Two in need of prayer, a challenge, a change, and a promise.

Item #1 -- Standing in the need of prayer ...
I was reading Spiritbee's blog and discovered her post asking for prayer for Anissa and her three yr old son and husband. Anissa contracted double pneumonia and it seems as though her entire system has turned on her. I highly recommend that you read about her and the fund that has been started. Remember $5 is $5 ... so don't be dismissing your lowly budget. Also, do log in to the care pages and read of her entire family's incredible faith and hope. So far, every day includes a little victory and a lot of battle.

AND
My friend Laurie, from BC days, has a sister who has a husband -- John. Said husband has been so stubborn about going to a doctor that Laurie's sister was only able to get him to the hospital on the day before he would surely have died. He is in a drug induced coma. They have removed a kidney and numerous layers of infected!? fat. They are also going to have to rebuild his abdominal wall. Laurie's sister and her husband do not share a faith in God but Laurie's sister is appreciative of all prayers and very touched by the amount of care she has received. You can drop Laurie a note at her blog "Sanctified Yiddishe Mamele". (Ask her, I don't know.) Specifically pray that John will take his recover seriously and work with the doctors. He's in a place he swore he never wanted to be in.

Oh well and you might give Laurie a virtual hug. Her husband is gone again. At least it's not to Africa this time ... just Ft. Worth. Air Force Reserves.

Item #2 -- A little challenge.
... A group is getting together to read the Bible in 90 days. Yes, I've joined. If you want to join us, Lori aka PEZmama at "Rattling Around" is organizing and leading the group. But please note â�" Lori is wondering what she was thinking by asking you to leave your email addy in comments ... so instead of doing that, please use the "Email Me" link on her blog.

If you don't have time to read for an hour, you can opt to listen to the Bible in 90 days. I don't know what the guidelines are for that option ... but personally, if I went that route I'd have to just let it run in a loop two or three times to get as much as reading it. Hmm and so what would be so awful about that? (If purchasing audio is not in your current budget, you can hear an entertaining NIV version at BibleGateway.com â�" just search for the current reading passage.)

Let's do get clear on one thing ... this is not an in-depth study! The main purpose in reading through any book quickly is to gather up the general themes, the story lines, the characters, come to know the author a bit better ... just get the general feel for the concepts. Reading through a book just to read it is exactly the technique I recommend to everyone who is considering reading deep books (like from Dan Allender, Larry Crabb, CS Lewis, Steven Covey, etc). Then start your studies. Then start your deep-heart journaling. BUT FIRST just read through the book, maybe several books by the author.

So when I discovered this group, I was rather puzzled as to why I'd never thought to apply the "read-through" technique to the Bible. So ...

I hope you'll join us.

Item #3 -- Blog work may make you see double.
I have numerous little changes I need to make to my first 60 or so posts ... one being that I want to retrieve my comments from Haloscan. So ... you may see double from time to time in the RSS feeds. Sorry.

Item #4 -- I do hereby solemnly promise
I really will be making a fun announcement tomorrow re a new activity on my blog.