World Prayers for May 22 – 28: Malawi and Zambia

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In rural Zambia USAID programs in paternship with the Zambian government is helping equip villagers with the knowledge of proper nutrients. Photo: Joe Molieri / Bread for the World

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 May 22 – 28: Malawi and Zambia

Bread’s managing editor, Stephen Padre, offers this open personal prayer written from his experiences last fall when he traveled to Zambia to collect stories for the 2016 Offering of Letters.

O Lord, as I met Colins and his mother in Zambia, I felt connected to them as the parent of a child close in age to Colins. But I also felt disconnected from them because our lives and the places where we live are so different. Yet we and others who want to end hunger were brought together for a reason through advocacy with Bread for the World. With this connection, we now walk together, and we thank you for this new opportunity and connection with your children so far away.

Help me and others in Bread continue to learn from Colins and his mother. I lift up to you the work of advocacy that we do through Bread. May it touch our own hearts, the hearts of our nation’s leaders, and may it bear fruit for Colins and his family as well as for all children in Zambia and Malawi. May all children and families who suffer from poverty and hunger find health and their hunger satisfied. We pray that one day soon, hunger will end in America and Zambia and for all countries in between. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Percentage of the population of these countries living below the national poverty line:

Malawi: 50.7
Zambia: 60.5

Source: World Bank World Development Indicators as found in the 2016 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.

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