“Confess
your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The power of a righteous man is powerful and
effective.” James 5:16
I
know that we are all fighting some sort of battle these days. I am surrounded by fighters – over the last
week alone, some of the fighters we have prayed for include a family who await
answers and healing of their precious baby boy, a family who struggle to
understand how to move past burying their 38 year old father/brother/son/friend,
a teacher who’s fighting for her life without answers and without reprieve, a
family of fighters seeking to live out the safest plan for children involved in
an unsafe situation, fighters who are praying over organ transplant surgery for
their own child, a friend who is working to regain strength & function of
her left side after life as she knew it was interrupted during a bike ride
collision… you get the picture…
In light of what my peers
are going through, I tend to minimize and shrink from asking for prayer,
myself. My problem surely is not significant
in comparison to theirs… how could I ask for prayer when they are going through
______…… ah, and then the enemy has distracted me again…… 2 Corinthians 10:5 says this, “We demolish
arguments and every pretention that sets itself up against the knowledge of
God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” So….every
thought means every idea, motive, question, desire, doubt, decision, etc
I’m
struggling… “My flesh and my heart may
fail [my flesh and my heart have failed],
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever [He continues to be my strength as I’m
seeking]” Ps 73:26
I’ve
found myself giving way to fear – lots of junk has fought to take my eyes off
of the WAY lately and I admit that I’ve entertained a few glances due to the
distractions. I confess that I’ve given
into the thoughts that cause me to fear.
I confess that I’ve wondered HOW instead of focusing on the WHO. I confess that I’ve had a pity party in my
pain and wanted to cry out, ‘where are YOU?”
I confess that I’ve gotten bothered and angry with that which I don’t
understand. I confess that I’ve had it
with those who continue to show their rear and I confess that I don’t want to
exercise patience in the waiting and forgiveness in the hurting. I confess that I am tired of dealing with
physical limitations with no answer or remedy.
I confess, I confess, I confess………and today
I am asking for prayer… I’ve told you I
would include our list of prayer requests and have yet to do that (minimizing
our needs along the way). Today, I am
posting them just as they are and with them I will add that if you are led to
pray for us specifically then we thank you for every minute that you lift up
your words to our WAY on our behalf! We
are strengthened by your words of prayer.
We know that we can do nothing apart from our Savior. We know that our journey (whether today or
next year at this time) is beyond our ability and that our strength lies in Him
and Him alone.
Prayer
requests (for now and long-term):
1)
Travel – both for us & the team going in July, and for our move that’s planned for January
2)
Safety (in
general) transitioning and residing
3)
Housing in
Camp Coq- all that it entails…initial plan is to start out on the 2nd
floor of the mission house that is being finished at this time, with that
please pray about specifics including timeframe there vs our own space &
where that might be, layout, materials, functionality, comfort, safety
4)
Food – what we
will eat, preparation, garden possibilities on rocky ground, storage, etc
(fears, questions, adaptations, safety, health, contentment with change)
5)
Water – a well? Limitations/availability
6)
Bathing –
shower with no running water hence a bucket and a pitcher? River with unclean
water that’s shared with community for animal drinking, clothes washing, etc
7)
Wardrobe –
functionality, comfort, modesty, proper
shoes, etc
8)
Language –
schooling, fluency, barriers
9)
Homeschooling –
materials, possibilities, peace, success
10) Healthcare/Dental – vitamins/minerals, medicines
needed: how to get them/ store them, etc.
children’s wellness check-ups, yearly physicals, etc ALSO: Sustainment through physical issues - For
22 years Dawn has suffered off and on with severe headaches and abdominal
issues. After seeing Dr upon Dr she’s
been prescribed various medications, taken rounds of allergy shots, adhered to food
restrictions, tested bloodtype diets that proved successful for a good while, undergone
multiple surgeries and scans, etc. As
you know she recently battled some new abdominal issues and now her chronic
headaches have resurfaced. Headaches
that require pain meds that put her to bed, headaches that make her want to
cave, headaches that make her someone other than herself, headaches that make
us question. Please pray for strength
for our family as we drudge through this & for healing if it be God’s will
and for sustainment and contentment if she’s called to continue to endure.
11) Work – training, clarity, confidence, balance
12) Salary – what this is supposed to look like: how
much will we need, how to “house” our money there, how to live on that, how to
get it from states to Haiti, etc (complete trust)
13) Savings/College funding for our children
14) Retirement – rolled into salary? How to put up and where?
15) Relationships - us to each other, us to them, them
to us (also praying for restoration within some broken relationships here at
home – praying for reconciliation/restoration before we leave)
16) Our pets – what will happen to them as we leave,
where they will be, us as we have to adjust to not being with them anymore and
them as they adjust to the same (some we’ve had for 14 years) – Dawn is really
struggling with this and girls are currently unaware that we will not be able
to take any of them with us when we go
17) Our house here in MS – unity regarding what to do
with it and when: work that needs to be done currently, time frame, when to
have ready, selling, etc
18) Internet access once we move – connection for work,
interaction with family and friends from the states, school resources, music,
sermon/podcasts downloads from our favorite pastors J, etc
19) Mail – ability to receive care packages, needed
items from the states not available to us there, communication via snail mail
20) Support – prayers and encouragement for us and for
our family we will leave behind
21) Roads that are easily accessible to Camp Coq –
better roads (real roads that you can drive more than 20 MPH on) = more means
of resources all around such as electricity, mail, internet, etc
We pray that God will deliver answers
as He sees fit. We know that He will not
withhold anything good from us (Ps 84:11).
We trust that His timing is best whether we see/hear answers when we
want to or not.
