Prayer Mail

Dear Prayer friends,

This is this week's public prayer mail. We are almost on the cusp of equatorial East Africa. It is dry season, there.

Current events:

a) Things are coming together really well. For example, our visas have arrived; we just received a nice designated gift that covers the balance of our airfare for the trip, and the Diocese of Albany has graciously provided us with certain gifts for our hosts.

We represent many people: SAMS (our sending agency), the Diocese of Albany (as official missionaries of the Diocese), and you. When we return, in some way we will also be representatives of our brothers and sisters in East Africa to you.

b) Lydia is set in place at college, and likes the semester, so far.

c) Julie just returned from a visit with her parents who are planning to move to Colorado in March.

d) The Bishop of the Diocese of Northern Uganda has just asked us to teach lay readers when we visit Gulu, this trip. We are looking forward to that. Lives are being changed, there. The latest news is that 1,000 people just turned their lives over to Jesus and/or were delivered of demonic influences, this weekend. We have been told that spiritual warfare is big (this was the home base of the LRA, where it got started, until it moved to the Congo a few years ago, just to give you an idea).

e) This week we almost had another site-visit set up in another Kenyan diocese, this time on Lake Victoria, but logistics did not work out in a timely fashion. We wish them well, and ask God to bless them in their endeavors. We still have the one site-visit in Kenya on our agenda.

Prayer requests:

a) That arrangements can be made for someone to pick us up when we return to the Albany airport.

b) That Lydia would do well this semester.

c) That everything be done to the glory of God in our visit, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name, that lives would be changed by our visit, and that the Church be built up as a result of the decisions to be made.

d) That we would build bridges with our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world, representing our prayer partners, family, SAMS, the Diocese of Albany, and other supporters as God would want us to represent them.

e) For safe and timely travel, good physical health, for spiritual protection, for all logistical matters to go well, and resources be made available as needed.

f) For our family in the US. That they be blessed because of our trip.

g) For the continued finalizing of our parish visit list, both now and when we return.

h) For adequate communication links through Skype, email, and Facebook during our site visits.

Thank you for praying for us. Your prayers make a difference.

God bless you,
Shaw+ and Julie+