Please see the timely announcement at the end of this email.
I put my wife on a plane to Guatemala this morning. (If you find typos in this email, it’s because it didn’t pass under her wise and careful gaze en route to your inbox.) While she’s seeing a ton of patients and helping them see the leaves on a tree or their grandkids’ faces, the kids and I will be here pining for her return.
We’ll be fine, I expect, but waiting stinks. Sometimes in little ways, like our waiting for Anna’s return. Too often in big and brutal ways:
A friend waiting for a likely sobering diagnosis or for treatment to commence after getting the report.
A mom in Gaza waiting to see if her husband comes home with bread or comes home at all.
Farmers everywhere waiting for the rains to come or to stop.
Unengaged people groups waiting for the first ambassador of Christ to move into the neighborhood.
People all over the world waiting to see what Israel will do next, how Iran will respond and whether or not the U.S. will join the fray.
And finally there is this waiting: My friend’s wife, Miriam, and two team mates recently went to Jerusalem with a message of hope and life in Jesus. Now they’re learning the ins and outs of air raid shelters while they wait for a way out that doesn’t include the closed airport.
This afternoon she said I could ask you all to pray in these wonderful ways:
For those serving in the Holy Land to have Psalm 91 protection.
For the Christians, Muslims and Jews who live in Jerusalem to be protected by the Hand of ADONAI. (Zephaniah 3:15)
For Persians and Hebrews to reestablish healthy economic & political relations.
And though she didn’t ask, please also pray for Miriam and her friends to quickly find God’s way out of danger, and for my bud as he awaits his wife. His waiting is clearly more challenging than mine.
Timely Request:
Muslim Connect has always been free and will alway be so. That said, a couple of times a year, I invite grateful readers to donate to help it thrive. This summer, I have a special request: Our family of five is going to Guatemala in October with our church and Healing Nations to care for some overlooked people. You can read about these trips here. If Muslim Connect has helped, encouraged, informed or poked your buttons, please consider giving a gift that will help me, my wife and our three kiddos get to Guatemala. We expect this journey to be extremely formative in the kids’ lives. Anna will continue to help poor and underserved people see better. I’d be grateful for your gift. Click here, select “Healing Nations Trips,” type in “Bennetts’ October Trip.”