Prayer Mail

Dear Friends, 

Hope you are continuing to have a blessed Easter season.

This is our public prayer mail for Tuesday 26 April 2015.  

Among the highlights of this past week: 

A) Have been preparing for the next trip to Belize in May and have been working on courses.

B) Have applied for the grant for the printing of the Spanish Prayer Book for Belize and the Province of the Church in the West Indies. The application recipients are waiting upon two other support letters.

C) Background: as you may be aware, when I am in the U.S., because I am working on matters for Belize et al full time, continued financial support for mission work is crucial to keep the mission going. Like musicians, this overall situation often takes the shape of a mosaic, with support coming from contributions through SAMS (for my W-2), Julie's work (health insurance and financial supplement), and elsewhere. 

Praise report: This week, I have been blessed with extensive requests for clergy supply work/sabbatical coverage work - which also gives me an opportunity to talk about our mission experiences and the Gospel's application for various parishes in both the dioceses of Connecticut and Albany, just like the early apostles, moving from place to place. It all helps to make the mission work possible.

It is an answer to prayer. And, parishes' reception has been fantastic, in both dioceses. Praise God, and thank you all for praying! 

   

3) Have been working on preparations for various pending events and appointments.  

4) In general, everyone's health issues have been blessed with a way forward. Progress varies. Thank you for your prayers.  

Prayers:

1) Please keep each of the above items in prayer, especially health issues, our mission work, parish supply work, and the upcoming trip to Belize.  

2) Please keep various family members in prayer about: relationships, events and appointments, decisions to make, educational goals, gainful employment, and fruitful ministry.

Your prayers are very important. I am praying for you every day.

God bless you,

Shaw, and on behalf of Julie.

Scripture Prayer

Isaiah 52: 7 and 10

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,

Who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation,

Who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations,

And all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

We praise You, Lord God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  You reign in our hearts and in our churches and in our nations.  We thank You for all disciples who make disciples and for all missionaries who bring to others your good news of happiness and peace and salvation.

In particular, we lift up to You Father Shaw Mudge and his family.  Thank You for the work that they have done in Peru and Belize and Honduras.  Thank You for the new student from Africa and for the returning students from Belize.  Thank You for this family’s opportunity to spread your word.  Thank You for the power of Your Holy Spirit which has enabled them to be your witnesses in the US, in South America, in Central America, in Africa, and to all the ends of the earth.

We pray for physical healing for Mother Julie as she recovers from dental surgery and for Ruth Mudge as she heals from tendonitis.  We pray for the Reverends Hannah Mudge and Christine Hunter and their work at the Oaks of Righteousness in Troy.  We especially pray for a wall of protection around them and their young charges as they deal with a dangerous element in their environment.  And we pray for Lydia that she may discern your will for her life.  Help her to see your plan for her in the areas of educational goals, gainful employment and fruitful ministry.

We also ask for your guidance for Father Shaw as he gets ready for a longer deployment to Belize next month.  And for his course work.  May it truly bring good news, happiness, peace and salvation to his students and to the people to whom these students will minister in the future.

Thank You, Lord.  Amen.

Prayer Mail

Dear Friends, 

Hope you are having a blessed Easter season.

This is our public prayer mail for Tuesday 19 April 2015.  

Among the highlights of this past week: 

1) Have been preparing for the next trip to Belize in May and have been working on courses.

2) Gave a mission update for supporters in Connecticut.

  

3) Have been working on preparations for various pending events and appointments. 

4) Julie continues to improve on tooth recovery and recovery from sinus infection, but still some distance to go. Daughter Ruth is wrestling with tendonitis. Daughter Rev. Hannah is faced with kids being shot at. Lydia had a summer course cancelled, but plans to persevere by continuing with master knitting program. Not exactly a week with the best news. 

Prayers:

1) Please keep each of the above items in prayer, especially Julie's health, our mission work, and the upcoming trip to Belize.  

2) Keep Julie’s healing and Ruth's healing in your prayers.  

3) Please keep various family members in prayer about: relationships, events and appointments, decisions to make, educational goals, gainful employment, and fruitful ministry.

I am praying for you every day.

God bless you,

Shaw, and on behalf of Julie.

April Newsletter

Alleluia!

St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, San Ignacio,

in the Anglican Diocese of Belize, Central America.

Photo copyright Fr. Shaw Mudge, 2012.

Pastoring in Easter season.

Next month at this time, at the request of SAMS and with the permission of Bishop Philip of Belize, I will be serving in the capacity of short-term pastorate at St. Andrew’s in San Ignacio, Belize, while another missionary takes a well-needed short-term sabbatical. San Ignacio is in the Guatemalan Spanish speaking part of Belize.

For me, it is part of the missionary mix in Belize. A need here. A need there. In a way, it is like Nehemiah’s team building the walls of Jerusalem. The walls did not go up all at once because of any one person. They were built by a team, with the participants putting one block in place at a time.

In this case, we clergy who are associated with St. Andrew’s are pastorally working as a sequential team to build up the Church in the San Ignacio area of Belize, one day at a time, team members covering for each other as needed, so that the work may continue unimpeded.

I plan to continue to be involved in my ongoing wider ministries in Belize, prioritizing in order to make room for this important and pressing work. Preparations and rescheduling have been taking place for several weeks. We will see how it progresses, one day at a time. In the end, my hope is be able to look back, see what God did, and say: Alleluia!

The assignment is to be the clergy in residence at St. Andrew’s Church from the middle of May to the end of June, supplementing the ministry at St. Andrew’s with other pastoral ministry in the area as well.

During my time at St. Andrew’s, we will cross the liturgical bridge from Easter season to Pentecost season.

God bless you all, and thank you for your support,

Fr. Shaw, and on behalf of Mtr. Julie.

Examining Chaplain, Diocese of Belize

SAMS missionaries.

Support.

Please pray and continue to make checks out to: "SAMS". Put "Shaw and Julie Mudge" in the memo, to support what we are doing. Your continued support makes the work in Belize possible.

Mailing address:

SAMS,

P. O. Box 399,

Ambridge, PA 15003-0399.

Or on-line, at http://goo.gl/nll8ut  

Prayer Mail April 14

Dear Friends, 

Hope you are having a blessed Easter season.

This is our public prayer mail for Tuesday 14 April 2015.  

Among the highlights of this past week: 

1) Have been preparing for the next trip to Belize in about a month. There has been online course preparation, as well as online administrative matters. The final communications pieces fell into place this week, as part of setting up various contingency plans.

2) Had some interest from people who wish to resume the online courses, this week. They had been away for a while. 

  

3) I have been working on preparations for various pending events and appointments. 

4) Julie continues to improve.

5) It has been a busy week where life just catches up with you. And, many things to take care of in the US, before I go to Belize.

6) Received a special financial support blessing. 

Prayers:

1) Please keep each of the above items in prayer, especially our mission work and the upcoming trip to Belize.  

2) Please keep the expanding ministry of our online program in your prayers.

3) Keep Julie’s healing in your prayers as she continues to heal from her wisdom teeth surgery.  

4) Please keep various family members in prayer about: relationships, events and appointments, decisions to make, educational goals, gainful employment, and fruitful ministry.

I am praying for you every day.

Prayer Mail April 7

Dear Friends, 

Aleluia! He is risen!

¡Feliz Pascua!

This is our public prayer mail for Tuesday 7 April 2015.  

Among the highlights of this past week: 

1) Am preparing for the next trip to Belize, and Online course preparation. 

2) Some more online Spanish work is in process.

3) Our Kenyan student has officially registered. 

4) I also had an online exchange with a faculty member of a new Anglican seminary in Burundi in East Africa. You never know if something may come of this contact, especially via our 24/7 courses, providing their Internet infrastructure is there.

  

5) I have been working on preparations for various pending events and appointments. 

6) Julie continues to improve.

Prayers:

1) Please keep each of the above items in prayer, especially our mission work and the upcoming trip to Belize.  

2) Please keep the expanding ministry of our online program in your prayers.

3) Keep Julie’s healing in your prayers as she continues to heal from her wisdom teeth surgery. We've come a long way, but still some distance to cover.

4) Please keep various family members in prayer about: relationships, events and appointments, decisions to make, educational goals, gainful employment, and fruitful ministry.

I am praying for you every day.

Scripture Prayer

Psalm 36:7-9

How precious is your steadfast love, O God!

The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

They feast on the abundance of your house,

And You give them drink from the river of your delights.

For with You is the fountain of life;

In your light do we see light.

I write this prayer on the most somber day of the church calendar, Good Friday.  But I am reminded that it is Good Friday and not Bad Friday. We thank You, Jesus Christ, for your ultimate sacrifice, dying on that cross for our sins.  It seems like a defeat, but it leads to the greatest victory.  We look forward to your Resurrection and the promise of eternal life that it brings to all who believe in You.  

We await Easter joy as we thank You for steadfast love and the abundance that comes from knowing You.  We thank You for the refuge in the shadow of your wings.  We thank You for the drinks from the river of your delights.  We thirst, but You satisfy with the fountain of life.  And You bring light into the world.  Saying thank You is hardly enough.

In response to your great steadfast love, we dedicate our ministries to You.  And we thank You especially for the ministry of Father Shaw Mudge and all that he is doing to provide theological education to the people of Belize and throughout the world.  We keep in prayer the preparations for the next trip to Belize, the online teaching and course preparation, and the translation work.  And we pray for complete healing for Mother Julie from her dental surgery.  We also lift up to You the whole Mudge family as they make decisions about relationships, educational goals, gainful employment and fruitful ministry.

Thank You, Lord, for every blessing.  Amen.