inhabit, who designed the teamwork of trees and microbes and dust to bring rain and life to the earth, we ask for your attention and guidance. We long for clean water and equitable water access throughout the world you have created, and we desire to follow your commands to care for creation.
 
You, Lord, designed the ebb and flow of water, the push and pull of the moon to bring the tides. You created glaciers and geysers, rivers and mighty oceans. You created us to be the caretakers of the waters, tasked us with tending to the delicate balance of the world's ecosystems.
 
Give us what we need to be good stewards, to heed the calling you have placed on us. Help us to care for the planet's health, both near and far. Lend your strength to your workers, give dignity to your creation, and remind us of the wisdom of nature, helping us to live harmoniously and wisely in the world.
 
Amen.

Written and shared by Debbie Bledsoe, pastor, First Mennonite Church Edmonton

August 6

When our children were small our family table grace, found in a tattered book of Table Graces in my dad's library, was

Thank you, Lord, for happy hearts,
For fair and sunny weather,
Thank you, Lord, for this our food,
and that we are together.
Amen

All was well and good if it was fair and sunny weather but if it was raining, our little boy would burst into tears and protest that it wasn't fair and sunny weather. Why we as parents didn't adapt that line to "For all our varied weather" or something similar, I don't know. 

As our summer focus in this newsletter has been on Camp Valaqua, where it has rained most days, perhaps we need a reminder to be grateful even when it's not fair and sunny weather. To be grateful that we are, in fact, together. And, for those at Camp, to always be grateful for the cooks who provide "this our food." 

Shared by Ruth Bergen Braun