World Prayers for August 16 – 22: Oceania

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Photo caption: Jellyfish Lake on Eil Malk Island, Palau. LuxTonnerre/Wikimedia Commons

Bread for the World believes prayer is central to the work of ending hunger by 2030. Hunger happens in every corner of the world. In this blog series, we will provide a prayer for a different group of countries each week and their efforts to end hunger.

This prayer series will follow the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle, a list compiled by the World Council of Churches that enables Christians around the world to journey in prayer through every region of the world, affirming our solidarity with Christians all over the world, brothers and sisters living in diverse situations, experiencing their challenges and sharing their gifts.

We will especially be lifting up in prayer the challenges related to hunger and poverty that the people of each week’s countries face. In prayer, God’s story and our own story connect — and we and the world are transformed. In a prayer common to all of us — the Lord’s Prayer/the Our Father — we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” This line from this prayer can also be a prayer for the end of hunger.

We invite you to join Bread in our prayers for the world’s countries to end hunger. And we encourage you to share with us your prayers for the featured countries of the week or for the end of hunger in general.

For the week of August 16 – 22: Oceania: American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia (Maohi Nui), Kanaky, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu

Oh God, we take this time to lift up the beautiful Pacific islands to you. We especially pray now for those suffering from food insecurity. We ask for your divine provision so they can have opportunities to work and get an education. We know that the poor and hungry are often those most vulnerable in society, and we ask for the protection of their rights as well as the rights of the indigenous people.  

We also pray for the government leaders in these islands. There has been much political corruption and unrest, violence, and crime, and we need your divine intervention. We specifically ask for your law to be written in hearts and a deep sense of morality to be present within the island cultures. In addition, we ask for wisdom to guide the decisions of the leaders and for integrity to keep them from manipulation and further corruption.

Lastly, we pray for the light of the Gospel to shine brightly upon these nations. We thank you for revivals that have swept the islands in the past, but there is a need for another revival of truth that will lead to a change of hearts and the society as a whole in this region. There are also unreached people among the indigenous on these islands, and we pray for new opportunities to hear the Gospel that would lead to many salvations for your glory.

We thank you for hearing our prayer and we ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Percentage of the population of these countries living below the national poverty line (2014 figures):

  • American Samoa, Cook Islands: N/A
  • Fiji: 35.2
  • French Polynesia (Maohi Nui), Kanaky, Kiribati: N/A
  • Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau: N/A
  • Papua New Guinea: 39.9
  • Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu: N/A

Source: World Bank World Development Indicators as found in the new 2015 Hunger Report.

Prayer is a central part of Bread for the World’s work. Learn more about how you can get involved with prayer at Bread

Photo: Jellyfish Lake on Eil Malk Island, Palau. LuxTonnerre/Wikimedia Commons

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