World Humanitarian Day - Reflection by Dean Sue
Read Dean Sue's reflection for Thursday, August 20, 2020.
Photo credit: Photo by the Austrian National Library on Unsplash. Thanks to the Austrian National Library for sharing their work on Unsplash.
Yesterday was World Humanitarian Day, a day set aside by the United Nations to commemorate humanitarian workers killed or injured in the course of their work. It is a day when the world honours all aid and health workers who continue, despite the odds, to provide life-saving support and protection to people most in need throughout the world.
This year World Humanitarian Day comes in the middle of a world blighted by and suffering from COVID 19. Despite COVID 19, aid workers are assisting people in humanitarian crises in 54 countries across the world, as well as in a further nine countries that have been affected by COVID 19 and now need humanitarian need.
Christian Aid is honouring local heroes on this World Humanitarian Day. They are honouring their local partners who are overcoming huge obstacles to provide life-saving support and protection to those who need it most. They are honouring their partners in: Afghanistan, Nigeria, El Salvador, South Sudan, Bangladesh, Syria, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Lebanon.
One of the challenges during COVID 19 has been to recognise that there are still parts of our world where humanitarian help is needed in addition to COVID 19. In some ways our world became smaller during the lockdown, as we sought to make sure that we as individuals were safe, but we live in a national and global context. What World Humanitarian Day does is remind us that we live in a global context and that all people are our neighbours.
Christian Aid has a campaign running entitled: ‘Let’s help our Global neighbour today.’ Through that campaign we are encouraged to pray for our neighbours facing crisis, to write a prayer for our neighbour, to sign a debt petition asking the Chancellor to cancel debt, to give a gift to support families overcome crisis. You can learn more and take action here: https://www.christianaid.org.uk/appeals/key-appeals/global-neighbours-autumn-appeal.
As we know in times of crisis, love unites all and so as we remember World Humanitarian day we pray:
Loving God,
Come now and make us
Into a global neighbourhood,
Looking out for each other
Through struggles and crisis,
Reaching out to strangers
Who become sisters and brothers.
Shape us into a caring community,
Strengthening each other
Through every challenge,
Standing together
Until justice comes for all;
In your name we pray. Amen. (Christian Aid/Wendy Lloyd.)
Dean Sue
While you're here:
Why not prepare for next Sunday's worship? Our preparation sheet for adults and for children can be accessed by clicking on the Resources tab of our prayer blog, Prayer for Liverpool: https://www.prayerforliverpool.org/prayer-resources.html.