Prayer Mail

Dear Partners in Prayer,
Peace be with you.
This is our weekly public prayer mail for the week of 1 Advent 2010.

Thanksgivings:

1) Praise God for what he does in the lives of our students.

2) For the responsiveness of our landlady to some repairs that needed to be made. She is going down our list. To date, electrical matters have been addressed, and a cabinet door has been fixed. There are still some items in the works.

3) For the Sunday services we led on the first Sunday in Advent. They were really awesome. Blessings from God.

Prayers:

1) For the intercontinental seminary on-line planning meeting on December 8 to 9, here at the seminary in Lima.

Our particular prayer requests for this meeting:
a) to make it perfectly clear what God is doing and how to make it a reality.
b) for discernment in all this, to guide us, as we as a seminary try to go with what God is blessing.

2) For Julie and I as we learn necessary computer matters relating to on-line seminary teaching our New Testament courses,
to further the seminary´s long-distance teaching capabilities,
and in particular how best to reach more students across Peru and across certain South American countries through on-line courses.

3) For Julie and I as we continue to plan and prepare for February seminary orientation, and our regular courses on Biblical Interpretation. We are team teaching the next course, beginning in February, 2011. These are not on-line courses, yet.

4) For our landlady´s responsiveness and openness to what remains to be done in our apartment.

5) For the final week of our Church History and New Testament classes that we are teaching this teaching cycle (week 8 of 8; then, next week, exam week).

6) For safe and timely travel. We are coming up to the Northern Hemisphere, briefly, for our daughter Hannah´s anticipated ordination the weekend before Christmas. We will stay through New Years, and return to Lima on January 4 while the seminary is on break.
Before the ordination, Lydia may need be taking an on-line final exam from the US, and she could use your prayers for that, that we find the right internet connection, and for her preparations and test taking.

This trip is also an opportunity for Lydia to log in more hours as part of process of getting her driver´s license in New York State (special prayers for us all and our car would be appreciated).

7) For the relationships and spiritual protection of missionaries and other diocesan team members in Peru, and our ministries, finances, resources, and priorities.

8) That we would be able to keep on top of all the daily things that we need to do.

9) For the construction on the apartment building next door. They are about one floor from completion of the main structure. Looks like a secondary demolition phase has begun this week, out back, near our bedroom window, stirring up dust and whatever has been accumulating in it for years.

Between the irritation from fumes of the petrochemicals used in the wall making process (the most troublesome part, but hopefully coming to a conclusion) to the various kinds of dusts tossed in the air by the wind, my allergies have been taking a hit. In effect, we are living on a construction site. Your prayers would be appreciated. It is one way of getting to know Peru, really well.

We are not sure what this new phase ultimately entails.

Thank you for praying for us. Your praying is very important, really makes a difference for us, and I pray for you every day.

God bless you.
In Christ,
Shaw, and on behalf of Julie and Lydia
Missionaries of the Diocese of Albany, serving in Lima, Peru