“My favorite text in this regard is Paul’s greeting at the end of his Colossian letter. He commends to his readers their pastor Epaphras, who is visiting Paul, and who is “always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.” Then he adds, “I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for all those at Laodicea and Hierapolis” (Col. 4:12–13). What hard work could Epaphras possibly be doing for these people, while he is away from them? His wrestling in prayer for them is hard work. Prayer actually gets God’s work done.”
Ben Patterson and David L. Goetz, vol. 7, Deepening Your Conversation With God. Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1999, pp. 25-26.
Please pray with us, daily if you can, since only God’s work with and through us yields eternal fruit. Please join our Prayer Force to lift us up before God’s throne.
Pray for open doors for the gospel, boldness in our speech, and for wisdom as we train “to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” CLICK HERE FOR OUR ONGOING PRAYER REQUESTSAnswers to prayer:
- Laura was engaged to Adriaan Verkerk, a wonderful Christian young man whom she has known for seven years.
- Abundant help for Rebecca in finding a camp ministry for the summer. She received over 40 emails. She found out quickly that at best she would make enough money to cover tickets, but she needs funds for her study next year. She decided to stay in the Netherlands and work, so save for college.
- Provision of a car to use during furlough
- Strength and endurance amidst the myriad of jobs at the end of the semester, finishing teaching, interviewing students returning from internships, getting all the admin. details for next year in place, and planning our furlough.
- Recent unrest settled down in the flower shop where Pat works. Pray for good sales as a provision for the family dependent on the shop (difficult in this time of financial crisis).
Our prayer requests
- Jun 10: share at the Blue Church (Springfield, PA) for the pm service.
- Jun 10: visit Westerly Road Church (Princeton, NJ) for am services
- Jun 3: share at the services of First Baptist Church, Allentown, PA
- Jun 2: Missions Night at the Henrie residence, near Princeton.
- Jun 1-2: attend PEF reunions in Princeton, reconnect with class mates and other Princeton friends.
- May 30: Meeting of the faculty council at ETF, with important decisions for the internship that Jack supervises. Pray for wisdom and good understanding among all involved.
- May 29: Flight to the US, to begin 7 weeks of furlough visits.
- May 29 – Jul 20: 7 weeks of travel. Furlough prayer requests:
- – Safe travel, encouraging visits
- – Time to be refreshed
- – New prayer partners and supporters
- – Provision for all travel expenses
- May 25: ETF staff retreat to be encouraged together and consider the challenge of Life Long Learning.
- May 19: Special day of classes in Utrecht with students of ETF’s Open University distance learning program. Jack teaches Models of Christian Leadership also in this format.
- May 12: Breakfast seminar of the Inst. of Leadership and Ethics to equip Christians in the business world.
- May 11: Special study day with international speakers for ETFs ‘Institute of Leadership and Ethics.’ Pray for good attendance, and for contributions that bring creative solutions to today’s leadership challenges.
