Watch Pray

[Shanta Plansinis]

Watchand pray

These two are very justly put together. There is, and ought to be, a watching before prayer, and "unto" it; a watching all opportunities, the most suitable and convenient to perform it; and there is a watching in it, both over our hearts, thoughts, words, and gestures, and after it, for a return of it, and answer to it: the reason of this exhortation follows,

that ye enter not into temptation;

not that they might not be tempted at all; for none of the saints have been, or are without temptations; and they are needful for them; and it is the will of God they should be attended with them; and he has made gracious provisions for their help and relief under them; but that they might not enter into them, throw themselves in the way of temptation, be surprised by them at an unawares, fall into them headlong, be immersed in them, fall by them, and be overcome with them, so as to forsake Christ, or to deny him:

the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak:

meaning either that the evil spirit Satan was very desirous of having them in his hands; very forward and ready to make the onset upon them; was cheerful, alert, and confident of victory; and was strong, robust, and powerful; and they were but flesh and blood, very weak and infirm, and unequal to the enemy; which is a sense not to be despised, seeing it carries in it a very strong reason why they ought to watch and pray, lest they fall into the temptations of such a powerful adversary; see ( Ephesians 6:12 ) ( 1 Peter 5:8 ) , or else by "spirit" may be meant the soul, as renewed and regenerated by the spirit of God; particularly the principle of grace in it, which is born of the Spirit, and is called by the same name, and which lusts against the flesh, or corrupt nature: this was willing to watch and pray, and guard against falling into temptations; was willing to abide by Christ, and express its love to him every way; but "the flesh", or "body", so the Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions read, is "weak" and infirm, prone to sleep, indulges ease, and unfit to bear trouble, but ready to sink under it, and is for fleeing from it: and so the words contain our Lord's excuse of his disciples in their present circumstances. Munster's Hebrew Gospel reads the words thus, and "indeed the spirit is (tdqwv) , watchful, but the flesh is weak". The Ethiopic version after this manner, "the spirit desires, and the body is fatigued". The Persic version, contrary both to the letter and sense of the words, renders them, "my spirit is firm, but my body is infirm".

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Watch and Pray invites us to seek God in both familiar and unfamiliar places this Lent: in darkness and in quiet; in movement and migration; in the healing and transforming work of the Spirit; in the weeping of Holy Week and in the joy of Easter morning.

The Archbishops' Young Leader Award has six weeks of collective worship resources for schools including liturgical suggestions, Bible passage activity, video exploration, practical and prayerful actions, and additional ideas for connecting home, church and school.

While we love children, we are respectful of the time needed by teachers before and after instructional hours to focus on their responsibilities without distraction. Thus, we have assured administration that KW volunteers will not bring infants/preschoolers with them.

God is giving parents the peace of knowing that their child and teacher, in addition to the whole school community, are being covered in prayer. God is the one who has the power to change hearts and circumstances, so we bring our requests to Him.

Urgent comes alongside indigenous believers in some of the hardest to reach places on earth. There, we seek to make disciples, multiply churches and provide humanitarian relief in ways that are biblically faithful and practically effective.

I think about my life today, your life today. We are moments away from wrecking our lives. If we are not spiritually alert, if we are not sensitive to temptation that is lurking around the corner, and if we are not walking diligently with Jesus in His spirit, according to His word, there is an adversary who today wants to wreck our lives. He wants to destroy our lives, our families, our relationships, our witness.

God, we pray that you would guard us, keep us, hold us fast in you all day long today. And help us not to enter into temptation today, to resist temptation, to flee sin and temptation in every way as you taught us to pray. Jesus, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

The October attacks were against Rohingya and Kaman Muslimcommunities and were organized, incited, and committed by local Arakanese politicalparty operatives, the Buddhist monkhood, and ordinary Arakanese, at timesdirectly supported by state security forces. Rohingya men, women, and childrenwere killed, some were buried in mass graves, and their villages andneighborhoods were razed. While the state security forces in some instancesintervened to prevent violence and protect fleeing Muslims, more frequentlythey stood aside during attacks or directly supported the assailants,committing killings and other abuses. In the months since the violence, theBurmese government of President Thein Sein has taken no serious steps to holdaccountable those responsible or to prevent future outbreaks of violence.

The violence since June displaced at least 125,000 Rohingyaand other Muslims, and a smaller number of Arakanese, to internally displacedperson (IDP) camps. Many of the displaced Muslims have been living inovercrowded camps that lack adequate food, shelter, water and sanitation, and medicalcare. Security forces in some areas have provided protection to displacedMuslims, but more typically they have acted as their jailers, preventing accessto markets, livelihoods, and humanitarian assistance, for which many are indesperate need.

In the Aung Mingalar area of Sittwe, the Arakan Statecapital, the government has imposed such severe restrictions on the remainingMuslim residents that they are effectively locked up in their own neighborhood.United Nations officials have been denied access to them.

The violence in October was clearly much more organized andplanned. For months, local Arakanese political party officials and seniorBuddhist monks publicly vilified the Rohingya population and described them asa threat to Arakan State. On October 23, thousands of Arakanese men armed withmachetes, swords, homemade guns, Molotov cocktails, and other weapons descendedupon and attacked Muslim villages in nine townships throughout the state. Statesecurity forces either failed to intervene or participated directly in theviolence. In some cases attacks occurred simultaneously in townships separatedby considerable distance.

In the deadliest incident, on October 23 at least 70Rohingya were killed in a massacre in Yan Thei village in Mrauk-U Township. Despiteadvance warning of the attack, only a small number of riot police, localpolice, and army soldiers were on duty to provide security. Instead ofpreventing the attack by the Arakanese mob or escorting the villagers to safety,they assisted the killings by disarming the Rohingya of their sticks and otherrudimentary weapons they carried to defend themselves.

The violence in Yan Thei began at 6:30 a.m. and lasted allday until army reinforcements arrived and finally intervened at 5 p.m. Includedin the death toll were 28 children who were hacked to death, including 13 underage 5.

Satellite images obtained by Human Rights Watch from just 5of the 13 townships that experienced violence since June 2012 show 27 uniquezones of destruction. Images of affected areas in Sittwe, depicting destructionthat occurred in June 2012, show 2,558 destroyed structures. Those from 4 ofthe 9 townships that experienced violence in October show 2,304 destroyedstructures. This partial picture of the violence means that at least 4,862structures were destroyed in Arakan State since June, altogether covering 348acres of mostly residential property.

Since June, local authorities, politicians, and monks haveacted, often through public statements and force, to prevent the Rohingya andKaman populations in their midst from conducting ordinary day-to-day activities.They have denied Muslims their rights to freedom of movement, opportunities to earna living, and access to markets and to humanitarian aid. The apparent goal hasbeen to coerce them to abandon their homes and leave the area.

Crimes against humanity included killings, forciblepopulation transfers and deportation, persecution, and other violence that werewidespread, systematic, and directed at the Muslim population. The many publicstatements and documents from political and religious leaders demonstrated apolicy of committing crimes against humanity. The use of terror-inspiringtactics by Arakanese mobs shows intent to commit ethnic cleansing.

Human Rights Watch found no indications that the Burmese governmenthas seriously investigated or taken legal action against those responsible forplanning, organizing, or participating in the violence either in June orOctober. This absence of accountability lends credence to allegations that thiswas a government-supported campaign of ethnic cleansing in which crimes againsthumanity were committed. Security forces have actively impeded accountabilityand justice by overseeing or ordering the digging of mass graves, or by diggingmass graves themselves, in some cases after killings involving state securityforces.

Arakan State is now in the midst of a major humanitariancrisis. While the Burmese government has hosted high-profile diplomatic visitsto displacement sites in an apparent show of commitment to the needs of thoseaffected by the violence, it has simultaneously obstructed the delivery ofhumanitarian aid, leading to an unknown number of preventable deaths. Tens of thousandsof Rohingya have fled the country by sea with hopes of reaching Bangladesh,Malaysia, or Thailand, and many thousands more appear ready to do the same.

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