Cindy Wood-Weeldryer
The year 2020 is a tumultuous one and each day the world seems to get even crazier!
Our society is under siege by natural disasters, social unrest, clashing political parties and world views, a global pandemic that created sudden unemployment, economic uncertainty and major disruptions to our supply chains.
We have a growing mental-health crisis, and, as crime increases, some want to defund law enforcement. Religious liberty is threatened with government overreach and with the rise of a “cancel culture” to silence those with different views.
I believe God is using these awful events to get our attention and to direct us back to the ancient Biblical principles our country was founded upon. After extensive planning, on Saturday, Sept. 26, people from across the nation and around the world will participate in “The Return,” a Day of Prayer and Repentance centered in Washington D.C. There are also local observances happening in communities around the country, including here in south Lane County.
Jonathan Cahn, one of the event’s chief organizers, makes this statement at the beginning of an introductory video: “As a nation we are standing at a pivotal moment in American and world history … a moment that can permanently seal our nation’s course, and the course of the world for good, for bad, for calamity, or for redemption.” I invite you to hear his entire video message on YouTube.
Area churches are organizing a local observance of this Day of Prayer and Repentance at 6:30 p.m. in the Bohemia Park amphitheater. It features a time of worship followed by small prayer groups spreading out across the park to pray for many things: Unity among all believers, wisdom for state and national leaders, divine solutions to difficult social issues, an end to the violence happening around the country, protection for our first responders, an end to the Coronavirus and for the safety of healthcare workers, wisdom for church leaders, and for God’s will in local, state and national elections.
We will also offer prayers of repentance. For all of God’s people to humble ourselves and turn away from unholy attitudes, appetites, ambitions and actions, bitterness, unforgiveness, and judgmental attitudes. We will pray for the return of prodigal sons and daughters. We will pray for God’s kingdom to be established in the earth revealing His presence, purposes, plans, priorities and prospective. We will pray for the church to be sensitive to our community’s needs and that it will fulfill the Biblical mandate of “being salt and light in our culture”.
I believe God is giving The Church of Jesus Christ in America a “do-over” for the soul-saving opportunities it missed following the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. I am personally praying that Bohemia Park will be filled on the evening of Sept. 26 with motivated Christ-followers from throughout south Lane County and beyond who say, “Enough!” and are now ready to seriously engage in the powerful spiritual battles that threaten our beliefs, our country and our souls.
Won’t you please join me there?
Cindy Wood-Weeldryer is Bohemia Mining Days’ festival coordinator, Editor & Publisher of Around The Grove Community News and a radio host on KNND.
