♥ Answered Prayer 2010 - Hearts for the Lord  ♥

The month of February, though cold outside, is considered to be the month of Love, Tenderness and Warmth of heart. We know Love because the Lord loved us first. We experience His tenderness and warmth for us as we walk with Him in faith across the hills and valleys of our lives. While walking through the hills and valleys of our lives, the Lord has instructed us to “pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.)

In intercessory prayer, one pleads the case of another, pleading with God on behalf of others who need His intervention. During 2010 your Prayer Warriors received 330 short-term prayer requests and prayed for over 30 long-term requests each month. Most of these requests were not printed in the church bulletin; but the Prayer Team was quietly raising intercessory prayer on behalf of church members and their families, friends, co-workers, neighbors and our missionaries. 

Your Prayer Warriors experienced God’s love and tenderness and warmth during exciting times of wonderfully answered prayer, but also during the times when the outcomes were not as hoped and prayed for, but when His strength and compassion gently held aching hearts and brought them peace and comfort.

Old, middle aged, young and even the not yet born were fervently prayed for. We are grateful that triplets Riley, Natalie and Avery who, though born weighing less than 2 pounds, survived and two of them are already home enjoying the love, tenderness and warmth of their parents while their brother grows stronger in the hospital under the care of professionals and Our Father Above. We continue to pray that Avery will be able to join his siblings at home soon.  Infant Henry was born needing heart surgery and he is doing well.

At Valentine’s Day we see many hearts ♥, but Greg, Bill, Jeff, Donna and Ron all experienced successful operations on their hearts and that warms our hearts.  Bill B., Bill H., Christel and Doug all survived strokes and are working on good recoveries.  Barb, John, Karen, Bob, Mandy, Theona and many others experienced very successful surgeries and great recoveries. Carol and Clinton both had extremely successful kidney transplants and are doing very well indeed.

Unfortunately our cancer section is a large one; but our hearts experienced the warmth and joy of being able to remove Mallory, Jim, Don and Mary Claire from our Long Term Prayer Requests this year because they are cancer free! In addition we prayed for Julie, who had potentially cancerous lung nodules, and Theresa, who had a potentially cancerous reproductive organ tumor, and both were found to have only benign growths that were treatable, returning them to good health.

We love the fact that the military men and women we pray for are all safe and that Cameron has been discharged and quickly found employment. 

Though our missionaries are struggling financially, they are conquering hearts for Jesus and doing His mighty work and spreading His love and His tenderness and His warmth to those who don’t know him. The Gospel of Mark was translated into the Nyungwe language and thanks to Mission Aviation Fellowship and the additional airplanes that entered into service in 2010, that Gospel was distributed. In addition, MAF was able to help fly the daughter of a local pastor in northern Mozambique to receive life saving surgery and chemotherapy on a malignant facial tumor. This is a just a very small example of what our missionaries accomplish and we pray for them on a continual basis.

Though some of our prayers are answered in ways that breaks hearts, we continue to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests”(Ephesians 6:18) following the example of Christ’s disciples and followers who “all joined together constantly in prayer”(Acts 1:14a) knowing that this is God’s will and that “the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (James 5:15) even through the valleys. Praise and Thanks to Our Father in Heaven for His Love, Faithfulness and the sacrifice of His Son.