Desert Ministries - Omaha, Nebraska USA

"Listen to my prayer and my request, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is making to you today."

I Kings 8:28

v Start by giving thanks to God, the Father of Mercy and the God of all Comfort, for each Desert Ministries’ volunteer that will go out this week to visit the forgotten elderly in our nursing homes. They are extraordinary people who carry with them the sacred heart of Jesus to those are society has discarded.

v Give thanks to the men and women who work in our nursing homes, feeding, bathing, bath-rooming, dressing, and caring for the frail elderly who live in our nursing homes. “When I was sick, you came to visit Me.” Indeed, they are serving Jesus, mostly unaware.

v Give thanks for the many people who support this ministry with their treasure. Ask God to bless them, and to return to them many times over what they have given, especially those who have given sacrificially.

v Give thanks for the Desert Ministries’ staff who have committed their lives to the service of our frail elderly, especially Ruth McGrath, Ruth Hamlin, Randi McGee, Lillian Jeppesen, Jacquie Wagner, and Mary Falkowski.

v Continue to pray earnestly for the “Forest Hill Living Community” project. This project includes the purchase and retrofitting of the old St. Joseph Hospital that sits next door to our offices. We have been working for nearly two years on this project. We need to identify $4 million dollars to get the project moving forward.

o Pray now that God will open the financial door for this project. When complete, the city block bounded by Dorcas Street, Martha Street, 10^th Street, and 8^th Street will be dedicated entirely to the care of the frail elderly, to education and research concerning them, and become a beacon of hope to many, many elderly people living in nursing homes in many places beyond Omaha.

v Pray for more volunteers. The need for community involvement in nursing homes will only continue to intensify as the conditions in these facilities deteriorate.

o We can not do much to alleviate escalating staff attrition rates, budget cuts and so on, but we can recruit and train people of faith to learn the ministry of presence.

v Pray for the people who live in nursing homes. The quality of their care. Pray that Godly men and women will hear the God’s call to careers in long-term care.

v Pray for increased financial support, as escalating fuel prices are impacting our operations.

“Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort we ourselves are comforted of God.” - Corinthians 1: 3, 4