Hitting Pause: This will be the last prayer devotional for a few weeks as I am heading for Asia early next week, first to Thailand and then to the Philippines. Asking that you pray for a fruitful, safe and healthy trip. Next devotional will come in late May. And there will be no Monday evening prayer appointments till then.
Some of Her Best Work: Going to intersperse some great Easter Sunrise photos by Mary Hurlbut throughout this letter. Wish I could have posted more.
The Darnall/Chapel family
Mark Your Calendar: The National Day of Prayer in Laguna takes place on Thursday, May 4, meeting at the flag pole in front of City Hall at noon.
Morning Prayer: Meets in the Upper Room every day, Monday thru Saturday from 8-9 am. Pastor Greg will take my place as facilitator while I’m gone.
Jeff and Patty
Current Prayer Needs…
- Rich Thompson’s mother is very close to passing; pray for Rich as it’s tough to lose your mom
- Friday’s marriage seminar, that many couples will be encouraged in their marriages
- The National Day of Prayer really affects the issues facing us as a nation
- We need another sound person for our Sunday second service. See Chris Lizotte if interested
- Trevor Paul’s full recovery from surgery
- Full Healing – Denise de la Torre, Deb DeSimone, David Kessner, Geoff Thompson, Theodora Daggett
- Elders, Pastors, Deacons, Interns
Eddie, Michelle and Steve
News On Cherry: We sent one of our Thai staff members, Soe Myint Moe, to the village where Cherry has been held by her father, a man she had never known since birth. In the attached photo, Moe is at the far right facing the camera in a striped shirt, meeting with officials from the Child Protection Service. She and Rolyn, our facilitator, are a fantastic team. Moe volunteered to try and rescue Cherry. Here’s an abbreviated report from Rolyn…
It was really a test of faith yesterday as we made our final attempt with the father of Cherry to release her. On Sunday, officials and Moe were all in the Child Protection Office to wait for her father. The Child Protection leader expressed his thanks to us for doing follow up on Cherry and he told Moe that not many people do that. I sent pictures of what we were doing here and he is very happy because we care to spend money and time for the life of 1 girl.
When the father of Cherry arrived, her didn’t bring Cherry and was adamant in not sending her back. So she will stay with her father for now and he will try to make Cherry study while the Child Protection program will follow up regularly. Yes, we feel very sad but we are not giving up. The social worker will go to Cherry’s father village tomorrow to interview her and we are still waiting how it will work out.
Moe stayed in another town today and will come back tomorrow without Cherry. We can only pray that Child Services will see and realize soon that Cherry is better off with us. It is very hard as I feel responsible. I promised Cherry I will visit her this coming May. And I will be having meetings with the Child Protection social workers as they want to work with us on this situation so that it will not happen to others.
For now, I would like to thank you all for your prayers. When I think about it, God is really turning things around…not only we won the heart and understanding of Cherry’s father, but most of all we won the hearts and approval of legal workers (officials) in Burma. They appreciate what we are doing and wants to work with us in situations related to this. Now they have invited me for more talks in how they can work with us at the border. I sent a message to Cherry and I know she is and will be okay because many of us are praying. I will be visiting her this May and I hope I can bring her back by then…I pray that she will not stay there long. Now let us continue to pray that God will open the hearts of Cherry’s relatives. With prayers, Rolyn
Bret McGaughey Worshiping; Dani and Dom in background
Much grace to you all.