A Precious Resource- Volunteers

It’s a sad reality that volunteering is on the decline as a cultural shift about reward expectation becomes more prevalent in our society, making all of us poorer for it.

As the shape and size of volunteering changes so should the expectations and value we place in our existing volunteers.

Some sectors that have traditionally relied heavily on volunteers, like Aged Care, are facing increasing pressures that can be measured not only as a diminishing human resource but by the poverty of human connectedness people experience. Feelings of loneliness, hopelessness, worthlessness and sadness are experienced most profoundly by the vulnerable, like the elderly.

Not only should organisations make very obvious expressions of appreciation to volunteers who faithfully serve, but they should encourage all stakeholders, including residents in aged care, to show evidence of appreciation.

A way to do this is to intentionally pray for the volunteers who serve among them, not as a token gesture but evidenced by constantly doing it, and letting them know that you do. Volunteers need to know that their efforts are noticed and appreciated and that they are supported in genuine prayers of thanks for them.

If you live or work in the Aged Care Sector, encourage those among you, who share similar values, to intentionally pray for your volunteers.

I invite you to actively listen to this prayer of thanks for our volunteers and listen to it regularly in your support and thanks for them.

Prayer of Thanks For Volunteers (female voice)

Prayer of Thanks For Volunteers (male voice)

A variety of audio prayers can be found at PrayerConnect

Listening on PrayerConnect Without it AutoPlaying Prayers – How?

Good question. For Chaplains and Pastoral Care workers who want a stand alone prayer played from PrayerConnect for a particular occasion without it AutoPlaying, here is a short tutorial of a couple of easy ways to do it.

  1. Sharing

Share the episode to yourself or others via the share options. Say you want to share the Prayer of Thanksgiving, go to www.prayerconnect247.podomatic.com

  • Select the “send to friends” link.
  • Select episode (selecting podcast will share all prayers) so just select “episode”.
  • From the dropdown list select Prayer of Thanksgiving.
  • Copy link from the “share link:” option or select one of the social media options.
  • Paste the link into your preferred media (email or other).
  • Send.
  • Open link from the media you have received (email or other) and then play.

2. Playing from the PrayerConnect page on podomatic.

  • Select “permalink” link from PrayerConnect’s page- this opens the player.
  • Select play on the podomatic player.

Success! You have achieved listening to a single prayer recording from PrayerConnect.

Central Queensland Residents Excited About PrayerConnect

A week ago now we received the long awaited prayer recordings that were being produced by a wonderful lady, Mel Fry.

Mel works at SeaFM and also does some work at MixFM but also does programing and editing work at SaltFM on the Sunshine Coast Queensland Australia, where the prayer recordings were produced.

Residents who live at the Lutheran Services Aged Care home in Central Queensland, who attend a Wednesday morning prayer group, have been very much part of the project to get the prayers that they normally pray, recorded for personal and public use. These prayer recordings will assist them, and also other residents who live in the Aged Care sector throughout Australia and beyond, keep engaged in the ministry of prayer.

Prayer is central to our engagement with our God, and is both personal and public, intimate and shared. For people who want to engage in prayer they can continue to fully participate in corporate prayer and private times of prayer through active listening to these recordings.

It has been said that creativeness and inspiration happens naturally when you are influenced by inspirational people. The Wednesday morning prayer group in Central Queensland, both present and passed residents, are the inspiration for this new resource that we are all blessed to access.

A big thanks to Mel Fry, who worked so hard to produce this high quality resource for us, and also thanks to the volunteers who set time aside from their professional roles to bless us with their voices.

Joanne Ellsum, Fiona Cameron, Richard Daniel, Steve Dunster & Bill Forward, you have blessed us indeed.

Since becoming available the PrayerConnect prayers have been accessed by more than 350 people which is encouraging. 

To follow us please click on these links:

www.prayerconnect247.podomatic.com       

 If you are on Facebook please “like” the PrayerConnect page.          

 www.facebook.com/prayerconnect247  

Radio Producer and Announcer Mel Fry

Love & Prayer

Never too old to serve

In a popular children’s book, Winnie the Pooh watched Kanga bound away. I wish I could jump like that, he thinks. Some can and some can’t. That’s how it is. 

We see younger and more able men and women doing extraordinary things that we cannot do. They can; we can’t. That’s how it is. It’s easy to feel useless when we can’t do the things we were once capable of doing.

It’s true that we may not be able to “jump” like we once did, but we can love and pray. These are the works that time and experience have prepared us to do well.

A good friend of mine and mentor in my early years was, George Piper. George was lay clergy for the local Anglican parish . He was one of the few people I knew that could preach a sermon without notes and do it better than those with notes. So respected was George, that he became the confidant of many pastors and ministers from across all the church denominations, which included him being the chaplain to the Anglican bishop. He was known as the pastor’s pastor.

When George was well into his eighties he understandably was not able to keep up with his hectic schedule. Retirement from ministry was out of the question, so he took up the ministry of prayer. Every morning he would wake at 4am and bring out his book with the names of those he had committed to support in prayer, and he would spend the next several hours praying for them. George was so committed to the importance of prayer he started to invite others to join him, and they did.

The local pastors and ministers attributed the success of their ministries to this one powerhouse of a prayerful man, who willingly and lovingly committed himself to serve them in this way.                                 

George didn’t pray out of some kind of duty either, he prayed because he genuinely loved others and he understood the importance of prayer. It didn’t matter if you were the bishop or a humble labourer at the steel works, George was the loving, prayerful servant of all.

Love is the very best gift we have to give to God and to others. It is no small matter, for love is the means by which we fulfil our whole duty to God and our neighbour.

Put love and prayer together and they are the mightiest work any of us can do. Why? Because our God, who wants to use us, is an all- loving and powerful God who wants to hear from us in prayer and see his will fulfilled in us with what we do.

Never feel that you have passed your use-by date. God doesn’t think you have.

 James 5:16- Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

 Psalm 92:14 –  They shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing.

About Us

PrayerConnect has come about through the Prayer Initiative project at Lutheran Services Chaplaincy to help engage those who participate in the ministry of prayer.

Prayer gatherings are a wonderful opportunity older people have where they participate willingly and continue to serve and exercise the Christian discipline of prayer.

We believe that corporate prayer should be made available to everyone and that declining health should not prohibit anyones participation and we endeavour to facilitate continued improvement so that existing and new participants are able to fully engage joyfully in prayer.

In the coming weeks we are going to make available resources that will assist not just older citizens but anyone wanting to engage more in prayer. The project has always had a non denominational purpose so it is envisaged that PrayerConnect is for everyone with an interest in prayer.

PrayerConnect encourages innovation, suggestions and your feedback in order to be able to serve the larger Christian community. We are a small part of a wider Christian community that connects with the Lord in times of intimate prayer.

Looking forward to serving you and working with you.