Yes! Its the Saint Martins Adult Bible Fellowship Prime Timers Web Page.

It happens in the Payne Education Center, rooms 207-209!  Each Sunday in between the 9 and 11am services from 10:10 to 10:50 We get together, currently to study God's Living Covenant from the Old Testament. This week we asked if prayer makes a difference. What do you think?

Prime Timer Good News

Long time members know the chicken in the photo of Pete Seale to the right is called Henny Penny. Henny isn't telling us the sky is falling, though. She merely says that at the beginning of class you can tell us your Good News, but you need to put a dollar in her nest. Henny's been working this racket for a couple years now and currently has $416 in her nest!

This week the class voted to donate the money to the Amistad mission in Bolivia. This worthy cause, founded by a 44-year-old Trappist Monk named William Wilson in 1981, provided the children of Cochabamba, Bolivia with a clinic and Villa Amistad, a safe haven where they can find food and education, and the lessons of Jesus Christ.

The Power of Prayer

Pete Seale began our lesson on prayer by reading from Psalms 31:14-24. Verses 21-22 read:

 ²¹Praise be to the LORD,
for he showed his wonderful love to me
when I was in a besieged city.

²²In my alarm I said,
"I am cut off from your sight!"
Yet you heard my cry for mercy
when I called to you for help.

The lead-in to today's reading in 1 Samuel 7 is a story about the Ark of the Covenant, or Ark of God. The Philistines stole the Ark and placed it in the Temple of Dagon. The next day the statue of Dagon had fallen on the ground. The day after that his head and hands had been broken off and lay at the temple threshold. 1 Samuel 5:5 "That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon's temple at Ashdod step on the threshold." After this the people of Ashdod began coming down with tumors and the like. The Philistines tried moving the Ark to Ekron, but the people there would have no part of it. Finally the Ark is returned to the Israelites.

1 Samuel begins with the story of Hannah and Elkanah, the parents of Samuel. These people prayed for many years before having children, but finally the Lord blesses them with Samuel.

Speaking of the power of prayer can be an opening to hear stories from others. Pete started the discussion by recalling his childhood as a Roman Catholic and confession at 4pm on Saturday, a time of dread! He said as he got older the list of sins became shorter, but graver.

Sue Morrison recalled a friend with heart disease who doctors told needed a stent to keep his blood flowing. The people around him all prayed for his good health, and when the doctors examined him they found he didn't need the stent after all.

Pete recalled a job he hated to the point of not wanting to go to work in the morning, and at his lowest point he was offered a job in another office!

Obviously the class believes prayer works! Another member mentioned a class by the Rev. Helen Appelberg, now at the William Temple Episcopal Center in Galveston. Asked about the best time to pray, Helen said in the car, taking a walk, in other words not necessarily in a formal time or place, but wherever it is appropriate.

Caroline Maryan followed this up with a story about her favorite Sunday School teacher, who told her you can pray all day long! Just look at the sky, every day is a blessing.

Finally Elizabeth Laigle  told a story of her daughter when prayers were answered with a happy ending. She told us about her daughter, a teacher with three children, being offered a wonderful position at a new school with places for two of her three children. Wanting to keep everyone together she almost turned the offer down, but at the last minute another child moved out of town and this allowed all her children to be in the same school!

Pete then led our healing prayer and dismissed the class.

Prime Timers Contact names and numbers

Mentor

Rev. B. Massey Gentry
mgentry@stmartinsepiscopal.org

Leaders

Pete Seale taught about the value of prayer.

Get your scary costumes and caramel corn ready, The Prime Timers are having another Halloween Party! Set aside time Saturday evening, October 28 for a get together at the Maryans. Watch your mail the next few days for invitations!

The Ark of the Covenant may have looked similar to this chest (found in the Tomb of Tutankhamen).

Elizabeth Laigle told a story of her daughter with a happy ending!

The Lesson for Sunday, October 22th is titled "A Promise You Can Trust"

Key Verses:  2 Samuel 7:16

Background Scripture:  2 Samuel 7

Focus of the Lesson:  Trustworthy promises mean more to us than ones easily broken. What is an example of a promise we can trust? God promised to secure David's lineage and throne, and Christians celebrated the eternal nature of  this promise as fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

The reading is 2 Samuel 7:8-17. This text is from the New International Version^®.

   8"Now then, tell my servant David, 'This is what the LORD Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel. ⁹I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men of the earth. ¹⁰And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning ¹¹and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies.
   " 'The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: ¹²When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. ¹⁵But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. ¹⁶Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.' "

   ¹⁷Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation.

NIV®