[CS-FSLUG] prayer request, reflection

[Yama Ploskonka]

Ron, the founder of our church, is slowly recovering from bad dengue fever.

He finally had "retired" from our church about one month ago and gone to 
Serve in the tropical country he feels to have been called for many 
years ago - an aspiration come true for him and his wife, finally! (and 
seen by many of us as a fulfilment and release from God as we knew Ron 
and Janine really were pastors only as briefly as they could, and rather 
would be there)

Dengue is generally seen as mortal in Bolivia, maybe in part because we 
tend to diagnose it only when the person didn't make it...  apparently 
with Western medicine it is "only" 5% so.
The odds get worse, of course, when undiagnosed early and etc., and 
knowing Ron and his amazing energy level, indeed he got medical care 
only when he was really in bad shape.
When finally stable enough he got medevac-d to what is probably the best 
care possible within several thousand miles, and while his condition was 
really critical, it is improving, slowly.

We are praying.

Now, as this goes on, I got into reflecting about how we go about with 
these prayer requests.

I am rather quite saddened at the apparently utter inability of my 
church to keep us informed. I did email the pastor wondering what would 
happen if Jesus showed up at the local Greyhound depot as His first stop 
for His return, and one of our congregation recognized Him. Would we be 
able to pass on the word? (got an answer with content-free platitudes)

Then I went into more practical matters. What would happen if */I/* 
needed prayer. or one of my loved ones? Hey, I'm talking about our 
*founding pastor*, a guy we pretty much all of us owe something, and we 
really care about, yes? and the "updates" we get, after me pressuring 
them to do something, look like total afterthoughts. What if a lesser 
one(say, myself) needed something?

Then I got to see how we are built different, us Libre folk. When there 
is a need, we have already the built-in mentality that we are to step 
up, and fill the breach. That used to be called "good citizenship" when 
I was growing up. Alas, we know that such is no longer the case. It's 
not just the dictatorships we used to poke fun at, but both authorities 
and Big Media, rather wish sheeple will keep to its place, and let the 
ones in charge tell them when to "blah" and when not to, better if in 
nice little rows facing the appointed Leader.

So I thought it might make sense that when there is a need for prayer, 
we would want to figure out a better way to get the word out. Some think 
it's Facebook, or Twitter, or emails lists. For a fact I know that of 
the more than a dozen phone calls I tried when this came up, 100% went 
to a voicemail machine, so phone is out. Of the social media, I'd say 
all of them - not everyone uses all - I do FB, and T, but seldom. - if 
you want to reach me, email (or phone) works best - but not for everybody.

So, all in all, prayer needed.
And advice, opinion.

standard disclaimer includes family

Yama