August 2024 Prayer and Praise Calendar

August 2024 Prayer and Praise Calendar

You can download the August 2024 prayer calendar here.

Week One:

  • August 1 – Thank you, Lord, for bringing all of the nurses and families of nurses to the NCFI World Congress in Malaga, Spain. We are grateful for the wonderful community experienced with new colleagues and friends worldwide.
  • August 2 – We thank God for his gracious provision and faithfulness for the ministry of Nurses Christian Fellowship. We are blessed by those who pray and give to support this ministry. Lord, help us to follow as you lead.
  • August 3 – God used our July 2024 Journal Club, The Gamut of Grief: Supporting Patients and Families with Hope, in incredible ways. Kathy Schoonover-Shoffner (NCF’s National Director) and Diane Stegmeir (JCN featured author) provided practical ways to assess and support those at risk of complex grief. Pray for God to use the article and the information shared to encourage and equip nurses to meet the needs of individuals and families in pain.

 

Week Two:

  • August 4 – Jenny Choi, NCF’s Associate Director of Marketing, asks for prayer for her friend, Lisa. Lisa has been having many health issues and was misdiagnosed over the past few months. Her medical team now suspects she has a fungal infection growing in her lungs due to aspirated food. Please pray for the new medications to work and to resolve the issues she’s experiencing. We ask for a full recovery for her.
  • August 5 – We praise God for answered prayers during the week-long “Fortifying the Vision” training of NCF and Journal of Christian Nursing staff. There was a renewed sense of teamwork and connection among participants. God spoke through our daily time in the Word and as we prayed for one another and for this ministry. We thank Kathy Schoonover-Shoffner (NCF’s National Director), Jen Wojtysiak (NCF’s Associate National Director), and Lara Kaiser (NCF’s Student Ministries Associate Director) for their leadership and work in the content shared and for leading our discussions.
  • August 6 – Lara Kaiser has vacation time scheduled this month with both sides of her family. Pray for quality time together and meaningful connection, rest, and fun.
  • August 7 – The JCN editors praise God for an influx of articles for consideration in the Journal of Christian Nursing. Ask God to provide wisdom and time to properly evaluate each article and decide on suitability for JCN publication.
  • August 8 – Our Student Ministries teams have many meetings and upcoming communications planned with new and returning student leaders and faculty advisors.  Pray for our NCF student groups to launch well this fall as our staff provides support, encouragement, and insight.
  • August 9 – Please pray for all NCF staff to be encouraged as they reach out to others to partner with them in ministry through their prayers and giving. We ask God to stir the hearts of partners to abundantly provide for all the needs and many facets of NCF’s ministry. 
  • August 10 – Lord, we pray our new and existing nurse groups would feel connected and experience community as they meet.

 

Week Three:

  • August 11 – We thank God for the community that is a part of our nurse groups. Pray for our nurse groups to continue to be safe places for students, faculty, and nurses. We ask God to use our Sunday night prayer group times to draw us into deeper intimacy with him.
  • August 12 – Jen Wojtysiak and Katharine Provost (NCF’s Student Ministries Associate Director) are visiting churches in Minnesota today through August 15th to share about NCF and invite them to partner in ministry. We ask for prayer for good travels and connections.
  • August 13 – Pray for the NCF fall student retreat planning team as the team comes together over the next few months. We ask God to bring the pieces together for the retreat scheduled in North Carolina on October 5th. May God use this retreat to draw students into closer relationship with him.
  • August 14 – We praise God that Skip McDonald, InterVarsity’s Spiritual Formation Specialist to campuses in the Southeast, is finally able to wear a shoe again on her left foot! It’s been 7 months and a long time coming in the healing of her left foot following a surgical wound that opened in January. 
  • August 15 – Pray for wisdom for Lara Kaiser in the next steps on the Following Jesus in Nursing Podcast and how to balance the desire for quality with the limitation of time and capacity.
  • August 16 – Pray for summer nursing graduates as they take the NCLEX. We ask for peace, retention of the material, strong critical thinking, and clinical judgment in the answers selected. We also remember those graduates who were not initially successful. May they have compassion for themselves and recognize their identity and worth not in the results of this exam, but in who they are in Christ. May they be encouraged to press on knowing that God is with them.
  • August 17 – Pray for our nurse groups! We celebrate the starting of a new group in Hanover, Pennsylvania. We ask for encouragement for Jessica as she leads this group, and that it will be a support for other nurses in the area. Pray also for other nurse groups kicking off in the fall after taking time off in the summer. May God use this time of renewal to start off strong.

 

Week Four:

  • August 18 – Continue to remember in prayer NCF staff who are dealing with difficult family situations and supporting the needs of loved ones. We have several staff providing support for spouses and parents. We ask God to give us the strength, patience, and wisdom we need in each moment.
  • August 19 – Lara Kaiser is completing her seminary program in August. Pray for timing, thoughtfulness, and excellence for her final papers. Also, pray for wisdom and discernment for the future as to whether or not Lara should continue toward a full degree.
  • August 20 – Pray for nursing students across the country as they start their fall semester. We pray they will grow in their faith as they seek God in their challenges as well as their joys. We ask for endurance, faithfulness, and good choices with their time.
  • August 21 – Pray for weary educators raising the next generation of nurses. Some have been on summer break; others have been teaching. We ask God to refresh and restore each one.
  • August 22 – Pray for God’s leading in the search for a new Senior Editor for Journal of Christian Nursing. We ask God to bring those of his choosing and make it clear who he is calling to serve in this capacity.
  • August 23 – Leaders within Nurses Christian Fellowship will gather today in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin for our annual Leader’s Retreat. Pray for God to bless our time together over the next 3 days. We ask him to speak to us as we spend time in his Word, pray together, and plan for the future.
  • August 24 – Continue to pray for nurses around the country who are tired, weary, and facing staff shortages and a lack of resources in their work environments. Pray for others who have been laid off or seen their departments close. May we remember God’s presence in our lives and that we are not alone in our challenges. May NCF minister in the lives of others and be a support and encouragement in the faith and practice of nurses across the country.

 

Week Five:

  • August 25 – Pray for nurses as they explore the possibilities of starting a nurse group locally or virtually. We ask God to smooth any rough places and to remove any barriers in starting their groups. Give wisdom and insight as these nurses listen to the needs of other nurses and the call of the Holy Spirit.
  • August 26 – Pray for NCF student group faculty advisors across the country as they guide nursing students while still maintaining a full workload. We pray for God’s strength for them, for multiplied time, and wisdom in leading well. May the Holy Spirit go ahead of them preparing many students to participate in NCF.
  • August 27 – Pray for Jane Hall (NCF’s former National Director) and Christy Secor (NCF’s Spiritual Formation/Prayer Specialist) as they plan the October 17th Journal Club webinar on empathy. We ask God for his leadership and insight in the information presented and that the content would be helpful for all who participate.
  • August 28 – We ask the Lord to enlarge, lengthen, and strengthen the NCF professional nurse groups in our country (Isaiah 54:2). Give strength and wisdom to our nurse group leaders as they prepare and lead. We ask God to protect and guide our leaders as many also face their own individual and personal challenges.
  • August 29 – Pray for our Journal of Christian Nursing editorial team as we regularly go through the process of editing manuscripts, creating artwork, and preparing another issue for publication. 
  • August 30 – We ask the Holy Spirit to guide NCF in its marketing efforts to reach nursing students, faculty, and nurses; pray for our web, Facebook, Instagram, blogs, podcasts, and other media outreaches – that each would honor God and draw nurses, faculty, and students to him. We ask for a special blessing for Katharine Provost as she begins leading NCF’s social media outreaches.
  • August 31 – Pray for our faith community nurses in the unique and different areas where they serve. May God provide insight, wisdom, sensitivity, and presence to the needs they face in their work and ministry.

 

You can download the August 2024 prayer calendar here.