It’s almost 6pm here, and I am sitting on my couch with a feeling of contentment. Why? Because I just finished my language school class, and I don’t have to go back for a month! As I was headed out the door, my teachers were quick to remind me to practice over the break so I wouldn’t lose what I have learned. It does feel good to kick the shoes off and plop down on the couch just after your mind has been raked across the coals of Italian grammar. I really do feel good about where I am currently with the language, but it does feel good to take a break after about five and a half months of school. Anyway, I am not writing this email to tell you about school.

I am writing this email to you in order that you would fervently pray for our team this week from Sunday to Wednesday. We are taking time away from everything and going to a small area about an hour away from Perugia for solitude and prayer. Our team does this at least once a year and this is my first time to participate. We also do some planning and visioning for the coming year. I will be responsible for presenting some things in the realm of discipleship for our team. I would really ask that you pray about this.

Henri Nouwen offers this:

“… we have accepted the idea that ‘doing things’ is more important than prayer and have come to think of prayer as something for times when there is nothing urgent to do … our behavior often expresses the view that prayer is a waste of time … we will always want to do something else before we pray … Therefore, prayer is in many ways the criterion of the Christian life. Prayer requires that we stand in God’s presence with open hands, naked and vulnerable, proclaiming to ourselves and to others that without God we can do nothing … we have turned prayer into a last resort to be used only when all our own resources are depleted. Then even the Lord has become the victim of our impatience. Discipleship does not mean to use God when we can no longer function ourselves.”

Here are some things to pray about while we are in solitude:

  • Pray that the enemy would be far from us and would not interfere with the affairs of the Kingdom
  • Pray for us that we would have this time to seek God’s face and listen to what he desires for us to do here
  • Pray that this time would be fruitful for us as we hash out logistics for the coming year.
  • Pray that our team would come out of this a more intimate community which embodies the gospel here in Italy which will bring the Kingdom nearer
  • that we would return to Ancona in the power of the Spirit, and news about [Jesus would] spread through the whole countryside (Lk 4.14 TNIV)

This battle is fought on our knees…