Basque Country Prayer Points for Week of May 8, 2023

Sampie Brown on May 13, 2023

Prayer Points and verse for the week:

Prayers points:

  • On May 28 elections will be happening at the local (city), regional and national level. The regional and local levels have 5 different political parties who are looking to either maintain or gain power to make changes. Leaders across the different parties are communicating messages for why people should support them and their party.
    • Pray for the people as they look to determine which candidate will best represent them in the coming years to make legislative decisions.
  • The regional government is building a new location for those who are affected by male violence. It will have space for women with children, women who are solo and for people who are in need of additional privacy or monitoring. They have double the number of spaces available over the last 5 years.
    • Pray for women & children impacted by the violence, men who are acting in this manner and workers who support those impacted.
  • Concern about the Basque Pubic health care system continues. A couple of weekends ago thousands of people in the 3 Basque capitals took to the street to protest the situation. Many are seeing that making certain types of appointments are taking months to get or that the local health care centers do not have enough staff to support the needs of the community. The leader of the system provided comments that contradict this view talking about the investments that are being made in the system, which have increased over the last 10 years.
    • Pray for those who are looking for care, the workers and leaders as they all work to navigate the current situation.
  • The effects of the low national birth rate are continuing to be seen. The latest area of impacts is in the education system. The number of students enrolled in schools over the last 5 years has dropped by ~8500, which has resulted in reduction in the overall number of classrooms.  Even some schools have closed or consolidated with others due to this drop. Another effect is the decrease in first communion in the catholic church, with another reason being secularization of the population.
    • Pray that young people will start to have a desire to have more kids and for leaders as they navigate the current situation.
  • Last year the price of electricity was the topic of considerable discussion as the price was very high. Thankfully this year the price thus far has gone down, with the daily rate recently being ~62€/MWh compared to ~178€/MWh on the same day last year. Another area where costs have also been high is food items. The local paper over the last year has shared the cost of the same items in February, March and now May. While the overall cost is being recorded at historic highs, thankfully this month saw a slight overall decrease, though some items in the list saw an increase.
    • Praise that people are seeing some lower energy bills after having high electricity  & gas bills. Pray for people as they look to determine the best way to spend their money.
  • Over the last several years a group of historians in Basque Country have been researching the biographies of soldiers with Basque heritage that participated in World War II. They believe in total ~2500 soldiers are in that profile, and they are working on biographies of 1600. Recently they made a presentation in Texas about their findings.  They also have a desire to have a monument built for the 85th Anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack in either California, Nevada or Idaho where there is a large population of people with Basque heritage.
    • Pray for these historians as they look to show the contribution of Basque people during World War II.

The verse for the week:

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Ephesians 4:32 ESV

Basque Country Prayer Points for Week of February 27, 2023

Sampie Brown on March 5, 2023

Prayer Points and verse for the week:

Prayers points:

  • Some apartment buildings have communal heating. The area had a very mild December, however in January the temperatures were lower meaning more heating was needed. The places with common heating powered by natural gas saw a doubling of the gas bill over the previous year.
    • Pray for families as they look to pay these higher heating/energy bills and property owners as they look for solutions.
  • The number of people who live in Guipuzcoa (Province of San Sebastian) has seen a steady increase in the number of people who are living in the area. The two main reasons stated are challenges in finding a job and people who are returning back to their home country. The number of people has tripled in the last 30 years.
    • Pray for employment opportunities in Basque Country.
  • In the Spring/Summer of 2022 the Spanish legislature passed a law about state secrets 50 years or older. This would include those from the Franco era which were previously considered confidential with no plans for them to ever be public. The person leading the declassification has communicated that they are unsure of when they will be able to provide documents. Additionally, there are ongoing discussions regarding the logistics for deciding which documents are declassified.
    • Pray for those working to declassify documents and what they may reveal from the different leaders.
  • The public healthcare system (Basque name: Osakidetza) continues to be under pressure from workers and the public. On February 25 thousands of workers and citizens were in the streets of the three capital cities to communicate dissatisfaction with the current situation. On the other side, the leader of the healthcare system is attempting to show counter points to the grievances of the workers and citizens.
    • Pray for leaders, workers and citizens as solutions are discussed for the system.
  • The Basque pension system is starting to see the number of retirees increase, with last year seeing a historic high. Changes are being made to ensure the system can support the planned retirees in the coming years, which they expect to be high numbers.
    • Pray for those making retirement decisions and leaders as they explore potential changes to the system to support those in or approaching retirement.
  • A new law which is called “solo sí es sí­” (only yes is yes), which is a law related to sexual abuse and sexuality, continues to be an issue for the coalition of PSOE and Podemos.
    • Pray for those leaders as they work to write the law in such a way that meets what is being asked and protects all those involved.

The verse for the week:

Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Matthew 10:16 ESV

Basque Country Prayer Points for Week of February 13, 2023

Sampie Brown on February 15, 2023

Prayer Points and verse for the week:

Prayers points:

  • The government sponsored family mediation service is reporting an increase in use with a large percentage of the overall request being couples conflicts.
    • Pray for the mediators and couples as they work to find common ground, along with the health of families.
  • The Spain & Basque governments are exploring laws to limit rent prices as prices have been increasing over the last several years.
    • Pray for the legislatures, property owners and renters
  • Crime statistics were released for 2022 recently. Violence against women saw an increase of ~16% and homicides were almost triple from 2019.
    • Pray for the women who are/will experience violence, greater peace and the officers responding to these situations
  • The public healthcare system (Basque name: Osakidetza) communicated several requests for better working conditions and are awaiting a response to those requests. 
    • Pray for the healthcare workers, leadership, politicians and those needing care as they work through the situation.
  • General elections are planned for May 28 in all of Spain and you can see tension building between the different parties PSOE, PP, VOX, PNV and others.
    • Pray for the people as they vote for who will lead them and the candidates as they share their plans.

The verse for the week:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

John 10:10 ESV

Basque Country Prayer Points for Week of December 12, 2022

Sampie Brown on December 18, 2022

Prayer Points and verse for the week:

Prayers points:

  • The public healthcare system (Basque name: Osakidetza) is having lots of tension as several leaders have resigned after a couple of leaders were let go. The system was already under quite a bit of strain and this is adding to it.
    • Pray for the frontline healthcare workers, leadership, politicians and those needing care
  • For conversations between the Basque and Spanish Government as they work through items that would give the Basque Government more autonomy
    • Pray for the political leaders on both sides as they work through this situation
  • Last time I talked about the historic low of low income housing. A shortage of housing in general exists across all economic levels. In Gipuzkoa they are now saying that 40,000 homes are needed.
    • Pray as the city looks to build the necessary housing for the city across the different needs of the citizens
  • The new catholic bishop for the diocese of Donostia, Fernando Prad Ayuso, was officially ordained for the office yesterday.
    • Pray for the new leader and the diocese as they go through this transition period
  • Salaries for young people are not high enough to live independently, wage increases on average in the 3rd quarter were much lower than inflation. Pension payments, while increased, are still not enough to keep up with inflation
    • Pray for people as they evaluate how to spend their money

The verse for the week:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6 NIV