John Ofumbi and Karina

An urgent prayer request and update from Covenant Mercies....

John Ofumbi (Sr. Pastor of Nagongera Gospel Centre - CM's primary church partner in Uganda)and Karina (Peace Corps volunteer who has begun working with CMs program) were in a serious car accident earlier this week. Their conditions are stable, but they have both sustained very serious injuries. John has a head wound coupled with fractures in his legs, arms, and chest. Karina has sustained spinal injuries and is on a flight to South Africa to receive care.

Please pray for miraculous, complete healing. Pray for their families. Pray for the others involved in the accident as their hearts are in great distress. Be reminded...

"Our God is completely sovereign, completely wise, and completely loving. We don’t know why this has happened, but we can trust in those truths as we pray. Thanks so much for your love for John and Karina and your prayers for them right now!"
-Doug Hayes

Covenant Mercies

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." James 1:27

Covenant Mercies, lead by Doug Hayes, is serving the poor, the orphan, the widow, and others in need around them. They are giving themselves in service for this reason....

" In His grace, God has been exceedingly merciful to us. Our Savior did not sit idly by while the world agonized in the ravages of sin, but in compassion He came and suffered with us. As His visible expression in the earth today, it is our joy to minister the compassion of our Lord Jesus to those around us who are in need. We invite your prayers for Covenant Mercies as we seek to walk in the good works He has prepared in advance for us to do (Eph. 2:10), to the praise of His glorious grace."

It is a privilege to pray for Covenant Mercies - especially as they approach an important fund raising event this Friday.

Prayer requests for Covenant Mercies (from Doug):

• We are beginning two new partnerships with indigenous churches in Africa,to care for orphaned children living in their communities. One is in Western Uganda (our primary work in Uganda is in the east), and the other in Ethiopia . Lord willing, we will have children to sponsor in both locations by the end of the year.
  
• Pray for new opportunities to promote the sponsorship program. Lord willing, we will have four locations up and running by 2008, so we will need a lot of new sponsors!
  
• Covenant Mercies will also be hiring for a new international position.
  Pray for wisdom in this hiring decision.
  
• Pray for a successful benefit concert on Oct. 26. We have brought artists with nice fan bases onboard for the show, and we’ve gotten some promotional materials out on the streets and press releases out to the media.
  
• Pray that the local media (radio, newspapers, TV) will take an interest in
  the show and help us get the word out.
  
• Pray that the Lord would use the appeal of these artists to bring new people through the doors to be envisioned for Covenant Mercies, sponsorship program, etc.
  
• Pray that the Lord would use the concert to bring some big donors through the doors, and inspire them to give more.
  
• Our PEPFAR paper is resubmitted. Pray that we would be invited to submit the full application again (there are no guarantees, even though we made the cut the first time).
  
• Pray for wisdom and funding related to the school project in Nagongera, which we intend to break ground on in January. We have a $25,000 grant proposal submitted for this project. Pray for favor.
  
• Pray for our staff of 12 in east Uganda , 2 in Zambia , and our friends in
  W. Uganda and Ethiopia who are helping us get started on a voluntary basis.

Thank you so much for praying.

"I thank my God every time I remember you...."

A Dieu soit la Gloire!

Diane

Diane's daughter, Adriene and I keep dreaming about going to India to implement a development project we've been working on, but she keeps telling me - give me a few years, Mel. First, I need to go home to Portland for a little while. I never asked why.

Today Adriene told me why - "My mom is terminal, Mel."

Diane is the mother of 4 children of which the oldest (Adriene) is only 26. Diane has been diagnosed with ALS - Lou Gehrigs Disease - at the age of 47. Adriene explained to me that patients with ALS are expected to live 1-2 years from the time of diagnosis. I didn't ask when she was diagnosed.


Adriene just wants to be home to take care of her mom, but her mother wants that she finish her MPH. Therefore, Adriene is currently taking 6 classes in Pittsburgh, doing an internship in Baltimore, and writing her thesis. Yet she still has the best laugh of everyone I've met in graduate school. Amazing.

I don't know if Diane or Adriene have a relationship with Jesus.

Please pray for them.... healing, salvation, intimacy with Jesus, the joy of knowing Christ, his comfort, and HOPE. The gammut. Pray that perhaps Adriene would indeed be able to go to India someday ... to share the love of Christ.

"For God so loved Diane and Adriene, that He gave his one and only son, so that if they believed in Him, they would not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:16

Persist

Drowning Melville: David and Ian

"Dear Friends,

Today it's been one year since Ian's accident. A year ago at this time I was at the hospital unsure whether Ian would live or die. As you all know, Jesus spared Ian's life.

So a quick update and then a few prayer requests:Ian is now at home. His family added a room onto their house to meet Ian's special needs. He's still in a coma, technically, I believe. But being in a coma doesn't mean that he's totally unconscious. He's alert, and we believe, fully aware of all that's going on. We also know he's able to read. For example, this was cool, Larissa asked Ian what movie M. Night Shyamalan directed (one of Ian and my favorite directors). She held up a paper with two movie titles on it: "Unbreakable" and "The Plant". With a pencil he pointed to "Unbreakable" which was the right answer. Larissa then asked Ian what show had the characters Elaine, George, and Kramer in it, while holding up a paper with the words "The Cosby Show" and "Seinfeld" on it. Ian pointed to Seinfeld, again right. This seems to indicate that Ian's mind is ALL there. That there's just a, "connection" missing somewhere.

Ian still can't speak, eat, walk, write, really anything.

I can't imagine how discouraging this must be for Ian. Knowing all that's going on and being unable to do anything.

So really, I wanted to write and ask you all to continue praying for Ian. Thank you all SO much for all of your prayers already. God used your prayers to save my best friend's life. But he needs so much prayer. All of us here are desperate. We're desperate that Jesus meet Ian in his need. That the Spirit encourage Ian, strengthen him, "lift his head" as the Psalms say. We desperately want Ian back. We want to hear his voice again. But most of all we want to see Jesus glorified.

So may I beg you all, please continue to pray for Ian.

Here are some specific things you can pray for as the Spirit leads:

• Pray that God would encourage Ian and give him hope and faith.
• That the Holy Spirit would minister to Ian (Ian hasn't been able to read his Bible in a year) and reveal to Ian the glories of Jesus.
• That Steve, Mary, Larissa, the Murphy's, and myself would experience the comfort of Jesus, "the God of all comfort".
• And Join me in praying that Ian would walk by the end of the year. I remember writing to you all a year ago "The reality of the situation is that Ian could die". Well God showed us that the reality of the situation was that nothing is impossible for our Father! Not only did Ian live, when the doctors told us that "brain death is imminent", Ian also graduated from college. So now, the "reality of the situation" is that Ian may never recover. But Jesus has shown us that he is Lord over all and nothing is impossible for him
• And finally, pray that God would be glorified in this situation.

Last night some of us were singing worship songs with Ian and we sang a song called "Whatever My God Ordains is Right". I was brought to tears hearing Mary, Ian's mom, sing:

Whatever my God ordains is right
Though now this cup in drinking
Bitter it seems to my faint heart
I take it all unshrinking
My God is true, each morn anew
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart
And pain and sorrow shall depart

Thank you all for your prayers!

We serve a great God.
David"
(Ian's best friend)