Here is CS Lewis quoting George MacDonald on prayer:
‘But if God is so good as you represent Him, and if He knows all that we need, and better far than we do ourselves, why should it be necessary to ask Him for anything?’ I answer, What if He knows prayer to be the thing we need first and most? What if the main object in God’s idea of prayer be the supplying of our great, our endless need—the need of Himself? . . . Hunger may drive the runaway child home, and he may or may not be fed at once, but he needs his mother more than his dinner. Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other need: prayer is the beginning of that communion, and some need is the motive of that prayer.
Please frame all your prayers for us around our true need: the need for communion with our Father in Heaven. He has graciously cared for us this past month in several dramatic ways. Wendy and Rick’s baby looks good on ultrasound; the passage of pertussis through the team seems to have been halted; we are a whole family again with the return of the Massos from HMA and Amy back from a family visit; Pat’s support account had a timely boost from her church.
Thankfully He has given us plenty of graphically visible needs to drive us to prayer in order to fill our real need!
1. Pray that as we seek to meet people’s immediate felt needs, we would actually point them to THEIR true need for Jesus, as He did in Mark 2 with the paralyzed man. Imagine Jesus standing in the crowd of AIDS infected hungry people forgiving their sins . . .
2. Pray for wisdom and resources to meet the needs around us in loving ways. Each one of us is stretched beyond the limits daily. In particular pray for Pamela, Karen, Pat, Scott, me (Jennifer) and soon Stephanie Jilcott to reorganize our nutritional outreaches in view of the impending withdrawal (November) of World Food Program. I have four babies in the 2-4 pound range right now, one of whose grandmothers’ breast milk just started to flow. There are also four very pitiful toddlers with Kwashiorkor admitted. I know we are fighting for their lives. Pray for Tumusimwe in particular who was diagnosed by Ndyejika (! Just finished lab training school) with schistosomiasis and treated this week, that the treatment would make a difference. Every day we confront the dilemma of how and when to help.
3. Pray for our ability to faithfully and thoroughly do the work to which we are called in a way that contributes to the big picture of the redemption of this fallen world. Scott is working on a presentation he will give at the EGPAF annual meeting in Tanzania in October, analyzing 3000 survey responses (half before Kwejuna started, and half after two years) to see what kind of community impact we are having in people’s knowledge, attitudes, and practices as they relate to sex, marriage, and HIV. Michael has been moving around the district doing a drama about cooperation on the water project. Pamela, Carol, and I are meeting to plan a more quantifiable follow-up of babies born to HIV positive moms. Karen has just hired to veterinary assistants to augment the breeding of dairy goats. These efforts should help not only Bundibugyo but provide real world data that can inform other similar efforts.
4. Pray for our kids as they begin a new school term today. Caleb is jumping into two new classes at Christ School which will be hard having missed the first two terms (calendar year school here). Please pray for him, and Luke, to have friends, learn what they need to know, be protected, and move cross-culturally with good attitudes. Meanwhile at RMS we are a bit short staffed so Karen and I are filling in, and Amy and Kim are taking on extra work. Pray that all our kids would hunger for God, and have an appetite for learning about His creation.
5. Pray for Christ School-Bundibugyo! Pray for staffing needs to be filled, for income-generating agricultural projects to ease the financial burden of the school, for adequate land and facilities. Pray for David Pierce who begins teaching his first class (S2 additional math, sadly not either of my boys!). Pray that David and Annelise, and Joy, would build solid relationships with the teachers and see Kingdom fruit in the changed lives of students. Would you also pray that Joy would be delivered from debilitating back pain, exacerbated when she stands all day teaching?
6. Pray for the marriage seminar being held Wednesday and Thursday at the Community Center—all the teachers and organizers are Ugandans. The specific target is church leader couples, and those who work around the mission. Marriage is the primary front line of most of our battles. If the love and commitment of husbands and wives is redeemed, then malnutrition and AIDS and the struggle for education will quickly follow.
7. Pray for a few desperate people. Ourselves first and foremost, we need to know the depth of our sin and the pitiful limits of our strength. But in addition pray for Kabasunguzi Grace (as many of you have been praying). God continues to watch out for her and preserve her life. She is admitted at Mulago Hospital and having more tests, but no diagnosis yet. The gifts of one of you have sustained her medical costs, for which I am very grateful. Pray also for Monday, a psychotic man who roams the area, and is variously manically charming and frighteningly agitated. His family, the health center staff, and the police are all afraid of him and very passive. Pray he would allow us to treat him, and pray for Pat who shows him compassion (and is therefore often disturbed by his demands). You can also pray for Kisembo Salezio who has a court hearing this week related to his purported role in the arson death of Magezi. The motorcycle saga remains unresolved, and we continue to ask God for mercy and wisdom.
That should be enough need to motivate prayer!
We are ever grateful for your intercession.
Love,
Jennifer for the team
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Pray for Bundibugyo Team from Myhres 5 Sep 06
Here is CS Lewis quoting George MacDonald on prayer:
‘But if God is so good as you represent Him, and if He knows all that we need, and better far than we do ourselves, why should it be necessary to ask Him for anything?’ I answer, What if He knows prayer to be the thing we need first and most? What if the main object in God’s idea of prayer be the supplying of our great, our endless need—the need of Himself? . . . Hunger may drive the runaway child home, and he may or may not be fed at once, but he needs his mother more than his dinner. Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other need: prayer is the beginning of that communion, and some need is the motive of that prayer.
Please frame all your prayers for us around our true need: the need for communion with our Father in Heaven. He has graciously cared for us this past month in several dramatic ways. Wendy and Rick’s baby looks good on ultrasound; the passage of pertussis through the team seems to have been halted; we are a whole family again with the return of the Massos from HMA and Amy back from a family visit; Pat’s support account had a timely boost from her church.
Thankfully He has given us plenty of graphically visible needs to drive us to prayer in order to fill our real need!
1. Pray that as we seek to meet people’s immediate felt needs, we would actually point them to THEIR true need for Jesus, as He did in Mark 2 with the paralyzed man. Imagine Jesus standing in the crowd of AIDS infected hungry people forgiving their sins . . .
2. Pray for wisdom and resources to meet the needs around us in loving ways. Each one of us is stretched beyond the limits daily. In particular pray for Pamela, Karen, Pat, Scott, me (Jennifer) and soon Stephanie Jilcott to reorganize our nutritional outreaches in view of the impending withdrawal (November) of World Food Program. I have four babies in the 2-4 pound range right now, one of whose grandmothers’ breast milk just started to flow. There are also four very pitiful toddlers with Kwashiorkor admitted. I know we are fighting for their lives. Pray for Tumusimwe in particular who was diagnosed by Ndyejika (! Just finished lab training school) with schistosomiasis and treated this week, that the treatment would make a difference. Every day we confront the dilemma of how and when to help.
3. Pray for our ability to faithfully and thoroughly do the work to which we are called in a way that contributes to the big picture of the redemption of this fallen world. Scott is working on a presentation he will give at the EGPAF annual meeting in Tanzania in October, analyzing 3000 survey responses (half before Kwejuna started, and half after two years) to see what kind of community impact we are having in people’s knowledge, attitudes, and practices as they relate to sex, marriage, and HIV. Michael has been moving around the district doing a drama about cooperation on the water project. Pamela, Carol, and I are meeting to plan a more quantifiable follow-up of babies born to HIV positive moms. Karen has just hired to veterinary assistants to augment the breeding of dairy goats. These efforts should help not only Bundibugyo but provide real world data that can inform other similar efforts.
4. Pray for our kids as they begin a new school term today. Caleb is jumping into two new classes at Christ School which will be hard having missed the first two terms (calendar year school here). Please pray for him, and Luke, to have friends, learn what they need to know, be protected, and move cross-culturally with good attitudes. Meanwhile at RMS we are a bit short staffed so Karen and I are filling in, and Amy and Kim are taking on extra work. Pray that all our kids would hunger for God, and have an appetite for learning about His creation.
5. Pray for Christ School-Bundibugyo! Pray for staffing needs to be filled, for income-generating agricultural projects to ease the financial burden of the school, for adequate land and facilities. Pray for David Pierce who begins teaching his first class (S2 additional math, sadly not either of my boys!). Pray that David and Annelise, and Joy, would build solid relationships with the teachers and see Kingdom fruit in the changed lives of students. Would you also pray that Joy would be delivered from debilitating back pain, exacerbated when she stands all day teaching?
6. Pray for the marriage seminar being held Wednesday and Thursday at the Community Center—all the teachers and organizers are Ugandans. The specific target is church leader couples, and those who work around the mission. Marriage is the primary front line of most of our battles. If the love and commitment of husbands and wives is redeemed, then malnutrition and AIDS and the struggle for education will quickly follow.
7. Pray for a few desperate people. Ourselves first and foremost, we need to know the depth of our sin and the pitiful limits of our strength. But in addition pray for Kabasunguzi Grace (as many of you have been praying). God continues to watch out for her and preserve her life. She is admitted at Mulago Hospital and having more tests, but no diagnosis yet. The gifts of one of you have sustained her medical costs, for which I am very grateful. Pray also for Monday, a psychotic man who roams the area, and is variously manically charming and frighteningly agitated. His family, the health center staff, and the police are all afraid of him and very passive. Pray he would allow us to treat him, and pray for Pat who shows him compassion (and is therefore often disturbed by his demands). You can also pray for Kisembo Salezio who has a court hearing this week related to his purported role in the arson death of Magezi. The motorcycle saga remains unresolved, and we continue to ask God for mercy and wisdom.
That should be enough need to motivate prayer!
We are ever grateful for your intercession.
Love,
Jennifer for the team
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