Friday Night

I was too busy today to get around to blogging. Spent most of the afternoon in prayer then came home to eat, then went back for awhile later to host the vigil. We have at least one person praying for the entire 24 hours and at least one person hosting at all times too. So the first part I prayed and the second part I hosted. It was my first experience with a 24-hr vigil and it was fun. I always thought the church would just be "open" and that anyone could come and pray any time they wanted to and while that is true, people could come anytime they wanted and stay as long as they wanted too, we also take the measure of booking people so that we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that prayers were lifted heavenward for 24 full hours. Interesting concept even if I found myself almost too distracted to pray. I really struggled. I just couldn't get centered and for some reason I couldn't focus. I tried praying through the handout that has suggestions of what and who to pray for and also demonstrates a method of prayer called "ACTS." And I took my knitting because I can knit and pray at the same time. In fact, I prayed better while I was knitting than I did when I put it aside and got on my knees at the altar for awhile. I think my problem was that I had so many things and people I wanted to pray about that I couldn't bring my prayers into any kind of direct order. I will remember that for the next time I'm involved with a prayer vigil. Sometimes it's more difficult to know who and what to pray for when you're supplied with too many choices. My handout worked nice except for the fact that, like I said, there were too many choices. Of course Rita and Daryl are doing the major part of the vigil. I don't know what we'd do without those two people!!

I am due back at church to finish up the vigil tomorrow morning and I will host until noon and then put everything away. Oh, and then I have a funeral to help with so I'm not sure what time I will get back home. I've got to check with Kayla, too, and see if she's going to go to church with me Sunday morning and remind her of the pancake breakfast. Sunday's the big kick off for the 40 Days Campaign when everyone will have a small group and everyone will get their copies of the book The Purpose Driven Life. Sunday begins the 40 days. Having been involved in the preparation for this campaign with weekly prayer team meetings and board meetings and handouts to prepare it's basically double the normal time. We prayed for 40 days leading up to the 40-day campaign and we'll keep praying throughout the campaign, so really the prayer portion of the campaign goes for 80 days. Whew! Okay. I'm going to go put moisturizer on my face and sit down for a little while. As I said before!! see you Monday!!!

I think I'm going to go put my feet up for a little while after I've finished getting ready for bed. See you all on Monday morning!