On Friday, March 7, 2008, the worshipping community came together in large numbers to pray for and with the women of Guyana. Though late winter storms led to the postponement of some services, World Day of Prayer 2008 was highly successful....Guyana this year, 2008, is a country on the brink of chaos and anarchy as its inhabitants, especially the voiceless working poor, live in constant fear of violence from criminals who kill, maim and destroy with impunity as they walk and stalk the land at will. The institutional forces of law and order visibly appear incapable of dealing with heavily armed and highly trained criminals and bands of criminals who are intent on creating mayhem in the society.Within the past three weeks, 20 civilians, one soldier and three policemen have been killed. In the early hours of the morning of January 26, a band of about 20 heavily armed gunmen in execution style slaughtered 11 residents, including five children, in their homes in therural coastal village of Lusignan on the East Coast of Demerara, and injured several others. A day or two earlier, a young soldier of the Guyana Defense Force (the Army) was killed in an encounter between the army and criminals in Buxton, the village that borders Lusignan. Then, on the evening of February 16, right across on the western side of the country in the interior mining township of Bartica in the County of Essequibo, a band, reportedly of about the same number and armed in the same way as in the previous slaughter at Lusignan, invaded and rampaged the township unhindered, and brutally slaughtered 13 persons including three policemen in the Police Station and injured several others."Living in a society of terrifying unknown,no one knows what will happen next or to whom it will happen or where it will happen," was the saddened cry of someone writing to one of the national papers. The people pray silently and openly for relief from the violence and other misdeeds of "man's inhumanity to man" and the resulting conditions that degrade the sanctity of human life and human living.Please intensify your prayers with and for the traumatized people of these communities and of all Guyana for God's wisdom to provide new understanding to those with the responsibility to find effective ways to urgently and quickly bring relief from the heavy burden of the current evils that beset the citizens of Guyana. Prayer has become more desperately needed not only on March 7th, World Day of Prayer, but ongoing, for as long as possible, until peace, harmony and security are restored to this once beautiful Guyana. When all voices are joined together in one united voice, what a powerful voice it will be? Please help the people of Guyana by raising your voices in prayer with them and for them in their pleas to the Most High for relief, even if such relief resides in miracles. (via wdpusa.org)
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