Prayer Mail and Healing Story

Dear Partners in Prayer,
Peace be with you.
This is our weekly public prayer mail for 10 December 2010.

Thanksgivings:

1) Praise God for the end of the semester. On to the next.

2) Praise God for the on-line seminary planning meeting that concluded yesterday. Three countries are directly and enthusiastically involved with this opportunity to enhance ministry preparedness: Uruguay, Peru (several locations in Peru including Ica, where Bishop Michael Chapman is), and Bolivia. Part of this involves working with a seminary consortium in the US and possibly with a seminary in the UK and possibly Canada, as well.

There is a now working group of four people to coordinate matters between the dioceses here, selected by the Bishops involved. Concerning one of the members of that working group: Bp. Godfrey said that all the bishops thought I was was the obvious choice for..... Secretary. And so, I am the Secretary of the group.

3) Praise God that the on-line seminary plans have simplified so that we only have to work through one major computer learning experience, rather than two.

4) Lydia has done rather well in her AP English class in Lima. Pray for her final exam test taking for that course on Tuesday morning on-line from New York State.

5) For the healing story that follows this email.

Prayers:

1) For safe and timely travel back and forth from the US, particularly Saturday the 11th and Sunday the 12th.

2) 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.

3) For our landlady´s responsiveness and openness to what remains to be done in our apartment. Matters will continue while we are away. Looks like the emergency water situation in our bathroom necessitates replacing several storys' worth of old pipe.

4) For Lydia's driving practice in the US.

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

6) That we would be able to keep on top of all the daily things that God wants us to do.

7) For the construction on the apartment building next door. It is quieter today. The concrete structure has been completed at the roof level. The air is better. The next phase continues.

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

We hope to see some of you at the ordinations at St. John's in Troy in about a week. We plan to attend Oaks of Righteousness in Troy, on Sunday, the 12th, if all goes according to plan.

God bless you.
In Christ,
Shaw, and on behalf of Julie and Lydia

The healing story: A priest from Bolivia was sharing his healing story with me. He had been in stage 4 of cancer, and one of his last requests was to go on a trip to Israel. At the Church of the Nativity he kneeled down, and felt very warm, and over the time of the warmth, he was healed. He went back to his doctors, who could not believe it, but acknowledged it by saying: "you have a God" or words to that effect.

Now, as this priest was in the midst of telling this story, he put his hand on my shoulder, and his hand was hot. I seem to remember that warm hands indicated healing, and I took this as an indication that maybe the Lord was doing something even as this priest was telling his story, perhaps like an extension of what happened to the priest in Israel that time ago, was being passed on to me. And has he did so, stiffness disappeared from my arm and shoulder. The stiffness had been bothering me for some months. As that warmth stayed with me, I noticed a difference. I could move my arm without difficulty. I had not been able to do that, even two days before, the last time I had tried to do it.

An interesting thing is, that the priest was just telling his story and had did not have any idea that it had occurred. I like healing that way. Short. To the point, and effective. Only a silent prayer on my part, more like recognizing and allowing God to do what he wanted to do.

God bless you.