Join us in praying for EUROPE
Ireland
Thanks for praying for Ireland.
You may have seen the UK mentioned in the news recently because of its high rates of COVID-19. Unfortunately, across the sea here in Ireland, we have had a bad start to 2021 too – there was a headline in January that declared we were had the highest (per capita) number of positive cases in the whole world for that week – peaking at over 8000 new cases per day in a country with a population smaller than Sydney.
Lots of lives lost, lots of people in hospital and lots of fear.
Thankfully, numbers have steadily decreased over the last few weeks, with daily new case numbers now around 1000.
Ireland has been in strict level 5 lockdown since the end of December – with no school, only essential services open, 5km limits on travel and no meeting up with others (which means we are doing church online).
We have seen the huge toll on mental and spiritual health this is having on many, including some in our small church (please pray for “R” in particular, as she is really struggling).
But it is in darkness that the light shines out all the brighter. We are so thankful that we have an unshakable hope in Christ and ever-present help in times of trouble. He is sustaining us. And it is a privilege to hold him out as a beacon for others. Social media content we have produced and shared (studying Hebrews at the moment) has seen some engagement and we pray that there would be even more.
Join us in praying that the lasting impact of all of this is not a mere “back to normal” in Ireland (where Jesus often sits in the backseat as part of the religious landscape but has very little impact on people’s lives). Rather, pray that this serves as a shake-to-the-core moment that exposes all life’s false hopes, foundations and securities for what they are, and leads to many here in Ireland seeing their need for the real Jesus and his real hope. Maranatha!