Please Pray for Peace

The following is an email sent out to folks in our area a moment ago. I'd appreciate your prayers as well as you read this online.

Dear members of ELC and friends in the Dassel-Cokato area, fellow pastors, church friends, family, and many others.

May the peace of Christ dwell in you richly.

Please pray that many will get together to celebrate and pray on Thursday at the DC High School performing arts center. At 4:30 those who can be there will gather with Robin Mark whose church in Northern Ireland was born amid prayers for peace. After that there will be food available from vendors. At about 6:00 those who wish will get together to talk and pray for peace in our hearts, peace in our schools, and God's gift of peace in and among our churches. At 7:30 there will be a praise and worship concert with Robin Mark and Rachel Kurtz. Come to part of this or all of it as you can. Tickets are available at the door or at www.robinmarkconcert.com - they are $12 but I can provide them to you for whatever you can afford. Just ask me.

Please pray for me and for our church leadership. I am thankful for our local church leadership and ask that you be praying especially for them. As we move ahead, I sometimes don't know what the best thing is to do. On the one hand, I need to be sincere about what I believe. On the other hand I need to make sure all know that I am not all full of wisdom and infallible knowledge. I am a sinner and have fallen short of God's glory just like anyone else. I am praying that we can be good listeners to each other in and among our churches. I am praying that we will follow our Lord, NOT human leaders such as myself. We will not agree on the issues that have come before our ELCA church recently. We have a variety of opinion in my extended family. People I dearly love are on various sides of a variety of issues. I just pray that we can be kind and generous to one another as we walk together, one day at a time.

Please pray - and we will pray about these at the event on Thursday, for our schools, for our communities and community leaders, for families of all kinds, for our children, for our elders, for the poor and the distressed. I am thankful for our kind and generous Lord Jesus. He gives peace beyond understanding -- needed each day.

Please pass on these prayer requests as the Lord leads.

Sincerely yours,

Pastor Steven Thorson
Evangelical Lutheran Church
P.O. Box 448
Cokato, Minnesota 55321
320-286-5964

www.equalsharing.com - my blog
www.elchome.net our church's under construction website
www.robinmarkconcert.com

P.S. - Toni and I will be hosting two exchange students (both girls, both high school seniors) this year - one from Incheon, South Korea and one from Hong Kong, China. They fly in Saturday evening. They'll be with us through the school year, God willing. Please pray for them as they fly this way and for their welcome to our home and our town.

Many times I can be very strong in my opinions and thoughts. If I hurt you in any way, please know it's not intentional. I'm just praying that we can continue to listen and care for each other as we move along, one day at a time.