Prayer Points

during youth group last night, denise gave a little 'plug' about this beautiful adventure. i gotta say it was pretty amazing, tho that's my biased opinion! she asked me for some prayer concerns. so the 1st three off the top of my mind are #1: financial needs to be met, #2: for me to be protected from physical ailments like HIV and malaria, #3: to me to learn swahili swiftly. but since then i've been thinking about more. i've asked people to be praying for me, and i've not done a very good job at relaying what i would like for them to be praying for. and the last letter i mailed out, i don't think i even mentioned anything to be praying for me specifically. (so i'm trying to make up for that in this post!)

for months, luke 9 has rested on my heart. i can remember reading it about 6 months ago, and thinking, God, i'm not getting anything out of this. but i continued to read thru the chapter, again and again, trying to find something. and yesterday, i read thru it again. the words JUMPED off of the page at me. He has been preparing me to recognize these verse even before the plans to moving to Africa. these are the opening 6 verses from Luke 9:

When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them: "Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them." So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.

so besides those selfish top 3 requests, here are some more:
I trust that He's given me power and authority. So my request is (#4:) to be courageous and (#5:) to know how to drive out all demons and (#6) to cure diseases/heal the sick and (#7) to preach the kingdom of God.