Prayer amid Pandemic

*/ ?>

Latest Episodes:

The First Native American Saint’s Life Was Scarred by Smallpox Jun 26, 2020

Kateri Tekakwitha became the first Native American saint in 2012. Much of her life was marked by violence, disease, and loss brought on by French colonization and conflict with local tribes. The Mohawk woman died at the young age of 24 but her resolute faith throughout her hard life inspired many.

On this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, Susangeline Patrick, assistant professor of world Christianity at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City and adjunct professor in the history of Christianity at NAIITS (formerly North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies) to discuss the smallpox outbreak that scarred her body, the faith that sustained, and what the church can learn from her brief life today.

Tamara Mayer, a theology student in Berlin Germany, offer this episode’s prayer.

Read Christianity Today’s latest coronavirus coverage

What is Prayer amid Pandemic? Read more

Rate Prayer amid Pandemic on Apple Podcasts

Follow the podcast on Twitter

Follow the host on Twitter: Morgan Lee

Music by Urban Nerd Beats, Prod. Riddiman, and Oliver Dúvel

Prayer amid Pandemic is produced by Morgan Lee, Mike Cosper, and Erik Petrik

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Christian Teens Who Took on Ebola's Spread Jun 24, 2020

In 2014, the Ebola outbreak began in West Africa. Over the next two years, more than 11,000 people died, the majority from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. As people struggled to adapt to the new normal brought on by the epidemic, the government and public health workers enlisted church leaders in educating their congregants about the disease.

On this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, John Jusu, a Sierra Leonean missionary with the Association of Evangelicals in Africa who currently serves with Overseas Council International as the Africa regional director,

This episode’s prayer is from Gabrijela Althaller, a youth leader at the evangelical church, New Covenant, in Zagreb, Croatia.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The 17th -Century Poet, Nun, and Theologian Who Died Caring for Those Sick with Cholera Jun 19, 2020

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz was a renaissance woman from 17th century Mexico. Born an illegitimate daughter of a Spanish Captain and a Criolla mother, Juana went on to become a scholar, nun, theologian, and poet. At age 46 she died after tending to her sick sisters after the plague arrived in Mexico City in 1695.

On this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, Joel Morales Cruz, the Histories of the Latin America Church and a contributor to Christian History’s issue on Latin American Christianity, shares how the world in which Juana inhabited was deeply shaped by epidemics, what made Sor Juana’s faith so strong, and what the church can learn from her today.

Nyei Sandu from Juba, South Sudan, offers this episode’s prayer.

Read Christianity Today’s latest coronavirus coverage

What is Prayer amid Pandemic? Read more

Rate Prayer amid Pandemic on Apple Podcasts

Follow the podcast on Twitter

Follow the host on Twitter: Morgan Lee

Music by Urban Nerd Beats, Prod. Riddiman, and Oliver Dúvel

Prayer amid Pandemic is produced by Morgan Lee, Mike Cosper, and Erik Petrik

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Perpetua’s Brief Life Came Between Two Plagues Jun 17, 2020

Perpetua was a noblewoman from Carthage who had a guaranteed life of comfort ahead of her. Born in the late 100’s, she lived with her husband, her son, and her slave. Then she converted to Christianity, a decision that changed everything.

On this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, Megan DeVore, associate professor of church history and early Christian studies at Colorado Christian University, shares about how Perpetua’s brother’s death left an impression on the saint, what strengthened her faith despite intense cruelty and hardship, and what the church can learn from Perpetua today.

Constantin V. Lysakov, a pastor in Moscow, offers this episode’s prayer.

Read Christianity Today’s latest coronavirus coverage

What is Prayer amid Pandemic? Read more

Rate Prayer amid Pandemic on Apple Podcasts

Follow the podcast on Twitter

Follow the host on Twitter: Morgan Lee

Music by Urban Nerd Beats, Prod. Riddiman, and Oliver Dúvel

Prayer amid Pandemic is produced by Morgan Lee, Mike Cosper, and Erik Petrik

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Even Fellow Believers Didn’t Understand Her Love for AIDS Patients Jun 11, 2020

Philomena Percival has counseled and cared for hundreds of AIDS patients in Guyana for more than 25 years. She joins Prayer amid Pandemic to discuss how an ectopic pregnancy led her to care for those afflicted by AIDS, how witnessing this suffering up close changed her faith, and why Christians should spend more time with the sick.

This episode’s prayer is from Miguel Castillo, the coaching coordinator for M4 Spain, who resides in Madrid.

Read Christianity Today’s latest coronavirus coverage

What is Prayer amid Pandemic? Read more

Rate Prayer amid Pandemic on Apple Podcasts

Follow the podcast on Twitter

Follow the host on Twitter: Morgan Lee

Music by Urban Nerd Beats, Prod. Riddiman, and Oliver Dúvel

Prayer amid Pandemic is produced by Morgan Lee, Mike Cosper, and Erik Petrik

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sickness Shaped the Faith of This Family of Fourth Century Theologians Jun 03, 2020

The most famous siblings of the early church are likely two brothers, Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, and their sister Macrina. “She was deeply precious to them for her love, her insight, and her wisdom; they even called her “Teacher,” wrote David Hutchings for Christianity Today last year. Macrina ultimately died after a long battle with an unknown illness. Her life and suffering inspired several works by Gregory of Nyssa, including the Life of Macrina and On the Soul and the Resurrection.

On this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, Amy Brown Hughes, assistant professor of theology at Gordon College and author of Christian Women in the Patristic World: Their Influence, Authority and Legacy in the Second Through Fifth Centuries, along with Lynn H. Cohick, discusses Basil, Macrina, and Gregory’s remarkable family, why Macrina’s death made such an impression, and what the church needs to hear from them today.

Read Christianity Today’s latest coronavirus coverage

What is Prayer amid Pandemic? Read more

Rate Prayer amid Pandemic on Apple Podcasts

Follow the podcast on Twitter

Follow the host on Twitter: Morgan Lee

Music by Urban Nerd Beats, Prod. Riddiman, and Oliver Dúvel

Prayer amid Pandemic is produced by Morgan Lee, Mike Cosper, and Erik Petrik

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What a Plague-Ravaged Village Knew About Eternity May 27, 2020

The village of Eyam sits about 30 miles East of Manchester in the UK and according to the 2011 British census, it has less than 1,000 residents. But during the 17th century, this unassuming town was hit by the bubonic plague. In the coming months, it killed dozens of residents. Then, just when town leaders thought the crisis had abated, it struck again.

On this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, Mathew Knell, the program leader and lecturer in historical theology and church history at the London School of Theology, describes how the church overall reacted during the time to the bubonic plague, why the story of Eyam has turned into a myth over time, and why the faith of the leaders in the village should inspire the church today.

Carlos Barros is Cru’s director of Vida en Familia in Tucumán, Argentina and offers this episode’s prayer.

Read Christianity Today’s latest coronavirus coverage

What is Prayer amid Pandemic? Read more

Rate Prayer amid Pandemic on Apple Podcasts

Follow the podcast on Twitter

Follow the host on Twitter: Morgan Lee

Music by Urban Nerd Beats, Prod. Riddiman, and Oliver Dúvel

Prayer amid Pandemic is produced by Morgan Lee, Mike Cosper, and Erik Petrik

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Black Death Left Many Terrified. Not Catherine of Siena. May 22, 2020

Much of Catherine of Siena’s life was defined by sickness and plagues. The future saint was born in 1347. The next year, the Black Death began—an epidemic that killed more than 20 million people over the next five years. Despite growing up surrounded by death, Catherine was unafraid.

When a plague struck again less than two decades later, the 20-something convinced her followers to stay and serve the sick. Catherine was relentless in her work. According to historian Philip Schaff she “day and night, healed those of whom the physicians despaired, and she even raised the dead.On this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, Karen Scott, an associate professor of history and Catholic studies at DePaul University, explains how Catherine’s life was shaped by the aftermath of the Black Plague, why her actions to the suffering were so radical, and what the church can learn from her example today.

Thir Koirala, Nepal Micah’s national coordinator, offers this episode’s prayer.

Read Christianity Today’s latest coronavirus coverage

What is Prayer amid Pandemic? Read more

Rate Prayer amid Pandemic on Apple Podcasts

Follow the podcast on Twitter

Follow the host on Twitter: Morgan Lee

Music by Urban Nerd Beats, Prod. Riddiman, and Oliver Dúvel

Prayer amid Pandemic is produced by Morgan Lee, Mike Cosper, and Erik Petrik

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

They Named a Pandemic After This Christian Leader May 20, 2020

The man who would become St. Cyprian of Carthage was born in North Africa around 200 A.D. Cyprian did not convert to Christianity until later in his life but became a bishop shortly after his conversion. In his 10 years in office, Cyprian led his church through a period of intense persecution, a devastating plague, and another round of persecution that ultimately ended his life.

On this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, Franklin Norton,a Latin and church history teacher at Covenant School, shares why this plague was named after a Christian bishop, how his leadership shaped the church’s countercultural response, and what the church today needs to hear from Cyprian.

Shori Sungawa, a student in Japan, offers this episode’s prayer.

Read Christianity Today’s latest coronavirus coverage

What is Prayer amid Pandemic? Read more

Rate Prayer amid Pandemic on Apple Podcasts

Follow the podcast on Twitter

Follow the host on Twitter: Morgan Lee

Music by Urban Nerd Beats, Prod. Riddiman, and Oliver Dúvel

Prayer amid Pandemic is produced by Morgan Lee, Mike Cosper, and Erik Petrik

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What a Puritan Leader Learned About Disease Control from the Man He Enslaved May 15, 2020

Perhaps no American community is as polemic as the Puritans. One of its biggest personalities was Cotton Mather, a New England minister whose life is largely remembered in connection with the Salem Witch Trials. But another key part of his legacy are his scientific interests, specifically Mather’s response to a smallpox outbreak in his community, one inspired by his slave Onesimus’s life story.

On this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, Jan Stievermann professor the history of Christianity in the US at the Heidelberg Center for American Studies and faculty of theology, joined Prayer amid Pandemic to discuss how Mather tied the smallpox outbreak with God’s judgment, the nature of Onesimus and Mather’s relationship, and the larger societal tensions that Mather’s disease-fighting actions revealed.

Eva Sarsa, a ministry leader in Finland, offers this episode’s prayer.

Read Christianity Today’slatest coronavirus coverage

What is Prayer amid Pandemic? Read more

Rate Prayer amid Pandemic on Apple Podcasts

Follow the podcast on Twitter

Follow the host on Twitter: Morgan Lee

Music by Urban Nerd Beats, Prod. Riddiman, and Oliver Dúvel

Prayer amid Pandemic is produced by Morgan Lee, Mike Cosper, and Erik Petrik

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

She Broke Barriers as a Female Surgeon. Then She Moved to Bangalore. May 08, 2020

Rebekah Naylor spent more than 35 years serving with the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board's in Bangalore India. She worked as a surgeon and in hospital administration at the Bangalore Baptist Hospital.

Naylor pursued her medical studies in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She completed surgical training at Southwestern Medical Center and Parkland Hospital in Dallas Texas where she was the first woman in general surgery. In 2017, Naylor was named the American College of Surgeon’s Pfizer Lifetime Humanitarian awardee. She joined Prayer amid Pandemic to discuss when she first felt called to the mission field and what the church needs to know about those who are sick.

This week’s prayer is from Jorge “Toto” Bermudez, the general secretary of the Comunidad Bíblica Universitaria in Uruguay.

Read Christianity Today’s latest coronavirus coverage

What is Prayer amid Pandemic? Read more

Rate Prayer amid Pandemic on Apple Podcasts

Follow the podcast on Twitter

Follow the host on Twitter: Morgan Lee

Music by Urban Nerd Beats, Prod. Riddiman, and Oliver Dúvel

Prayer amid Pandemic is produced by Morgan Lee, Mike Cosper, and Erik Petrik

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What Francis Grimké Believed the Spanish Flu Revealed About Racism May 01, 2020

The future Presbyterian minister Francis Grimké was born in 1850. His father was a slaveholder and his mother was enslaved. While Grimké was still young his father died of the yellow fever epidemic and although his father had tried to preventatively take care of his family before he passed, the death catapulted Grimké and his siblings’ childhoods into hardship and mistreatment.

After the Civil War concluded in 1865, an academic mentor helped him relocate to Philadelphia, where Grimké began pursuing ministry. A staunch proponent of Reformed theology, Grimké also spent much of his ministry involved in the battle for civil rights for African Americans.

On this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, Eric Washington, an associate professor of history and the Director of African & African Diaspora Studies Program at Calvin University, shared how Grimké spoke out about the evils and folly of American racism during the Spanish Flu pandemic.This week’s prayer is from Amanda Jackson, the executive director of the Women’s Commission at the World Evangelical Alliance

Read Christianity Today’slatest coronavirus coverage

What is Prayer amid Pandemic? Read more

Rate Prayer amid Pandemic on Apple Podcasts

Follow the podcast on Twitter

Follow the host on Twitter: Morgan Lee

Music by Urban Nerd Beats, Prod. Riddiman, and Oliver Dúvel

Prayer amid Pandemic is produced by Morgan Lee, Mike Cosper, and Erik Petrik

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Where Was God in Spurgeon's Chronic Pain? Apr 29, 2020

One of the biggest names in 19th-century British preaching was a man named Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon’s preaching career began in the countryside. Though he was not formally trained, the then-teenage orator’s sermons drew the public’s attention and at the age of 19 he moved to London.

“Spurgeon’s language was graphic, emotionally charged, occasionally maudlin and sentimental,” wrote Patricia Stallings Kruppa for Christian History. Though the world knew him for his showmanship, Spurgeon, along with his wife, also suffered from chronic pain, a matter that came up frequently in his writings about God.

In this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, Thomas Breimaier, the author of the forthcoming work, Tethered to the Cross: The Life and Preaching of Charles H. Spurgeon and a tutor in systematic theology and history at Spurgeon’s College, shares about how a cholera outbreak in London changed the Spurgeon’s ministry and how he theologically made sense of his chronic pain.

Flemlyn Ragobeer, the general secretary for Inter School/ InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of Guyana, offers this week’s prayer.

Read Christianity Today’s latest coronavirus coverage

What is Prayer amid Pandemic? Read more

Rate Prayer amid Pandemic on Apple Podcasts

Follow the podcast on Twitter

Follow the host on Twitter: Morgan Lee

Music by Urban Nerd Beats, Prod. Riddiman, and Oliver Dúvel

Prayer amid Pandemic is produced by Morgan Lee, Mike Cosper, and Erik Petrik

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Julian of Norwich Was Sick, God Appeared Apr 24, 2020

"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” That these 17 words were uttered by a woman named Julian of Norwich may be the only thing you know about this 14th-century English saint. Historians don’t necessarily know that much more. We’re not even sure her real name. So why do we remember her?

In this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, Amy Laura Hall, the author of Laughing at the Devil: Seeing the World with Julian of Norwich and a Christian ethics professor at Duke Divinity School, tell us why we know so little about Julian’s identity but why we still read her writings on the vision she received while sick today.

Gideon Para-Mallam, the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students regional secretary for English and Portuguese-speaking Africa, offers this week’s prayer.

Read Christianity Today’s latest coronavirus coverage

What is Prayer amid Pandemic? Read more

Rate Prayer amid Pandemic on Apple Podcasts

Follow the podcast on Twitter

Follow the host on Twitter: Morgan Lee

Music by Urban Nerd Beats, Prod. Riddiman, and Oliver Dúvel

Prayer amid Pandemic is produced by Morgan Lee, Mike Cosper, and Erik Petrik

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Predestination Met the Plague Apr 17, 2020

No list of the great men of Protestantism is complete without John Calvin. Born in 1507 in Lyon, France, most of us today know Calvin for his theology. But Calvin also spent much of his life in excruciating pain. The Reformer suffered from hemorrhoids, kidney stones, gout, an enlarged spleen, heartburn, indigestion and chronic insomnia, according to the medical journal Hektoen International. Calvin also likely died from tuberculosis.

Much of Calvin’s ministry occurred in Geneva, Switzerland, where the plague visited five times during that time. In this episode of Prayer amid Pandemic, Christianity Today’s editor in chief and the author of Wisdom of the Saints (and Near Saints): Christian Inspiration from Ambrose to Zwingli Daniel Harrell shares how the reformer’s views on predestination affected how he and his community responded to the epidemic.

Dinesha Samararatne, a postdoctoral fellow in constitutional law and a Sri Lankan living in Australia, offers this week’s prayer.

Read Christianity Today’s latest coronavirus coverage

What is Prayer amid Pandemic? Read more

Rate Prayer amid Pandemic on Apple Podcasts

Follow the podcast on Twitter

Follow the host on Twitter: Morgan Lee

Music by Urban Nerd Beats, Prod. Riddiman, and Oliver Dúvel

Prayer amid Pandemic is produced by Morgan Lee, Mike Cosper, and Erik Petrik

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cameroon's Christians Rejected AIDS' Stigma Apr 09, 2020

Since the 1980s, the AIDS epidemic has had deadly repercussions for millions of Africans. The only two comparable outbreaks: the Spanish Flu of 1918 that killed some 25 million people and the Black Death, which one historian made a strong case killed 50 million people in the 14th century.

Cameroon reported its first AIDS case in 1985 and grew exponentially from there. In the first episode of Christianity Today’s Prayer amid Pandemic, Elias Bongmba, the author of Facing a Pandemic: The African Church and the Crisis of Aids, shares how the legacy of Christian missions paved the way for the church to serve those suffering from a disease that carried a heavy stigma.

Lawrence Chia, chairman of the Evangelical Fellowship of Singapore, offers this week’s prayer.

Read Christianity Today’s latest coronavirus coverage

What is Prayer amid Pandemic? Read more

Rate Prayer amid Pandemic on Apple Podcasts

Follow the podcast on Twitter

Follow the host on Twitter: Morgan Lee

Music by Urban Nerd Beats, Prod. Riddiman, and Oliver Dúvel

Prayer amid Pandemic is produced by Morgan Lee, Matt Linder, Mike Cosper, and Erik Petrik

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Introducing: Prayer amid Pandemic Mar 20, 2020

Prayer amid Pandemic is a podcast to encourage and sharpen the church during this season of coronavirus.

Twice a week we’ll give you stories of Christian individuals and communities whose lives and faith were shaped by sickness. We’ll also get an update on the latest on the COVID-19 situation and pray together, hearing from Christians around the world.

Rate Prayer amid Pandemic on Apple Podcasts

Follow the podcast on Twitter

Follow our host on Twitter: Morgan Lee

Prayer amid Pandemic is produced by Morgan Lee, Mike Cosper, and Erik Petrik.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices