Prayer Mail

Dear Prayer friends,
Peace be with you.
This is our weekly public prayer mail:

The Week in Review (you might pray as you read):

We continue to make progress down the road in discerning God's call for us in mission, but sometimes, it appears only to be a straight line, from God's perspective. Please keep our discernment in your prayers, especially for the following three areas:

1. Belize:
The Bishop of Belize contacted us with his vision for what he would have us do. We responded with our version of his vision. The two visions are very similar, but some questions remain. This assignment would be a mixture of pioneering ministry and a coming-alongside ministry, at the same time.

2. Uganda:
We had a very good two-hour phone call on Sunday morning, before Church. Consequently, we are praying about the two options below:
a) We have been informed about a potential assignment in a diocese in central Uganda. It seems like a very good assignment. This would be more along the lines of coming-alongside current ministry.
b) We have been informed about a potential assignment in a diocese in a part of Southern Sudan that borders Uganda. It is a bit more rustic assignment than the one in Uganda, and it would be a pioneering assignment, kind of like helping a virtual diocese become reality.
Our prospective site visits for both the Uganda and Southern Sudan assignments might be held in conjunction with someone else's short term mission trip to Uganda, scheduled for March, 2012.

3. Kenya:
We continue to wait to hear back about a potential assignment in western Kenya; that would be a coming-alongside kind of ministry. We do not expect to hear back until some time after Christmas.

Prayers:

1) Please keep Lydia in your prayers, for exams and vacation plans. She seems to be doing reasonably well in most subjects, but she needs your special prayers for one particular course.

2) Please keep parents in your prayers (my mom, Julie's parents), as they plan their lives over the next few months.

3) We are currently SAMS missionaries on Home Mission Assignment. This is the phase in which we are preparing for our next assignment. Please pray for our finances, meetings, logistics, and the right open doors in the Lord's timing.

God bless you, and I continue to pray for you every day. Your prayers matter to us.

In Christ,
Shaw+ and on behalf of Julie+