They are home!

Homecoming

Hello Friends!

All being well, the PWA team should be landing in Atlanta around 1:30 pm today (central time) and in Nashville around 4:30 pm.

Please continue to pray for safe travels and peace.

Sweetest Sound

Scripture:Great is the Lord and greatly to be praise in the city of our God.
Psalm 8:1

Words of Inspiration:The sweetest of all sounds is praise.
--Xenophon

Prayer:Great are you, oh God, and you greatly to be praised. Thank you for the calling Austin, Cary, and Ciona into this marvelous movement of prayer and continue to be the One who guides.
Amen.

From the Beginning... Love

Scripture:For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
1 John 3:11

Words of Inspiration:God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
C.S. Lewis

Prayer:God, your unconditional love for creation is ever flowing. May Austin, Cary, and Ciona daily taste the wellspring of your love and share it with those they meet every step of the way.
Amen.

A Text Note from Ciona!

"Hey love!! We are in a Liberian village. In the forest! So cool! Just got service in the nearest city. Doing so well! Tell mom Bishop Innis is the greatest! Love."

Thank you all for your prayers. They will be home soon.

Peace
lanecia

Truth and Action

Scripture:We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us-and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?
Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.
1 John 3:16-18

Words of Inspiration:Ubuntu is a concept that we have in our Bantu languages at home. Ubuntu is the essence of being a person. It means that we are people through other people. We cannot be fully human alone. We are made for interdependence, we are made for family. When you have ubuntu, you embrace others. You are generous, compassionate. If the world had more ubuntu, we would not have war. We would not have this huge gap between the rich and the poor. You are rich so that you can make up what is lacking for others. You are powerful so that you can help the weak, just as a mother or father helps their children. This is God's dream.
Desmond Tutu

Prayer:Beautiful Lord, may Austin, Cary, and Ciona be a reflection of your love in truth and action as they journey with our neighbors in Liberia.
Amen.

Longing

Scripture:I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
Romans 8:18-23

Words of Inspiration:There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.- Elie Wiesel

Prayer:Lord, your servants have entered into the many groans of your creation in Mali, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, South Africa, and now Liberia. As they walk with you in Liberia, may they feel your presence with them every step of the way... hoping, crying, groaning, protesting, and praying on their behalf the sighs that are too deep for words. In your mercy, hear our prayer.
Amen.

They are in Liberia!

So today was an interesting day, yet another "grand" adventure, in the life of the PWA team. I briefly spoke to Ciona twice this morning via phone. They are well and in Liberia.

The issue in Liberia is poverty. Please pray for them as the journey closely to our brothers and sisters in Liberia.

Peace of Christ be with them.

Abide

Scripture:God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
1 John 4:16b

Words of Inspiration:Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.
Oscar Wilde

Prayer:Provide numerous opportunities for your servants to abide in love today.
Amen.

Breathe

Scripture:So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.
Galatians 6:9-10

Words of Inspiration:A social movement that only moves people is merely a revolt. A movement that changes both people and institutions is a revolution.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Prayer: God, you are able to breathe new life into weary and tired souls. Breathe new life and energy into Your servants. May they be reminded of your Glory as they encounter people loving their community in Liberia, that it might nurture the hope that is within them.
Amen.

Praise

Scripture:Praise the Lord! How God it is to sing praises to our God; for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.
Psalm 47

Words of Inspiration:Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.
Greg Anderson

Prayer: God, thanks for carrying the PWA team along an amazing journey the past 5-weeks. Thank you for their reunion time in South Africa. Help them to enter into the people's story of Liberia with thanksgiving, humility, grace, anticipation, and love.
Amen.

Gratitude

Scripture:Full of honor and majesty in his work, and his righteousness endures for ever. He has caused his wonderful works to be remembered;
the Lord is gracious and merciful.
Psalm 111:1-2

Words of Inspiration:As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Prayer: God, thank you for the life and peace that has greeted them in South Africa, nurturing the hope that is within them.
Amen.

Rest

Scripture: Come to me, all of you who are weary and loaded down with burdens, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28

Words of Inspiration:Rest when you're weary. Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit. Then get back to work.
Ralph Marston

Prayer: Lord, the Pray With Africa team is a little over half-way done with the mission You called them to. If there is any weariness weighing upon them, I pray they may find rest in You as they continue to receive the gift of entering into the stories of our neighbors in South Africa and Liberia.
Amen.

They are in South Africa!

Ciona called this afternoon, and they are in South Africa. YAY! So thankful they arrived in South Africa safely and that their time in Malawi was AMAZING!

The issue in South Africa is general. It is a reunion in a number of ways, returning to the country and community who sparked Cary's imagination. They will be doing promotional shooting. Please pray for them as the journey closely to our brothers and sisters in South Africa.

Peace of Christ be with them.

Love

Scripture:Then they also will answer, "Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?" Then he will answer them, "Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me."
Matthew 25:44-45.

Words of Inspiration:
'Tis a Fearful Thing
'Tis a fearful thing
to love what death can touch.

A fearful thing
to love, hope, dream:

to be--

to be,
And! to lose.

A thing for fools, this,

and
a holy thing,

a holy thing
to love.

For your life has lived in me,
your laugh once lifted me,
your word was gift to me.

To remember this brings painful joy.

'Tis a human thing, love,
a holy thing,
to love
what death has touched.

--Anonymous

Prayer: God, help us to see you and love you in all your peeople. May the lives of your servants in Malawi this day, be lives of hospitality, grace, hope and above all love.
Amen.