I also see that the texts get not translated in other languages, e.g. Spanish, Polish, Italian, etc. I don't know why, because it needs only at the first time more effort. Afterwards it's only necessary to change the modifieded parts and that needs only a few minutes once a month.
In the request it's not necessary to write down the full story of the person, I think. This makes translatings difficult and time intensiv. Of interest could be Name, age, reason for the request. Maybe someone has here some more ideas, so we find a structure or form to fill out for an easy request.
Maybe an answer why the prayer chain is "important":
- Each month it brings Lay Salvatorians over the world together and unites them in prayer for the same request.
- Each memebr get the feeling to be a part of a worldwide family - there are some people at the other end of the world praying for my/our request and thinking on me/us!
- We have each month the chance to share together our "small Holy Scripture" (I call it always our "Small Bible"). It's our evidence and expression of our relationsship with God.
- For this reason, it was also stated by us in the questionnaire of the Vatican's recognition of our community. (Remark: The reason for the regular publication of "ICS-update" is to see in a similar way ...)
- Each time after the email was sent out that the new issue is online, I register more than 10 hits on the webpage between 24 hours ...
- Each unit decide to have one responsible person for collecting request --> as best it would be the unit secretary, I think.
- The unit secretary will give support to people, which will make a request --> e.g. possibilities of translation, support to bring the request online, ...
- Each month an other unit is responsible for the common prayer and bring out the main points - so we could share our different mentalities in prayer to recognize the common richness in our diversity.