© Annie Griffiths Belt for CWS - not for reuse

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The faces and stories found in the Church World Service Calendar invite us to enter the daily struggle of impoverished peoples for dignity and justice. Month after month, year after year, for six decades, CWS has walked with people in need as they confront war, disease, and poverty.

Use these devotions for personal reflection or as a prayerful beginning to a meeting (CROP Walk Recruiter’s Orientation, mission committee, women’s group, ministerial association, etc.). Click on a month above. Focus on the photo. Allow your imagination to enter the world of the person(s) you are seeing. What feelings, thoughts, questions arise? Then read the text to enlarge the context of the photo. Notice how your impressions change as you read. If you are leading a group devotion, discuss your reactions briefly. Ask someone to read the closing prayer or make copies and say it together.

Graphic: Rini Templeton

As you prepare to come face to face with the creative, resilient persons found in the CWS calendar, reflect on this parable from our Jewish sisters and brothers:

An old rabbi once asked his pupils how they could tell when the night had ended and day had begun. "Could it be," asked on student, "when you can see an animal in the distance and tell whether it is a sheep or a dog?"

"No," answered the rabbi.

Another asked, "Is it when you can look at a tree in the distance and tell whether it's a fig or a peach tree?"

"No," answered the rabbi.

"Then when is it?" the pupils demanded.

"It is when you can look on the face of any woman or man and see your sister or brother. Because if you cannot see this, it is still night."

From Martin Buber’s Tales of the Hasidim. Schocken Books: New York, 1991

Sources:

Pakistan prayer from With All God's People: The New Ecumenical Prayer Cycle. Compiled by John Carder. World Council of Churches: Geneva, 1989.

Scriptural Quotations from The New Revised Standard Version © 1989, The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.

Calendar text by Karen Kostyal. Produced by Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, 28606 Phillips St., Elkhart, IN 46515. Copies of the CWS calendar can be purchased online, or from the address above for $10.00 each (Add $3.00 for shipping).