Prayer Requests

I know many of you have graciously offered to pray for our trip. Right now we'd love and appreciate your intercession for the following:

1. For language to come quickly... We may be in Lima the first week or so for super-intensive language training. (Actually, keep this on your prayer list the whole summer...) Pray that we'll recognize Christ's voice even in our inability (mostly Margaret's inability) to drum up words and piece together coherent sentences in Spanish. Pray that we'll remember that it's God's voice, God's Word, God's spirit tongue, that sends us forth. (see 1 Cor 2:1-5)

2. For peace and rest in these last preparation days. Life has been a bit hectic for both of us over the past few weeks as we've attempted to get things in order in our apt and for the trip. Days like this remind me again of why less is more and "pack nothing for the journey" is a pretty good operating standard. This is also Maria's first time to live in a foreign country, and though I have experience in that regard, we would both appreciate prayer over our places of anxiety. Please remember our families, too.

3. For all things surrounding the classes we're teaching. We hope and pray that the Spirit of Christ will fall afresh on us, permeating all our encounters and exchanges, and binding us to the other students (we're all students!). May we give ourselves over to all these moments, and trust the Lord to transform us more deeply into God's image. May God bless us with diligence in study and passion in teaching and working and being "that in all things we might grow up in Him." And may we have grace to see Christ's face in every person.

4. Protection. Pray that we will know God's strength to sustain us and God's wisdom to guide us in all things. I love St. Patrick's prayer for this one: may Christ be with us, before us, behind us, in us, beneath us, above us, on our right and left, when we lie down, sit down, and arise, in every eye that sees us and in every ear that hears us. We'll be traveling to Lima and then on to Huancayo in the Central Region of the country. We'll also venture to la selva (the jungle) for a few teaching trips. May God free us from fear and also free us to laugh a lot at ourselves and with one another.

Thank you so much for journeying with us in thought and prayer, and through this blog. It's fun to have you along for the ride! How exciting that God has something prepared that our eyes haven't seen, our ears haven't heard, and our minds haven't yet conceived.

Until soon,
Margaret