The Scottish Government and the Church of Scotland is dedicating the year 2018 to the Young People. In celebration of the young people, the Church of Scotland began creating Prayer Cards, and the RCH has contributed to this project with four of our own young people.
“Let the children come to me, and do not stop them, because the Kingdom of God belong to such as these” Matthew 19:14.
As part of the movement, the Church of Scotland started Prayer Cards which would include a prayer written by young people for young people. In partnership with the Church of Scotland, the Reformed Church in Hungary (RCH) joined the project with four Reformed young people, Eszter Baranyi and Viola Erbach from the Reformed Church in Transcarpathia in Ukraine, and Zoltán Gyenes and Anna Bálint from the Hungarian Reformed Church.
The Year of the Young People 2018 aims to inspire through the young people by celebrating their achievements, valuing their contribution to communities, and creating new opportunities for them to shine locally, nationally, and globally. Amongst the opportunities and challenges that this year will offer, there will be time to reflect with the children and young people on what faith means in today’s society and what we can do to make faith authentic and relevant. A group of young people identified six core themes for churches to explore: participation, education, health and wellbeing, equality and discrimination, enterprise and regeneration, and culture. The movement encourages participants to take the pledge to: explore ways to engage with under 25s (young people), increase participation of young people, celebrate all that they are, and pray for the children and young people in the church and in our communities.
Prayers of youth from the Hungarian Reformed Church
God of all creation – Creator of us,
Let us put our short past, our long and unknown future, but mainly our little trust into your healing embrace; and please, take it back from us, when we rip it out from your hand again and again.
Amen.
I am Anna Bálint from Maglód, Hungary, I am 23 years old, and I study in the Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary as a reformed pastor and theologian. I have spent a year in Rome, where I have studied interreligious dialogue and ecumenism.
Our Heavenly Father,
We bring before you our dreams and hopes, our ambitions and aspirations. Our hopes of bringing your comfort into this lonely and broken word, our dreams of restoring the wholeness of our scattered reality.
Standing in unity across the globe, we young Christians of the 21st century pray for your guidance. We lift of our voices to you, so we can see the path you have set for all of us, individually as well as together. We lift our voices up, so then those whose young voices are being silenced, whose wings are being clipped, whose hopes are being taken away, may be heard, may be healed and restored. We pray for those brothers and sisters of ours, whose daydreams have been restored by nightmares, whose peace was interrupted by wars, whose careless days of youth turned into adulthood all too sudden.
We pray for silence within our souls, so then we can hear your voice and follow your calling, wherever it may take us. We pray for strength, so then we can fulfill the plans you have outlined for us, for courage so we can take on the challenges of life.
In the name of your, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen
My name is Viola Erbach, born and raised in Ukraine, by a bilingual family, now living in Hungary. After spending my year abroad in Scotland. I'm fairly certain, that my heart will always belong to the Scottish Highlands.
I am currently finishing up my theological education at the Theological University of Debrecen in Hungary, with dreams of being a youth minister in the growing Ukrainian Reformed community.
Viola is member of the Reformed Church in Transcarpathia.
Dear Father!
Your love is so amazing. We want to express our thanksgiving for the talents you have given us, the family we have, and the health that You have given and continue to give us. So often we forget the little things in our lives, which are, in fact, big miracles. Thank you for our friends and for the young people who are around us. We ask that you will use us in your plans. Open the hearts of the people who have never met You, and give us courage to speak to them about You as we have opportunities. Show your ways and we will walk in them.
We are grateful that you listen to our prayers, and that You speak to us through your Word.
In Jesus’s name,
Amen.
My name is Zoltán Gyenes. I’m 23 years old, studying electrical engineering at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, as a first year student on MSc. Paralelly I’m also a student at a music conservatoire. I have played the clarinet for 13 years, and I really enjoy it. At the university, we have a Bible study group (Hungarian IFES) that I am part of. I like playing football and every ball games. I always stand for righteousness as Jesus said: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Matthew 5.6
Dear God, You are the King who see the potentials in us better than anyone in this world. You see the strength, perseverance and fire which derived from our youth. Use these to build Your Kingdom. Use us to lead our families and friends to You. Many times we stubbornly walk on our own way, thinking we know better. Sometimes the world does not allow listening to your voice, or we refuse to hear. Show the way, what you advice to us. Show us Jesus in every storm and rainbow of our lives. Let us breathe with You.
Amen.
I am Eszter Baranyi from Ukraine, 21 years old. I am member of the Reformed Church in Transcarpathia, Ukraine. I serve where and how I can – with talking, praying, writing, playing the piano, smiling, helping. Now I am a volunteer in Germany. My philosophy has always been: Ebenezer: Thus far the Lord has helped us. It is still that.
Source:Church of Scotland
Edited by Priscilla Yang