Here are some pics of some of our sewing project ladies putting their skills to work making Valentines bears to sell for the recent holiday. I wasn’t even sure they celebrated this holiday here but Valentines Day is alive and well in Zimbabwe. All these ladies were trained as a result of the sewing machine project sponsored by our SHINE ladies from Celebration Church, Jacksonville. Not only did they gain skills to produce clothing on the sewing machines but they also learned to sew “by hand” as you can see here. Thanks you SHINE ladies for helping to empower the women of Zimbabwe.

1 Thess 5:16-18

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Random thoughts on prayer today. So why do we pray? We pray to connect to something beyond ourselves and beyond our human limitations. We pray because we know what it is to be in a foxhole, or face-to-face with terror or too close to tragedy. We pray because we have known heartbreak, grief, failure, and pain. We pray because when we are up against a wall we reach out to God because we somehow know He is there. Prayer gives us “breathing space”. There is no end to how fruitful and productive we can be when we have breathing space. Jesus knew this. That is why he so frequently went off by himself to pray.

Bill Hybels says that “prayer flies in the face of our American culture and work ethic”. We have learned to be strong, independent, and self-sufficient. Turning to God in prayer seems like an assault on the idea that we should pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and make our own success.

Prayer allows God’s power to be unleashed in our lives. We have to continue in a posture of prayer for God’s power to continue to be at work in our lives. God is willing and able to answer our prayers. God wants us to pray without ceasing and then wait and watch for him to give us more abundantly than all we could ever ask or pray.

It REALLY works. Why not give it a try today?