Many are unsure of how to pray during these difficult days as the world watches the Ukraine-Russia crisis unfold. Please click the link below for a list of current prayer needs from PAOC’s Ukrainian Global Workers.
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Tuesday, February 15, 2022
We, as leaders within The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, recognize and lament the current turmoil being experienced within our nation. While not advocating for every expression of protest being evidenced in the country today, we do prayerfully trust for the following attitudes and actions:
- As a Pentecostal community in Canada we are grateful to God for this country.
- We prayerfully thank God for the country we have been blessed to live in and accept our responsibility to pray for our nation and its leadership.
- As followers of Jesus our call is to exercise our “first” citizenship within God’s kingdom as well as our Canadian citizenship. We are commanded to live out our love for God and our love for others in such a way that those we live among may see our good deeds and glorify God. We live among others as Jesus did, full of grace and truth.
- We prayerfully ask that God, by His Spirit, would empower us to demonstrate His love, grace, and truth in the relationships and contexts where God has placed us. We pray for wisdom and discretion to avoid identification with the polarized political labeling that takes place within our culture, and that is currently evident on many fronts.
- As citizens of Canada, we equally share the rights granted to us in a democracy and respect those rights both as citizens and leaders. We must be able to speak prophetically to both people and to power. We acknowledge that there is a shared concern regarding divisive and dismissive approaches to valid discussions regarding policies that go far beyond vaccination mandates, etc. The current protests, with all the appropriately identified concerns regarding extreme views and actions, do represent a broader sense of ostracization within stratums of our country. Wise, knowledgeable leadership will work to bridge those divides rather than to seek political advantage.
- We prayerfully ask God to grant to our leaders at federal, provincial and local government levels an experience of divine wisdom, strength, and grace as they respond as humble servant leaders.
- In all, we rightfully call followers of Jesus to live by the Great Command to love God and others, and the Great Requirement to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly, as we lovingly pray for both our leaders and neighbours.
Lord hear our prayer, ignite our hearts, and guide our steps.
For Your glory,
David Wells, General Superintendent
Murray Cornelius, Executive Director for International Missions
Ron Davis, Interim General Secretary Treasurer
First Nations Ministries is a specific ministry of the Western Ontario District of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. It was first formed in the 1950s as Ontario Northland Mission, then in the 1990s, it became Aboriginal Pentecostal Ministries.
We seek to support pastors called to minister to our First Nations people and communities, and to provide support and fellowship to all those doing the work of Christ in remote places such as fly-in reserves. We want to fight poverty, addiction, and systemic racism and bring hope to every person in the name of Jesus. We do this by partnering with ministry and work crews from churches all across Ontario to build churches and pastors’ homes, and to help with community outreach ministries in these First Nations communities. We continue to shine the light of Jesus through building relationships with local leaders and supporting those committed to bringing the gospel.
We hope you’ll pray for us, get involved, volunteer, and support this ministry with your generous financial gifts. Monies donated and received through Western Ontario District or specifically through First Nations Ministries go directly to support ministry to First Nations people on reserves and in our cities. First Nations Ministries raises funds for First Nations leadership conferences, Christian teaching resources, church building construction, and the ministry to the pastors and lay leaders in our twenty-three churches located mostly in Northern Ontario.
To pray for our First Nations Pastors and Leaders by name, click this link for a list of pastors, communities and church names. https://wodistrict.org/here-to-serve/first-nations-ministries/
A rich document called Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada(TRC) deepens our understanding of some of the heart cries of Canada’s Aboriginal population.
A Prayer for Reconciliation by Reepa Evic-Carleton with an introduction from Dan Collado, The PAOC Indigenous Guiding Group Coordinator. (Click here to view or share.)