Prayer Community

I know I promised you details about the prayer community today, and since today is nearly over, I better get with the program! So, here's the skinny (as it currently stands, and believe me, it could change. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. I want this to be productive and worthwhile for everyone involved!!)

Above all, I want this to be glorifying to God. This certainly is not about me. It's just something that God has laid on my heart, and I am humbled and grateful to be involved. It still amazes me daily that God has blessed me so much by bringing each of you into my life!

I have set up a Yahoo Group Account. This account has a message board where we can post prayer requests and a calendar where we can record answered prayers!! Here are a few things you might need or want to know about the Yahoo account.

1. It is a private account. This means that no random crazy person can log on and read our prayer requests or post any comments of any kind. You will have to be "invited" to join the group. Practically, that means I need your email address so you can log in.

2. Each person will have the ability to post their own prayer requests. This means that I won't moderate the posts. I'm doing this so you can post your prayer requests immediately and on your own time table. I also don't think moderation is necessary given our purpose and our goals. Which brings me to number 3.

3. I want this to be a safe place to share prayer requests. I want you so much to be able to be real there. I'm still playing around to see if there is a way to anonymously post requests, but I haven't figured that out yet. I pray that we won't need to do that anyway. I think it's great that most of us live far away from each other. Maybe that will free us up, so to speak. (And, for any of us who live near other members, let's face it, I'm sure they're already up in our bidness.) But, if there are sensitive prayer requests that need to remain anonymous, I'll find a way to make that happen. In the interim, if you have an anonymous request, please email it to me, and I will post it without referencing your name.

4. I also want this to be low maintenance because I know how busy we all are. Like I said, everyone is free to post prayer requests at any time. It's completely up to you how often you check the message board. To save you some time, I plan on compiling all the active prayer requests once a week and sending them out in one email. That way we can print them off and have them whenever and wherever we are praying. So, if you want to post whenever, but simply wait for the weekly email, that's golden. If you want to check it more often to make sure you have the most recent requests, that's fine too. It's completely up to you.

5. If you want to respond to some one's prayer request, by offering a written prayer or a scripture, I want you to feel free to do that. You can post them, or with the permission of the person requesting the prayer, send a direct email.

6. I am also planning on sending out a monthly calendar showing dates that prayers were answered. I think that it is so important not only to pray with one another but also to celebrate with each other. I also think that it is wonderful to offer praises in addition to offering prayer requests. So, if God has blessed you recently with something to praise Him for, I encourage you to post it. Let us celebrate with you!!

7. I pray that this prayer community would be a tool God uses to bring each of us closer to Him. So, in addition to other types of prayer requests, I want you to feel free to ask for spiritual prayer. For example, I have been struggling with getting out of bed in the morning for my quiet time. I would LOVE for you to pray that God gives me a supernatural kick out of bed in the mornings, or a full bladder. Whatever. I'm flexible. But you get the idea, right?

8. Finally, depending on the amount of people who want to be involved, we may need to make modifications, including limiting the size of the group, or perhaps, breaking off into pairs for a week or a month. But, we'll cross those bridges if and when we come to them. As my grandma says, I don't want to get the cart before the horse. Right now the only member of the prayer community is me.

So, bottom line, please leave me a comment or email me if you are interested. I will send you the link to the group. I can't tell you enough how special you all are to me. When I started blogging, I NEVER in a million, trillion years thought I would meet you amazing women (well, except the ones I knew already ;)). I LOVE to pray for you. It truly is an honor. And, I would love nothing more than to continue to do that.

I hope you all have a great weekend. I'm off to look for scanners tomorrow. Does anyone have a good photo scanner that they would recommend?