Prayer Mail

Dear partners in prayer,
This is our weekly public prayer mail.
As I send this out, it is almost Pentecost in Belize City, Belize, Central America!

This week's selective overview:

1) The two different national television interviews were awesome. The presence of the Holy Spirit was apparent, and Bp. Philip and I, with help of a friend, addressed questions that people generally ask, such as along the lines of how you tell when the Holy Spirit is guiding you, the relevance of the Church today, what about struggles between denominations, and what difference the Christian life makes. I did my usual praying during the Interviews, and addressed my comments to the interviewers, the camera crew, as well as the viewing audience.

2) I hear that Julie has been continuing to do an awesome job in Ogdensburg.

3) Bishop Philip asked me to be a kind of vocational counselor for people considering lay and clerical ministries in the Diocese of Belize.

4) We are getting local offers to participate in the online program, in Belize. Anything from: people wanting to design courses to wanting to help with administrative ends of things. Also, there is continuing and additional interest in the courses, themselves.

5) I am having a good time with the Bishop of the Diocese of Belize, but now our time together is wrapping up, concluding the Vocation Month in the Diocese (a successful experiment this year). On Saturday we both led a workshop for Lay Ministers, and a new Lay Ministers' guild was launched for the Diocese. Sunday, I preached at the 7:00 am service in Belize City, about 300 people attending; the Bishop preached at the 9 am service, which is rather fitting since 9 am was a key moment in time in Acts 2. My presentation on Lay Ministry was well received.

Prayer requests:

1) Travel mercies over the next few days.

2) Pray for sorting through the development opportunities of our online courses, for an increase in the student body, and financial support for the program, for God to open the doors we are to go through and our obedience in going through them.

3) Pray that we focus on the essential language matters that God wants us to attend to, in the online program.

4) For our missionary table at the annual Convention in the Diocese of Albany in June.

5) For the balance of our time in the North Country.

6) For a resolution to the persistent health insurance issue, God's way.

7) For direction on everything that is before each of our family members.

God bless you, and thank you for praying. I pray for you every day. You all are really great. We could not be doing this without you.

In Christ,
Shaw+, and on behalf of Julie+