Shootings in Saginaw

"Wild West" in city was the top headline on the front page of today's paper in Saginaw.

There have been 45 shootings, 9 killed since Jan. 1.
This is more shootings than the total from 03, 04, and 05 combined.

One shooting just happened this week outside of a roller-rink.

These shootings are thought to be mostly gang-related.
There are 56 police officers, but because of a failed vote on a public safety tax, there is a planned 26 officer layoff.

Pray for the city of Saginaw and for the protection of its people.

Mission: Cedar Point

God has really been working this week.
Plans are coming together as the time draws near to going.

The mission is going to focus on discipleship, investing in the lives of those living around us, so they might come to know their Savior.
We have 7 people going. Me, Jessica, Kim, Andrew, Britta, Andy, and Rachel.

Pray for the spiritual preparation of our hearts. We have a long, exciting summer ahead of us that will be challenging.
There is a church that might be a possibility for a resource. Pray that the elders of the church are excited about our mission and allow us to use their facilities. We would hold our worship there and also try to hold dinners.
I was already excited about all of the plans coming together, when..

I was in class on Wednesday, and Christina sat down next to me (I had invited her to His House at the beginning of the semester, she came, and has been talking to me and others on and off throughout the semester about faith) .
I asked her what she's doing for the summer.
Working at Cedar Point, at TGIFriday's on the Beach, as a server.
NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is where I'm working!
Coincidence.. I think not. God is so amazing.
Pray for Christina. She is not certain if she is going. She's waiting on a possible internship and has not sent in her contract for CP yet.

I'll be updating on what God is doing throughout the summer :)

Abby in South Africa
My a good friend of mine from the East Side of the state is currently on a 2 month missions trip to South Africa. She is learning a lot about herself and a ton about God and what he has for her life. Also, she is running into some very heavy stuff with AIDS, hopelessness, poverty etc. From what Abby has told me being involved with these type of real life experiences has really changed the way she looks at the world. At the same time I think she is having a difficult time processing all of the misery she has been seeing.

Pray for Abby to have strength to face the difficult situations she has gone to South Africa to help with. Pray that she has wisdom in her interactions with many of the South Africans. Also, pray for her loneliness. She has been dealing with a lot of spiritual warfare in regards to Satan using her loneliness to distract her from the work God has sent her to South Africa to do.

Also if any of you want to email her encouragement her address is abbymassey@gmail.com. I know she would love to here from any of you.

A Mac based client...
Although there is currently not a high quality free mac client for blogger I have stumbled across this one. Blog App 4.2. If you are running tiger (OS 10.4) make sure you download the beta version which is compatible with Panther. I am currently running that version and have had no problem with it so far.

To all of you who have been praying, thank you for taking part in this digital pray experiment. I look forward to seeing how this develops in the future.

Understanding Death

I don't understand death. I mean, I understand what death is physcially but I don't really know how to deal with death.

Two weeks ago two students from the Rockford Masters Commission (RMC) (Wendi Watson and Katie Prosapio) died in a car accident. These two student had chosen to give one or more years of their lives over to doing full time ministry in Rockford Illinios. When I was there 4 years ago, Wendi was a high school student and was part of my small group.

RMC is a very close knit family and I cannot imagine what it would have been like if one of the students had died when I was there. Know, everyday, the 120ish people in the program will see the places in the sanctuary where these girls use to pray. Their small groups will feel empty, there AC families will be lacking a huge presence. Their ministry teams will be forced to replace them and the missions trips they have been training for will go on without them.

Pray for the friends and families of these two girls. Pray for the staff of RMC as they guide the program through this difficult time. Pray for the students who now are forced to change their view of God, what that new view will look like, and how their lives will change as a result.

I watched a documentary tonight called "Seoul Train"
Pray for those fleeing North Korea to Mongolia via China. These people are fleeing starvation and a lack of hope. The Chinese government sends back, in defiance of international treaty, all the people they catch, and do not allow them to pass through to Mongolia. Pray for the refugees and also for the leaders of these nations.
We should be in prayer for the leaders of all nations.

Also, pray that you will not take for granted all the freedom we have here, and all the wonderful gifts we're given.
Pray for me, also, that I would learn to use my time, money, and all my talents and gifts meaningfully for God's glory, which is our highest calling, to glorify God.
Thanks

Welcome

Welcome the Digital Zion. This blog was birthed out of something that has been kicking around in the back of my mind for the last year or so. I think that prayer is very important (I am sure you agree) and I want to be able to pray specifically for people in my life that I do not have the privilege to see very often. On a regular basis, people call to ask me to pray for something that is occurring in their lives and I always feel very privileged to have the chance (if you do this, please don't stop just because this site is up and working). I also love it when people call or email me with stories about the great things God is doing in their lives, college, churches, families etc. The dilemma for me has always been how to bring more people into this type of transnational prayer circle so that everyone can benefit both from prayer and from hearing about the great things that God is doing in other cities and states. Thus Digital Zion was born. If this ends up being the solution to my thoughts on this topic, great. If it does not work out....that is cool to.

In technical news....
For those of you who are interested in using a client (a small program located on your computer that you use to post to this blog) I have good news and bad news. For you PC users http://wbloggar.com is a great client with plenty of functionality. For Mac users however, I have yet to find a free functional client that is usable. Needless to say hopefully in the near future a free quality Mac client will be available.