Pray for Protection

Recent headlines have been full of warnings regarding the danger that the Zika virus to pregnant women in South America. The epicenter of the problem is NE Brazil, where our daughter Nicole Lorelei lives and serves with her husband and two sons.  
 
She is now pregnant, and yesterday flew back to Brazil with her family.  They returned to serve their team of 30 young missionaries and to launch another School of Missions for 50 students from around the world.  
 
Nicole Lorelei and her family have been on furlough living in our home for the last couple of months.  As you can imagine, for the last couple of weeks the decision about returning was a matter of much intense prayer and conferring with coworkers, mission leaders and medical professionals. In the end God clearly led them to return in spite of the risks.  
 
Herb and Nicole Lorelei are accustomed to living with more risk than most missionaries, because they live in one of the most dangerous parts of Fortaleza, a city with one of the highest homicide rates in the world. Nonetheless, they took this decision very seriously. They plan to return to the States in a few weeks for some ministry responsibilities with Iris Ministries. Then they plan to return to live with us here in Colorado until after the baby is born in July.  
 
In the meantime, please pray that God will protect Nicole Lorelei and the baby from both the Zika virus and the dengue virus, which are both carried by mosquitos in their area. They will be taking strong precautions to minimize exposure to mosquito bites.  But ultimately they are in God’s hands. So please pray.  
 
It’s interesting that this morning in my regular Bible reading the Holy Spirit pointed out Zechariah 2:5, “For I, declares the Lord, will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.”

Answered Prayer: I sense God’s blessing on our International Executive Team (IET) meetings so far.  Yesterday I led three sessions, and in each session I sensed God enabling us to overcome hurdles to give us one heart and mind. I’m weak and recovering from a nasty cold, but He strengthened me.

Prayer Update: Please keep striving together with us in prayer, that He will give us one heart and mind with Him and with one another!