Presbyterian Women from Cameroon Celebrate World Day of Prayer

Dr. Yves Melle

Pres­by­ter­ian women from the African nation of Cameroon res­i­dent in Auro­ra, Col­orado, USA present a map of Tai­wan they assem­bled dur­ing ser­vices mark­ing World Day of Prayer on March 26, 2023.

The World Day of Prayer is cel­e­brat­ed each year on March 1^st. It’s a day that goes unrec­og­nized in the world that we live in today. 

The Pres­by­ter­ian Church in Cameroon, as well as the Pres­by­ter­ian Church USA (PCUSA), take the day and cel­e­bra­tions seri­ous­ly. In the Den­ver, Col­orado, USA neigh­bor­ing city of Auro­ra, the com­mu­ni­ty of Cameroo­ni­ans want­ed their prayers on the mat­ter heard. 

So, the Chris­t­ian Women’s Fel­low­ship group (CWF), affil­i­at­ed with the Pres­by­ter­ian Church in Cameroon, along with a com­mu­ni­ty of Chris­tians from the Cameroon­ian home­land, gath­ered at the home of Elder Lucas Nkwelle to mark the day. They gath­ered on Sun­day, March 26 to pray for the peo­ple of Taiwan. 

Nkwelle serves in lead­er­ship at First Pres­by­ter­ian Church in Auro­ra.

Christians Practice Forgiveness, Help Those in Need

Preach­ing from Eph­esians 1:15–19, Nkwelle hailed his com­mu­ni­ty for think­ing about oth­ers, espe­cial­ly the peo­ple of Tai­wan, as the island nation strug­gles with many sorts of oppression.

Recit­ing the Lord’s Prayer, Nkwlle exhort­ed the com­mu­ni­ty to for­give one anoth­er, just as God has for­giv­en his chil­dren. He said this is how they are to live, by show­ing love for love anoth­er, and to those that they have nev­er met. 

“Often we are frus­trat­ed by dif­fi­cul­ties and obsta­cles, and may even lose hope and faith, or rely on our weak human nature. How­ev­er, we are called to keep our “hope and faith” in God’s king­dom and promis­es,” Nkwelle told the Sun­day gathering. 

The com­mu­ni­ty read psalms and sang hymns of praise and ado­ra­tion to God for Anglo­phone or Eng­lish-speak­ing Cameroo­ni­ans, whose cur­rent strug­gles Nkwelle com­pared to those in Tai­wan that are fight­ing to free them­selves from oppression.

Dressed in their tra­di­tion­al CWF attire, the women took turns read­ing state­ments of sup­port for Tai­wanese women around the world. The activ­i­ties includ­ed a puz­zle that chal­lenged the ladies to put pieces of paper togeth­er to build a map of Taiwan.

The two-hour event cul­mi­nat­ed with an invi­ta­tion to the kitchen for drinks and home­made Cameroon­ian dishes.