Welcome!
There are days when we bow our heads and pray, “Lord, send someone.” And yet our own hearts stir with a deeper question: what if the call to go begins with God sending me? This week, the gospel meets us with both challenge and comfort: there are people searching for meaning, battling loneliness, or carrying burdens they struggle to bear. And here’s the good news: we have been called to bring them hope. In our reading from Matthew (9:36-10:8), Jesus reveals the harvest and the workers needed to gather it. He gazes on the crowd with compassion, tells us to pray for laborers, and then sends his disciples with authority. Let us listen, respond, and become the answer to our own prayers.
 
Image showing the workers in the harvest going out into the world. 
  
"Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest fields."*
 
Almighty God, giver of every good gift, we confess that our hearts often hesitate at the cost of obedience. Open our eyes to the hurting around us, those searching for meaning, those battling loneliness, those carrying burdens too heavy to bear alone. Move within us to pray as Jesus taught, “Your kingdom come, your will be done,” and then to respond with hands that heal, words that comfort, and love that invites. Pour out your Spirit that we may go as living witnesses, not by our might but by your power. May we echo the words of our initiation: Here I am. Send me. In the name of Jesus, who sends us and who goes with us, Amen.
Scripture:  *Matthew 9: 37-38 (NIV)
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