Prayer time

I used to have a sidebar that listed current prayer requests. I found, over time, that they became less and less current and eventually removed it completely. However, I still want to bring up a few items for prayer, and I ask that you remember these.

Mrs. E's grandfather is in pretty bad shape. He had a section of his intestines removed about a month ago, and he has just not been recovering well. He's been a little sick, and more than a little depressed at his current condition. He is a man who loves the outdoors, and loathes being inside for any length of time. He cannot even sit still through a church service, and has to go stand at the back to have some motion and freedom. As a boy he would leave home and walk around, going to visit his sisters (who were much older) or just walking, for days at a time without telling his parents where he was. Even as he aged, he was always sitting outside rather than inside, and still took several walks every day. For a man like this to be confined to a hospital bed must be horrible. We're going up to Temple to visit him Thursday and Friday; we fear it may be one of our last visits, but pray that he recovers.

In the last few weeks, we have had a series of close friends move away. At the end of July, some of our oldest and closest friends left Houston for Tennessee. We cannot imagine not seeing them as often as we had, and already miss the game nights playing Clue. Last week was the first week we had to adjust to one of our newer friends, but who has become one of the closest, having moved. Her daughter is our daughter's best friend, and vice versa, and they still have not caught on that they won't be seeing each other as often. After her divorce, there was no real reason for her to stay here in a town where she knew very few people; she decided that if the chance arose she would move to be closer to her family. The opportunity came, and she is starting a new job there. We'll still see them periodically, as she brings her daughter down for visits with her dad, but not nearly as often. The move of this friend is also hitting Mrs. E hard, though she understands why it has happened and how it will be good for them. And another set of friends, also relatively new, are moving to Canada with his job (the bums!) sometime in the next few weeks. Honestly, we're at a bit of a loss with so many friends moving away at once.

Finally, Mrs. E and I are taking an intense marriage course right now called Dynamic Marriage (based around the books His Needs, Her Needs and Love Busters by William Harely). Over the next eight weeks we'll be looking at our marriage perhaps closer than we ever have. We already see some good coming from this, to strengthen and improve our relationship. We've watched too many close to us recently whose marriages have fallen apart, and we want to do all we can to make ours one that will last. Please pray for our growth through this process.

Thanks, everyone, for taking time to pray for us and our family.