Prayer: There is one resounding thing that God taught me on my trip to Russia and that is the necessity of prayer. So I have vowed to make prayer not only my first work but my most important work of the day. In holding this value it means asking others to pray for needs I am burdened for.

The need that stirs my heart this morning and this week is for my best friend, JB. Doctors have discovered a very large polyp in his colon. Today JB, Iris and his son Gavin flew to Moscow for JB's operation. They will operate tomorrow morning (midnight our time) and remove the polyp. They also will determine if the polyp is cancerous. If it turns out to be they will fly the family immediately to the states, leaving their home in Krasnodar under the care of others. If removal is successful and the rest of the search turns out to be encouraging they will recover in Moscow until next week and then return home to Krasnodar.

Please pray for my friend and his family.

Pants: On a lighter note. People that are still wearing their pajama pants in public- I'm not sure that was ever cool. But in case you are wondering it's not a good look, save yourself, get dressed in the morning. It's worth it!