Hello POP Team!

We have been extremely blessed the past three weeks as we have focused as a group on praying for each other, and for specific people who are facing adversity through cancer and other life threatening diseases.

NEW PEOPLE TO PRAY FOR:

  • Chiho Miyazaki.  Chiho is the wife of Toshi,  our pastor of Care, Senior Adults, and Japanese.  Her diagnosis is lymphoma and they are at Emory Winship Cancer Center today to determine what the treatment plan will be.  Their doctor is Dr. Hefner, one of the doctors who treated me.  Please pray for healing for Chiho and wisdom for Dr. Hefner.
  • Kathleen Kennard.  Kathleen is a ‘charter member’ of the POP TEAM.  She is employed at Wellspring Living and her diagnosis is breast cancer.

CONTINUED PRAYER NEEDS:

  • Matt Holland.  He is back in the hospital having tests run.  Strength of wife Cindy.
  • Shirley Fairley.  She is at the doctor today getting results from the tumor removed from her eye.
  • John Mueller.  John lives in Arkansas and has been in hospital with infection.
  • Ella Barna.  9 year old.   She is at MD Anderson.  Complications this week with her lungs.
  • Praise.  Ray Sluk was back at MD Anderson for tests.  He got good results.
  • Jeff Carr.  My brother-in-law.  I spoke with him yesterday and he is improving.
  • Dennis Palmer lives in Crosby, Texas.  He has cancer in esophagus/abdomen.
  • Art Hiabel has cancer and lives in Michigan.

POP TEAM:  Continue to pray for these special needs.  Also, pray for your team members.  We all have our burdens and needs.  We all know the POWER OF PRAYER, especially when we have prayer warriors interceding for each other.

 

“Because  Chiho, Kathleen, Matt, Shirley, John, Ella, Ray, Jeff, Dennis, and Art cleave to Me in love, I will deliver them.  I will protect them because they know My name.  Whenever they call to Me, I will answer them.  I will be with them in trouble.  I will rescue them and honor them with long life.  I will satisfy them and show them my salvation.” — Psalm 91:14-16

 

I am a very blessed man.  One reason is that my 5 year old grandson Cal and I have an ‘almost weekly’ routine.  We take a ride on the golf cart and this is our typical agenda: (PTC has close to 100 miles of golf cart paths that weave their way through the 20% green space of the city.)  We ride to the playground, we eat lunch, (Our favorite places are Chick-fil-A, McDonalds, Dairy Queen, and Mimi’s (they serve pancakes that look like Mickey Mouse).  Next, we ride to the ‘TARGET’ store and shop for a $1 toy.  Cal will grow up to be a great attorney!   The rule is always one toy, but he begins negotiating for two as he walks the isle making his decision.  We finish our trip by stopping at the frozen yogurt store.  Cal always chooses vanilla, but the challenge is choosing from over 30 different toppings to add to the treat.  You weigh your cup, and pay accordingly.

Riding together for 30 minutes or so gives us a great time to bond.  We have a word game we like to play as we ride.  I will call out a letter of the alphabet – ‘C’ and then Cal will give me two words that start with the letter ‘C’.  (Cat, Crocodile).  The challenge is I ask Cal to make a sentence with the two words –  and he replies “one day when I was walking down the street, I saw a crocodile and a cat playing in the yard, they were acting crazy.”  We are not only building vocabulary, but imagination and Cal definitely has an imagination.

Last week we were riding in a very secluded part of the cart path system, and the golf cart quit running.  It started slowing down, and within a minute we were ‘stranded.’   I am not mechanically inclined, so I was not sure what happened.  The cart was charged when we left, so it should have had plenty of power.  Always looking for ways to teach Cal, I suggested we pray. We prayed a simple prayer, ‘God, please help us or send some people that would help us.’

After about 5 minutes, it was very evident that our prayer had not been answered.  Cal looked at me, and with all the sincerity of a five year old said; ‘Granddad, I think we should pray again.’  What should I pray now to teach Cal and to help us?   I was divinely reminded of a lesson from the bible study that Mary Frances and I are studying by Beth Moore.  It is on the book of James.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”   James 1:5.

 

Aside from medical adversity, we all have issues with employment, finances, our marriages, our businesses, our children, our parents.  Of course, the list goes on and on.  I remember when we were in the hospital with leukemia, we many times got to the point where we wondered; what should I pray?  I’m all prayed out.  I have prayed ‘God heal me’ a thousand times. Why do we pray for these things if God knows what we want.

What we learned from the bible study was when we pray and ask for help, we need more than the help that man can give.  WE NEED THE WISDOM ONLY GOD CAN GIVE –NOW!

The key to this verse is ‘ASK’!  ASK God.

In our challenges with prayer when facing adversity, we many times wonder; ‘why do we always need to ask?’  God already knows what we need.  Why can’t HE just give it?

As Beth explains; “The King of the Universe wants a real live relationship with us.  He’s not interested in just being a mind reader.  He’s not even interested in just being a provider.  He’s both of those things, but the role He relishes most is FATHER.  He wants us-frail mortal creatures- to connect with Him and communicate with Him as the dearest relationship in human existence.  He rejoices to hear our voices.  He delights to be our sole and holy source for all things in life, to be totally dependent on Him for everything.”

So Cal and I prayed for wisdom!    We were inspired to put the golf cart in reverse, and the cart was able to move in reverse.  We were able to get back into a neighborhood and into a friends drive-way just as the cart would no longer move in reverse. Mary Frances came and picked us up.  She had checked our cart charger in our garage, and the electric outlet we had it plugged into in our garage was not working.  The battery was dead.

Lessons learned by Cal and I— ASK God for wisdom. Depend on man for knowledge, Depend on God for wisdom.  Depend on God with FAITH and let Him be Our Father!

PS.  As we were driving home, I said to Cal; ‘That was sure an adventure we had today!’  He looked at me and firmly said; ‘No granddad, that was an un-adventure!’

Thank you for your faithful prayer support.  My hip recovery went to another level this week.  You all know how much I like to walk…we were able to walk 1.5 miles yesterday at the track!