Because I am weary. And my to-do list is long. And my attitude has been un-Christlike more times than I can count in the past two days.

Here are a few people/things I’ll be praying for (feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment if you have a request).

–an exhausted friend who has a newborn who likes to eat every 10 seconds and a very adorable, very active 2-year-old.

–the family of a six-week-old baby named Noah who died suddenly in his mama’s arms this week.

–a bunch of lovely women from Ebenezer Mennonite Church who shared some requests with me.

–our reading buddy who needs so much help reading but is one of the funniest, sweetest, most adorable little girls I know.

–my daughters’ teachers.

–three beautiful expectant mamas in Haiti.

–that our travel immunizations will go smoothly tomorrow (Wed) and that they’ll miraculously be on sale (a girl can dream).

–and several more.

And I’ll be praising him for:

–his amazing provision in the past couple weeks.

–all the people who have rallied around us since Gabe’s heart attack.

–my husband’s health, discipline with his new diet, and increased strength and energy every day.

–CAMBODIA!

–friends serving God faithfully in some very, very hard places.

–and much, much more.

Let me know how I can pray for you today.

I don’t know any technical terms, but he had a blockage in his most important artery, and while it’s often called a widow-maker, they got to it in time and put a stent in, and he’s going to be okay.

Please pray for his continued recovery and strength for me as I help care for him in the days to come. We’ll be in the hospital at least through Tuesday.

I’m blown away tonight by God’s goodness and the amazing family we have at Sanctuary Columbus Church. Thank you, Jesus.

If I’ve learned anything in the past 35+ years (and sometimes I wonder), it’s that I need to choose the path that defies human logic if I want to survive this kind of 24-hour period.

In other words, I need to start the day with prayer, end the day with prayer, and stop lots and lots and lots of times in the middle of what I’m doing all the livelong day to pray.

Pray for my babies and their teachers.

Pray for my husband and his busy work/photography/web design/soccer-coaching schedule.

Pray for Adeline and the other sweet mamas in Haiti who need miracles.

Pray for Moses and for the agonizing choices Troy and Tara have to make.

Pray for the beautiful people of Cambodia (and so many other places in this world) where hope is so terribly hard to find sometimes.

Pray for Faa and her ministry to the street children of Thailand. If you’re not doing anything at 7pm tonight, we’d LOVE to have you join us as Faa shares what God is doing in Thailand. E-mail me for directions to my house.

Pray for YOU. Please feel free to share any burden that’s heavy on your heart right now (in the comments or via e-mail if it’s private).

I’d be honored to talk to God about you while I run errands and whip up yummy chocolate chip cookies and such as and so on. Have a great day, friends!

The actual quote is a little more succinct.

But I feel like I need to be praying more. Not talking about praying more. Or thinking about praying more. But praying. More.

And tomorrow (Thursday) will be the perfect day for it because 1.) I burned the side of my left hand on the stove tonight, and it hurts like a banshee. And I’m left-handed. and 2.) I have 5 girlies for the next couple days instead of my normal 3.

Those reasons make sense in my head if not on paper.

So, if you have something you’d like prayer for, please let me know. If it’s private, send me an e-mail. Otherwise, feel free to comment for others to see (and hopefully pray for as well).

I have a couple three things you could pray for if you’d like: discipline, direction, and debt-free-ness.

Thank you, friends! See you tomorrow with some more Free Trade stuff you can buy!

If you want to pray for me too, that would be delightful. Have a great day!

THANK YOU for snatching up all the copies of The Hole in Our Gospel so quickly. I’ll be writing more about it soon.

I still have 2 copies of Expecting (with a black mark on the top) for $9 each (including shipping) if anyone wants to pray along with us for some beautiful pregnant women in Haiti. I’m hoping to have a list of names (and photos) next week.

Check back tomorrow for some FUN STUFF to buy. Because several of you have lamented the fact that everything’s always gone before you get a chance to buy them, I’ll be doing TWO posts–one will go live at midnight (Thursday night) and the other at noon (Friday).

Cool?

And I don’t have any more energy left in me to write, but I plan on having all kinds of energy (and coffee) tomorrow (Thursday), soooo…

If you have something I can pray for you, please let me know either in the comments or via e-mail. Seriously–it’s an honor to take your requests to God.

Have a great day!!

And the big READ-ALONG REVEAL is Wednesday! And for a very limited time (like 12 hours) you’ll have a chance to WIN one of 5 copies of the book we’re reading!

And now for some praises and prayer requests:

PRAYER: You might have heard about the crowd stampede in Phnom Penh, Cambodia last Monday that killed almost 400 people and injured 700 more. You can watch a video clip here. This small, poor country is so ill-equipped to handle a tragedy of this magnitude and desperately needs our prayers.

Here’s what my friend Yvonne (on furlough from Cambodia) said in her latest newsletter, The mostly Buddhist country has gone into a frenzy of fear based activity.  The hospitals are overcrowded and people are being forced to pay money simply to be allowed inside, then more money is expected in order for them to be allowed in a bed.  MRI’s and CAT scans are not being done due to limited funding-so people may be internally bleeding and nobody knows about it.  Others are sacrificing food, money, material items to the spirits of the deceased in hopes that this will appease them and no further calamity will come their way.  My heart hurts so much for the people I’ve grown to love….they are living out of such fear and do not even see it.

PRAISE: As always, God uses tragedy to bring people to him. Yvonne also wrote this, On the other hand, our Khmer brothers and sisters in the Kingdom of God are being the hands, feet and voice of Jesus in their hurting country!  The young adults of our village are visiting those in and outside of the hospitals, Panha and Veasna are sharing with the kids of Wat Phnom about the authority they have in the name of Jesus to tell evil spirits to leave them alone and God is going to be seen in His glory in the midst of all of this…..because, that’s what He does, He shows up, He defends the weak, He comforts those in need, He heals the sick…. and I can’t wait to hear the stories so I can share them with you.

PRAYER: This seems so trivial (not to mention embarrassing) in light of such large-scale horror, but I’ve been experiencing some physical pain/discomfort of a “personal” sort for quite awhile now. It’s gotten much worse lately (it keeps me up at night and has caused many tears), and I would appreciate your prayers (for wisdom for a correct diagnosis and for healing and relief). Thank you.

PRAISE: I’ve mentioned before that my sister Bethany’s church (her husband is the youth pastor and his dad is the pastor) sponsors an orphanage right down the road from ours in Cambodia (that we got to visit while we were there!). And I’ve shared about the cool things Bethany and Stewart have done with their youth group to raise money for the orphanage.

Well, check this out! They’ve raised $1100 so far which is enough to sponsor another child for 11 months, so the country director said he would get things moving to get another child (a girl) into their orphanage. I’m so excited!! I love that a bunch of teenagers in small-town Ohio have worked hard and sacrificed and are SAVING A LITTLE GIRL’S LIFE. (They’ll continue to raise money each month to meet her needs.) Isn’t that AWESOME?!

PRAYER: I would love for some of you to pray for our upcoming Read-Along, particularly that God would bring those who really, really need to hear the message of this book. It’s a message of healing and restoration and drawing closer to the God who created us and loves us immeasurably, and I think the New Year is the perfect time to make some positive, lasting, exciting changes in our lives.

PRAISE: Praising God for each one of you who read Radical (or plans to finish it as you can) and had your world rocked. Excited to celebrate with you tomorrow and hear how God is working in your heart to make radical changes in your life.

If you have a praise or prayer request, please leave a comment or e-mail me. I’d be honored to pray for you and/or thank God for what he’s done.

SEE YOU TOMORROW!! You don’t want to miss all the FREEEEEEEEE!!!

But the last few weeks I haven’t been committing a whole lot of time to prayer.

I’d like that to change.

Just tonight I came home from a little gathering of awesome women with my arms and heart full of some big needs. Things I can’t do a lick about. Things only GOD can fix and heal and help.

So I’m going to talk to HIM about them.

Can I pray for you today?

(Ava and my niece Mia who is visiting–with her parents–from South Carolina this week. LOVE that little girl!)

p.s. If you haven’t heard, we’re having a little Radical Read-Along here on the blog starting the first week in September. We’d looooooove to have you join us!

I tried to write a post last night, but the exhaustion won over. This morning I feel refreshed and ready to face the pool. And the dentist (Ava). And the eye doctor (me). Okay, not really, just trying to psych myself up.

There is much going on, and I’m trying to get used to this new normal. Having all three girls home, Gabe at work, owning a pool pass, trying to get our Cambodia ducks in a row, and blah, blah, blah. By the time I get in the swing of things, I’m sure summer will be over.

Oh well.

The Cambodia support-raising is going well. We are just stinkin’ blessed to know so many stinkin’ generous people. Man alive.

And I have an exciting offer today. You know those Restaurant Super-Saver Coupon Books? Well, my aunt Lisa gave us EVERY PENNY from the 5 we sold. And then gave us some more! So, I have 5 to sell today, and 1 can be yours for a $15 donation toward our trip.

We keep all the $, and your coupon book almost pays for itself when you buy a Domino’s Pizza and get one free. You can also get free Big Macs and Long John Silver’s Sampler Platters and Arby’s Roast Beef sandwiches and AUNTIE ANNE’S PRETZELS (be still my heart) and Big Buford Burgers and Hungry Howie’s Pizzas and on and on and on.

The first 5 people to tell me they want a coupon book get one.

And one more thing. You know the Worlds Apart Project? Where I wrote that book (it’s a download that you can read on your computer or print out) and I’m selling it to make money for missions? Today only, the book is just $1. Just click here and donate $1, and I’ll e-mail you the link to the book.

Now, if you don’t want coupons (fabulous coupons!) or an e-book, I still want to hear from you, because an entire summer is too long to go without connecting with my computer friends. And here’s something I read this morning that really stuck with me.

In all our thinking about Christian service, prayer needs to become fundamental instead of supplemental… Prayer is the work; it is the essence of the task to which we are called, and apart from it, all other work, and I mean Christian work, is a sheer waste of time and energy divorced from the basic work of prayer. Everything else is insignificant. (Scottish theologian Eric Alexander)

A good word for me during this busy time. How about you? Can I pray for you? Leave a comment or e-mail me privately.

So, for the Listers:

1. Comment if you want a coupon book for $15.

2. Click to donate $1 if you want to read Worlds Apart.

3. Let me know how I can pray for you.

4. Give me a quick update on your life.

I appreciate you, friends! Have a great Tuesday!

“Yeah. Why?”

“Because all week long, God kept saying, ‘Marla. Marla, Marla, Marla, Marla!’ I was so glad to see your eyes today! You’re sure everything’s okay?”

“Uh… I’m pretty sure.”

And then I went home and thought of a whole bunch of things that are wrong with my life. And I’m totally blaming her.

No, seriously, there’s nothing worth complaining about in my world. So maybe I’m in a bit of a funk. So maybe I’m a little confused and uncertain about what I’m doing/where I’m going/what’s supposed to happen next. So maybe I’ve been grouchy lately (seriously–ask Gabe) for no good reason.

Our Life Group meeting tonight helped put all that blather into perspective. We had an amazing time with Jen, who’s back in the States on a quick 2-week break from her life/work in Cambodia. We each shared a little bit about what’s going on in our lives (it’s been a few weeks since we’ve gotten together).

Then Jen shared more about her work in Cambodia and what God is up to over there. Crazy awesome stuff in a dark and oppressive place. She stressed over and over and over again how much she and her teammates desire to be covered, buried, slathered in prayer.

Then we took turns praying for her, and man, you could feel God’s presence like He was sitting on your lap. I so want to be faithful in praying for her (and her teammates, and her pastor and his family, and the little girls being trafficked, and the men who keep these child brothels in business…).

And I desperately want to be 100% sure (like Jen is) that I’m smack dab in the middle of God’s will for my life (even if what I’m doing is super hard).

And I really, really, really have a burning desire to take a trip to Cambodia.

And I’m applying for my passport tomorrow.

And we’ll see what God has in store.

I really, really, really want to seek Him first in my life.

What’s on your heart right now? How can I pray for you today? Your request doesn’t have to be as heavy as sex trafficking. God wants us to bring all our burdens to Him, big or small.