Last Week
Thank you for your prayers for my Reading Week! It was strange to not write an update last Wednesday (first time in over 15 months!), and I missed it although last week was a much-needed pause. I was very refreshed by having that purposeful time to read the Word, read various articles and books, and spend time alone with the Lord in prayer. Just to be able to spend time in the Word without time constraints was a huge gift. I came away from last week with a greater hunger for the Lord, a clearer vision for the work here, and a strong desire to not forget the many lessons learned this past week…especially, to slow down in prayer and meditating on God’s Word no matter how busy – maybe especially how busy – the rhythms of 24/7 ministry life may be.
“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.” Psalm 63:1-4
This Week
20schemes is having their spring Weekender conference this Friday night and Saturday (with a women’s pre-conference on Thursday night). It will be online, sadly, instead of in-person down in Edinburgh…but the bright side of that is that you can join if you’d like! It’s not too late to get tickets here.
Next Week
I’d appreciate your prayers for me this next Tuesday. I will be giving a Bible study for all the 20schemes women during our monthly Zoom call. Please pray especially that I would get out of the way while I speak and that the Lord would encourage these women through His Word.
Please pray for Chris and Cristi and I too, as we seek to cast a vision to our church this next week about the privilege and importance of prayer. Our church will be having a week of prayer soon as we seek to declare once again our dependence on God in the face of lockdown beginning to lift and ministry kicking into a higher gear. Please pray for us in this! Cristi reminded me during our team meeting this week about the men of Israel in the book of Nehemiah…how each of them used one of their hands to help build the wall around Jerusalem while keeping their other hand on their sword (Nehemiah 4:17-18). That’s how the work here feels; we put a hand to the plow while also being in the front lines of battle. And in both the plowing and the battling we are fully dependent upon the Lord and in great need of Him. That is why prayer is such a joy, because we have access to the very throne of grace! So please keep praying for us…especially that we ourselves would grow in prayer and would be a church marked by dependance on and deep affection for God.
That’s all for now, folks. I continue in my prayers for you. Keep clinging to Jesus,
Claire
Claire in Scotland 