My Prayer List

         We went to a leadership meeting last weekend. Which is to say that Elv spent a couple of hours in Bible study and discussion with eight other men at one of the four represented chapels.  And I sat with the women of the same in the shade at the park across the road and visited and laughed and cried and prayed together. It was good.
         They were all solicitous and curious about how it was going with us in our church context for good reason, of course. But mostly we talked about faith and fear in relation to being women doing life to the best of our ability as Christians.
        I came away with two pieces of information that gives me some badly needed perspective especially in relation to the troubles we are dealing with right now. Firstly, Daria told us that in Iraq right now, Christians are being crucified for their faith. Just last week, eight more Christians were crucified.  That jolted me a bit. Frankly, it makes our stuff look sickeningly silly. I just want to say that what seems like big important things to discuss and pray over around here lately, certainly isn't something I would hang on to if I were faced with being crucified for it. Would you?
     And the other thing that keeps ringing in my ears is Mary Jane's testimony about what happened during the seven months that their little church didn't meet. Now, Cornerstone is a thriving little group meeting for church every Sunday. "The Lord did a work in all of our hearts."  Such a simple solution to issues that seemed big enough to divide them earlier. I am blessed and encouraged by her words. I believe that God can work on our hearts here, too, because those folks at Cornerstone are human, ordinary people too. If He can do it for them, He can do it for us.
       So my prayer list is short. I want to pray for: 1. Christians who are actually suffering (in prison and being executed) for their faith all over the world. 2. And that God will be merciful and "do a work in each of our hearts".