An Invitation to Fast & Pray

For any unfamiliar with the spiritual purpose of fasting please let me share from my own experience and understanding. As I read through the scriptures I see that a discipline of fasting is practiced by many seeking to grow closer to God. It is very often closely tied to prayer in its practice. As I read through the life of Jesus, I see that these were disciplines He practiced often and put great value in. Through my own experience I can see that abstaining from something (food) and spending that time in prayer opens up my mind and my heart to communicate with God. It is really the act of sacrificing & dedicating something, in this case our time, to Him.

This is what I am inviting you to participate in. The team of people serving here has set aside Tuesday evenings to Fast & Pray for this ministry. By fasting we are choosing to set aside that time for us to spend in prayer with God. Please feel no pressure to participate, please join us as you feel lead.

This would also include the manner in which you participate. For some that may be setting aside a different time (as your schedule allows) for fasting & prayer, while others it might only be a commitment to a time of prayer on Tuesdays. However the Lord is leading you, I know He will honor His children and their commitments. While I have tried to keep this simple and communicate clearly, I hope that if there are still questions you will serch the scriptures yourself to better understand.

For those wishing to participate, I will try to send out points for focused prayer through email, this may not be on a weekly basis but I will try to keep you apprised of the prayer needs. Here are just a few areas for this next week.

- Internship ministry opportunities
- Team harmony, effectiveness, growth – both personal & spiritual
- Team health
- Language Studies (The EDGE group begins Aug. 3 & the one year interns begin Sept. 18)
- Preparation of the hearts of students we will come into contact with
- Friday evening – this is our first activity for reaching out to students, pray that we will be proactively inviting people to this activity, that people will be interested in joining us, that we will have good conversations and the Lord will open doors for us to invite them to our Saturday activity
- Saturday afternoon – this is only our second activity, pray that we will again be proactively inviting people, that people will be interested, that we will have good conversations, that some of the relationships started on Friday will be continued through this activity, that the Lord will begin a work in students hearts to open the door to conversations about spiritual things.

Thank you again for your prayers! I am so excited to see how the Lord uses the participation in His spiritual disciplines to connect His children & further His ministry to those that do not claim His name.

"For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them." Matthew 18:20