Prayer

Here is my column for Sunday morning on prayer and what is coming up in my family's life...

Assuming I am woken up by an alarm and not by a three year old, I generally start each day by praying. I use prayer as the foundation for my relationship with God and with people. I usually read some Scripture and pray about how it applies to my life as a husband, dad, friend, and pastor. Then I pray for ten families in the church who I am praying for that week. Each week I send out a letter to all people who registered their attendance in worship at least four times in the previous year (we start with the As and are on the Gs right now). When you get the prayer letter, send me your prayer requests, I want to pray for you! I also pray for the prayer requests submitted on Sunday morning or requests emailed to me during the week. You can always email me your prayer requests to craig@watersedgeomaha.com. I spend time praying for the church. The past few days I have been praying for the students on the mission trip, the leaders of Vacation Bible School as they prepare for VBS this week, and for The Water’s Edge as we prepare to launch a new worship experience in the fall. I conclude by praying for God to use me in some way during the day. A half hour or so later, I usually feel energized and ready to start the day.

Over the next few weeks I invite you to pray for my family and me. Tonight, Amber will leave to be a therapist at a camp for children of military men and women who have died in combat. Amber’s dad is a retired Air Force officer and she, as many of you know, is a marriage and family therapist. When this opportunity become available for her, it was clear this was the right thing to do at the right time. Pray that God will use Amber and others to continue a process of healing in the lives of these children.

Shortly after Amber returns home, Benjamin and I are headed off to camp. I am the leader of a camp for 3rd to 6th grade students. Thirty students will be participating in the camp, including ten from the Wesley House, a great ministry that works with kids in North Omaha. It’s a water camp, so pray the kids have lots of fun and make friends. But pray even more that the students grow in their relationship with God. Say some prayers for the leader as well. I’ve never led a camp for kids this young before!

The week after the camp all four of us are going on vacation! Pray for a week of rest and rejuvenation. We are looking forward to our time together. The week after we get back, as hard as it is to believe, school starts. It seems like it was just last week when we picked Benjamin up on the last day of school.

As we share our lives together, it is a blessing to pray for you and I am grateful for your prayers.

The best is yet to come…

Craig