We need to pray

Thursday October 16, 2008

Earlier this week, one of the women from Masiphumelele phoned me with the sad news that a three year old girl was missing. While the police searched to find the toddler, there was fear and tension all around her small home. A police dog led searchers to the child's body on a mattress in the wetlands behind her house. The girl appears to have been molested. The young man who is alleged to have done this terrible deed is one of those 'foreigners' from another country. This mixture of an atrocious act against an innocent child by a foreigner is a combustible mix. Violence against foreigners has been in the headlines all year but Masiphumelele led many other informal settlements in calling for unity and tolerance. This is a difficult time but churches and groups are meeting to pray and work for unity. With this situation in mind, I asked the women in the sewing class to name one thing in Masiphumelele about which we should pray. Among other needs they listed unity, crime, disease, jobs, each of which is desperately needed to make their lives safer and allow their children to grow up in peace. We prayed and asked God to change the situation in Masiphumelele. Since Jesus told us to keep on asking and keep on praying, we agreed to do that for a community we love. You can join us