Remember

I love hot water. I am unceasingly grateful for hot water that kills bacteria in my dishwasher, washing machine and kitchen sink, and I am profoundly grateful for hot showers. Really. I thank God on a regular basis for the gift of being born in this century. In this place. With something as luxurious as a hot shower here for the taking.

And I pray for them.

The ones He loves that haven't had a hot shower in years because they're rotting in a dictator's prison. I remember.

I sweat as I do a simple outdoor task in the middle of a summer heat wave.

And I pray for them. The ones left in metal shipping containers for months. What do I have to complain about?

I shiver on a winter morning when the heat doesn't work properly.

And I pray for them. Those brothers and sisters whose names I do not know. Freezing in a prison cell with no blanket, no hot tea, no end in sight.

Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also.

Remember

thanks to Ann for finding this video for the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church

Newest prayer request manager

I'm always trying out new ways to remember prayer requests. Each new way allows me to remember more requests and remember them better. I still use stickers for specific friends and family, but I've got a new way to remember specific time-stamped requests and also people that I really want to remember on a regular basis. I have yahoo e-mail and I've begun utilizing the calendar that's at the bottom of the inbox page. This is awesome on so many levels. Here's a shortlist:

1. My inbox window stays up most of the day and is checked regularly anyway.
2. The events/requests for the day stay listed across the bottom of the page.
3. The calendar sends me reminder e-mails 20 minutes before a scheduled event.
4. You can set the event /request to repeat at daily, weekly. monthly, and other shorter and longer intervals automatically.

Now I can remember a bloggy friends' sick daughter specifically on T,Th, Sa and a real life friend with a difficult pregnancy M,W,F. I can remember when Tricia (and she could use your prayers right now, having just received her new lungs!), Gwyneth, or Ashley is having a procedure or when my mom's foot surgery was scheduled. I can remember when a friend is leaving on a flight to pick up their adopted child, and when they are returning home. And when you tell me about something you need prayer for next Tuesday afternoon, I can remember you too!

Give it a try!

Prayer Requests

Hello, friends! It's a sunny southern day with promises of temps in the low 70s this afternoon. We've emptied our piggy banks, rolled our coins, and the plan is: A ZOO PASS and a visit today!

The Lord is good, bless His name!

Will you pray with me now for a few things heavy on my heart?

1. Most imminently, my Grandma is having a pacemaker put in today. She passed out yesterday (this happened about a year ago too), and they've determined that it's an electrical problem regulating blood flow (or something like that). This shouldn't be a big deal, but she is 82 and she is not a believer. Will you pray for her to recover well and more importantly that her God would open her heart to the gospel?
2. Second, Brian is doing very badly. We've been through this before and still have no answers. He's coming home from work again today with no plans of going in tomorrow. It is amazing to me everyday he finds the strenth to go. Imagine the worst day of the flu with horrible body aches all over, and probably headache and some nausea too, and you have an idea of how he's been feeling most days. Since he has been getting progressively worse since Christmas, I don't know where we are headed. Pray for God's healing. Our experience with doctors in the past (and we've had lots) has never been positive, so we need lots of wisdom.
3. Brian's coworker David has also been having weird health issues for about the same time and is curently in the hospital undergoing testing. His heart is enlarged.
4. That leaves Marshay in their graphics office by herself, so I'm sure that she would also appreciate your prayers as she covers for both of them.
5. And finally, remember to vote (if you're voting for Ron Paul, otherwise you have my permission to forget :^), and to pray for God to have mercy on us and on our children...

Please share any requests that you have. I appreciate your prayers and am privileged to remember you in my prayers as well.

Friendship, Remembrance, and Prayer

I'm kind of a stickler for honesty. You know, if I pick up a Hallmark card, and there is any part of the dialogue that I don't feel with my whole heart I can't buy it.

It takes me a while to buy cards.

Anyway, I sent out an e-card to some of my dear friends this morning. I also sent one to the women that work at my church to thank them. It's important to take the time to say thank-you, and really in this age of postage-free, beautiful, convenient e-cards who has an excuse?

In the personalization section, I added Phillipians 1:3-5, "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now."

That does express how I feel about them, but I'm afraid that it didn't completely express the truth. Do I pray for my friends? Absolutely. Do I actually thank God and pray for them with joy every time I remember them? Not really. I do pray for some friends every time I remember them. For Monica, as she is locked in a battle with cancer, for others that I know are sick or struggling. I remember these requests every time I think of them. But giving thanks to God with joy?

When I think of things that I'm thankful for, my friends are right near the top of my list, but today this verse challenged me to consistently express that thankfulness to God. Every time he brings a friend to my remembrance. Because good friends are a gift, and God is the giver of all good gifts.

My stickers still remind me of my friends' needs, and I pray for them often, but now they will also be a reminder to just pause and give thanks with joy for having that friend. And when you leave a comment or I visit your blogs, I want to remember to give thanks with joy for you, too, bloggy friends.

Trustee Family

Brian e-mailed me this fantastic article, "Turning the Tables on Family." It resonates with a vision of faith and family for future generations that is sometimes lost in the muddle of daily living. This is purposeful connecting and instructing with an eye toward our children's chidren's children. Sometimes we think too small.

A while back, Brian also shared this from from Al Sanders' Crisis in Morality:

"Max Jukes, the atheist, lived a godless life. He married an ungodly girl, and from the union there were 310 who died as paupers, 150 were criminals, 7 were murderers, 100 were drunkards, and more than half of the women were prostitutes. His 540 descendants cost the State one and a quarter million dollars.

"But, praise the Lord, it works both ways! There is a record of a great American man of God, Jonathan Edwards. He lived at the same time as Max Jukes, but he married a godly girl. An investigation was made of 1,394 known descendants of Jonathan Edwards of which 13 became college presidents, 65 college professors, 3 United States senators, 30 judges, 100 lawyers, 60 physicians, 75 army and navy officers, 100 preachers and missionaries, 60 authors of prominence, one a vice-president of the United States, 80 became public officials in other capacities, 295 college graduates, among whom were governors of states and ministers to foreign countries. His descendants did not cost the state a single penny. 'The memory of the just is blessed' (Prov. 10:7)."

Remembering by Christmas lights

This past Sunday was the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Our church supports Voice of the Martyrs and often calls the persecuted church to remembrance. We watched a short film dramatizing the arrest and torture of a young Chinese woman, the editor of an underground Christian newspaper. At the end of the film, it noted that she spent six years in prison - making Christmas lights for America. A man from our church went to the front to pray, and before he prayed he called on the fathers to lead their families in remembering our brothers and sisters in bonds whenever we see Christmas lights and even planning to set aside time throughout the holidays to specifically remember and uplift them in prayer, perhaps by the light of our Christmas tree.

This is what I want to do. Challenge you. Spread the word. The Christians in China are mocked and humiliated by having to make Christmas lights. Why don't we remember them by Christmas lights? What if so many people committed to do this that it would no longer be a mockery to those Chinese believers, but an encouragement and reminder that the lights they made would be a sign for their American brothers and sisters to uplift them in prayer?

So this Christmas, when you turn of the lights to admire your tree, remember the church in China. When you load up the van and head off to see Christmas lights, pray for those who were put in a van and never seen again. When you tromp down a street in the wintry cold admiring the lights in the shop windows and on the lampposts, remember your brothers and sisters in cold prisons. Gather your family and remember by Christmas lights.

Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. (Hebrews 13:3, ESV)

And then, let's take the challenge one step further. If you buy Christmas lights made in China, would you commit to donating $1 for each strand to the persecuted church? Think of it as helping the family of that Christian who may have made those lights. Just go to Voice of the Martyrs and click on donations.

Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy...

-from Hebrews 11

http://jsmagic.net/

UPDATED - Prayer Request

Update, October 2: Many thanks to those of you who prayed and those who continued praying. Papa had a partial hip replacement last Friday and is still rather out of it, but stable. He may remain like that at his level of dementia and Alzheimer's, or he may pull out of it and back to his previous mental capacity. Physically, however, it was recommended that he bypass the hospital's physical therapy program to be placed in a nursing home with a physical therapy program. It has been very difficult for some of our friends to find empty beds in our area when they were needed, so it is a huge answer to prayer that a place has been found for him! It is perfect. He will have a newly renovated room. It is about 10 minutes from Brian's mom in the direction of Papa and Grandma's church (about 25-30 minutes), on Brian's way home from work, and on their pastor's way home from university classes that he takes twice a week! He may move in as early as tomorrow. Do continue to pray as I'm sure many more difficult decisions will be made in the next couple of weeks.

My husband's grandfather has just fallen and probably broken his femur. He is already struggling with Alzheimer's. Please pray for him right now as the ambulance is coming and my husband and his parents are racing to assist his grandma from two different directions.

Update 8PM: Brian's heading home. Grandpa's being admitted and will need surgery for the break that is right at the hip joint. Obviously at his age this is kind of serious. Brian's planning to be there.

Praying for Ashley

Specific requests from her mom, Trish:

1. Pray for healing and protection over Ashley's life.

2. Pray for her bowel. Our hope and prayer is that she suffers no more incidence of rejection and that it will begin to function again.

3. Pray for her respiratory status to remain stable.

4. Pray for this infection. We all know she is sick, but no one knows why. She will get worse before she gets better is what I am told, but I also believe God can remove it and turn her around if He so chooses.

5. Pray for our children. They do not yet know that I will not be coming home with Ashley. I don't know what to say to them.

6. Pray for our business. Unfortunately financial responsibilities do not cease when your children become ill. They tend to increase.

7. Pray for my husband. He is torn. He needs to be home for Blake and Allison's sake. He needs to be home to earn an income. He needs to be home to meet the needs of his patients and he does not take that responsibility lightly. He is in turmoil and that breaks my heart.Your prayers are more than appreciated and your support continues

Go to Ashley's Journal for more updates.

Prayer updates

Thanks for remembering all of my requests in your prayers! Mrs.Urey is much improved. Her heart problems stopped, but then they found out that she had pneumonia. Now that has also improved and last night the update was that they are talking about sending her home! Titus and Seth were encouraged by your prayers.

Please keep praying for baby Ashley. She has been violently throwing up since Sunday, and had to be airlifted from Texas back to her transplant team in Omaha and she had to have a central line placed again because all of her veins were collapsing in their attempts to draw blood and place an IV. She is Rosie's age - and it just breaks my heart.

Prayer Request - MRS. UREY

My little brother Titus called me from college just grieved for a guy he's in school with. His name is Seth Urey and his mother is in the hospital with serious heart trouble following a gallbladder surgery. Seth drove three hours round trip to see her tonight then came back to college concerned and broken that he may never see her again in this life. Titus ( a freshman) was also a mix of heartbroken and outraged that the students in this Christian college prayed for this guy and his mom in prayer group but made absolutely no effort after their formal prayer time to pray with or talk to this young sophomore student in their midst that was so burdened. He was shocked that things could be "cut up as usual" when someone was in need. Titus did spend time talking with Seth and called asking me to spend time in earnest prayer for Mrs. Urey's healing and to ask my church and friends to pray as well, so that he can encourage his friend that the body of Christ is indeed praying for and surrounding his family. Won't you please join me in praying for Mrs. Urey? Post her name on your CPU, frig, or mirror and really intercede, won't you? And leave a comment so that I can tell Seth and Titus that you're praying.

This family has been through a lot, apparently heart trouble runs in their family. They also have over one million dollars in debt from his brother's heart transplant that is not covered by insurance. There is a possibility that the hospital will write it off as a charitable donation. Please pray that they do. I will keep you updated. Thank you.

Prayer Request

Please pray for Brian's dad as he's having a heart cath right now and probably some stents put in. And pray that the virus my girls have will stop with them and clear out so that we can see him soon. Brian's an only child. Thanks.

Update: Brian's dad had four stents put in - it didn't look good in there. But he is doing well, there were no complications, and he should be home today. Anna Kate is all better, Rosie had a very painful case of diarrhea, but I think she may be over it, and Ethan is okay - I think. Thanks again for praying with us!

Sticker Praying

I first tried this idea a couple of years ago. I bought a package of small neon rectangle stickers and wrote the names of all of my relatives on them and stuck them in high traffic locations. Pray for Joseph when loading the dishwasher, Titus when using the toaster, Grandma when using the stove, Hannah when turning on my bedroom light. It worked really well for at least a few months until I became familiar with the locations and didn't notice them as much. A few things I realized - names on light switches were more easily missed, names on places where you stand or sit for a period of time continue to be noticed, names in unusual places are noticed, but not as frequently.

Most of the old names have worn off or been removed, but I've started a new round. Most of these are names of couples. The couple who's husband is out of work, the couple who's wife has cancer, the couples in our shepherding group, couples in my family. I've been making a point of putting a name on a sticker whenever someone asks me to pray for them, I tell someone that I'll pray for them, or I feel the need to be in prayer for a particular person. There's nothing worse than telling someone that you'll pray for them, and then forgetting until the next time you see them.

The names are in better locations based on my first experience. The stickers on my computer monitor and kitchen window above the sink are well prayed for. The stove and the book crate beside my seat on the couch are great spots too.

It is my hope that sticker praying will allow me to say with Paul, "I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers."(Ephesians 1:16, NIV)

Prayer for a friend

I'm so grateful or all of your prayers for my family in the past. This time I'm asking for you to pray for Monica, one of my friends from church. She went into the hospital because of a lingering cough that got very bad, and was soon given a shocking diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer. She has 7, 5, and 5 month old children who have gone up north to stay with grandparents as she undergoes chemotherapy. Please lift her and her husband John up in your prayers today, won't you?

Prayer Request

Many of you are familiar with the Maxwells from Titus2.com. Their granddaughter Susanna was born early this morning not breathing, and they aren't sure if she will live.


Update: Susanna Joy went to be with Jesus on March 24. Please remember Nathan, Melanie, and their families in your prayers.