FASTING & PRAYER for HAITI by PRESIDENT PREVAL
“If my people who are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray… then I will heal their land.”
This account of a President calling his nation to a time of prayer and fasting–really moved my heart today. It’s like… wow! That’s different. Asking people to not eat and pray instead, when they are already devastated is kind of radical leadership.
We don’t pray enough in America. I know I don’t. Excuse the cheesy narration guy in this video clip. But I like the sentiment, of gathering as a people and praying for nations. Because, whether we admit it or not… we live in times… where something supernatural (bigger than human leadership can offer alone) needs to happen on behalf of many nations in the world, including us.
I’ve suddenly looked at President Preval in a new light. If you compare Preval’s handling of the Haiti quake over the current Chilean President’s approach, Preval’s prayers have been answered in a remarkable way… where as Chile still needs much love.
When the President of Haiti, called for a time of prayer and fasting. 1 million Haitians responded to this call to pray (that’s 1 in 10 of the country’s population, a 10th). No one knew at that time, that the Haitian death toll would total 250,000 people. Or for every person who was dead, 4 Haitians prayed for their nation.
The value of a sense of spiritual life in Haiti is… four living citizens will pray for their nation’s healing, future and well being, over every 1 person dead. Perhaps if we pray more anyway for the country we live in, less people will die as a result. Prayer unities community. Praying for community, unites an individual to their community in spirit, and a sense of soul investment. That’s what’s missing in many Western nations. Soul investment at grass roots level of nationhood, which can make shared global community stronger, when the need arises.
On Horiwood.Com, I try and identify world trends. President Preval, set a very worthy world trend in my book, in the face of national disaster. He prayed. He got his peoples attention off the devastation, their loss and their woe-is-me selves, and he asked them to pray and focus on the future, that didn’t yet exist, but that 1 million Haitians created spiritually in prayer together.
That’s a hot trend we’ll see more of in the days to come. The trick to building on Preval’s great leadership for Haiti is to pray for our communities of the world long before, a disaster ever hits.
I’m going to pray more. Starting with five minutes a day. The fasting part… um, not so much, just yet! :)
~Posted by Horiwood.Com, Hollywood California USA. 3.4.2010~
