January 2, 2005
Prayer Request
Remember Grandma's Apron?

A Prayer for My Friend

I pray for you, my friend, wherever you may be.
I pray God will protect you, and cause your trials to flee.
His loving hand of mercy to rest upon your head,
To strengthen and uphold you, and keep your heart from dread.

We had our times together, the good times and the bad.
You were there for me, friend, whenever I was sad.
There were times of joy, too, of unrestricted fun.
We could laugh at anything underneath the sun!

I think of sorrow shared, of tears well understood,
Your hand of love stretched towards me, your praying for my good.
And now I pray for you, my friend, through what your days now bring,
For comfort in the darkness, a smile, a song to sing.
(c) Shirley Shibley, Glendora CA

Prayer Requests

1) Pray for revival and an awakening in the church. . .What a privilege to have a friend who prays for you.

2) Pray for our country. . .as we show our generosity to those in need in the devastated areas. Pray for relief and medical needs to be met. Pray for America to return to God.

3) Pray for our president. . .as he leads our nation into 2005. Pray that he is able to guide the stabilization of Iraq, the resetting of his cabinet, and the aid to Indonesia, the hosting of world leaders, the endless tasks of his office, and the rest of the world's problems, and still have time and energy to keep focused on God.

Additional leaders to pray for:

Read: Lamentations 3:22-25 & Psalm 17:1

PRAY for those affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia. 12 countries suffered major damage and deaths. As of this date more than 150,000 are dead. Millions have lost homes, livelihoods, and hope. The death toll from disease is expected to raise the totals to unprecedented levels.

There are Americans working, living, and vacationing there. There are many missionaries in these countries. Pray for their safety and their witness. The devastation is incomprehensible, even to those going there to help.

Pray the supplies and equipment reach their intended destination. The roads are gone, bridges washed out, and travel a mess. Pray for special wisdom for those in charge to surmount these difficulties. Pray the Lord have mercy on the people in that area.

Oregon

4) Pray for Jay and V.Ann who rang out the old year and rang in the new year with severe colds, loosing work and missing appointments.

5) Pray for Christine who is having continuous severe back pain.

Montana

6) Pray for Wilbur who is in jail on a serious charge. He is a Christian and will need God's help when he gets out.

Thank you to Emit Ward who honored his wife with a memorial gift to PrayerWorks.

Thanks to all those who generously contributed to The Master's Work during 2004. Without all of you this ministry would not -- could not-- continue. May you each be blessed with the same love that caused you to bless this ministry.

To each one of you who receives, uses, and sometimes, shares these prayer letters: blessings upon you also. Your prayers are vital to those in need. God works through your prayers. When you'all pray, things happen. You'all are praying for more than 60 different missionary groups, doing everything from inner city youth ministries, to jungle medical outposts. You'all are praying at least weekly for our country, our president, and our leaders. God listens. You'all have prayed for more than 500 requests. Unfortunately, we don't hear back with a lot of answers. But when we do, the answers have been spectacular.

Here's a couple of notes the staff of PrayerWorks received and would like to share with you. Those notes are such an encouragement to us. "Just a few lines to tell you I really look forward to the prayerletter. I like to see the answers to prayer. I enjoy the little sayings you have on the back page of the paper." Mary who is 83!

"Dear Intercessors: Thank you for your prayer ministry! Thank you for your prayers for me in Peru. May God bring a great harvest of souls."
Pastor Gil Harder

"Thank you for sending me the copies of your paper each week. The people at the retirement center I hand them out to love reading them and many say they keep each one."
Shirley

Remember Grandma's Apron?

The principle use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, but along with that, it served as a holder for removing hot pans from the oven. It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken-coop the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids; when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove. Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables, after the peas had been shelled it carried out the hulls In the fall the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees. When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds. When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner. It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that "old-time apron" that served so many purposes.
Ginger Burton, White Salmon WA