Power

Prayer. Prayer meeting. Prayer journal. Prayer chain. Praises and prayer requests. If you grew up like me, you have thrown these phrases around for so long, and in so many different ways, they may have almost lost their value. We are so connected these days, we get so many "prayer requests" for so many different things, constantly. Some people we know, some we will never meet. But how often do we really actually just pray? I confess this has not been my strong suit. I have spent more time talking about the prayer requests than in the praying itself! I am more of a doer, and in my quiet time, there is much more focus given to things other than praying. Wanting to change this, I started reading With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. Amazing! I have been convicted, encouraged, inspired, and challenged to approach the Father so differently! It is not cliche. He does hear us. He is waiting to hear from us. He longs to share His heart with us, and also His power as we allow Him to use us to accomplish His goals and His plan.

Prayer = Power 

The power of the perfect, omniscient, omnipresent, immutable God. Somehow, in a way my finite mind will never understand, our prayers have power. Thank you for joining with us as we pray, submitting ourselves entirely to the will of the Father, asking Him to take control of us and use us as He sees fit.

• Of the thousands of newcomers (immigrants) that live in Worthington, a few special people have come across our path. We have developed friendships with 3 families, and have been able to meet some needs in their lives. Sometimes the simple things, a ride to Walmart for a family without a car, or assistance in filling out a job application when English is not your first language, can be a big help.
•  My friend F. speaks no English, and stays at home all day taking care of her grandson. She had an accident at work and is no longer able to work, and experiences incredible pain and difficulty getting around. We are trying to help her get into an ESL class, eventually a citizenship class, and get access to some medical care for her knee. 
• My friend H. moved to town a few months ago with her little boy, with nothing but a few suitcases of clothes. We met her and her son while in their neighborhood inviting people to VBS. Her living situation has not been good at all, and we are really excited that God answered prayer for her to get into a subsidized housing unit. We hope to help her move this weekend. However, she still has only their clothes, so she needs some furniture and the basic household items. We are praying for her to get a job, and taking her to interviews, etc. 
• I have heard that sometimes children might say to each other, in a show of strength and pride, "My daddy could beat up your daddy!" Among my children's friends, the simple fact that they even have a daddy puts them way ahead of the group. We live among so many single parent families. These moms are trying so hard, but for the ones we know, survival is the main goal. We may not have alot materially, but we have found that for some reason, the neighborhood kids want to be at our house as much as possible. We have been praying about ways to use this opportunity to reach them and love on them. Maybe making Friday night "make your own pizza and watch a family movie" night open to the neighbor kids. We want to be open to whatever plans the Father has to use us to love these fatherless children around us. 
• Patrick and I are going to be the small group co-ordinators at our church. We are really excited about this, because we have had such valuable, positive experiences in small group settings, whether Sunday School, Bible studies, or life groups. The pastor is preaching through the New Testament systematically, so the small groups will focus on different NT books. It is a great opportunity for the church, and we are excited about being able to participate. Pray for strong leaders to come forward, and for our church family here to be excited about learning and growing in community. 
• We are thankful Patrick is nearly done with his seminary classes for this year! He will take the fall off to devote his time to preparing for, and taking, the Technical Evaluation. There are so many ways we want to be prepared: spiritually, culturally, technically, academically, and financially. Pray we would continue to be faithful working towards the goal, in all of these different areas. 

Thank you for taking a moment (or two!) to look at our blog. I know how precious your time is, and I am honoured that you stopped by! We don't have one specific theme. Rather, every week might have a different topic. Knowing that some people (ie. grandparents!) might be more interested in family life, and others may want more ministry progress reports, there is a search option at the very bottom. Also, each post is labeled according to topic, so you can easily find all the posts about flying, only the posts about homeschooling, etc., and pass on the ones that don't interest you as much. This is a new feature, so there aren't many in each category. But keep it in mind for the future.