Good Evening POP TEAM!

We hope and pray the team had a blessed week! We continue to get requests for new POP team members and friends who are affected by cancer; either personally or close friend or relative. Please email me if we can send a POP BOOK or personalized Scripture prayers to anyone in need.

We have new cancer prayer requests this week; • Dennis Palmer in Texas has cancer in esophagus/abdomen. • Art Haibel has cancer and lives in Michigan. • Jerry Williams has lymphoma in Georgia. • Ella Barna, 9 year old, had tumor removed at MD Anderson in Texas. Improving. • Glenn Henry, lives in Alabama and has cancer. Treated at MD Anderson. • Shirley Fairley in Georgia has tumor removed from her eye. She is charter POP team member. • John Mueller in Oklahoma has colon cancer. He just graduated from seminary. • Jeff Carr in Pennsylvania, my brother-in-law is coming home tomorrow!

THIS IS OUR PRAYER THIS WEEK: “This is Jeff’s, Dennis’s, Art’s, Jerry’s, Ella’s, Glenn’s, Shirley’s, John’s comfort and consolation in his/her affliction; that Your Word Father God revives them and gives them life.” (Psalm 119:50)

OUR GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD! We had several things planned for last Friday, but at the last minute, they all fell apart. We were divinely reminded early Friday morning that there was a Silent Prayer Retreat being held at Ignatius House in Atlanta. This is a Jesuit Retreat Center on 20 beautiful acres on the Chattahoochee River. The retreat was from noon until 4 pm. As you know, I have been unemployed since January, and my revelation was that this would be a good time to spend in Silent Prayer, asking God what is the plan for my next Journey. We know that we are to BE for the Lord, but what should I DO Lord to let you work through me.

The first thing we saw when we arrived was one of the POP Team’s favorite Scripture’s written on the wall; Psalm 46:10. We know this Psalm as ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ What caught my attention very quickly was that their writing just said “BE STILL AND KNOW”. That hit me on the nose and made my eyes water! This was my first assignment — BE STILL AND KNOW!

There were about 20 people there, I did know several of them, and the retreat began with a short devotion and group prayer. Becky, the facilitator, passed out two items. ( I was still in awe of the bible scripture that was on the wall) and now I receive a small card with a quote on it. The title of the quote said ‘Time to Let Go’. She also handed us a little flat stone to write what we would like to focus on during the next 4 hours.

My initial plan as I drove the 45 minutes to get to the retreat was to ask God for wisdom, direction, and to point me where HE wanted the next phase of my life to go. We were beginning to get anxious about my next journey, our life was beginning to get busy, but not productive. We were trying to make things happen, rather than get to know God better and HE would make things happen.

In the first 30 minutes, I receive the Scripture to BE STILL AND KNOW, the card that said; “To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to the violence of our times. TIME TO LET GO!” — Merton.

Guess what I wrote on my stone? ‘TIME TO LET GO’ TIME TO LET GO(D)

It gets better. We were in a small library of the Jesuit priests. Not knowing exactly how to start praying, we began browsing the books. In just 2 minutes I opened a book called“Breathing Under Water” by Richard Rohr.

Here is what I read, learned, and prayed the next three hours and through this week! • Mature Spirituality is about letting go and unlearning. Subtracting, not adding. • It is the imperial EGO (Edging God Out) that has to go, and only‘powerlessness’ can do the job correctly. • Power is at its best in weakness. It is when I am weak that I am strong. • Grace – You don’t learn to draw upon God until your resources are depleted, and you realize it. That is grace.

Our prayer came from Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 – “My grace is sufficient for you, for MY strength is made perfect in weakness (powerlessness). Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

As I drove home and tried to ‘unpack’ this awesome 4 hours that God so graciously gave me, I realized three things; 1. It is better to know God than to know the answer. 2. While we do not miss our ‘Journey with Leukemia’, we were reminded how we learned first- hand of the JOY we receive when we live every day knowing that ‘God’s grace is sufficient and HIS strength was made perfect in my weakness. 3. Prayer does not have to be asking God for something, but asking God to help you LET GO of people, places, things, and activities that are keeping you from HIM!

We thank you for your prayers as my hip regains strength! We praise God for the POP TEAM, and your continued Prayers for each other!