Greetings Beloved!

Blessing to you through Christ Jesus!

The season is yet again changing, and with classes in session for the university students, my schedule is changing to accommodate.  This weekend we have two more students moving into the house of prayer, Heather and Dayea, which now gives us four full-time students living in the house.

As a house, we will have a two-fold focus, which is to continue laboring for the ending of abortion and to begin contending for revival on the college campuses.  The school year, as most students and families already know, is really a hectic time, full of mismatched schedules and long waits in traffic.  It takes the truly diligent to be effective in prayer and deep in devotion to God while walking through the tensions of life.  I believe though, that God has entrusted these assignments to our team, and we will pick up the baton and run for the prize in Christ Jesus.  I trust that our labor will not be in vain.

Personally, I am trying to pick up the pieces of my schedule and put it back together.  More than anything, I am trying to nail down the most important things and put the lesser important on hold for a while.  I believe that God is still teaching me how to lay down my own agenda and become a servant.  Though probably not the easiest of tasks, I am confident God will be faithful to complete this work in me.

Some of my personal goals for the fall are very simple and straight forward.  I want dive deeper into the place of prayer.  I don’t necessarily mean more ‘time’ in prayer, but rather greater depth in prayer.  Lately, I have felt my prayer life to be a bit arid, and though that’s not my usual barometer for effectiveness, it does beg the question, “How do I dive deeper into this lifestyle?”  I truly long for the zeal and fervent passion for prayer that has driven me in the past.

Among other things, I will be blogging with Mark and Rachel on the Bound4Life Oahu blog (www.bound4lifeoahu.com/blog), sharing in the load of teaching and worship leading in the house of prayer, and continuing other areas of ministering by means of writing.  One of my newest undertakings is the writing of a novel I have been putting off for years, which is an allegory about the persecution and devotion of the Christian, with an emphasis on the end-times.  My second new project is to begin writing a study bible (also something I have been putting off for a few years).  I am going to begin with the New Testament, most likely Ephesians, and finish one book at a time until it is all completed.  I expect the New Testament to take me about one and a half years to complete.

I hope also to write to you soon concerning some of what the Lord has been pressing upon my heart, but as time dictates, that will have to be for another day.  For now, blessings, and may the Lord reveal His faithfulness to your hearts!

-jm