Greetings from Jerusalem!

We are in the process of developing a vision statement for the Global Prayer Center of Jerusalem and have come up with this so far:

"The Global Prayer Center of Jerusalem will be a place where God’s people change the world through intercessory prayer."

How?

"The Global Prayer Center of Jerusalem exists as a means to bring glory to God by providing His children the opportunity to worship Him through praying on behalf of the unreached people groups of the world that results in His children changing their corner of His world."

Our purpose statement is still in the works, but we see this three-fold purpose to the facility as worship/work/witness.

Pray with us as we flesh out the purpose statement into specific action plans.

==========================

From a recent Global Prayer Digest...

"You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming." 2 Pet. 3:11-12

Have you ever reflected on this mysterious admonition? What does Peter mean when he says we should speed (or hasten) that day? Is Peter possibly referring to Jesus' statement that "this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations" before the end will come (Matthew 24:14)? If so, then consider the glorious possibility: by committing our lives to bringing the gospel to those people groups still without a church community in their midst, we are helping to speed the return of Jesus Christ.

Dear Lord, "Thy kingdom come." Give strength to our hands as we seek to hasten the day of Your appearing.

==========================

From the Baptist Press:

NEW YORK--Prayer partners sought for New York City as 9/11 nears.

http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=14045

==========================

Last week...

(1) You had prayed for a co-worker in another part of the world experiencing dental pain. Here's an update:

"Thanks Scott for your prayers and sharing with your friends. I think we might have got to the “root” of the problem on Friday. After a drawn out day the dentist started an “emergency treatment” on me. Then later told me to come back on October 29 for the second part of the root canal treatment. I’ll be sending out an update and make sure you get on that list." *And* I'll post it here : -) [Wow, that was fast...]

"She was still in pain even with the increase in meds so Friday, she went in for the blood work and to see the neurologist.

The lab work was just to check the Tegretol medicine level in her system, which he said was still not enough (7.3 and needs to be between 8 and 10). He prescribed more medicine and x-rays.

When we asked if he wanted us to bring the x-rays to him, he said no. He said if she wasn't better by next week, then he would look at them but he also suggested that we might want to take them to another hospital with better equipment.

We took that to mean that he really didn't think his diagnosis was correct and he didn't have a clue what to try next.

So we took the x-rays immediately to the other hospital but did not have a doctor recommended. So we just asked at the desk and a lady there suggested a department to see - so off we went.

Did we understand where we were going? No

We ended up in something like a dental center.

The doctor looked at the x-rays of her jaw and said everything looked fine; just some minor thing that he said would not cause a problem.

Then he started tapping on her teeth. That hurt!!!

He then suggested x-rays of her teeth.

We did that, although she had already done that before (remember that's how she got sent to the neurologist).

He first suggested that it was some kind of facial muscle problem and was going to send her home.

But she said she could not handle this pain any more. She hasn't slept well in days.

So he sent her and the x-rays to an endodontist. He did the same tapping (and her husband thought she was going to bite his finger off).

He asked "how long have you had the restoration?" After thinking a minute about what that meant, we realized he meant how long she had the filling.

We told him two years, but that the filling fell out last year and a dentist replaced it.

He said that is was very close to the pulp of the tooth and maybe that was the problem.

So he decided that this was the problem and he suggested emergency treatment, which meant she began a root canal.

We are not sure what he did but it took about thirty minutes. I know he drilled out the filling and then worked on the pulp, and then he put in a temporary filling.

Now she waits till Oct 29 to have the next treatment.

However, Friday night she still had terrible pain. And then Sat. morning she had bad swelling in that part of her gum and jaw.

But on the bright side, she seems to have less pain.

Our (local) neighbor called the doctor for us Saturday he seemed to think the swelling would go down. He said to come in on Monday if it is not better...Pray for physical healing of the body. Pray that the swelling will go down and she would be free from pain. Pray for the children as they sense their parent’s pain but don’t really understand what is going on. Pray that the family will be able to get a good night’s rest."

We'll continue to pray... this is one of those ongoing things to pray about whenever you see (ahem) names in a calendar format: good medical care!

(2) You prayed for a family of volunteers who've come to help with the Prayer Garden and the inside of the Global Prayer Center by asking God to give them strength from on High and protection from any type of harm... they have done an excellent job detailing a list of things that need to be done and have started tackling the list. Your intercession has kept them injury free. Thank you : -)

(3) You also prayed that our bedroom closet would arrive so we could stop living out of footlockers... I'm beginning to learn more about discrimination. Because we live in a Palestinian area of Jerusalem, the furniture company would not deliver our closet. I was expecting to "do-it-myself" until I went to see the original salesman Sunday.

[Yes, one guy helps you buy the closet, then he must contract delivery out to someone else with a delivery truck - wonder how American business seems strange to international guests?]

I was told that another driver may have been found, only this guy spoke Arabic : -)

Well! We made progress and will keep waiting on delivery. Continue to pray... you know, I may very well post the first pictures on the Wednesday Weekly <https://acts82640.tripod.com/ > prayer page showing the "before and after" of your intercession to this matter!

Also, there were several co-workers were willing to be my go-between to resolve this challenge.

(4) Finally, you prayed that co-workers would learn to love Palestinians as well as Israelis... I think the above mentioned answer also gave an answer to this one as actions spoke louder than words <g>.

This week...

(1) Continue praying for the arrival of the closet, please.

(2) Pray for safe travel and luggage arrival for the next wave of volunteers.

(3) As I work on the computers of co-workers, ask God to show me what needs to be done.

(4) Pray that our newsletter advocate would be able to distribute the Sep/Oct issue of our Wednesday Weekly newsletter without difficulty.

Love and grace,

Scott

* CALENDAR UPDATES *

14, travel mercy

* This day was a good day traveling the 4 miles or so from our home to Jerusalem's Old City. A phone call from the folks who were supposed to deliver our closet was upsetting as they said, more or less, "we won't deliver to your side of the tracks."

15, safe food

* What I thought may have been "food poisoning" actually turned out to be caused by tap water. We picked up the Brita watering system (a pitcher with a charcoal type filter) and, wow, what a difference! Thank you for tithing to your local group who, in turn, tithed to through the a special "Program" as part of those proceeds came directly to us enabling us to purchase this water filter : -)

16, believers to be encouraged

* When I wrote this request, I had hoped to see a group of new followers meeting on this day (sigh); nonetheless, a co-worker and I were encouraged by our volunteers as they shared thoughts and ideas to develop the GPC of Jerusalem.

17, what to keep, what to leave

* We've left behind a few items and need to return sometime soon to retrieve them, an add answer, I'm sure <g>

18, my Dad to fall in love with Jesus

* A month after his birthday I still haven't heard this to be the case, but there is still time!

19, church members to follow Jesus

* I saw a few of them doing that today, and I thought of your intercession : -)

20, Pastor Hanna’s wife’s return