Prayer Items This Week (by Thom)

A church from our home distract (Ohio Valley) emailed us last week asking us to send in prayer requests. After writing the email I thought that it would be nice to share them in this space. I'll try to remember to do this more often. Here's what I wrote back (slightly edited):

Here are just a few things from the McMurray's in Mali:
First, Amanda will be spending this week in the bush helping out with a Bible Camp. We're trusting the Lord that the week will be a blessing to the kids and that Amanda will be able to communicate well with her Malian co-leader and the children.
Second, our field's annual conference is coming up August 27th through the 31st. This year we are on the planning committee which is a new experience for us. Pray things go well in the planning and that the conference is a time of encouragement and refreshment for the other missionaries.
Third, my Malian right-hand man, Job, hasn't been working for over 2 months now since he broke his arm in a traffic accident. The bones aren't healing well and he now needs surgery - which should happen in the next week. I can tell he's (understandably) very nervous about this. Pray for his healing and his state of mind as well as for me as I try to do all the things he was doing before.
Finally, the lady who works in our house cleaning (her name is Jeanette) is gone this month. She's in Cote d'Ivoire visiting her family. Her dad died there last year and this is the family's official "death visit" which is very important. I'd like to ask prayer for her because it can be very dangerous for a Malian to be in that country right now.
Thanks for praying for us!

To expand on the first item just a bit, Amanda was asked to design a craft for the kids to do. What she came up with is this:
It should be a lot of fun, but a challenge too!