BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

November 25, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

Morning Star, in the light you have placed within us, we see clearly the world in all its discord, and we are well-acquainted with the disharmony in our personal lives. You have spoken of your bright dream for the world as you would have it:  a place of peace and plenty, a place of health and fitness, a place where equality and justice hold sway, a place where each child is valued and cherished. We whittle away at the discrepancy between your dream and this realm’s stark reality, and we confess that we become discouraged at our slow progress. Help us to focus, however, not only on those shadowy situations we have not rectified, but to give thanks for what has already been accomplished through your strength and blazing purity. You have called us to work for the kingdom you envision, so if we remain faithful to this aim, that is all you ask. It is as the apostle taught: if some of us sow the seed, while others water, then you, O Bright Star, will give the growth.

O God of Tender Heart, when we remember those in our very midst who suffer this day, there is a deep ache inside. We see in the mind of our hearts those who are lonely, but who cannot have visitors. We remember those with dreaded illness, but we dare not sit with them. We picture friends who are in mourning, but we cannot offer personal comfort. We depend upon you, O One Who Suffers With Us, to take each hurting soul under your wings, and give them your comfort until we might safely minister to them ourselves. And Lord, in addition to these, we pray for ourselves, that during this time of contagion, we may become as ardent in our prayers as Jesus.

And we now turn over to you these celebrations of your goodness and also the yearnings of your people at Church Street.  And as we pray for each, may your light of tender grace penetrate every soul:

  • A husband in critical care following a fall and brain surgery has regained consciousness – family and medical teams grateful for prayers
  • Family celebrates the birth of a healthy baby boy
  • Thanksgiving for a very successful UMW bake sale
  • Thankful: A son with kidney stone is home from hospital
  • Prayers appreciated: Knee surgery went very well yesterday
  • Healing prayers for a brother on ventilator in Chicago, effects of COVID and for his family members who are all infected
  • Comfort for family whose father died yesterday of COVID
  • Prayers for a Christian friend having surgery early today
  • Solace for family mourning death of their mother
  • Prayers for peace and protection for a mother & special friends
  • Prayers for a daughter’s health and happiness for family
  • Protection and safety for all who are traveling this holiday
  • A nephew in Nashville who is homeless
  • Healing of a teenage daughter
  • Healing of close friend in ICU with COVID pneumonia
  • Blending of two families as a wedding approaches
  • Healing prayers for husband recovering from heart surgery
  • Strength for one caring for family member in ill health
  • All medical workers and all ill with COVID
  • Continued prayer: that a friend’s treatments will sufficiently shrink his pancreatic tumor, preparing him for surgery

Bless all your children everywhere who bow in prayer this day. May our collective prayers become one blanket of blessing covering our universe. And underneath its holy warmth, help us to breathe calmly and take our rest in peace, knowing that we serve a God who neither slumbers nor sleeps. All these things we ask for Christ’s sake:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

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BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

November 24, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

Life in this world has a way of wounding us, sometimes within an inch of our lives; and at many junctures we wound ourselves.  We need only sift through our memories to count the foolish mistakes we have made, the hurts we have suffered, the pain we have inflicted upon others. But in this season of turning, the dry and crackling leaves send us a clear message: what’s done is done, what has been before has passed; yet what has withered and fallen to the ground becomes the rich loam which fertilizes the new. The pieces of a broken vessel can be cemented and filled with healing oil to bless the wounds of another. Today let us celebrate the extraordinary power of our God who fashions something remarkable from a regrettable mistake, who creates a road within the wilderness, who brings new life to the one thought to be lifeless!

Caring Friend, we are here before you, again admitting that we often miss the mark; but we believe you know how complicated our lives have become during these months since the unpredictable virus crowned himself the king of predators, hammering down our personal defenses. Many careers have been stalled or shattered; unemployment lines grow longer and longer; more families are hungry; rent is overdue; patience is thin and tempers flare. And worst of all is the menacing disease itself that stealthily preys upon the elderly, the homeless, and the weak.

Because we know the Living Christ welcomes all prayers that come from our hearts, his arms are open to receive our burdens. Even though his eyes fill with tears when he beholds our suffering and hears our laments, he has been working on our behalf. We offer profound gratitude for the skill, wisdom, and determination given to all researchers dedicated to the production of a virus vaccine. We pray it will meet with approval, with expedient distribution to those most in need, and with effective results. And One Who Waits With Us, give us signs along the way that we shall make it through.

All these things we ask, and remembering your great mercy, we also offer the prayers from the hearts of your people at Church Street.  We feel your power at work within us and through us, even as we lift these prayers on behalf of our brothers and sisters:

  • Grateful for prayers: Cardiac test met with good results
  • One expresses joy that he has employment
  • Thankful that a family conflict is working itself out
  • Gratitude: 126 Thanksgiving baskets were prepared by church volunteers to help feed the hungry in our community
  • Healing prayers for a brother on ventilator in Chicago, effects of COVID & for his family members who are all infected
  • One asks for prayers for peace and protection for his mother and special friends
  • Prayers for a daughter’s health, sufficient food and happiness for family
  • Healing prayers: Parents and grandparents in ICU
  • A nephew in Nashville who is homeless
  • Comfort for all mourning virus death of a talented musician
  • Blending of two families as a wedding approaches
  • Healing prayers for husband recovering from heart surgery
  • Strength for one caring for former husband in ill health
  • Grace for dear friend in ICU with COVID pneumonia and peace for family
  • Continued prayer: That a friend’s treatments will sufficiently shrink his pancreatic tumor, preparing him for surgery
  • Member undergoing knee surgery today and for her surgeon
  • Beloved husband in hospice care, wife who is grieving

Thank you, Sacred One, for calling us to be your people. Continue to bind us together with all believers everywhere, until we are one resilient body, joining as one mighty voice to sing your song of hope, and praying together the words taught us by our Savior:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

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BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

November 23, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.

As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep,

 so I will seek out my sheep.  I will rescue them from all the places to which they

have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. Ezekiel 34:11-12

O Pursuing One, yes, we have wandered away from the hand that feeds and nurtures us. We have strayed, searching for contentment in more interesting places, in baubles that eventually lose their sparkle. We have allowed your voice to be muffled by the many pundits hawking their earthly brand of wisdom through self-help volumes. We felt this time we could make it on our own, but again we find ourselves trapped in a bottomless ravine of loneliness. In our hearts, we know to whom we belong and believe that you will not abandon your search until you locate each of your roving charges. Come quickly, Tender Guardian, for we long for your presence, we long for home.

Good Shepherd, we pray for all who have been elected to public office during this autumn of discontent. As they soon pledge their vows of loyalty and enter service in their various capacities, may they turn to you for their guidance. Lead them, we pray, in paths of worthy goals, in pursuing holy wisdom, in practicing discernment through communion with you.  And ardently we pray that politicians will move beyond partisanship toward collaboration in seeking out the truth, and in working for the highest good, not for just a select few, but for all people. As your beneficent hand has greatly blessed our land, may ours be known as a country that cares, as a beacon of blessing to your world which hungers and thirsts for hope.

Jesus, we know you as the Shepherd of the Sheep who recognizes each voice, as if there were only one of us. We are touched by your attentiveness, though we confess that much of what we share with you stems from the recurrent ramblings of our troubled hearts. Silently you allow us to bewail our predicaments and our dashed hopes as long as we desire.  Forgive us, we pray, when we forget to acknowledge those doors you continue to open for us; hear us now as we offer praise for your movement in our lives:  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   And in your mercy, receive both these praises and appeals on behalf of our church family:

  • Prayers appreciated: One’s PET scan results excellent
  • Grateful: Mother’s surgery went well on Friday
  • Gratitude: Wife returned safely from Mayo Clinic
  • Thankful that eye procedure was successful
  • Thankful that a grandson is healed of COVID-19
  • A pathology report showed no malignancy
  • Gratitude: Husband is home following heart surgery
  • Prayers for a daughter’s health, sufficient food and happiness for family
  • Prayers for husband having a cardiac conversion today
  • Healing prayers: Parents and grandparents in ICU
  • Daughter, grandchildren, and all children affected by the virus
  • Strength for one caring for former husband in ill health
  • Continued prayer: That a friend’s treatments will sufficiently shrink his pancreatic tumor, preparing him for surgery
  • Faithful Christian with cancer, in ICU
  • Reconciling a family conflict
  • Safety for all healthcare workers who serve at great risks
  • Beloved husband in hospice care, wife who is grieving
  • Strength for stressed brother caring for his wife who has dementia
  • Prayers that our community will heed public health guidelines
  • Friends and family members unable to visit loved ones in isolation

Ours is not to know all things, even concerning the workings of your healing mercies.  Rather, it may be sufficient to know that every prayer uttered is worthy of your grace and is held in sacred trust in that holy realm.

Lord of Love, with all our roving through the years, we have seen you as Christ, traversing every trail to find us, reaching down to free us from the brambles, and returning us to your safe dwelling. And what would gladden your heart most of all? To see us following your example, seeking out others who are scattered on those days of clouds and thick darkness, and returning them to your fold. Strengthen us to do just that, we pray, for we wish to make you happy.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

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BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

November 19 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

Voice of Calm, we enter your presence, as you long ago whispered for us to draw near. You tenderly hollowed out that cavern within us that yearns for communion with the Holy. Much is taking place beyond that veil of knowing, for your Spirit works in ways and in places of which we have never heard. Fill that empty space you created inside us, we pray, for it is just large enough for that presence for which we thirst. We shall rest now in silence and let you touch whatever it is within us that needs attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . For your radical love that accepts us, for your amazing grace that replenishes us, and for your covenant blessing which binds us to you, we are grateful and humbled.

Accompany each one who travels with heavy sorrows this day, O Friend of the Falling, as many stumble through the dark expanse of pain. As Jesus knew the sharp edges of loss, he knows how our world struggles with the penetrating wounds inflicted by disease, and particularly by the present pandemic. We sense you working through science and technology to bring us the promised vaccine; so gift us also, O Lord, with a bit more patience as we endure. And when we feel ourselves wavering under the weight of the virus or the grief that accompanies it, set us aright, that we might boldly walk with the courage of Jesus.

So many cry out to you from far and wide, but we know that through your gracious mystery, you attend to each of us individually. With that confidence, believing that our pain is your pain, our joys are your joys, we offer the praises and concerns of your people of Church Street:

  • Prayers appreciated: Young grandson in D.C. much improved
  • Gratitude for our choir and musicians whose music lifts our spirits
  • One is thankful for new employment
  • Appreciation for all healthcare workers who serve faithfully; please pray for their protection
  • Pray for a wife having further consultations at the Mayo Clinic today
  • Peace for faithful member awaiting PET scan results today
  • Beloved wife awaiting pathology report on Friday
  • Full recovery for husband at Vanderbilt following heart surgery
  • That a mother’s surgery in South Carolina will go well today
  • Complete healing for one recovering from eye surgery
  • Prayers for one undergoing an eye surgery today
  • Prayer that a friend’s treatments will sufficiently shrink his pancreatic tumor so it can be surgically removed
  • Strength for stressed brother caring for his wife who has dementia
  • Healing of family members ill with COVID: Mother-in-law, father, daughter and her two children, teenage daughter, sister-in-law, mother, grandson, and granddaughter; peace and reassurance for family members giving care
  • Solace for grieving family in the death of beloved wife and mother
  • Prayers that our community will heed public health guidelines
  • Friends and family members unable to visit loved ones in isolation
  • Calm and reassurance for couple planning a wedding
  • Prayers for all families receiving Thanksgiving baskets on Saturday
  • Guidance for weary caregiver; continued healing for her husband
  • Faithful Christian friend in ICU with progressive cancer

Thank you, Blessed One, for receiving us just as we are, for keeping your candle burning through the wee hours, and for leaving your door ajar, just in case we cry out in the night. How blessed we are to be counted among those multitudes who call you Father and who now join us in offering the prayer of you Son:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

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BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

November 18 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

 

Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer.  From the end of the earth I call to you, when my heart is faint.  Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you are my refuge, a strong tower of strength.  Let me abide in your tent forever under the shelter of your wings. Psalm 61:1-4

Highest Hope of the Weak, we call to you when our hearts are faint. We don’t want to believe that hatred and fear have power in our nation, but we have heard the testimonies and we have seen for ourselves how these bitter forces have already rooted themselves in too many places. Don’t let the spirit of discontent take root in our souls, we pray; for the heart that seeks to separate is the heart that does not love. Help us to overcome that downward tug by becoming a force for love. Strengthen us to live out a kind of love that makes us stand up on a high rock, crying out for the cause of peace, justice, and reconciliation, as did Jesus.

O Promised Rest, your love has brought us this far, and by your grace, we have been blessed throughout the years, celebrating joys and enduring the sorrows of this life. And as we consider ourselves survivors, we resist admitting that we are also bone-tired.  Our sense of responsibility and our need to control have gotten out of hand, resulting in our adding work hours to our already crowded days, while subtracting time to rest, reflect, and cherish your good gifts. The pandemic has whittled away our confidence and we are frayed around the edges. So receive us into your loving arms that we might receive that promised rest for the weary. Let us kneel at your feet and take our ease. Let us leave our burdens there, knowing you will manage them until we are once again refreshed and ready to carry on.

Of course, Prescient Lord, you know our needs before we even speak them, but still you want us to turn to you as our trusted confidant. And somehow, as we give voice to our longings, we receive a sense that our pleas have entered the sacred realm of heaven, where even the saints are praying for us. No prayer is ever wasted, and in that belief, we bare our souls before you, sharing our brightest joys, our earnest hopes and our gripping losses. . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . .  In your mercy, gather these and all the prayers of the Church Street family which we now whisper in the name of Christ:

  • Gratitude: A brother is home from hospital, but pray for full healing
  • Prayers appreciated: A teenager is moving toward healing
  • Thanksgiving: Retinal surgery was successful
  • Family celebrates the news of a much-desired pregnancy
  • Gratitude that a mother is recovering well from virus at home
  • Pray for a wife having further consultations at the Mayo Clinic on Thursday
  • Peace for faithful member awaiting PET scan results this week
  • Prayers for young family of four in isolation due to virus exposure
  • Full recovery for husband from risky heart surgery
  • A door to open for a struggling woman in need of a job, and for insurance to approve an important medical procedure
  • Refugee children, that they may be released and reunited with families
  • Prayers for resolution of conflicts within two families
  • Strength for stressed brother caring for his wife who has dementia
  • Lift up a very ill sister-in-law who remains in ICU with COVID
  • Continued healing for teenage daughter and an ill brother
  • Comfort for husband and entire family: young wife died last week
  • Prayers that a lonely daughter will find friends and companionship
  • Healing for an elderly father hospitalized with COVID
  • Guidance for weary caregiver; continued healing for her husband
  • Healing from virus: Young grandson and a young granddaughter
  • Prayers that a daughter finds the work God wants her to undertake
  • Faithful Christian friend in ICU with progressive cancer

We leave these prayers in your tender care. And if it isn’t too much to ask, grant that we may live lives so close to your Son’s that Jesus’ story will be our story too; and that we may also abide in your tent forever, under the safe shelter of your wings:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

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BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

November 17, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

Creating God, as your Spirit moved over the chaos to give light and life to our world, send that same spirit around and through us today to awaken what has withered within. We confess that we move as automatons amid the hours, giving only a rare nod to the glory that you have placed so near. Leaves smile and sparkle, birds offer you praise, supple moss softens the footpath, pansies bow their heads as the wind calls your name. Awaken us from our stupor! Help us relinquish our dreams of another life, for in so many ways, we are already living the dream.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Noble Giver, we confess that we place our trust in passing trends, in the false idols of wealth and fame.  Worldly glory and acclaim are tenuous.  We know this, but we confess that envy seeps into our spirits far too often.  We note what others possess and witness the freedom their affluence offers them.  Remind us that prestige and prosperity do not move us closer to your side; teach us to be content with what we have, for we have more than enough.  Forgive our foolish wanderings, we pray, and help us cling to Christ, who works through your grace to meet all our needs.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Enduring One, we who abide in your fold admit that we are shaken by the suffering so near at hand.  Before we can absorb one grief, another takes its place. Be with each one afflicted with the coronavirus, we pray:  those who are ill, especially those in critical care; those who cringe in fear; each one who grieves the loss of loved ones who succumbed to the disease; those isolated from family and friends, especially those who are confused; those whose livelihoods have been disrupted; educators and students trying to move forward in spite of great obstacles; caregivers and healthcare workers whose energy is all but depleted.  Shine your unfading light upon each one, rekindling their broken spirits, that they may feel our prayers on their behalf, that they may know they are not alone, and that they be secure in their hearts that your strength will see them through.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

And as you offer us every opportunity to share our deepest selves with you, we place before you these additional needs and gratitudes of your people and Church Street.  Thank you for never too busy to listen when we call:

  • Celebration of husband’s return home after delicate heart surgery
  • Gratitude for test results showing no indication of cancer
  • Thanksgiving: Member home following bypass surgery
  • Grateful that beloved mother is recovering well from virus
  • Refugee children held on US border, that they may be released and reunited with their families before Christmas
  • Prayers for resolution of conflicts within two families
  • Peace for faithful member awaiting PET scan results this week
  • Protection of all healthcare workers who serve at great risk
  • Lift up a very ill sister-in-law who remains in ICU with COVID
  • Healing of teenage daughter, courage for worried parents
  • Comfort for husband whose young wife died last week and for entire family who are trying to find a way forward
  • Solace for two sons who grieve the death of their mother on Saturday
  • Prayers that a lonely daughter will find friends and companionship
  • Healing for a beloved mother & a father hospitalized with COVID
  • Strength and guidance for caregiver; continued healing for her husband
  • Mercy and peace for wife whose husband (51) died of a massive stroke
  • Healing from virus: young grandson and a young granddaughter
  • Prayers that a daughter finds the work God wants her to undertake
  • Faithful Christian friend with progressive cancer, now in ICU
  • A hospitalized brother, healing of foot infection, strength for family

Watch over us in these bleak times, O Lord, for we trust you will bear us up on eagle wings, as you have done from age to age, and one day we shall soar high above to reside with you and with your Beloved Son, who taught us this prayer:

Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.

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BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

November 16, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

 

If thou wilt suffer God to guide thee, and hope in God through all thy ways,

God will give strength, whate’er betide thee, and bear thee through the hardest days.

We offer praise to you, Lord God, for our church family. We thank you for all those who came before us, those who built our structure and dedicated it to your purposes, for those saints who guided us in walking in Jesus’ steps. We know that we are reaping what these other witnesses have sown – those who also lived through hard times. And like them, may we faithfully love, work, and serve your people, that even those yet unborn may benefit from our own labor. For we take comfort in knowing that when you call us home, we will rejoin that larger Church Street family, and indeed all your devoted servants, in that realm that has joy beyond our perception.

 

Sing, pray, and keep God’s ways unswerving; so do thine own part faithfully;

And trust God’s word, though undeserving, thou yet shall fine it true for thee. 

And even though we must be away from our beloved physical structure during this time of widespread virus, we believe you are holding us together in the invisible web of your love. You, O Unknowable One, are above and beyond both steeple and spire, both archway and font, both pulpit and altar. These merely point to your heavenly goodness. So while we are physically apart, let us imagine our house of worship permanently planted within our hearts. And with each heartbeat, we will be continually singing as one, lifting up those ageless hymns, celebrating the One who claims us and who will lead us safely back to Henley at his appointed time.

Watchful Savior, we pray for our created world and for all its inhabitants, each of whom you know intimately.  We focus far too intently on what has gone wrong in our lives, and in the lives of others. But ever so often, turn our attention to what we have received already through your untold generosity. One great gift is your invitation to offer our celebrations and our burdens, so hear now these sentiments that rise from the souls of your people at Church Street:

  • Member is grateful that her eye procedure on Thursday was successful
  • Family thankful husband/father was released from hospital on Friday
  • Thankful that friend recovering from open heart surgery is improving
  • Gratitude for the life of a loving Christian wife who died on Saturday
  • Thanksgiving that a father in ICU is much improved
  • Lift up a very ill sister-in-law who remains in ICU with COVID
  • Prayers for good news for member having imp medical test today
  • Comfort for husband whose young wife died this week and for entire family who are mourning her sudden death
  • Solace for two sons who grieve the death of their mother on Saturday
  • Prayers that a lonely daughter will find friends and companionship
  • Healing for a beloved mother and a father hospitalized with COVID
  • Strength and guidance for caregiver; continued healing for her husband
  • Comfort for beloved wife suffering from metastatic cancer and her family
  • Mercy and peace for wife whose husband (51) died of a massive stroke
  • Healing prayers for one recovering from delicate heart surgery
  • College-age grandson with COVID, that he may heal sufficiently to  finish his semester
  • Dear faithful Christian friend with progressive cancer, now in ICU
  • Healing for teenage daughter, wisdom and peace for her loving parents
  • A hospitalized brother, healing of foot infection, strength for family
  • Recovery from COVID for loved ones in hospitals and healthcare facilities

 

Only be still, and wait God’s leisure, in cheerful hope, with heart content,

To take whate’er thy Maker’s pleasure and all-discerning love hath sent.

Gentle Jesus, you once promised: “Ask and it shall be given.” And so we ask for these gifts:  for the courage to be brave in this time of stress; for the strength to carry out with hopeful hearts the ministries to which you have called us; for the tenacity to hold on, even when others are giving up; and for the love that moves us to be still and patient, and yet prepared, for whatever befalls. All these things we pray in your blessed name, just as you taught us:

Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.

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At the start of each summer, Church Street participates in a special hands-on mission project in conjunction with the Holston Conference. In an unprecedented year, the need was greater than ever, and the task more challenging than ever. 

Within the Holston Conference, projects in Liberia and Zimbabwe are supported by the fulfillment of buckets full of food and school supplies. For the past two years, Church Street has supported the Zimbabwe-based project Ishe Anesu, which is designed to provide education to under-resourced children. This is accomplished through the payment of school fees and the purchase of required school uniforms, books and stationery.

“American schools are funded by the state,” Associate Pastor Rev. Palmer Cantler says. “Many public schools in African countries are not free and require families to pay for the education of their children.”

The Ishe Anesu project also offers Christian education and values, family and social ethics and recreation while providing two meals a day. Those meals are supported in part by the Church Street congregation. 

In the two years Church Street has supported Ishe Anesu, Rev. Cantler has set a goal of fulfilling 50 food buckets. In 2019, the Tennessee Valley region of the Holston Conference sent 716 buckets to Zimbabwe. So far in 2020, 220 buckets have been sent. 

Each bucket is filled with 1 bag (4-5 lb.) sugar; 1 bag (4-5 lb.) self-rising flour; 1 bag (2 lb.) rice; 1 bag (2 lb.) dried beans; 1 powdered milk (10 oz. or less); 1 box (18 oz. or less) quick/instant oats; 1 bottle (48 oz. or less) cooking oil; 1 box (50 count or less) Splenda/sucralose; and canned ham (2 lb. total). 

The 5-gallon bucket must be packed strategically, Rev. Cantler says, because if one thing is off, it can be flagged by customs on its way to Zimbabwe and the whole shipment could be delayed. 

Before the pandemic, buckets would sit in the breezeway of the church, waiting for members to take them home and fill before returning on a specific day, or members could support the project financially. Volunteers would then check each bucket to ensure that each was packed correctly before sealing with a lid and loading for shipment. 

But as time for the annual hands-on project approached in 2020, Rev. Cantler was unsure of how to move forward with the buckets in a safe way, let alone fill 50 appropriately with a food shortage. Missions chair Katie Heatherly sparked confidence and the team decided to give it a try. 

Opting to ask the congregation to support financially, it was nearly a week before the donations from members funded 70 buckets, surpassing the annual goal of 50 buckets in record time. 

In addition to the financial giving from members, a church member affiliated with Home Depot learned about the project from the church newsletter and approached the missions team about donating the buckets for packing. Rev. Palmer also connected with a Kroger and Walgreens partner to order the appropriate food. Each partner coordinated the best way to safely order and transport supplies to the church. 

Masked and gloved, the missions team packed 70 buckets in one night, working socially distanced in an assembly line style. The buckets were packed and sent off to their recipients in Zimbabwe. 

“It was really amazing that we were able to do more,” Rev. Cantler says. But, little did she know when she received the updated numbers the next week that donations for the project had jumped to about $5,000— almost double what was received in the first week. 

In addition to learning that donations had far exceeded what she expected, Rev. Cantler felt confident that the team of volunteers could fill the gap caused by COVID-19’s impact on other churches in the Tennessee Valley region. She ordered more food, asked her contact at Home Depot for 50 more buckets and on Saturday, Nov. 7, volunteers packed 50 more buckets. This brings the total for the Holston Conference total to 270. 

“I hoped for 30 at the beginning of the year,” Rev. Cantler says. “120? I was astonished.” 

This miraculous act of giving by the Church Street congregation reminds Rev. Cantler of her word for the year: Flexibility. Early in 2020, events happened that began to be clear signs that God was showing her how to have flexibility in her life, and the Zimbabwe food buckets are no exception. 

“A big lesson in 2020 for me is God is abundant,” she says. “God has continued to show up in abundance and generosity and shown generosity in this congregation.” 

What started as a goal of 50 more than doubled, and it created quite the impact on the Ishe Anesu project as founder Maria Sabino Humbane and her team continue to support the immediate needs of the poorest of the poor. They can provide more opportunities for continued growth through vocational training and outreach programs to educate and empower mothers of Ishe Anesu children. 

“I just keep praying for abundance and flexibility and staying out of the way,” Rev. Cantler says. “No matter what, God will provide.” 

Want to become involved with Missions at Church Street? Learn more here

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

November 12, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

O Silent Companion, we are again apprised of the numbers — numbers representing the ill ones, breathing souls who are beloved of God. When did it happen that our days were clouded by statistics? Numbers are meaningless when we must peer through a window to blow a kiss to that one cherished relative, when we must refrain from hugging that one hurting friend, when we attend to the needs of our own family member who has contracted the virus. “How long?” asked the psalmist whose own heart was breaking, and we fatigued ones put forth that same query: How long before this uneasiness is banished?

Forgiving One, in this vexing time of separation, we tend to heap our complaints and questions high, leaving them in little piles across your path. But you listen calmly as we offer them, and even lend your ear when we hand out advice on how you should fix what has been broken. We confess that we are full of hubris and lack the patience of the faithful. Give us that perseverance of the saints, we pray, that we, as they, might endure our inconveniences and misfortunes with grace.

Though the time of freedom remains uncertain, somehow, kindness and thoughtfulness thread themselves through our days, offering us their wisdom. It may be that the road stretches further than we can imagine, but the Suffering One walks with us, bearing hope. And even when the winds of dullness and routine blow rattle the windows of our lives, even when doubts hunker down deep within, his love becomes a blanket that tenderly wraps itself around every stone-cold heart.

Wrap all our hearts in your blanket of love, we pray, and especially these ones whose personal burdens are too heavy for them to bear alone:

  • Gratitude for member’s successful bypass surgery yesterday
  • Thanksgiving that lung pathology report was promising
  • One is grateful for assistance in caring for a handicapped brother
  • Prayers appreciated: Nephew with COVID moved from ICU
  • Prayers for healing of a member recovering from COVID at home
  • Lift up a sister-in-law who remains in ICU, but is improving
  • Healing for a young grandson in D. C.
  • God’s presence with grieving family – sudden death of daughter (28)
  • Comfort for beloved wife suffering from metastatic cancer& her family
  • That tensions surrounding the presidential election will ease
  • Healing prayers for one recovering from delicate heart surgery
  • Peace & assurance for daughter and granddaughter caring for ill mother
  • For successful procedure: member having glaucoma surgery today
  • Dear faithful Christian friend with progressive cancer, now in ICU
  • Grieving family: loved one with COVID and pneumonia died yesterday
  • Healing for teenage daughter, wisdom and peace for her loving parents
  • A hospitalized brother, healing of foot infection, strength for family
  • Pray for complete recovery from COVID for loved ones in hospitals and in healthcare facilities
  • Prayers for one recovering from surgery on both knees
  • Prayers for faithful member, in hospice care at home, strength for family

Turn our eyes upon Jesus, Good Lord, for his life mirrors what we ourselves hope to become. In all his ways he acknowledged you, so bear with us until we also arise each morning singing praises for all the goodness woven into our lives; and lying down each evening in peace, knowing it is Christ who is our Eternal Rest:

Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.

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BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

November 11, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

Great and Gentle God, you seem to know that this is a time when we need your brightness more than ever, and that is why you have bequeathed us this strand of dazzling days. In the brightness we can more easily detect your presence and are even more aware of those gentle gifts that come our way: a meal delivered, a timely phone call, the quiet loyalty of a spouse or loved one, the sudden insight that makes all the difference in our faith, the word of wisdom that comes from the aging friend, the memory of a past blessing, a note of encouragement. You come to us in little nudges, new every day, O Lord, urging us to move on, showing us that life is worth the living.

You see our hearts, dear Lord, and the painful memories and regrets that abide therein. There are the harsh words we spoke yesterday that cut as sharp as a sword; there is the face of one who longed for a word of gratitude, yet our lips were silent as stone; there was the frivolous purchase that we made in a casual manner, forgetting the transaction itself could have fed a family of four. Forgive our insensitivity, we pray, for we want to be free of all our flaws. May tomorrow bring another set of hours, another cleansing beam, and other chances for us to set things right.

And there are many who need a fresh touch of grace: our public servants who keep order; those who work diligently for a cure for the dreaded COVID-19 virus; depleted healthcare workers whose hours are long and whose lives remain at risk; educators who trudge forward, balancing virtual and in-person teaching responsibilities; those for whom infirmity has become a way of life; those who have no family to help them bear their burdens. All these, and the special ones in our hearts we lift up to you in these moments:  . . . . . . . . . . . We can picture you wearing our burdens as a yoke upon your shoulders, O Christ, and we are humbled that your desire is to ease our souls.

In your mercy receive all that we offer, asking that you also accept these special concerns and joyful thanksgivings which come from the hearts of your Church Street family:

  • Member’s kidney surgery yesterday was successful, prayers appreciated
  • Thankful for prayers: A friend’s hysterectomy went well
  • Gratitude that a new home build is progressing nicely
  • Thanksgiving for the United Methodist Women’s Service of Remembrance yesterday
  • Prayers for healing of a member recovering from COVID-19 at home
  • Comfort for beloved wife suffering from metastatic cancer; peace for her grieving husband and friends
  • That tensions surrounding the presidential election will ease
  • Continue prayers for one recovering from delicate heart surgery at Vanderbilt, strength and comfort for his family
  • For peace to surround mother in hospice care, and her family
  • Please pray for healing of a family member in ICU, weak with virus
  • Pray for promising pathology reports for an ill member
  • Dear friend hospitalized with COVID-19 and pneumonia
  • Healing for teenage daughter, wisdom and peace for her loving parents
  • A hospitalized brother, healing of his foot infection, strength for family
  • Staff and residents at local facility where virus numbers have spiked
  • Pray for loving husband whose Parkinson’s is debilitating
  • Continued prayer for autistic grandson, for healing of recent symptoms

We pray all of this, holding fast to the hope that you are our Sovereign and the Sustainer of our lives.  And even though we cannot put into words just what it is that we believe, we pray through your Spirit, laying everything before you in the name of your Son, as we pray together:

Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.

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