GLOBAL WEEK OF PRAYER - Day 3

        Asia-Pacific Region

PRAISES

    Praise for individuals across the region who are being called to missionary and pastoral service and those who have begun to serve.
    The Australia-New Zealand Field worked in collaboration with the New Zealand Tear Fund and New Zealand government to raise funds for the Kudjip Nazarene Hospital in Papua New Guinea. Together they raised US$245,000 to help with the Covid-19 response in the Papua New Guinea Highlands.
    The Philippines-Micronesia Field raised funds amounting to US$4,400 for Myanmar to be given to the districts and to the 17 students at Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary unable to return home due to the pandemic and the civil unrest in Myanmar.
    The Sealands Field distributed over 4,000 lunches to their neighbors in need during the pandemic sharing the gospel in a practical way.

  REQUESTS

    Pray that NMI’s Five Areas of Impact may be supported by the local churches on the Asia-Pacific region.
    Pray for the South East Asia Field and Chapman International College to achieve goals of having 500 churches, 80 campus extension centers, and 15,000 full members by 2025.

STORY OF PRAISE
The following is a testimony of one of our Nazarene pastors on the Sealands Field. Throughout the pandemic, he has served his community as part of a special "Covid-19 burial squad," that works late at night burying those who have died of Covid-19.

"When Covid-19 hit Indonesia and began to take its toll on our people, bodies were being buried in unnatural and un-cultural ways.
Government officers would "plant the body" while no family members were allowed to come close and no pastors or priests dared get close enough for a burial service.

When one of our faithful members died of Covid-19, I went to the burial site and watched from a distance. I saw his body being stacked with others like an animal by workers using heavy equipment.

I requested permission to bury the bodies in a more compassionate way.  When I began, no priests or pastors were willing to pick up the bodies of Covid-19 positive patients who had died at home.  I buried people who did not have a pastor who was willing to bury them.

The task become most difficult when 200 people were dying every day from Covid-19.  I thank God I was able to serve my community this way.”