COVENANT PRAYER CONCERNS

Ongoing Health Needs:   Judy Dance, Arnold and Ola Dooley, Steve Granski, Dot and James Humphries, Gayle Johnson, Mary Tamblyn, and Lynn Wheeler. 

Pray for Our Missionaries.   Pray for adequate financial support for all of our missionaries as this is an ongoing need. 

East Atlanta Village Project:     Rev. Matthew Armstrong, pastor

   Praise God for an office! - We signed the lease on an office space Monday afternoon. I'm typing this email from my new office (with only a chair and no desk yet!). ... I met a woman who works in the office suite next door and when she found out I was a pastor she asked if I ever do couples counseling!   Pray that this office will not just be a place to work but an avenue through we can minister to our neighborhood. 

Other Prayer Requests:

• Our non-Christian friends, family members, classmates and co-workers that they would soon repent and turn to a saving faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
• That the Holy Spirit would continue to develop within us a Chronically Pained Heart for the lost.
• For the church officers, Sunday School teachers, Pioneer Club and Youth Group leaders
• For the expecting mothers
• Those members and friends that are job hunting
• The elderly shut-ins of our congregation and those recovering from a recent surgery
• The missionary families Covenant Church supports

Update on Lynn Wheeler 

07/26/2010  

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  Matthew 28:18b-20

Trip

Thank you for your prayers during our recent trip back to Cleveland, MS.  All went well, and we had a great time with our friends and Covenant Church family.  We are thankful and realize we are richly blessed to have two Covenant Church families (the one in MS and the one here in Fayetteville, GA) who have loved us and supported us on our journey through some very difficult days following Lynn’s new assignment.  Attached are some pictures.  One is of our van and trailer (the way we travel on overnight trips) taken a couple of years ago, but still accurate today.  Then you will see a picture of Jason, Lauren and Emma with Doug and Lynn.  This was the family that hosted us and provided such wonderful hospitality during our stay.  One picture shows Lynn giving Emma a ride in Lynn’s wheelchair.  Elizabeth and Leah, of course traveled with us and put in some very long days.  Thank you ladies!

Wedding

Our excuse to get to see our friends in Cleveland was Naomi’s wedding -- she is Pastor Tim and Sarah’s daughter.  You can see this beautiful bride with Doug and Lynn in one of the pictures.

Church

Sunday was missions Sunday at church, but unfortunately the missionary who was to preach on Sunday morning and speak at the informal service on Sunday night was taken ill.  So Lynn and I were asked to talk to the church on Sunday night in his stead.  Lynn told me that she would like to go first since the last time, I went first and “you got all the good stuff.”  I told her that this was fine, “I’ll just give a little introduction and then you can speak.”  She said, “I mean it, Doug, I want to go first.”  So, Lynn went first.  She was very sweet, talking about her work on the denomination’s Mission to North America’s  Special Needs Ministry Committee.  She told how the two Covenant Churches (Cleveland, MS and Fayetteville, GA) have helped and encouraged her so much and that we all can do things to help someone with special needs.  As an example, she mentioned a man in our church who learned how to drive the van so that he and his wife could take Lynn out shopping and do errands during the day while Doug is at work.  Again, this was just one example of many ways people have helped us.

I have heard of churches who have a sign at the end of the parking lot as you leave the church that says, “You are now entering the mission field.”  So there is a real sense in which all Christians are missionaries, in the same way that everyone is a teacher -- someone is always watching you.  This is not to lessen the importance or the call of formally sending out missionaries throughout the whole world -- people to preach and baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Not at all.  But all Christians have a responsibility to minister (doing works of mercy and compassion and to bear witness to the Lord) to others in some way.  Lynn is unable to move, but she is just as committed as she ever was, especially to young children, to teach them about the things of the Lord.  She has the gift of encouragement and she is able to pray and do works of compassion.

It was great to see our friends from our time in Mississippi.  They seemed glad to see us, but asked more questions about our children and grand children!!

It was a great worship service with the singing of hymns and praying.  They even treated us to Lynn’s favorite hymn, “Whate’er my God Ordains is Right.”  It is based on the words to Genesis 18:25 “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”  Such meaningful words about our Lord’s love and provision for us regardless of our situation.  I love especially the last two verses.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
Though now this cup, in drinking,
May bitter seem 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.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
Here shall my stand be taken;
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet I am not f

Verse of The Year 2010

" 'Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,'

says the LORD of hosts."

Zechariah 4:6b

[English Standard Version (ESV)]