My prayer requests

I’m going to start adding regular prayer requests for myself and my family to this blog since many of you have been telling me you’ve been praying for us and would like updates. 

I’ll post the prayer requests as regular blog entries as things come up, but I’ll also add them to this page with the most recent ones on the top so they’ll all be together in one place and easy to find.  I’ll also add updates as things progress.

Thanks for praying!  I can’t even begin to tell you how much it means to me that people who are essentially strangers want to do that for our family.

~Debi

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“To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.” –Karl Barth 

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January 18th, 2008:  I don’t want to go into details at this point, but I’m going to be applying for a part-time position at our new church.  I’d met with the pastor earlier this week about an unrelated topic, but after chatting for awhile, he suddenly asked me to apply for the new position that’s currently open.  He thought it would be a good fit for me, my interests, and my various experiences.  I don’t know that I’ve ever had someone ask me specifically to apply for a job before.It’s the type of thing I’d be willing to do for free … so the thought of being actually paid to do the types of things I usually volunteer for is kind of exciting.   I’m not fully qualified for the position (I don’t have the degree or Spanish language skills they would prefer for applicants), but the pastor told me to apply anyway.  He said that those things are just “preferred” but not “required,” so I wouldn’t be ruled out strictly because of a lack in those areas.I need to have a resume’ to them by the end of next week, so I’m praying about how to put together a resume’ that won’t really cover specifically job-related experiences … it’ll be more about things in my personal life, church experience, self-employment, and spiritual journey.Although the Senior Pastor, himself, asked me to apply, it’s not like that would make me a shoe-in for the job, either.  It’d still have to be run by the entire Board, and it’d be a decision made by the entire leadership of the church, not just by one person. I feel a bit overwhelmed thinking about the possibility … it’d basically be my “dream job” at a church.

Updates

January 26th, 2008: Well, I successfully put together a resume’ and turned it into the pastor.  Now things are in his hands and the hands of the hiring committee.  Next step would probably be an interview if they’re interested in me at all.  Continued prayers appreciated!

February 11th, 2008:  Sunday evening at church, our pastor commented that he thought I’d done a really good job with the resume’ I’d turned in, but the hiring committee won’t be meeting until later this week so we still don’t know anything one way or the other.  But at least it sounds like I’m still in the running.  Continued prayers appreciated! 

February 18th, 2008:  I’ve been called in to have an interview at church for that job I’ve applied for.  They’ve narrowed it down to the three people who they’re going to interview.  Not sure yet what day or time the interview will be (they needed to work it around the entire hiring committee’s schedules).  Continued prayers appreciated!  I’ve never been interviewed by an entire committee before.

March 4th, 2008: As of last week, I’ve been hired by my church part-time as the Director of Neighborhood Outreach Programs.  I’m not sure of my official start date yet, but it will be sometime in the next few weeks … the first of April at the very latest. For further info:  http://dsimple.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/quick-update-3/

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November 26th, 2007:  Please pray for the financial needs of my family.  Due to several unexpected financial things happening all at once (my book contracts being moved to a new publisher, a delay in a couple of payments owed to me from other sources, and the antique store where I had a vendor’s booth going out of business suddenly), life has gotten a bit “tight” in the financial department.  As soon as I recover from the losses involved with the antique store folding and when the royalty checks start coming in regularly again, things should settle down considerably and I’ll be back to keeping my head above water.  It’s just tough right now, especially with the holidays fast approaching.  Please pray specifically for:  our daily needs  (mainly money to pay the rent, buy foodm, and pay bills).  And also for provision for the holidays.  At this point, I’m not able to go shopping for my kids, but hopefully something will change between now and then.  Maybe one of those past due checks will arrive in the mail. 

Update - January 2nd, 2008:  I just realized I hadn’t given an upate to this last prayer request.  My dad was very generous this year and rather than doing his Christmas shopping, himself, for myself and the kids, he gave me a check (a pretty large one, too!) to do the shopping for him.  So even though I didn’t have money to buy things from me, specifically, everything my children received for Christmas this year was something I’d picked out for them.  So it was just as much  fun as shopping with my own money (only a whole lot less expensive!). 

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October 2nd, 2007:  I’ve been feeling a bit out of sorts for several weeks, but last week I ended up pretty much flat in bed.  It’s been hard for me to do anything, I haven’t even gone to church. Anyway, to make a long story short, I have a really severe kidney infection that had evidently been brewing but without any symptoms other than general tiredness and achiness until last week when it became obvious what was happening. Please pray for my body to react quickly to the antibiotic and that there would be no serious or long term complications with my kidneys.  Thanks!

UPDATE:  I’m feeling MUCH better!  The antibiotics have been doing their job and the infection is well under control.  I’m still having some discomfort in one of my kidneys, however, so the doctor’s going to keep me on the antibiotic a bit longer, and then in two weeks, he’ll run some kidney function tests to check to see if there’s any lasting damage.  Thanks for the prayers. 

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September 6th, 2007:  It’s probably just easiest if you go here and read the entire post about this one.  Honestly, if it wasn’t happening to me right now, I’d think it was a story someone made up.  LOL!  It’s either Murphy’s Law in action or a real-life version of A Comedy of Errors.  http://dsimple.wordpress.com/2007/09/06/the-on-going-saga-of-my-delayed-royalty-payment/

Update - 9/12/2007:  The royalty check FINALLY arrived and I was able to deposit it (although not all the funds were available to me right away).  Food in the cupboards again!  Hooray! 

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 September 5th, 2007:  I need to call my doctor today about some “female” symptoms I’ve been having (I’ll spare you the details!).  ;-)Hopefully it’s nothing to worry about, but I definitely feel the need to get checked out by an MD soon just to be on the safe side.  Pray specifically:  I can get in to see the doctor sooner rather than later; for wisdom for the doctor; health for my body; and peace for my heart and mind.

Update: The “female” problems appear to have been related to the kidney infection.  Now that the antibiotics have taken care of one problem, the other one cleared up, too! 

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August 29th, 2007: The five (5) book contracts of mine that have previously been held by Champion Press are now being transferred to a new publisher.  This transfer applies to all of my titles except for Frugal Living For Dummies(r) which is with a different publisher altogether.The new publisher and I are in the process of negotiating new contracts for the books, and I’m a bit concerned because the royalty rate that I’m being offered is substantially less than what I was making previously on these books.Plus, the new publisher only pays twice a year rather than quarterly, so not only will the total amount probably be less because of the smaller percentage, the payments will come at much bigger intervals which could make it a lot more difficult to survive financially between payments. Please pray specifically for:  Wisdom and peace for me; the publisher’s kindness and generosity; and God’s will to be done in the whole situation.

Update — Nov 12, 2007:  Well, after a bit of a delay and some wrangling back and forth, I’ve now signed my contracts with the new publisher.  In some ways the contracts are better than my previous contracts … in other ways, they’re worse.  So I hope it’ll all balance out in the end.  Thanks for your prayers!