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John Piper writes up 6 responses to the recent cyclone in Myan­mar and the dev­as­ta­tion in its wake. As usual, Piper is par­tic­u­larly sharp when encour­ag­ing Bib­li­cal prayer. Some excerpts:

…
2. Pray for the fol­low­ers of Christ in Myanmar:

• That they would be still and know that God is God (Psalm 46:10; 100:3).
• That they would be awak­ened from the illu­sion that this life is long or sure or the main point of eter­nal exis­tence (James 4:14).…

3. Pray for the mil­lions of unbe­liev­ers near the calamity and far from it:

• That they would see the help­less­ness of man before the Power that rules the world and fly to Christ who alone deliv­ers from the final cyclone of God’s wrath (1 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 1:10).…

4. Pray for those of us who live in the seem­ing secu­rity and pros­per­ity of America:

• That we would see what is about to break over us in due time — either col­lec­tively as God removes the hand of his prov­i­den­tial restraint, or indi­vid­u­ally as one by one we are whisked to the hos­pi­tal, then wheeled to the nurs­ing home, and then car­ried to the funeral home (Hebrews 9:27).
• That mil­lions would be made to see this and repent from the adul­tery of trea­sur­ing any­thing more than Christ (James 4:4).…

Read the whole post from Piper.

I’m also greatly encour­aged that our denom­i­na­tion has been work­ing hard on get­ting imme­di­ate relief into the coun­try, espe­cially when there are so many polit­i­cal obsta­cles. Some details from our denomination:

Under the direc­tion of the EFCA Touch­Global Cri­sis Response team, Reach­Global staff in Asia and our min­istry part­ners in Myan­mar, we are mak­ing prepa­ra­tions to assist those most severely affected by this dev­as­tat­ing event. The imme­di­ate need is fund­ing to begin the process of rebuild­ing lives in this area of the world. We want to show com­pas­sion to those most in need and through the efforts of our min­istry part­ners and the gen­er­ous sup­port of our churches here in the United States, lives will be transformed.

God has shown favor to Reach­Global by allow­ing us to develop an excit­ing min­istry part­ner­ship with the Evan­gel­i­cal Free Church of Myan­mar. This part­ner­ship has posi­tioned us well for respond­ing to this dis­as­ter with peo­ple in-country who can effec­tively meet the needs of their fel­low citizens.…

We have estab­lished the Myan­mar Dis­as­ter Relief fund and are accept­ing dona­tions. Please send checks to:
Myan­mar Dis­as­ter Relief Fund #21709 – 3989
901 E 78th Street
Min­neapo­lis MN 55420

And finally, if you’re wor­ship­ing with us locally, CEFC will also help chan­nel relief help through Touch­Global to part­ner churches in Myan­mar. I am espe­cially moved that we can help empower local peo­ple to meet local needs. May God have mercy on us all.