Peterson's Prayer Guide - October 2008

“Dear friends, if our conscience is clear, we can come to God with bold confidence. And we will receive whatever we request because we obey Him and do the things that please Him.”
1 John 3:21-22 (NLT)

On September 21st Gary gave the sermon at our church here. We asked you to pray for his preparation and that God would use the message to really impact the listeners. God answered that prayer in a marvelous way! He did some deep work in Gary’s own heart as he prepared, and helped him make time to work on it even with a full schedule. I felt he really connected well with the congregation and was able to present the challenges of the Great Commission in a fresh, relevant way. Many people gave positive feedback, and we pray that the things God spoke to them will continue to influence their lives in the days to come.

As mentioned last month, our church here is having its first real missions conference from Oct. 1-6. Missionaries from a number of organizations and countries are coming to share about their ministries. There are meetings and events designed to grow the vision of our church and help us connect with these missionaries throughout the week. Gary will be speaking to the preschool and elementary aged children about missions on Sunday, the 5th. Pray again that God will prepare his heart and the message He’d have him share with these young ones. Pray that God will use all the events of this week to challenge more to be involved in the work closest to His heart – bringing people to know and worship Him.

On October 12th, Esther is bringing another group of students from her Bible College to spend the night here and to visit Wycliffe on the 13th. Pray for safety as they make the 2 hour trip each day, good fellowship, and that God will use this experience to open the eyes of these young adults who are preparing to serve Him in different ways.

Thanks so much for upholding us in prayer! We rely heavily on the knowledge of your support in this way.


October Schedule

1-6 “Amazing Race” mission conference at Cornerstone Church, Saint Cloud, Florida. Meetings and events each day for Gary & Robyn.

4th Help coordinate and run in the 5 km. race which is part of the mission conference. Gary will have to leave shortly after running and dash up to the office to lead a Mission Encounter program for a church youth group and a home school group.

12th & 13th Trinity College will come visit us and Wycliffe.

16th A-Z program for home school group.

21st Gary speaks at Jupiter Wycliffe Associate chapter in the evening. This is a couple of hours drive south and we’ll be driving home afterwards.

23rd A-Z program for a large home school group.

28th A-Z program for Circle Christian School.

30th – 31st – manning a WordSpring booth at the Florida League of Christian Schools (FLOCS) convention. This is a VERY busy two days with great opportunities.

Gary will be the host at Wordspring on the 7th, 13th, 15th, 20th, 22nd, 23rd, and 29th and giving the daily tour on a number of those days as well. There are people away in his department, so he is filling in. Pray for freshness as he interacts with each new group or visitor.

A-Z Adventure program is for Elementary School ages.
Mission Encounter program is for Middle School–College age students.

Day of Fasting for Pam Dudeck

We are making Tuesday, Sept. 9th, a day of fasting for Pam, seeking the Lord to restore her health.

Pam's insomnia has continued to wear down her strength. She is very fatigued. The doctors that she has consulted have been unable to give a diagnosis of the cause of her insomnia, and have only treated the symptoms by giving her sleep medications which have become progressively ineffective.

She will be seeing her primary doctor on Tuesday. We are praying for two things -- first that the Lord will miraculously restore Pam's ability to sleep. Second, if He does not do it miraculously, that the doctors will be able to come to a correct diagnosis and treatment.

I will be fasting all day Tuesday. Please join with me if you can. And please pray for me as well as for Pam, as we continue to persevere through this time of testing.

jdudeck@zenia.simcsg.sim.org Charlotte, North Carolina
--
"The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly." -- Richard Bach

Peterson's Prayer Guide - September 2008

“God chooses to operate in response to our prayers. He is perfectly capable of hallowing His name, advancing His kingdom, and enforcing His will without our asking Him to do so. But He wants us to ask for these things. That makes our prayers tremendously important!”
(Quote from “Love to Pray” by Alvin VanderGriend)

Some of you will be aware that we experienced tropical storm Fay that caused a lot of destruction due to the incredible amount of rain it dumped on this state recently. We are happy to say that although things are rather soggy around here, we were unscathed by it. However, many on the coast are still under water and will feel the impact for a long time to come. A nasty hurricane (Gustav) is in the Gulf right now but is only affecting us with extra rain. We’re more concerned about Hanna, the next storm, which is in the Atlantic and may be affecting us in some way later this week, so we would appreciate your ongoing prayers for safety and wisdom in our responses to whatever future storms come this way during hurricane season (through November).

Esther arrived home safely from her 2 months in Australia. We’re so grateful to all who made her time there so enjoyable and worthwhile. The family went beyond the call of duty to look after her well! It was great to have some time off to catch up with her, see her photos, and have some fun together when she returned. We were given free entrance to a Disney park one day during our vacation, so that was a lot of fun. :) Our time up the coast was very relaxing. Although we spent a good part of two days painting the place to pay for our stay, it was fun to do a project together like that. That area was hit hard by the storm last week, so we are very grateful that our vacation was the week before!

We enjoyed hosting a number of out of town guests in August, too. Please let us know if you’re ever coming this direction. We’d love to see you and catch up face to face.

We took Esther back to her Bible College on Friday. She’s been helping with new student orientation these past few days and her classes begin today (Aug. 27). Some have been wondering what she is studying there. She is doing a “General Studies” major, preparing for ministry of some kind. This semester her subjects include: the book of Hebrews, Introduction to Counseling, Introduction to Preaching, New Testament Greek, Systematic Theology I and Apologetics. She has 2 years to go and hopes to get a job after she graduates, and continue to study at night school to get a teaching qualification. She has the same dorm room and roommate as last year, and will continue working in the Admissions office of the college part time. Thank you for your prayers for her! It was truly a delight to have her around for a bit!

Josiah has begun his senior year and is happy with his teachers and subjects. On the days he rides the bus, he leaves the house at 6AM, so it’s an early start! He has started helping with the video recording at church on Sundays, and enjoys that. We have a new family pastor who is bringing a different focus, and the AWANA program is being discontinued. Pray for wisdom as Josiah makes his commitments for this year. Soccer refereeing starts up again on the weekend, so that will provide employment for him on Saturdays during the season.

I, (Robyn) made some good progress on cleaning out office files and throwing out obsolete paper during the summer, but I’ve still got more to do. I will keep plenty busy with e-mail (I’m still way behind), prayer ministry, and involvement at church as we move into the fall. I want to keep being intentional in my relationships in the neighborhood, too. Pray that I’ll make good use of my time and be able to prioritize according to God’s desires.

Our church here is preparing for its first real missions conference in October. We are both on teams to help with making this happen. Gary has been asked to give the sermon on September 21st as part of the lead up to the conference. He would appreciate your prayers for God to guide his preparation and use his message to really impact this part of the Body.

Here’s Gary’s schedule for the month as he knows it right now:

4th–5th WordSpring Education retreat
11th A-Z Adventure, Masters Academy (96 people)
18th A-Z Adventure (40 students) and Mission Encounter (24 students)
21st Preach on missions at Cornerstone
25th Hope Home School Group A-Z Adventure

Thanks again for your partnership in all of this!