I’m curious if any of you would like to journey further with me into this theme of reconciliation.  There’s too much to process, isn’t there?  I have stuff happening here in Omaha I need to think about and respond to.  I’m wondering how adventuresome you might be.  Here are two things I’d like to do in the next couple of weeks.

A Watch Party.  And… a Book Discussion.

Are you a watcher or a reader?  I hope you’re more than both.  Honestly, both can be pretty passive depending on what you do with what you see and hear.  But reading and watching can be ways of jumping on a needed learning curve you may have been avoiding.  So, which would you rather do?  Let me give you the details and I’ll see if I get any takers.

A watch party!
I saw a live interview last week I think others might find helpful. It was hosted by Tommy Lee of Resource Global, a leadership development cohort for “young adults desiring to bring social and kingdom impact into the marketplace.”    The hour and 15 minute round table discussion focused on response to current tensions over Black Lives Matter and police brutality.  See details at this link on my Facebook.  I was drawn to the event when it caught my attention on the InterVarsity staff Facebook page.  With Rev. Dr. Brenda Salter-McNeil on the panel I decided I had to watch it.  I’m going to watch it again exactly one week after the live event.

My watch party will be THIS THURSDAY JUNE 18th at 7:15pm Central

If you watch this on your own, you’ll enjoy it.  I’m asking you to watch it WITH ME! Watching in community with discussion happening takes your learning further.  A watch party is a way for “all of Tim’s friends and supporters” to experience something together.  I’ll have it up and ready to go on my Facebook page so anyone who can get to my page can watch (whether or not you’re on Facebook, whether or not your my Facebook friend!).  If you are a FB friend, you’ll get a notice on your page when I start the party.  I’ll also text you a link earlier in the day as a reminder!

Spoiler Alert:  My wife knows that I talk while I watch things (much like I write obnoxiously in the margins of my books).  Cheryl, I promise if anyone shows up, I’ll behave…

So…you’re a reader instead of a watcher?

Or maybe in addition to being a watcher?  Want to read a book with me?  I have been assigned to read Healing for Racial Trauma by  for my Region’s annual staff gathering next month (happening virtually not in person this year).

I have to have this book by the end of June. I’m wondering if you’d like to join me? People who will find the book most helpful of course are people who have experienced racial trauma. Honestly, I am reading it because I am a staff supervisor who wants to know how to care for staff, students and faculty members. I’m reading it to hopefully discover the kind of healing that I need as a person more likely to be the cause of racial trauma than the victim. You might be like me. I’m wondering if you’d like to help me read this. I get more out of a book when I can discuss it with others.

So how are we going to do the book discussion. How about we do it in TWO 45 MINUTE Zoom calls?  Give yourself a week to get the book.  Another week to read the first half and another couple of weeks to read the second half.  Here’s the table of contents and here are the two dates I’ll suggest for the zoom call.  They are both Sunday evenings.

Did I mention that I want to send you the book free!  Yes.  Free.  You’ll have to email me and let me know you want it.  I can have it sent to you electronically or in paperback (I’ll need your address if I’m shipping it to you – your email will do if I’m sending it electronically).  I’m serious about this!  [Or you can order your own copy of Healing from Racial Trauma at IVP Online.]

Join me in learning!
Tim

tim.perry@intervarsity.org 

So much for procrastination. For several weeks now the need to blog has been gnawing at me.  I’ve been looking for a good space in my schedule to post.  Covid has been a moving target that I’ve just become fed up with.  Do I keep uploading pictures of zoom meeting 3X3s?  I also took some days back in May to travel to Illinois helping my son with his big move to California.  Then things started heating up in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing.  I wasn’t really sure how this was going to land in my own community.  Till the weekend of May 29th!

Statement from InterVarsity president, Tom Lin on recent events

Demonstrations were peaceful in my town.  At first.  Friday night.  Saturday night.  Sunday night.  The tension escalated throughout the weekend.  We live on 51st Avenue, about half a mile east of where the demonstrations began.  Our local Target store is at 72nd and Dodge in midtown.  It’s a huge intersection protesters had blocked off.  Friday night seemed pretty orderly.  Not Saturday night.  What started at 72nd street was eclipsed by protests and looting in the Old Market area of downtown Omaha.

That night I was in my backyard packing our SUV for a trip to Illinois (helping my son’s family move).  Sirens tore past our block as police vehicles raced to downtown.  Lots of demonstrators.  And lots of vandalism to downtown businesses.  A shooting happened outside a bar whose owner had foolishly carried a weapon to the scene.  James Scurlock, an unarmed black man in his 20s was shot to death – not by police.  Why was the bar owner there with a weapon in the first place?  Many more details came out in the aftermath.

Jake Gardner, owner of The Hive, has a well worn reputation with flagrant racist tendencies.  At first it was perceived as a self-defense shooting.  Shortly afterwards enough evidence surfaced to have Gardner face a grand-jury trial (not the immediate acquittal it looked like he was about to receive).

“I can’t breathe” reverberated through the streets of my town.  I was only able to catch up with the details later in the week.  I had left Omaha that weekend and traveled over the road in a U-Haul with Aaron the following week.  We saw evidence of the nation-wide unrest as we traveled.  St. Louis shops were boarded up.  Curfews were imposed in many of the states we passed through – not the least of which was California.  The night we arrived in the L.A. area an Amazon warehouse was burnt to the ground.

The pictures I’ve used in this post are the work of two gifted photo-journalists who helped me see what had happened back here in Omaha.  It’s one thing to see things on the news in other communities, it’s another to feel the unrest in your own part of town and see the images of what happened.  Thanks to Chris Machian and Anna Reed I can see not only the physical damage on the streets – I can begin to see the toll this takes on Black lives.  The look on the face of a father who will never see his son again.  The tears of a friend shocked at how senselessly life can be taken away.

I was in the same moment proud of my community and repulsed by my community. Encouraged to see the diverse, young crowds of demonstrators – on message and insisting on change.  And repulsed by the unbridled race-bating and hatred shown in Mr Gardner’s behavior.  Horrified that a business establishment in my town had such poor standing yet stayed in operation till now.

Pray for my town.  Pray for me and for InterVarsity’s ministry with students and faculty.  Pray for BCM (Black Campus Ministry) and BSAP (Black Scholars and Professionals) – InterVarsity’s ministries among African Americans.  Pray for InterVarsity’s leadership as we continue to respond not only to the devastation of the Covid pandemic, but also the sad, persistent drama of racism, nationalism and white supremacy.

If you’d like to track with more details on the Omaha stories, here are a few links you may find of interest.

Omaha World Herald coverage.

Eye-witness back-story on James Scurlock shooting.

Video message from Greg Jao on behalf of InterVarsity Leadership.

Thanks for your prayers!

Do you remember your first day at work at a new job?  Joining IV staff is a little different than the first staff meeting at your workplace.  I first met the team I am currently on much like my two new team-mates met our team this week.  Via Zoom call.  I was actually working for a church at the time and still in the interview process with IV.  In fact I was sitting in the office pictured in the previous post!  What did my future team-mates think of me?  What does a video conference call do for first impressions?  I’m of the opinion that zoom does nothing positive for your appearance.  Can I get an amen?  I’m afraid its even worse during a pandemic (Covid-hair is nothing to write home about, let’s face it).

Just yesterday the GFM Central Team had its first meeting that included two new staff members!  Linda and Josh, you have made our grid complete.  A perfect 3X3!  If you recall I’ve been searching for new staff at Washington University in St. Louis since last fall.  It was important to find a candidate who would be a good fit for Wash-U.  I had no idea that two such people would pop up on my radar!  Both very much insiders to GFM, and to Wash-U!  I knew of Josh Ho because of his involvement in the Graduate Student Fellowship there for several years.  But I had a much more indirect path finding Linda Tuch.

Linda was very involved in GFM ministry in the Boston area while getting her masters and PhD (Environmental Sciences and Engineering – Harvard).  She met her husband during those years in Boston.  Andrew took a teaching position at Washington University which eventually brought Linda to St. Louis.  Linda’s former staff member while at Harvard is now the national director for Faculty Ministries.  She helped me connect with Linda and explore what a volunteer staff role could look like for her on our team.

The second new person to our team is Josh Ho – a recent Wash-U grad student himself.  Josh’s grad work was in Developmental Biology.  He’s hoping to work as a patents scientist and is prepping for the patent bar exam.  He’ll be in the St. Louis area for the foreseeable future and has also applied and been accepted for a volunteer staff role working alongside Linda at Wash-U.  Josh and Linda are both a terrific fit for graduate student ministry.  George Stulac is our staff member working with faculty at Washington University.  With these three staff Wash-U is positioned well.   And the Central Area team really does seem more complete with Linda and Josh.

Pray for our work these days with graduate and professional students in the the four state area!  The pandemic has made connecting with students a bigger challenge than ever.  Building community and accomplishing a mission together in the university is changing with every month of this new experience.  If you’re curious about how InterVarsity is moving forward check out our Ministering Online through COVID-19 page.

Consider joining InterVarsity for another one of it’s live nation-wide online gatherings this Friday night at 7:oopm central.  Details are at the link above.

Thanks so much for your ongoing prayers and gifts to my ministry!

Click here to be taken to Tim’s donations page.

The grid has replaced the conference table.  I remember one of the best things about my office where I used to work was my table.  I had a very nice office with so much room I could also have a small “conference” table in the middle.  I actually bought my own table and assembled it in my office.  It was the perfect space for a small team meeting or even a one on one supervisory conversation.  I loved making a fresh pot of coffee and serving it at my table (along with my agenda).  Those days are gone!  Covid has shut down what tables used to do for us!  At least for now.

Think of all those lonely tables in meeting spaces we used to occupy.  I loved classrooms full of tables and chairs full of people buzzing in conversation.  The conference room with wall to wall white boards (and a huge table in the middle).  Even a cavernous food court with tables everywhere.   No matter either if the tables happened to be those sickly white plastic ones with slightly wobbly legs.  Tables used to put people next to each other the way Zoom does now in rows of three stacked on each other like the Brady Bunch.  “Pull up a chair.” has now become “Would you mind muting while I’m talking?”

Until tables bring us back together, we’ll have to remember our gatherings with screen shots like these.  Here are a few of my favorite Zoom moments from the past month.

I had never attended a Dissertation Defense.  I didn’t even know you could attend such an event.  Until my son, Aaron invited us to his.  The screen shot represents about a third of the people on the Zoom session.  Phillip Ansell is Aaron’s advisor and head of his dissertation committee.  Several other professors and grad students attended.  All our family got to be there.  Aaron presented for about an hour.  I was amazed!  I was also thankful that somewhere in my background I’d gotten an engineering degree myself (so I could half-way keep up with what was being said).

The committee left to go to a break-out room for a few minutes while we got to decompress with Aaron.  Poppy, Aaron’s 2 year old got to join him and see who all was in the zoom room.  In about 10 minutes the committee returned to announce that Aaron had passed (with no revisions as it would turn out).

It wasn’t quite the event it would have been were we able to be there in person, but just as much joy at watching Aaron get to the end of his last wind-tunnel!  At some point in the future with covid tamed and out of the way, our whole family will be able to be around a table together celebrating in person.

As COVID 19 has come to the U.S. and taken over, InterVarsity has essentially went virtual with all our people to people interaction.  Staff teams aren’t gathering for meetings.  Supervisors aren’t traveling to campuses.  Students and Faculty aren’t in the same room with each other much less at prayer or bible study gatherings.  Yet, COVID 19 hasn’t stopped community from happening in InterVarsity.  It hasn’t stopped disciple-making conversations, bible studies, prayer gatherings or even large group meetings!  The viral has forced the virtual.

I’d like you to do two things with this blog.  Both can happen at the link I’ve posted at the very bottom.  First, click through till you get to this page:

Give James Choung a listen describing some of the changes we’re experiencing.  Scroll down, click a few links and check out what online ministry is looking like these days.  You might find something helpful for your ministry context.  On this painful shared journey of corona shutting things down, life IS still opening up for people willing to carve out some new patterns.  Are you one of those people re-inventing a new normal?  InterVarsity staff, students and faculty are.  Pray for us and join us as we beat this bug back into the corner and press forward into the kingdom of Jesus!  When pathogens go viral, we go virtual!

Assignment #2

Come on out to Large Group tomorrow night 7:00pm Central time!  YES, you heard right – this is your invitation to not just read about it.  You can experience it as well.  Scroll down to were you see InterVarsity Live.

You’ll need to hit the register button on the web-page and give them an email address.  In turn you’ll be sent a link.  That’s your admission to the online large-group meeting tomorrow night.  Hope you can make it!  Here’s the link that will take you to the page.  You’ll land first on a page inviting you to bless InterVarsity with a special gift to help cope with the effects of the pandemic.  Feel free to click on through that to the web page:

Ministering Digitally Through COVID 19

Thanks for checking it out!  Maybe I’ll see you at Large Group!

In addition to the article I’d like you to read in the post below (already aged a half-life since it was written) I’d like you think about two questions.  These two questions were given to me at my Regional Leadership Team meeting yesterday by a very wise colleague.  They are two of the most timely questions for helpful dialogue with just about anyone you encounter.  To get a grip on the first question, please watch this short video from an administrator at a university in my GFM Area.  Click here to watch.

Q1 – What losses am I experiencing?

What’s happening at Washington University is just one example of what is happening everywhere else where graduation commencements would have been taking place this spring.  The Class of 2020 is about to get ripped off!  As Chancellor Andrew Martin expresses so meticulously, the lack of closure and celebration students will experience this spring is far from trivial.  No matter how much effort it will take for high-school students, college students, graduate and professional students to technically cross their academic finish line, corona is robbing us all of that delicious sweetness with which ceremony decorates accomplishment.

What’s the loss?  Closeness at the finish-line with others who’ve journeyed with you.  That last day of serious, on-sight school work and the crunch of classroom doors shutting behind you for the last time.  The sound that last paper makes landing on the teacher’s desk in a stack with the rest.  That last ounce of passion from your favorite teacher who is also being shorted the joy of seeing you finish.  Family!  Family coming on to your turf, sitting through your ceremony, taking pictures of you crossing the stage, embarrassing you with their uncouth hollering.  Receptions and parties happening all over town in the latter half of May.  That’s the loss.  You’ll still get your degree or your diploma.  Your tassel.  Your honors chord.  But will anyone get to see those robes?  My son Silas was given everything in his high school graduation kit… EXCEPT the robe.  “They’ll pick those up at school a day or two before graduation.”  Really?

As you fight your way through whatever else corona hands you, ask yourself the loss question.  What am I losing?  How can I minimize the loss?  How can I best grieve the loss I can’t avoid?  How can I help someone else with their loss?  Who can I turn to share some of the grief of mine?

Q2 – What am I afraid of?

Check-in question number two is a little harder to ask.  A little harder to answer.  Just as important to ventilate.  What are you afraid of?  As we name our fears we expose uncomfortable things lurking inside us.  We have to face things we’re weak at or insecure about.  We run the risk of awful-izing and exaggerating our fears.  But without dialogue, our fears can drive us where we don’t want to go.  Our fears can keep us isolated and suspicious when we should be open and cooperative.

Just today I had a chance to try out these two questions.  I had an appointment with a possible supporter that had to be cancelled because of the social distancing guidelines our community is trying to follow.  We had the appointment via Zoom call (video).  I asked my friend these two questions right at the top of the conversation.  It was a simple step of conversational wisdom that helped our interaction flow.

I encourage you to do the same.  Or find another discussion question or two that works for you.  Meditate on this:  “What question could I start a conversation with that would help me listen, build trust and scale back anxiety?  Let me know how your conversations are going.

Meanwhile, please be in prayer for students and teachers as they try to finish this impossible semester.  Pray for administrators and decision makers.   Pray for parents and families whose homes have suddenly turned into school rooms!  And pray especially for every member of The Class of 2020 you know.

Feel free to text or email me your thoughts:

Tim Perry    402.709.7911     tim.perry@intervarsity.org

These are incredible days of challenge aren’t they?  Last week was the first work-week that my job started significantly changing in response to COVID 19.  Was that true for you?  Last week was different than the week before.  News reports started having more bite, hitting closer to home with bigger implications.  “I don’t think we’re going to be able to finish this year of ministry on the trajectory we planned.”  By the end of the week things started looking different in my community too.  This morning we went to church and worshiped with about 45 other people (yes, we don’t attend a mega church, but no, the crowd is usually a little bigger than that).  We drove past empty churches on the way to our church.  It felt very strange!  “Was this morning the last time we’ll be at our church for a while?”

In the next few PBR posts I’m going to bring you an article that’s been circulating among my colleagues in Graduate Faculty Ministries entitled: Love in the Time of Coronavirus.  It’s lengthy.  I’ll talk about just one part of the article each time I post.  I’ll include the link to the article each time.  I’d like you to read it first because it’s helpful and well written!  But also because it’s a great reflection on where I feel our leadership needs to head in campus ministry.  Let it be a guide to your prayers for InterVarsity as well as a practical guide in your context.  Let me know what you think!

Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic – Crouch’s 4 questions:

1. What is happening? An overview of the most important things for Christian leaders, anywhere in the United States, to know about SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19.
2. What should we communicate? A list of the most helpful messages others can hear from us — and the most harmful messages as well.
3. What decisions should we make? Recommendations for decisions about large gatherings, medium-size gatherings for Christian worship, and small groups meeting in households.
4. What can we hope for? A few reflections on the genuine possibility that our decisions in the next few weeks could reshape the practice of Christian faith in our nation…

Formerly an editor at Christianity Today, formerly an InterVarsity staff member, and author of numerous books on Christianity and Culture, you’ll find Crouch incisive and practical if you’re not already a fan!  You can read a little about Andy Crouch here at the Praxis website.

“Praxis is a creative engine for redemptive entrepreneurship, supporting founders, funders, and innovators motivated by their faith to renew culture and love their neighbors.  Our community of practice operates through high-touch programs, robust content, and a global portfolio of redemptive business & nonprofit ventures.”

Love in the Time of Coronavirus, has helped me cut through a lot of unhelpful noise.  I’ve needed a place to land in terms of my attitude toward this crisis.  Andy’s challenge is helping me move forward into the real decisions facing my leadership.

A leader’s responsibility, as circumstances around us change, is to speak, live, and make decisions in such a way that the horizons of possibility move towards shalom, flourishing for everyone in our sphere of influence, especially the vulnerable.

I’m asking a lot of questions this week I wasn’t asking last week.  What is the pandemic going to do to my ministry this week?  How do I get in front of decisions with a better grip on what I’m doing?  Please pray for me.  Here are a few things needing fresh leadership:

1. Major fund-raising needs I’m responding to this spring.  I began 2020 firmly committed to working on my budget.  How am going to accomplish my goals?
2. Several appointments this week with potential ministry partners and possible financial supporters.  What do I do differently?
3. A trip I have been planning for weeks to Illinois, Indiana and Ohio!  Do I cancel the trip when it’s taken me over a month to set everything up?
4. I supervise 6 other staff in my territory.  What needs to be different in my leadership starting this week?
5. All of our groups on campus have been shut down.  What does that mean for how we try to connect with students?  Are my staff prepared to sustain ministry to students and faculty without face to face contact?

I’ll keep you posted on what I’m learning and how I’m leading.  Let me know what you think of Andy’s article!

Thought I would get a quick word out about how things in my GFM world are being impacted by the Corona Virus.  I’m grateful for how the semester has been moving along.  I had originally planned a less travel-intensive Feb-Mar-April in order to get after some much needed fundraising.  Last year at this time I was traveling to every Central Area campus (NE, KS, IA, MO).  This spring I have only two trips planned.  I also have a fundraising trip on my calendar for later this month.   It will most likely stay in the  schedule unless something drastic changes with the people I plan to visit in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.

What is InterVarsity telling you at this point?

National leaders are keeping watch on the spread of Corona and encouraging staff across the U.S. to stay informed via news – especially regular briefings from the Center For Disease Control and also those from the World Health Organization.  They are encouraging wise decision making about conferences and events and staying in close communication with hosting facilities.  InterVarsity is not recommending any particular travel policy or restrictions at this point.  If staff need to change plans concerning non-essential travel based on local/regional circumstances, they are encouraged to do so with the approval of their supervisor.

What about overseas travel?

“Regarding InterVarsity’s international programs, our Overseas Crisis Management Team monitors and assesses risk every summer. We have redirected two East Asia GPs and one Study Abroad student trip to other countries; otherwise, most other programs are moving forward as planned.”

A few things worth saying (comments about our posture)

• We are calm, while continuing to realistically assess risk.
• At the same time, we are sensitive to others who may be suffering from increased anxiety. We are sensitive to how this is playing out in different contexts – from emptied grocery stores and supply shortages in parts of California to fully stocked shelves and relative calm in parts of the Midwest. Let’s lean into compassion for the various contexts that InterVarsity touches.
• We are more concerned for others who are sick with this (and other illnesses) rather than overly concerned about our own well-being. There is a powerful history of Christians caring for sick neighbors during outbreaks far worse than this.
• This situation has people thinking about their own mortality and fears. The shell keeping people from deep conversations is a bit thinner. Our ministry continues, and our desire continues to be that people experience the real hope of Christ at a time when there is so much hopelessness.

Am I worried about Covid 19?  I am concerned.  Anyone who does a people intensive ministry with lots of travel should be vigilant.  In the non-ministry world of my family, I’m looking forward to my grand-daughter’s second birthday next month, my oldest son’s defense of his dissertation two days after Poppy’s birthday, and my youngest son’s graduation from Central High School in May.  I’m making sure Corona knows it’s not welcome at any of our birthday parties, graduation celebrations or Easter!

I like the point our national leaders make reminding us that Christians have historically served well in circumstances like this.  The way of Jesus is a way of self-sacrifice for others more needy.  May Christ-following believers all over the globe continue to do so as we pray and take action to protect human flourishing.  Thanks for your prayers.  Thanks for your financial partnership!

Pretty simple post here announcing a new banner for the blog.  There are lots of things PBR probably can stand for.  From now on at the blog, it’s shorthand for Perry Boiler Room.

In case some of you are new to the blog and just don’t get it, here’s how it got its name.  The Boiler Room is basically the command control center of the Perry household.  My office and library are down here in the basement.  It’s where I light my candle, have quiet times, pray, fast and fill journals.  Its where all hot water and radiator heat is stoked.  It’s also where 100 minutes of free weights and Nordic Track happen three times a week.  Where brainstorms spawn and roam free on my 12 foot long white-board.  And… where Aspen edits all my work!

Enjoy the new look!

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Contact me via email here

Who do you see when you look at this picture?  There were some of US.  And there were some of THEM.  Can you tell which is which?  The US, were 6 Staff Directors in my four-state territory.  The THEM, were 11 potential InterVarsity staff candidates.  I got to join the undergrad side of my ministry in hosting Prospective Staff Weekend (PSW) down in Kansas City last November.  The six of us were able to spend a couple of days with terrific students and faculty involved in our ministry.  Hopefully the US…are still young-looking enough to make it nearly impossible to pick us out in the crowd.  Maybe not…

Of “The Eleven” there were several I especially loved meeting up with.  One is a faculty member at St. Louis University in the Chemistry department interested in a part time position working with faculty.  Two were graduate students connected with our Undergraduate and International Student Ministries. Three more were possibly headed to graduate or professional school within the next year!  So much potential.

Not… in the photo.

Three other possible candidates are currently looking at Graduate Faculty Ministry applications.  A recent graduate living and working in Iowa might volunteer part time as she helps start a new GFM group.  A PhD student in Theology at St. Louis University is strongly considering GFM ministry after finishing his degree later this spring.  And the spouse of a Wash-U faculty member, herself a PhD in Environmental Science, is applying for the open position we have at Washington University.  I’m so encouraged to cultivate these seeds of interest!

I just booked a flight today for St. Louis.  Pray for me on Feb 14th.  Yes, while everyone else is eating those nasty candy hearts and enjoying Valentine’s Day greetings, I’ll be spending the day following up with several of these terrific people.  Pray for great conversations, asking and answering the best questions.  Pray for God to move in bringing the people we need on staff in just the right locations.  Pray for the application process to move along.  For potential obstacles to be worked through.  For people to say “Yes!” who should.  For God’s call to be clear.

Other people.  Other places.

One of my GFM staff members at K-State has been having conversations with an International (PhD student with two years left to his program) showing great potential for ministry.  He’s been a key leader in his context and lives out his faith leading others to Christ.  I am accumulating connections with faculty and grad students at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.  But I have no staff member there.  The nearest GFM staff team-mate that I have is over two hours away.  I would be immensely blessed with a staff colleague here in Omaha!  Des Moines also has so much potential for faculty work as well as possible new ministry with Occupational Therapy students at Drake.  Keep praying.  Hopefully good news is coming!

Thank you so much for your partnership.