Enough about Me -- Others to Pray For

Yes, the blog thing is a fun way to brag on your family, talk about all our fun adventures, show off our Christmas goodies...nothing particularly wrong with all that.

But I also want to share a few stories here and there that will take the emphasis off ourselves and put it on someone who is deserving of our prayers, or some sort of additional, specific needed ACTION we can take. Our Sunday School class got to do this with our Giving Tree family (more on that later), and it was a lot of fun.

Yesterday I got all the standard "Happy New Year" emails from family and friends all over. But I also got one from Terry & Nan Williams, missionaries in Africa who are connected with another Southern Baptist church in our area where my parents attend. I don't know much about them other than these occasional emails, which I receive for my parents who don't have email. Please be in prayer for their requests, and maybe drop them a line of encouragement to their email below. 

The email:

Dear Prayer partners,

We want to wish you all a happy new year, but ask you for some specific prayer requests this week.

Please pray for a very dear friend of ours, Demetria Manoni and her children Clara, Mpelwa and Danieli. Her husband, Joseph, died on Saturday, the 29th, with pneumonia, a complication from tuberculosis, the funeral will be tomorrow, January 1st in Mwanza. We, along with missionaries Jimmy & Diana Bledsoe will be going to the funeral. Joseph was a fine Christian man, a pastor and airport manager.

Pray for one of our workers, Danieli. His wife's father has come and it appears trying to break up the marriage. He has bought his daughter a sewing machine and told her she can make her own living (when she learns to sew). They have three children, Amina, 10, Paulo,4, and Salome,2. Please pray for God to work in the father-in-law's life and heart and Suzana, Danieli's wife, to remember her marriage vows to Danieli.

Also, please pray for the situation in Kenya. The presidential election was last Thursday and on Sunday a winner was declared, but there is much rioting and problems in the city of Nairobi as well as elsewhere. The Bledsoe's are to go to Kenya next week for a home school workshop, pray for peace to be restored and safety for all.

Thank you for your continued prayers, the bible says, "...The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." James 5:16.

In His Service, Nan & Terry Williams

stfwill@africaonline.co.tz