Earlier this week, Presbyterian mission co-worker Cathy Chang was red-tagged in the Philippines, meaning she was publicly marked as an enemy of the government. You can read more about red-tagging and Cathy’s situation here. The following is a prayer that we, at the Presbyterian Outlook, offer for Cathy, her family, our global partners the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) and the Filipino people.
Almighty God, we pray today for the Rev. Cathy Chang, her husband Juan Lopez and their family. We give thanks for Cathy’s faithful response to her call as a mission co-worker, for her dedication to the gospel, for her passion for justice. We ask for courage for Cathy, her family, and her friends. Empower them to continue to serve you by loving others and working to bring your justice about in this world. Bless them with wisdom to know the right times and places to speak out, to know what you call them to do next. Protect them, God. We know red-tagging is a serious act with serious implications. Help them to feel your wings, like a mother hen, encase them. Help them to know they are not alone.
We pray for our global partner the UCCP. Thank you for their faithful witness, God, against injustice and human rights violations. Thank you for the joy they find in the gospel and how they share it with others. As they follow the examples of Christ and the prophets to speak out for what is right, we ask for courage, wisdom, and protection for them.
Lastly, God, we pray for the Filipino people. We give thanks for the warm, hospitable, resilient and diverse people that make up this country, which has survived generations of colonialism from Spain to the United States to the Japanese. We pray for a free and fair national election on May 9, we pray that the government officials would deny any desire for power in favor of service to the Filipino people. We pray all these things knowing that you hear us, God, knowing that Christ himself lived under an oppressive government, knowing that you are with the Filipino people as you are with Cathy as you are with the UCCP as you are with other mission co-workers as you are with us.
In your Almighty name, we pray.
