Pray for our partners

As you pray for our partners, consider the following praises and prayer requests that have been sent to us from our international partners.

Pray that God opens the doors and we can begin to share our transformative work with new people. Please pray for good community participation and a vision to expand environmental stewardship beyond the church and for opportunities to learn by experience

BURUNDI

We praise God for protecting our staff, families, and participants this month, even though COVID-19 continues to threaten and take many lives. We give praise for the completion of our silvicultural campaign in which many trees were planted. We are thankful for the continued recovery of our national director who has been fighting an illness, and for the child of our Nyengwe Supervisor, Jean Marie, who has been healed of an illness.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

We praise God for recent rains that support plant growth and for the workshop held for pastors and leaders in the Ozama Region. We taught on “The Church’s Role in Caring for the Environment.” This workshop helped pastors and leaders understand how to integrate their church in environmental restoration. We pray for conflicts that various communities have recently had with a mining company. This has grown into a difficult situation and we pray that God brings resolution. We pray for the health of Pastor Rafaela’s husband, who suffered from a stroke. We pray for a recent wave of crime that has afflicted the community of El Cruce.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

We praise God for our health, including the health of our families, during this time of COVID-19, and for the return of the Kalonge community in Kakumba that was temporarily displaced. We give praise for the improvement of gender integrations and relationships in the community of Kambekulu, which we are continuing to address through our program lessons and training. We pray for peace and reconciliation efforts that will guide several upcoming meetings. We pray to impact many people across the region, for the timely submission of a quarterly report and for the safety and security of our team and all those who live in our watershed areas. We pray for protection from COVID-19.

ETHIOPIA

We praise God for continued protection from both political instability and the COVID-19 pandemic, for excellent communication and progress surrounding the expansion of our program, and for the encouraging progress of our partners’ seedling production. We pray for continued care and safety from political instability and the threat of the pandemic, the effective completion of our program’s pilot phase, and a smooth process towards our next stage of planning. We pray for moisture and rains to nourish the trees we have planted.

HAITI

We praise God for keeping our staff and our participants safe, even as our leadership remains fragile, crime rates rise, and COVID-19 continues to be a threat. We pray for the security of our staff and participants against crime, which has been worsening. We pray that our leaders and authorities would fulfill their responsibility to protect citizens. We pray for sufficient rain this spring so that participants can plant seeds and grow trees in their nurseries.

MEXICO

We praise God for the health of our staff and families during COVID-19. We are especially grateful for God’s mercy and grace in bringing our colleague Juan Díaz back to health. We praise God for the addition of Rodrigo Santiago Reyes to our program in Puebla. He will be helping train producers in agroecology. We pray for the full recovery of Juan Díaz, who will continue to receive therapy at home after two months on an artificial respirator. We pray for sufficient rain during this reforestation season. We pray that there is no water shortage while people aim to plant trees and cultivate their land. We pray for the response of children as they participate in an Environmental Education and Values program as schools resume classes, and for God’s wisdom and guidance as we work in communities that do not allow for the opening of new churches.

TANZANIA

We praise God for the completion of monitoring and evaluation exercises across all community groups in our watersheds. Teams have safely traveled to collect data that can help us improve our program. We give praise for good health and the protection of our Tanzania family. We pray for the unity and strength of all Tanzanians following the loss of our leader, the late president John Magufuli. We pray for the new government under the leadership of our new president, Mama Samia Suluhu Hasan. We pray God gives her wisdom and endurance as she guides us to accomplish the work she has inherited. We pray for the health of our facilitators Augustino and Mjema, who are recovering from periods of illness.

THAILAND

We praise God for the interest of church leaders in our educational programs. Two new interested churches joined us! We give praise for the good health of our staff and their safety during travels this quarter, and for the improved health of Nong Wah, our former director, who is recovering from surgery. We pray for the tense political situation around Thailand and Myanmar, which has affected ethnic minority and indigenous children and women along the border. Food shortages and evacuations have begun. We pray for the ethnic minority communities we work with, and their rights to manage land. We pray that negotiations with the relevant government agencies help them gain the right to live on and steward their own land.

UNITED STATES

We praise God for the completion of our triennial impact evaluation as we prepare to release our technical report. The report and the results that it shares are a bold indicator that our work is effective and that the generosity of our community and the efforts of our partners have not been in vain. We give thanks for the increased availability of the COVID-19 vaccine to more and more Americans, and the prospect of enabling many activities to resume. We give praise for the upcoming wedding of our graphic design intern, Erin Miller, next month. We pray for the continued growth of our team as we seek to hire a new regional representative and development assistant. We pray that the work of Plant With Purpose is discovered by new people, that people are moved to join us in supporting our mission, and that God is glorified through this. We pray against the outbreak of violence and attacks against Asian Americans in the United States that have surged over the past year. We pray against the spirit of hate and violence, and we pray for the protection of communities.