Dear Praying Friends:

About a year ago Gladys and I went to a small prayer gathering in mid-Wales to pray on the border between Wales and England. There have been some difficult periods of history between these two countries, and traces of unforgiveness still underly attitudes on both sides of "the fence."

The purpose of that meeting was to pray blessings over both nations, and to see the Kingdom of God begin to wash away some of those wounds of the past. It was during a break in those prayer sessions last May that I went out to the bondary itself to pray. I was moved to "scoop" blessings in both directions. You can watch and pray along with me in this video.

We know the Lord is faithful to hear and answer our prayers, although perhaps not always according to our own timetable. As they say, "Prayer works!" I believe one result of our prayers, and doubtless the prayers of many other Christians over the years, is something exciting taking place in May.

At the prayer breakfast last month I was delighted to learn of a special upcoming event called, "The Border Prayer Room Project." There will be 24 hours of daily prayer in nearly thirty different venues dotted along the border area on both sides, running from May 13-25.

I'd really like to encourage you to consider joining with them. If you live in the UK and close to the border area, all the information about times and places can be found on their website, www.borderprayer.co.uk. If you live too far to personally attend one of the venues, you can join in prayers of blessing from where ever you happen to be. Isn't that amazing?

The Lord brought this kind of blessing to mind, when God said to Abraham in Genesis 22:17-18, ". . . blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." Both Wales and England are two nations that have been especially blessed by God in the past, and we know there is much more to come.

Speaking of prayer, we would also like to ask you to please continue your prayers for Gladys. Specifically you could pray that the Lord would give her more JOY and that He become her strength in this time of physical weakness.We still haven't seen much improvement with our eyes, but know that God is faithful, and will accomplish His work in her.

We want to thank you again for your many prayers and encouraging words, and wish you many blessings in His precious name!

So glad to know our Redeemer lives,

Dick & Gladys

Dear Friends, Brothers and Sisters:

I want to thank each one of you for praying for me. I'd like to ask specifically that you pray that the Lord help me gain back some of the weight I've lost, and also that He regulate my body temperature. It just seems to be all over the place. I sometimes feel very hot, but mostly I feel cold and can't seem to get warm, in spite of the fact that our house is thankfully quite warm.

The cold I feel in my body seems to get into my bones and just hurts. Since I came to Wales, I've suffered from the cold, but this cold I am feeling now does not seem natural, and I am having a really hard time just getting warm.

I know and trust that the Lord is my healer, Hallelujah! I know that the Lord is going to lift me out of this and strengthen and heal me completely. Yesterday with Dick we again renewed our commitment before the Lord to stay here and press in to the task the Lord has sent us here to do.

Once again thank you very much friends and brethren for your prayers, words of encouragement and practical advice. Hearing from each and every one of you has been a source of great blessing and comfort in my life. Like we say in Spanish, "Today for me, tomorrow for you....!"

Blessed be the Lord forever! May His name be lifted up throughout all the earth!

A couple days ago there was wonderful warm sunshine, and I was sitting outside in the hammock. Suddenly I felt like I needed to stand up. So I got up and began to feel SO good! I began to walk around on the patio, and I had noticed when I was sitting in the hammock that some of the lengthwise strings were breaking. I realized that we'd have to either repair it or buy a new one.

I went in the house to look for some string that I could use to try and repair it and found a piece of soft cotton string and I began to make the repair. With the sun in my face, I began weaving the string over and under, over and under, the length of the hammock, and it was so nice to feel the warmth of the sunshine. It was a tedious and tiring job until I got other end of the hammock with the string.

When I finished that, the Lord showed me that through each little over and under - each cross-thread was about 1 centimier long - were like the prayers of all of you that having been praying for me and sending emails. The long string that I was putting into the fabric was pure, natural cotton, not plastic or synthetic, just like the material of the hammock itself. I felt that all your prayers, just like the hammock, are holding me up and allowing me to just lie back and relax in the grace of our Lord Jesus!

Even now as I am writing this I felt that my body stopped trembling and shivering from the cold I've been feeling until now, and I feel the rest of the Lord has taken over. Praise His name!

Thank you for your continued prayers!

In Jesus' love,

Gladys

Dear Friends and Prayings Saints:

We've had nearly two solid weeks of mostly sunny spring weather and it has been great to get outside. It can still be a little nippy with the breeze, but a couple days have actually been t-shirt weather, and that is amazing!

This has been a very welcome change for Gladys, as she has a hard time with the cold weather. Especially since she has been struggling with stomach problems and has gotten very thin, she's lost most of her natural insulation and really feels the cold.

I'd like to give you a little update about her situation and ask for your prayers for her. She has been fighting with digestive problems for over 2 years now, and was finally diagnosed last fall with an H.Pylori infection in the stomach lining. After 2 heavy courses of antibiotics, she has still is not well, and has been dealing with the various symptoms of reinfection by this resistant strain.

After an initial test last month showed that she still has the infection, the doctor did an endoscopic biopsy two weeks ago to culture the h.pylori bacteria and try which drugs really will kill them. We hoped to get some news from him last week, but apparently the culture came out negative, so we don't know what's next, and haven't heard anything from the doctor.

Gladys has really suffered from pain, lack of energy and strength, and lately it has been a very difficult time for her - for both of us actually. In the last week we've had two sets of visitors and we've spent some good times of prayer for her. Last Tuesday night seemed to be sort of a breakthrough, but there have been some ups and downs since then.

She is putting up a good fight against discouragement, and the Lord has been giving her some wonderful times of comfort through prayer and the Scriptures. Here are two passages which she asked me to share with you.

Psalm 144:18-19 "The LORD is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth.
19 He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;
He also will hear their cry and save them."

Psalm 147:11 says, "The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear Him,
In those who hope in His mercy."

So we know where our hope lies, and under the present circumstances we find ourselves having to throw ourselves entirely on His mercies for Gladys' complete recovery. She has received much encouragement through the prayers of friends, and I admire her strength of character in this trial that has dragged on now for so long.

We like to ask you to please pray particularly that the Lord would give us the clarity about how to proceed now. If we're to continue the traditional medical route, that He would give wisdom and compassion to the doctors and staff.

But the best prayer you could pray would be for God to release His life-giving power directly in Gladys' body and just heal her. And also please pray that the Lord maintain her spirit in the lively hope that we have in Him. He is really our only hope anyway!

Thank you for standing with us as we learn more of how merciful and trustworthy our God is. He is the hope for Gladys, He is the hope for Wales, and the world.

In His inestimable love,

Dick & Gladys