Beaded bracelet call to prayer

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At the conclusion of our very first trip to Tungamalenga, our partners asked us to promise to pray for them, and they proposed that we name one day each week as a day of prayer for the partnership. Every Thursday will be the day of prayer, we agreed.
Today is Ash Wednesday and at Shepherd of the Valley prayer is the theme of our Lenten worship series. So I asked some people who have been part of this partnership to share their stories of how prayer for the people of Tungamalenga has been part of their experience of this partnership. I've received interesting responses which I'll share here over the next weeks of Lent.
Pastor Randy Brandt talked about a daily reminder to recall the wider family of God.
Yes, I have a bookmark with the picture and name of Tungamalenga Evangelist Nicholas Mvena. It is an invitation and reminder for me to support Nicholas in prayer. And I occasionally actually follow through and pray! But what has ended up being my daily link with our partners in Tanzania is a small beaded bracelet I received at the Maasai preaching point at Namelok. I've had it on my wrist ever since. It reminds me when waking, when working, when sliding my shirt sleeve over it in the morning and evening that I have brothers and sisters in Tanzania.
Sometimes I offer a brief word of thanks, and sometimes an intercession for health. But the reminder is something I experience: my wrist is literally encircled by our partnership and my prayer is that the Holy Spirit's presence and power encircles our friends in Tungamalenga, in their work and play, in their homes, fields, and church, in all of their ways!

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