(Friday, 2:00PM PDX) First day of the Osijek summit is done. Jody was able to get nearly 10 hours of sleep last night so she says she’s feeling OK. She is excited that some of the folks are beginning to understand what it means to listen for the Lord for the first time in their spiritual journey. One of the great joys of a summit is that the participants have a chance to emerge from a silent world of faith where they don’t know that the Lord is speaking. Recognizing and trusting the voice of the Father is one of the thrills of a prayer summit.

Due to the expense of actual voice or text conversations, we communicate by emails. It’s interesting to hold conversations that way. Sometimes there’s about a 20 minute turnaround time between emails. Plenty of time to get a word in edgewise!

Here are some excerpts from some of those emails from Jody:

• (Friday, 12:30pm PDX – 9:30pm Osijek) Today was day 1 of a 2 day summit that runs from 9-7 each day. We really only have one meal–yesterday a porkchop and some rice and today a piece of chicken and canned peas with cauliflower. At nite-there is a piece of bread and maybe a little yogurt. When we began this morning, we started with worship and kept up with ministry to the Lord until lunch. Afterward I shared the hand illustration–worship-humility-unity-community-impact. I shared about approaching the Lord — to minister to Him — with tabernacle showing us the pattern of approach. In afternoon I sent them out with the scriptures. Some struggled to hear His voice from the scripture, having learned ways to worship without ever listening. This seems to be the place we will come back to in the morning. I believe for a breakthrough. I can sense your prayers. If people want to email me — i receive them — and then I have their address to respond to-since I don’t have my computer with me. It has been a full first day. It is wonderful to work with nevenka–she does healing-listening prayer here. She knows how to listen and longs for the women to learn. There is another young woman who translated for me today — named enis –and she is an eager participant as well as an excellent translator.-Jody

[NOTE: Jody’s emails are coming via her Blackberry, hence more abbreviations and an occasional typing blunder.]