Monday, April 27, 2009

Happy Monday! Is everyone still afloat and dry? This morning when I arrived at school there was a police car and a fire truck in the parking lot. I came to find out that the storm knocked out the power with people in the elevator. All is well as they were not stuck inside for very long. That was a wild way to begin the day!!

The butterfly count is 29. The TAKS Test is tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday. Please pray for all of the students, teachers and administrators over the next three days. It is always a stressful time. Even though Pre-K through 2nd grades do not take the TAKS test we are very respectful of those who are testing and must remain super quiet throughout the building at all times. So pray for all of us!!

Bruce leaves for a Kairos Prison Ministry weekend on Thursday morning. He will be gone through Sunday. I also ask you to pray for the 42 participants, the inside and outside teams as they lead, pray, cook, serve, count and bag cookies, sing and bring the gospel to those who are largely forgotten and are most certainly outcast. God loves them so very much who learn to praise Him in prisons. I ask a special prayer for Bruce for this weekend. If you will remember Casey served on the last Kairos weekend with Bruce. It was Casey’s last hurrah. On Thursday after their return home on Sunday Casey went into the hospital for the last time. He and Bruce sang together the song “Breathe.” (How totally ironic and completely appropriate) Casey was a vital part of the prison ministry and on this last weekend, he was an inspiration to many. I am sure there will many bittersweet moments for Bruce and the team members as they remember their team member and brother in Christ this weekend.

Psalm 150:6 says, “Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!”

Bruce is about to serve in a ministry where singing praises to God is the farthest thing from their minds. During the weekend these men will come to know Jesus. They will come to realize that even they are in a place and circumstance that separates them from all they used to know and love, God loves them enough to die for them, too. In the eyes of the world, they are forgotten, outcast and the worst that the world has to offer, but in the eyes of God through the life of Jesus and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit they are children of God. They are Jesus babies! By the end of the weekend these men are singing praises to God because they have learned they are loved.

I believe I have shared this story with you, but it bears repeating. Several years ago, upon my arrival at the prison to participate in closing, I heard this sound. It was the most heavenly sound I had ever heard. I heard the voices of men raised in song singing They Will Know We are Christians by Our Love. I have been singing that song since “God was a boy,” but I never really understood it until these 300 men being guarded by large men carrying deadly weapons began to sing this song. When I walked into that gym I was surrounded by this heavenly sound and knew I was in the presence of God. I finally understood that we are called to praise the Lord if we have breath in our body.

Do we free world children of God Jesus babies praise God with our every breath? These men do not take their salvation for granted and neither should we. These men hang onto their faith and the saving grace of God through Jesus with their very lives. Tonight when we are saying our goodnights to the Father, let us give thanks for the saving grace of God, for the forgiveness of our sins and praise God with every part of our being.

Take joy in the journey. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.

1 comment:

Al Rearick said...

Thank you, Gaylene. Keep on writing, keep on praising.

Love,
Al