January 2016

Dear friend,

Many of you have encouraged me with your comments about my monthly cover letter and your prayers for me personally. How blessed I am! God keeps answering our prayers in amazing ways! Thank you for being faithful and persistent in doing this work of prayer! May God bless you abundantly today.

For some of us, this month’s theme might have a close, personal significance. In many cultures, disabled people are considered a curse – just worthless burdens. This is such a lie! I am convinced that our prayers will break through such strongholds. They will connect disabled women with the Physician of all physicians, Jesus Christ!

I’ll never forget a message I heard from Dr. Emmanuel Mbennah about the paralytic man healed by Jesus at the Bethesda pool (John 5:1-9). The man waited for 38 years. He was so close to the source of healing yet so far away because no one would “connect” him with it. The power of HOPE kept that disabled man coming to that pool morning after morning. Hope sustained him until Jesus healed him. Hope kept him holding on until help arrived. I’ve seen hope’s healing power in many women’s lives – even those “hoping against hope” with “no one to get them into the pool.” Not family. Not religion. Not society. The moment they meet Jesus, their waiting gives way to prayer and praises to God!

It is our privilege to lift disabled women up on wings of prayer, to connect them with Jesus’ healing power. He is Jehovah Rophi – the one who heals. These dear women’s souls are bound to be transformed even if their physical disabilities remain. Jesus’ grace will empower them to live above their disabilities. As we carry them on wings of prayer, we become “connectors” between them and Jesus. He always hears and extends grace and healing to those who come to him in trust and faith.

It occurs to me that I might be writing to someone whose body is able, but whose soul is handicapped. Maybe you, too, have been waiting for years for a “connection.” If that’s where you are, my friend, I assure you that, as you pray for others, God’s grace and power can heal your broken heart – even if you have to say: “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!”

Praying with and for you,

Marli Spieker
Global Ministry Director/Founder
Project Hannah
TWR