what to do?

On weekend days, I've tried to make it my regular practice to pray for 'world affairs' or however you'd like to put it...international events, for God to alleviate suffering. For years now, since at least the early 1990s, I've felt like Sudan has been somewhere I've been concerned about, like a 'burden' (to put it in a sort of super-spiritual way) for the country.

This morning, I read another account, from the NY Times, detailing the recent increase in violence between the many warring factions there in the country, and how folks have been affected. And this right after an apparent November 9th peace accord reached in Nigeria about the situations there.

People were once again on the move, mostly women and children. One woman's plight that is told about in the story was related. She was making breakfast when she heard warplanes circling overhead. She dropped what she was doing, gathered her children and her mother, and fled. When she was well along her way to the next refugee camp, she looked around and realized two of her children were not with her...simply gone.

God, please bring peace to this place, and bring back this woman's children. I don't know what I would do if this happened to me. Some accounting must be made for this misery someday. God, have mercy on us. Give us insight, direction! How can we live so that we make a difference, even in places so far removed from one another? Ignorance of such issues would be bliss, but the 'convenience' of the newspapers brings new burdens (this not in the super-spiritual sense at all). Help us bear them for others.

Lord, how long will you look away?