12-19-05

Thanks for your continued prayers. I'm so grateful.

This week will be a busy one, like it will be for all of you, I'm sure. Drop any prayer you need in the comments and we can all pray!

I received my initial edits on Straight Up from my fabulous editor, Erin and I'm going to need to rework the first 70 pages, probably throwing out most of it, and writing a new beginning. Since this chunk accounts for 1/4 of the work, I'm under a bit of pressure because, while I don't write tomes anymore, 210 words is a bit stingy. I'd like to give my readers an extra hour or so for their money! Pray that I can set up the story, which we figure really does start at page 70, in a much more compelling way.

We travel to Maryland for the Christmas holidays on Tuesday afternoon after picking the kids up from school. Ty, our 16-year-old, fresh with a learner's permit, will be doing some of the driving to get some highway miles in. Pray she does well and for safety not just during her portion of the trip but all of it! :-)

My iBook is still giving me fits. Two non-fiction proposals that I worked extensively on for one wee (and no, Bonnie, I didn't back them up on my keychain drive! Ack!!) are on that machine. We'll be taking it to the Mac store in Maryland. Pray they finally figure out what's wrong with this thing.

I'm very thankful to God for all he's given us. We are praying and figuring out how to begin a new venture here in Lexington, in north Lexington to be precise, for a life-training center for the under-privileged. Things like job/technical/literacy/mentoring/life skills training--but right in the neighborhood. There are a lot of programs the neighbors can go to in other parts of the city but not in their own neighborhood. We feel this would go a long way in helping people, to offer these services "where they are" not where we ourselves would feel comfortable giving them. An empty daycare center has come up and the rent might just possibly be donated to something like this. But this is something completely different than we've ever done. We'd have to find funding and financial support--like missionaries. Whoa. Okay, God. Just whoa. So we REALLY need your prayers on this one!

If I don't get on before, Merry Christmas!!! And thanks for praying you all. May the New Year bring in the Kingdom like you've never seen it before!

love, lisa