It's YOU ....

We held our 12th Eco Prayer Meeting at Shipley Baptist Church on 15th April.

How does God act?

We read Exodus chapter 3 verses 1-10 and Nehemiah chapters 1 and 2 and asked:

1. How does God feel about what is happening?
2. What does He do about it?
3. How does He do it?

We said:

1. God is concerned: in Moses' case he tells him this directly; in Nehemiah's case we can see that Nehemiah's concern leads to:
1. Prayer and fasting
2. Aligning his heart with God and what God wants
3. Meditating on God's description and promises from scripture and using them in his prayers
2. God rescues his people
3. God does his rescuing through people, in Nehemiah's case through a person who shows 
1. Dependence on God
2. Courage 
3. Planning and organisation

We also compared ourselves to Nehemiah:

1. What issues are on our hearts?
• Wars
• A famine of God's word
• Climate change, destruction of the earth and the systems that cause it
• Lies in politics and the public space
2. What can we do about them?
• ASK GOD what we should devote or energies to.
• Protest 
• Write to MPs/decision makers.
• Talk to others in appropriate ways about our cares and what we are trying to do about them

Some good news

• Bradford has an e-bike hire scheme and people are using them! E-bikes in general are good news for Bradford as they make cycling a much more viable option in a hilly city.
• The rise in fuel costs is causing a lot of hardship for people; there has also been a 50% rise in enquiries about solar panels. 
• We heard about one of our employers who is running a salary-sacrifice scheme to help people buy e-bikes. 

Pray

We prayed for the following things:

1. That God would show us what to devote our time to (following our study points above).
   
   
2. PEACE in Ukraine, Sudan, Congo and Iran.
   
   
3. In the UK, a new film from the National Emergency Briefing - a climate change information group - was released on 7th April. It presents the national implications of climate and nature breakdown along with action people can take in a 45 minute film designed for screening in communities across the UK. Pray that:
• People in Bradford will go to showings on May 29th in Shipley and June 13th in Thornton (you can see a map of all the screenings here).
• Groups all over the UK will take up the challenge to organise screenings.
• Voters and decision makers will heed the call to action
  
  
4. The 1st conference on Transitioning away from Fossil Fuels is hosted by Columbia and Netherlands in Santa Marta from 24th-29th April. The conference has different aims from the annual COP, focusing on:
• Participation by the willing, rather than persuading others.
• Action rather than further diagnosis.
• Solutions that meaningfully support the transition rather than delay it
  Pray that the conference members will lead the way in healing the earth.
  
  
5. Local elections in England, and assembly elections in Scotland and Wales take place on 7th May.
• Pray for campaigning to be done righteously.
• Pray for the winners to serve humbly
  
  
6. Fashion Revolution Week, organised by the Fashion Revolution Network (a global network in 75 countries) takes place from 22nd - 28th April. Pray that they will succeed in their aims of:
• Encouraging us to be more curious and informed about where our clothes come from.
• Trying to change the behaviour of producers and retailers to fight pollution, climate change and poor working conditions.

Our next meeting will be on 20th May, 7:30pm at Shipley Baptist church, use this Facebook event to advertise it.