Pray That Khalid Has Shelter

Southminster has joined Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) Let Children Live campaign to pray and advocate for the children of Palestine- (Gaza and the West Bank).

We have received the name of a child to lift in prayer and advocacy. Our child is 9-year-old Khalid. We do not have his photo. We can only imagine the reality of his life. Please begin praying today that Khalid may live and that he may know peace.

More than 80 percent of buildings across Gaza have been damaged or destroyed during the war, according to UN figures, forcing massive displacement. Families now returning to the cities where they previously lived, camp in the rubble of ruined apartment buildings. Families sheltering in tents worn out from displacements are now suffering from heavy winter rains which have submerged tens of thousands of tents across Gaza, soaking bedding and clothing and ruining supplies. The United Nations confirmed more than 13,000 households were affected within hours after the first rain started.

Aid groups warned in early November that about 260,000 Palestinian families, totaling nearly 1.5 million people, faced vulnerability as winter approached. Following a complete blockade on shelter items for six months, needs across Gaza remain overwhelming. Since the ceasefire announcement, aid organizations have begun delivering essential assistance such as tents and tarpaulins, but far more is required to meet the urgent needs of the people lacking adequate shelter. The UN Secretary-General’s spokesperson said “millions” of urgently needed shelter items are still stuck in Jordan, Egypt and Israel, waiting for approval to enter the enclave.

Please pray that 9-year-old Khalid has adequate protection from the cold and rain- in a tent or other structure. Pray that he has a warm blanket and dry mattress. Pray that he shelters with family members who love him and comfort him. Pray that he does not suffer from exhaustion and despair. Pray that he experiences God’s peace and love.

A Prayer for Khalid and the Starving Children of Gaza

Southminster has joined Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) Let Children Live campaign to pray and advocate for the children of Palestine- (Gaza and the West Bank).

We have received the name of a child to lift in prayer and advocacy. Our child is 9-year-old Khalid. We do not have his photo. We can only imagine the reality of his life. Please begin praying today that Khalid may live and that he may know peace.

Almighty and most merciful God, whose compassion doesn’t fail and whose justice never sleeps: Behold with pity the suffering of your children in Gaza, especially Khalid and the little ones who perish for want of bread. In the midst of devastation, stretch forth your arm to save; open the hearts of the powerful to mercy, and grant wisdom and courage to the leaders of the nations, that violence may cease, and aid may swiftly come.

Comfort the grieving, shield the innocent, and stir us to work for a world where none shall hunger, and every child may grow in safety and hope.

All this we ask through Jesus Christ, who took children into his arms and blessed them, and now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

From Episcopalians on Facebook

LET KHALID LIVE. LET CHILDREN LIVE.

Southminster has joined Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) Let Children Live campaign to pray and advocate for the children of Palestine- (Gaza and the West Bank).

We have received the name of a child to lift in prayer and advocacy. Our child is 9-year-old Khalid. We do not have his photo. We can only imagine the reality of his life. Please begin praying today that Khalid may live and that he may know peace.

If there has ever been a time for prayer, this is that time.

If there has ever been a place forsaken, Gaza is that place.

Lord who is the creator of Khalid and of all children, hear our prayer this accursed day. God whom we call Blessed, turn your face to Khalid and these, the children of Gaza, that they may know your blessings, and your shelter, that they may know light and warmth, where there is now only blackness and smoke, and a cold which cuts and clenches the skin.

Almighty who makes exceptions, which we call miracles, make an exception of Khalid and all the children of Gaza. Shield them from us and from their own. Spare them. Heal them. Let them stand in safety. Deliver them from hunger and horror and fury and grief. Deliver them from us, and from their own.

Restore to them their stolen childhoods, their birthright, which is a taste of heaven…

Allah, whose name we call Elohim, who gives life, who knows the value and the fragility of every life, send Khalid and these children your angels. Save them, Khalid and the children of this place, Gaza the most beautiful, and Gaza the damned.

In this day, when the trepidation and rage and mourning that is called war, seizes our hearts and patches them in scars, we call to you, the Lord whose name is Peace: Bless Khalid and these children, and keep them from harm.

Turn Your face toward them, O Lord. Show them, as if for the first time, light and kindness, and overwhelming graciousness. Look up at them, O Lord. Let them see your face. And, as if for the first time, grant them peace.

With thanks to Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman of Kol HaNeshama, Jerusalem.

Please pray for Khalid

Please pray for Khalid

More than two million children live under brutal oppression in Gaza and the West Bank.

Their lives are too often reduced to statistics. But Jesus reminds us:

Every child is beloved by God.

Children in Gaza are enduring unimaginable devastation:

Bombs fall without warning.

Parents, siblings, and friends disappear in an instant.

Psychological scars cut deep into young hearts.

A generation’s future is being vaporized before it even begins.

Southminster has joined Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) to walk with the global Let Children Live campaign.

We have received the name of a child to lift in prayer and advocacy.

Our child is 9-year-old Khalid. We do not have his photo. We can only imagine the reality of his life. Please begin praying for him today.

Matthew 25 In Action - Voter Registration Drive

This is a transcript of our ‘Moment for Mission’ from July 16th, 2023 from member Elaine Elsloo Dodd.

Good Morning Matthew 25 Congregation,

I was hungry and you gave me food.

I voted in Mayoral and City Council elections for elected officials who will pass ordinances that will decrease the number of hungry in our community.

I was thirsty and you gave me drink.

I voted in Oklahoma State and Federal elections that will protect us with clean water legislation.

I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

I voted in US House/Senate elections and Presidential elections for candidates who would enact fair immigration policies.

I was naked and you gave me clothing.

I voted in school board elections for policies that would provide children clothing from schools so that children would not be bullied and could have the opportunity to learn.

I was sick and you took care of me.

I voted in OK House and Senate elections and Gubernatorial elections for persons who would enact access to quality healthcare in our state.

I was in prison and you welcomed me.

I voted in judicial elections for judges who would be honest, impartial, and fair in sentencing the guilty and releasing the innocent.

I voted because I was a registered voter.

We will assist you in providing voter registration forms to update your voter registration (change of name, address, party) or to register voters who are not currently registered. We challenge all of us to register at least 1 new voter. Pastor Olivia has already met the challenge.

What does the Lord require of us: to seek justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.

Prayer for Trauma

Dear Southminster, 

I wrote the following prayer for an interfaith vigil held last week at Morning Star Baptist Church for victims of Buffalo and Uvalde. What stood out to me from that gathering is how desperately we need space to gather and grieve and lament, and how the rapid and on-going pace of gun violence is destroying our ability to do so. I share these words below because I too need the support of our collective lament, and because I believe God is calling us as people of faith to be a strong voice for gun reform. 

O God of weeping people, right now it feels like too much to wrap our broken words around the shattered families left in the wake of this latest gun massacre. Where our words fail, be with them. 

For as people of faith, we affirm your presence with us. 

You hold us in confusion. 

You hold us in grief. 

You hold us in our trauma. 

You hold us in war. 

You hold us in political unrest. 

You hold us in disconnection. 

You hold us as we acknowledge the ways we have perpetuated systems of harm, complacency, and patriarchy, and you do not celebrate our pain, but meet us with deep compassion. 

Help us O God. Help us not rush through this horror and become numb to the violence of our nation, we have a problem. In our grief and our brokenness we cling tightly to the life of individual freedom and safety, we idolize our guns thinking they are the answer to our fear. But this is idolatry. We cannot live this way and we refuse to die this way. 

Bring us back to relationship, to community, to presence. In this deep woundedness, tend our bodies and minds and souls, like a patient gardener, help us as people of faith not to offer cheap affirmations of “thoughts and prayers” but as John Lewis put it, “when we pray, we move our feet.” 

Since the struggle deepens, since evil abides, and good does not yet prosper, let us gather what strength we have, what confidence and valor, that our small victories may end in triumph, and the world we long for, be the world we attain. Be with us as we weep, and work, and walk for your world. Amen. 

Pentecost

“Pentecost” comes from a Greek word meaning fiftieth day. On this day, the Holy Spirit came with wind and flame, empowering the disciples to proclaim the good news of the risen Lord to all people. Falling on the fiftieth day of the season of Easter, Pentecost represents the culmination of the church’s seven-week celebration of Christ’s resurrection. As the Lord's Day is sometimes called the “eighth day” of creation, Pentecost is a day of new creation—all things transformed and made new by the Word and Breath of the living God. On the Day of Pentecost we give particular thanks for the gift of God’s Holy Spirit, who gathers the church as the body of Christ and sends us to share in Christ’s mission throughout the world. 

The notion of Easter as a season of fifty days is patterned after the ancient Jewish period of seven weeks that extend from the beginning of the barley harvest, after Passover, to the end of the wheat harvest at the Festival of Weeks (in Hebrew, Shavuot). In Jewish tradition, Shavuot also marks the giving of the law to Moses at Sinai, a connection that may inform Paul’s discussion of the law and the Spirit. —Book of Common Worship. Westminster John Knox Press, 2018.

When we think of Pentecost, we usually think of dramatic visuals: tongues of fire, a cacophony of voices, a blowing of wind, or maybe a jeering crowd accusing the disciples of drunkenness. But the spectacle isn’t really what this moment is about. Floating tongues of flame aren’t the main point. They’re ornamentation that draw us in, miraculous visuals really, but the heart of the story is about breath and words. 

We often celebrate Pentecost as the birth of the church, but in the non-western traditions, there is an understanding that the church has existed since God created, and that Pentecost is not in fact just a birthday celebration, rather, the Acts Pentecost is a linguistic event which displays the power of the Holy Spirit. In the wake of Jesus’ ascension (Acts 1:9–10) we hear the Pentecost story as evidence of Jesus’ promised presence through the power of God’s own linguistic event.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about languages, about how we hear one another. Something happens when we speak each other's languages — be they cultural, political, racial or liturgical.  We experience the limits of our own perspectives.  We learn curiosity.  We discover that God's "great deeds" are far too nuanced for a single tongue, a single fluency. I have always loved ecumenism, because when I listen to and learn from my colleagues in different denominations and traditions, then I see just how expansive God is for the world. The troubles of our day—global, national, and catastrophic—cry out for the bravery of a bold and creative Church who is willing to learn to speak the languages of people all around them. Willing to listen, to pursue a phenomenon of understanding. 

It is no small thing that the Holy Spirit loosened tongues that Pentecost day. In the face of difference, God compelled people to engage. To open their mouths and with their breath expel truth, to tell of the one who came and is coming, to literally share the Good News with all people. From Day One, the call was to be present, to listen, and to meet people where they are.

At Pentecost, understanding of one another’s languages is gifted, not through human learning or manipulation, but through the grace and power of the Holy Spirit.

We serve a God who meets us in the full truth of who we are, who knows our intimate stories, our realities, who invites us with a gentle push into telling this story to others. We can be truth tellers about the story which was and which is to come, and we can learn what it means to know the stories of those around us. As we share this experience, may it ignite an experience of healing for our world.

Mission in May 2022

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, a stranger and you welcomed me.” – Matthew 25:35 



On Sunday, May 1st, I shared with the congregation about our commitment to being a Matthew 25 congregation. The Matthew 25 vision depends on passing down our faith to each generation and engaging all ages in the message of ministry with those living in the margins. Here at Southminster, we have a long history of faithfully engaging with care for our community and the world, and over the past few years, a lot of that engagement has changed. Since coming to Southminster, I have wondered about the future of our shared life and how our understanding of mission and practice would be shaped by these changes, so I am thrilled for us to step into intentional work through the Matthew 25 initiative, as we respond to God’s love for us. 

Southminster Presbyterian Church provides many ways to respond to God’s love through service to our neighbors, near and far. Just as God came to the world in love, we too are called to dedicate our lives to loving service through Christ’s body the church. During the month of May, we have an opportunity to engage deeply with our missional identity, and to plan for our collective work as we move forward. Join us during the Christian Education hour throughout the month as we discern and learn for our future. 

Grace and peace, 

Pastor Olivia