April 29 - May 6 Popcorn: Chrissie's Birthday, C.S. Lewis on Love, A Canadian in Danger, and Iraq

Happy 21st Birthday, Chrissie! (April 28, 2006) Lord, be with Chrissie as she embarks on her last year of Bible/Teacher's college, and guide her as she moves into the next phase of her life.

Dating. Ben Weeks cc'd me on an email this week:

This essay really blew my mind. It just looks at attitudes towards courtship within Christian circles and deconstructs them.

The essay [by Robin Phillips] begins with this quote [by C.S. Lewis],

"There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. ... The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell."

I found it shocking. [Now] I feel feel empowered and new!

Click here for the full essay.

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Please pray through the next few popcorn kernels:

You probably don't know who this guy is, and you will probably never meet him. But he needs your prayers.

Sean O'Byrne, a new friend of mine and a full-time worker with his wife in Barrie, Ontario, asks us to pray for him:

Please pray for Wayne and Veronica Guindon (in the prayer handbook) in El Salvador. They were assualted by a gang of guys in balaclavas and sawed-off shotguns. They only wanted "liquid cash", not being interested in anything other than $, jewelry and cell phones. Wayne suspects they are trying to spring their leader from prison. They came back a week later and did it again.They were quite traumatized as Vero and the kids were hiding in a closet as they had Wayne at gunpoint. They were forced to leave their home, fearing kidnapping, and are staying at a friend's. They had just returned from furlough in Canada. Now it looks like they are considering moving to Canada for now. The problem is that Vero, being Guatemalan, would have to apply for residency which is proving very complicated. They are making it very hard for her to emmigrate to Canada. ... Wayne is a dear brother and friend. He would be content to lay down his life on the field rather than return but is being a good father to his young family. He is burdened and in need of our prayers.

Pray for Iraq:
+ 4,500 Iraqis and 2,400 U.S. soldiers have died
+ The Sunni and Sh'ia muslims are attacking each other and dividing the country
+ The Turks are threatening from the north
+ Iran, to the East, is causing international headaches
+ U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is under fire for "bungling the war" as U.S. generals call for his resignation
+ The new Iraqi government is weak and haltering
+ The Iraqi people don't know who to trust; many want the American troops to leave
+ The violence of suicide bombers and muslim extremist terrorist seems to be an un-solvable problem

This picture (click for full size) of an Iraqi child giving a U.S. soldier 'five' reminds us that all of the people involved are just that -- people.

Lord, we pray for Iraq. Use the unrest to reach her people with the solution: Yourself. Out of the shambles of Iraq, build your Church.

Pray for Shawn C. With another shooting in their area, the sudden uncertainty surrounding their two 'kids' Cookie and Kellz, and a host of other challenges in their lives--read all about it at Shawn's blog--these guys need our prayers. My friends Brit, Chris and Will and I dropped by Shawn's youth group last night, and got slaughtered in basketball by his guys. As one of them put it, "Old skool vs. new skool, and new skool won."

God bless you as you pray and obey this week.