A Prayer For OFWs : ~ GUMAMELA SA PARAISO ~

A Prayer For OFWs

Dear God,

You crossed every border between divinity and humanity to make your home with us. Bless our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters who have travelled to foreign lands with faith in their heart leaving their families behind as they break through the barriers of people, cultures, and languages to escape oppression and poverty.

There are many things going on that are beyond us even with our collective power. We come to thee in supplication and heartfelt pleadings as we are mindful of the ordeals of others.

We thank thee for hearing the prayers of your people as China grant reprieve to our three OFWs and may the Chinese government grant a lesser penalty to their case.

We pray for the thousands of OFWs who were incarcerated and imprisoned in the Middle East, Asia and other continents, may thou please grant them the chance to get back to their families and find a new life, justice and freedom as they entrust their lives into thy hands. May Thou enlighten our leaders to put the plights of distressed OFWs as a priority and withdraw from plans to cut the DFA social service and legal assistance funds.

We pray to Thee that our OFWs in Taiwan will soon be reprieved of taking all the heat of the current Taiwan-Philippines rift. May the government emissary would soon find resolution to this issue so that those more than five thousand scheduled for deployment will now be allowed to take on their jobs, and the nearly a hundred thousand currently employed may keep their jobs and be able to sustain their families.

We pray that may Thou please keep our overseas Filipinos safe in the escalating conflict in countries where democratic renaissance in Muslim nations is unfolding from Morocco, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain and Libya as they await the immediate repatriation efforts being taken by our government agencies.

We pray for Thy protection and guidance of the more than thirty thousand OFW’s in Libya. May their families in the Philippines be freed from fear and worries of their condition and that the OFWs safety is assured despite the worsening condition.

We pray that may Thou save from harm our Filipino workers in war torn countries of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as OFWs in Nigeria, Somalia, Lebanon and Jordan, who have taken great risks to continue their fight against poverty to support their families in the Philippines despite of the work deployment ban imposed in these countries.

We pray for the safety of the Filipino nurses trapped in the rubbles during the earthquake in New Zealand, and the rest of the OFWs and Expats around the world who are suffering from natural calamities, diseases and injustices that they may find comfort through faith in Thee.

Hear our prayer Lord, to end the corruption that has become the plague of our nation, to end poverty that afflicts and besets Thy people, to end violence and war that displaces millions of our Filipinos from their homes, which separate, divide and break families.

As we await for the signs of time when the Filipinos around the world, the fathers and mothers brothers and sisters, and sons and daughters may be reunited as one happy family.

We pray for Thine tender love and kind mercy, with our faith, with our hope, with our love to thee, we pray for power greater than us all, we pray for divine intervention.

This is a joint call from the Pinoy Expats/OFW Blog Awards, or PEBA, Inc, along with its 300+ KABLOGS, the RMN News Bantay OFW radio program and the Blas Ople Policy Center and we are asking for your prayers or support by reposting this to your blog, posting this link in your FB, Friendster and Twitter accounts or sending this as email to your networks.

The original photo where the image was taken in this post was an official entry by Erwin Serrano from Riyadh Saudi Arabia, 10th rank winner to the 2010 PEBA International Photo Contest.