Hello you people who love others in distress as though it was you or your own loved ones. I appreciate you, I see you, and am grateful for your hearts. Your vision and your work matters, we need you. I hope to come alongside you today by sharing another recording from Beloved Prayers, prayer seventeen. Press play below if you’d like to join me. Thank you for being here, for.. Read More
I recorded a new prayer for us to join in together this week from Beloved Prayers. I also want to share with you tonight a video I received this week of a secret baptism in Bangladesh. It felt appropriate with the prayer for this week. It’s based on Colossians 3:3, “For you died, and your life is now hidden in Messiah in God.” These words are often thought of as.. Read More
I wondered tonight if it might be of interest to share with you a journal entry I made during part of the process of finishing the writing of Beloved Prayers this summer. (The whole book took me five years.) Do you ever struggle to keep your attention focused when you come to prayer? This was only one such occasion for me. August, 2020: A strange thing just happened.Jealousy, while writing.. Read More
Hello, want to imagine we are somewhere beneath an open sky? Maybe you are reading this at the end of the day we have come to call The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted (IDOP), or maybe the morning after. I’m glad we have this day, but I also know the ease of which the evening comes and thoughts of the day fade away, this is often good. As.. Read More
“Raynna’s heart isn’t just to capture pretty words on a page but to lift our souls from one level of prayer to an altogether other level. I have personally experienced that elevation of soul when she prays, and I know you will.” -Jay Myers, Creator of The Martyrs’ Cross At first glance, this little prayer book may look like a book of prayers to pray for the persecuted body of.. Read More
Hello! Just sending a quick note out to you all to let you know a deadline for May has been set for The Martyrs’ Cross Prayer Book. Would you all pray for us in this? Your companionship and support has always been deeply felt and helpful to us. Also, we are in the beginning stages of potentially creating The Martyrs’ Cross Pendant again. Many of you are on the waiting.. Read More
Belonging—it’s been on my mind recently. The way the word longing is in the midst of it. The way we respond—and don’t—when an invitation to belong comes our way. We want it, we want to belong, but…when the wholeness of the risk involved comes into view, we often hesitate, if not freeze. Paul spoke of belonging and counting the gain and even the loss of everything (including belonging) as nothing.. Read More
Christmas Greetings Dear Martyrs’ Cross Family! I keep thinking lately about the Scripture that says, “It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.†(Ecclesiastes 7:2) Considering what it was the teacher was saying, I realized I used to confuse this thought with the idea.. Read More
I want to tell you a story about one of my children, but I will use a different name to do so. It was this last week that this really happened. One of our young children walked up to a stranger and said, “Hi! What’s your name? My name is Benjamin and I’m adorable.” It wasn’t entitled like it might sound something like this would be, it was confident and.. Read More
“It is of great importance, when we begin to practice prayer, not to let ourselves be frightened by our own thoughts.†― Teresa of Ãvila, The Life of Saint Teresa of Ãvila by Herself Sometimes in prayer, it’s easy to get distracted. Sometimes, it’s easy to get frightened. Sometimes, it’s easy not to pray at all. Sometimes, we just have to pick up where we left off—not condemning ourselves for.. Read More