Many folks speak of having trouble sleeping these days. We’re weary with the continuing changes in all of life, and worried about how everything will work out and how and when. Worries seem bigger and our resources to deal with them don’t seem enough in the evenings.
As children we learned to say, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, and when the morning sun breaks through, help me to find loving things to do.” - that was my family’s version. We also sang “night-night” songs: “Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me, bless thy little lamb tonight; through the darkness be thou near me. Keep me safe til morning’s light” and “Father, we thank Thee for the night, and for the pleasant morning light; for rest and peace and loving care, and all that makes the world so fair.”
All of us know about “counting sheep” and when that doesn’t help, to have a talk with the “shepherd.“ A friend in a former congregation had this to say about sleeping: “I lay all of my troubles on the night table, and I ask God to watch over everything, because I just have to get some sleep….and He does and I do.”
This prayer blesses our sleep: ( from To Bless the Space Between Us. by John O’Donohue)
“Before Sleep”
As I lay down to sleep,
May the guardian angel Watch over me,
Coaxing all my cares
To unravel into peace.
As darkness within
Is wed to darkness without, Freed from the weight of light,
Let my eyes sleep,
Relieved of all intensities.
Let my imagination
Trawl the compressed seas
To bless the dawn
With a generous catch
Of luminous dream
May this new night of rest
Repair the wear of time
And restore youth of heart
For the adventure
That awaits tomorrow.
May God bless us with rest and peace this night.
Elizabeth
The 4th annual fund-raising event “Haiti Help and Hope” was held Saturday, August 28th at Rubicon Farm, to raise funds to help Pastor Sidor serve his native home in Haiti by providing a school that teaches 400 students, including 2 meals a day, plus help for several neighboring villages to fight hardships and hunger amidst their helpless situation. As a former teacher, this worthy cause is dear to my heart. Help and hope are gifts this organization brings to Haiti.
With so many causes seeking help, my heart keeps being drawn to Haiti. Another organization, Haiti Fund, Inc, was founded by a dear friend in a former congregation. This friend told me the story of a time when he and his wife were walking on the beach in Haiti and a young mother ran up to them and put her baby in his arms saying, “Please take my baby and give her a life I cannot give her.” He put the child back in the mother’s arms, saying he could not do that, but promised that when he retired, he would come back and help her people. This friend and his wife dedicated a large portion of their retirement years to humanitarian projects in Jamaica and Haiti. They established a Rural Development Program, using a “watershed” approach, planting trees, building concrete ponds and stocking them with fish, and developing water systems.
As has happened again and again in recent months, I learn things I’ve never heard before, and much of this new information is troubling, especially learning that colonial-era debt helped shape Haiti’s poverty and political unrest.
“It seems that Haiti’s chronic status as the Western hemisphere’s poorest nation is due to a litany of afflictions that range from widespread illiteracy, to political corruption, to inadequate infrastructure. But while these would be hard enough for any country to overcome, for more than a century of its existence Haiti carried an additional but little-known millstone, the effects of which are still being felt.
In 1825, barely two decades after winning its independence against all odds, Haiti was forced to begin paying enormous “reparations” to the French slaveholders it had overthrown. Those payments would have been a staggering burden for any fledgling nation, but Haiti wasn’t just any fledgling nation; it was a republic formed and led by blacks who’d risen up against the institution of slavery. As such, Haiti’s independence was viewed as a threat by all slave-owning countries – the United States included – and its very existence rankled racist sensibilities globally. Thus Haiti – tiny, impoverished and all alone in a hostile world – had little choice but to accede to France’s reparation demands, which were delivered to Port-au-Prince by a fleet of heavily armed warships in 1825.
By complying with an ultimatum that amounted to extortion, Haiti gained immunity from French military invasion, relief from political and economic isolation – and a crippling debt that took 122 years to pay off. that debt was finally settled in 1947. But decades of making regular payments had rendered the Haitian government chronically insolvent, helping to create a pervasive climate of instability from which the country still hasn’t recovered.” (Material taken from Wikipedia – External Debt of Haiti)
In this time of working to set things right in so many areas of life, perhaps justice will come for Haiti – and continuing help and hope.
Elizabeth
The Rev. Dr. Teri Ott, new editor of the Presbyterian Outlook, offers the following prayer for this week:
A Prayer for a Hurting World
“God of mercy, as wildfires and wars rage, earthquakes shake the planet, tropical storms threaten, we are at a loss as to what to say or do. In these moments of anguish and fear and grief, we turn to you in prayer, Holy God, confident that you hear the cries of your people.
As we send our daughters back to school, free to raise their hands in class, free to study and to speak, we pray for the daughters of Afghanistan. We pray for women shrouding themselves in fear, for liberties recently gained to hold despite the new oppressive regime. We pray for the Afghani men—fathers, brothers, sons, uncles— desperately seeking refuge for their families. We pray for all the Afghani people whose lives are trapped in a war zone. We pray for American troops, morally torn over leaving this country and their service behind. Lord, have mercy. Turn us from violence as a justified means for achieving our ends. Guide humanity toward your path of peace.
In your mercy, God, hear also our prayers for Haiti. Why, O God, have the people of Haiti suffered so? How long , O Lord, must your people on this island endure tragedy after tragedy? We pray for this nation rocked by economic crisis, political assassination, a spiraling pandemic, and now an earthquake causing death and destruction. O God, we see the faces of those who have lost their homes and their loved ones. We grieve for your beloved ones and cry out on their behalf. Rescue the people of Haiti, God, desperate for help. Protect them from the next deluge heading their way, from the flooding and the mudslides. Guide us in global mission so our efforts might provide relief and support.
Great God of all, you know us so well. You know our pain. You know our loss. You grieve with us as wildfires consume homes and COVID-19 fills hospital beds. You cry with us as tragedies plague your people. You work beside us in ministry and mission. God of grace, open our eyes, hearts and hands to the movement of your Spirit in this broken world. Restore hope to the suffering, mend the hearts of the hurting, grant us all the strength to support those in need. As we forage for hope along the path of tragedy, may we bear the good fruit of faith, turning to each other and to you in love. Restore us, Holy God, with your hope.
We pray this in the name of Jesus, Amen.”
May we join in praying this prayer from our hearts today and in the days to come.
Elizabeth