Prayer and Support

Thank you all for your financial support and your encouragement through prayer! Your generosity has been humbling, your prayer has been powerful, and I am grateful for your friendship. As our mission team enters the final stages of preparation for our trip, I have been focused on tying up final logistics, personally (like getting my immunizations - maybe something that should have had a little higher priority), at work (two briefs and five depositions to go), and at home (does the linen closet really need to be organized before I leave?). I am also trying to get organized for the Spiritual Leadership seminar I'll be presenting, and for my visit with Aujuchara, the Compassion child we sponsor in Thailand. Amidst all of that, I am doing my best to carve out quiet time for conversation with God and spiritual reflection. In these last few weeks, please know that I greatly appreciate your continued prayers. Please pray:

• For spiritual protection for our family while I prepare and while I am gone
• For me to be able to focus on the things God wants me to, and not on the unnecessary things that will only cause anxiety; for clarity of purpose
• For efficiency that only God can provide
• Preparing for this trip has caused me to become familiar with disturbing and haunting thoughts, so please pray that I not get bogged down in emotions that will lead to inaction
• For the women and girls who are currently being held as slaves, that they are rescued and that they come to know Christ

Also, on a practical level, we are collecting supplies for the schools for rescued children and the centers for rescued women where we'll be working. If you are so moved, donations of any of the following have been requested by the organizations we'll be working with and would be welcomed (I will bring an extra bag):

• School supplies
• Books (picture, coloring)
• Beads for crafts
• Simple toys such as: jump rope; jacks; marbles; toy cars; dolls; soccer balls; frisbees
• Toiletries
• Towels
• Kitchen utensils
• Sheets
• Prizes for the women for English class, such as old purses, wallets, tote bags, any kind of decorative nick-nack or figurine, decorative boxes, picture frames, anything with angels or crosses
• Foam stickers in Christian shapes or feather boas for crafts