ROY — Church Women United in the Greater Ogden Area will celebrate World Day of Prayer today starting at 9:30 a.m. at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, 5560 S. 2300 West, in Roy.
The community is invited to participate either by attending the Christian meeting or by dropping off nonperishable food donations for the Joyce Hansen Hall Food Bank by about 1 p.m. at the church.
Those who attend are asked to pay a $3 donation for lunch. Participants also are asked to bring a pot luck side dish or desert.
“I Was a Stranger and You Welcomed Me” is the theme of this year’s World Day of Prayer.
“The women of France invite us to join with them in a day of prayer and blessing,” states information released by International Church Women United.
The theme is taken from Matthew 25, where Christ calls people to once again care for the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned.
Out of this list, the women of France have chosen to highlight the stranger.
The Church Women United Utah newsletter explains, “The Stranger is someone we all can relate to, as at least once in our lives we have come across a stranger and, more importantly, have been that stranger ourselves.”
“We have all been in a situation where we don’t exactly fit in,” Pam Deitsch, the spokeswoman for the Ogden group, stated in a news release about the event. “We don’t know anyone in the room. We are simply different ,and we just don’t feel comfortable.”
She said it is a blessing when someone welcomes a person in this situation.
“They have taken responsibility for us. They have relieved us of our loneliness, that awkwardness and rejection we feel, and have saved us from a moment of despair.”
Deitsch expressed the gratitude Christians have to the Savior for going out of His way to make people feel welcome.
“Let this day be the beginning of our personal mission to reach out and transform a Stranger into a Friend,” Deitsch wrote.
Deitsch offered this prayer: “Thank you, God, for the Strangers who will welcome us as Friends, the Strangers you allow us to welcome as Friends, and for the Friends you allow us to be to the Strangers who enter our lives.”
For information about Church Women United in the Greater Ogden Area, call the church at 801-825-6552 or Deitsch at 801-728-2755.
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