Prayer for First Peoples Partners - Reconciliation Week 2021
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In celebration of Reconciliation Week, we invite you to pray for First Peoples organisations and Tearfund partners who are working for a just and compassionate Australia.
Strong Women Talking
Strong Women Talking are a Christain First Nations organisation focussed on breaking the cycle of family and domestic violence within First Nations communities.
Please pray:
- Pray for the staff of Strong Women Talking as they run their Healing Journey Program for women who are survivors of complex trauma.
- Pray for wisdom and discernment for the staff and elders leading the program, and
- for peace, clarity, and healing for the women participating.
Moorditj Keila
Moorditj Keila’s Driver Training Program provides opportunities for young Aboriginal people from the ages of 16 -30 to get their driver's license. A driver’s licence is of significant assistance to young people seeking to get out of the welfare/poverty trap they may find themselves in. It also provides a secure identity document. However, for many young Aboriginal people from disadvantaged environments it can be extremely difficult to complete the tests and to record the required hours of supervised driving necessary to gain a driver’s licence.
Please pray:
Give thanks that in the past few weeks several young Aboriginal people who have been participating in Moorditj Kelia’s Driver Training Program have got their learners certificates and one young woman has graduated to P plates!
Nungalinya College
In partnership with Tearfund, Nungalinya College is delivering a Certificate II course in Community Services focussing on family wellbeing, trauma informed care and preventing domestic violence. The first cohort of 20 students from the remote NT communities of Wadeye, Maningrida and Ngukurr have recently commenced their studies.
Please pray:
Give thanks for this chance for the students to wrestle with some of the complex issues that are impacting remote communities and to encourage the integration of traditional, mainstream and Biblically-based paths for healing.
UAICC
Seed grant partners Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress of South Australia (UAICC - SA) are supporting children and families in culturally appropriate trauma recovery, and building community, connection and resilience in children and their families.
Please pray:
Pray for the adequate support of UAICC leaders who face the challenge of 'walking between worlds' and with many demands coming from both work and at home.
Why Warriors Organisation
Why Warriors Organisation’s Hope for Health Project, based on Elcho Island in Arnhem Land, empowers Yolngu people to overcome chronic disease through a direct experience of good food and by providing guidance for healthy lifestyle changes.
Please pray:
- Pray for the health of the Yolngu residents on Elcho Island, and
- for guidance and perseverance for the Yolngu and non-Indigenous staff working on the Hope for Health program.
A Prayer of Reconciliation by Emma Bovoro:
Dear Heavenly Father,
We humble ourselves and come before your throne in the name of your Son and our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ and ask you hear our prayer.
We thank you for sending your Son to die on the Cross for our sins and the sins of the world.
We thank you for the tearing of the veil; that we may be in your presence.
Father God, we thank you for the First Nations Peoples of this country we call our Earthly Home. We thank you for blessing and bestowing of this land as a direct inheritance and custodianship to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nations.
We are called by your name and we humble ourselves and pray for the healing of this land and its peoples. We pray for an honest accountability, understanding, compassion and acknowledgement of Australia’s discrimination, decimation and degradation against your chosen custodians of this land. And we pray also for a true recognition of Australia’s First Nations Peoples strong, vast, rich and beautiful culture, thriving to this very day.
We ask for forgiveness for the harboured hatred, hurt, fear and ignorance held against one another, which has not only caused a rift between us, but You Lord God also.
We pray for unity with you and in you, so that we may know the same unity with one another. We ask you make us of one blood, Your blood, one spirit, Your Spirit, one heart, Your heart and one mind, Your mind.
Breathe life into us, breathe love into us, breathe hope into us, breathe compassion into us, breathe truth into us, breathe grace into us, breathe wisdom into us and breathe a new beginning this day and forevermore.
Bind us together with cords that cannot be broken and let Thy Will be done.
In the name of Your Son the Lord Jesus Christ we pray, ask and give all thanks, glory and honour.
Amen.
Emma Bovoro is a proud Aboriginal/Fijian woman who is working for UAICC, a Tearfund partner. Emma’s maternal links are with the Adnyamathanha, Kuyani, Arabana, Western Arrernte, Dieri and Yawarrawarrka people and paternal links to Matailobau, in the province of Naitasiri, Fiji.
News about issues affecting Australia’s First Peoples
Keep informed about issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and Tearfund's work with the First Peoples of Australia. Together, let’s deepen our understanding and prayerfully consider how we can engage in the work of reconciliation and healing to which God calls us.