I'm always amazed at this Prayer Workshop

This year's Prayer Enrichment Workshop continued to amaze me.

The people who sacrifice to attend amaze me.

Like Gene and Marsha. Gene continues to fight off stage 4 colon cancer, but he and Marsha and his parents came to the Workshop (and stayed for the whole program). He had told Marsha, "I'm going to the Prayer Workshop even if I have to lie in the floor on a pillow!"

Or like the two twin sisters who came - one who recently had a serious bleeding in her brain that has partially paralyzed her and the other who just buried her husband. They came. And they beamed with enthusiasm.

Or like the bus load of joyous worshipers who evacuated from hurricane-threatened Houston, Texas and came to the Workshop (they come every year). They courageously left homes behind to Ike's wrath and traveled uncertain roads just to get in on our Prayer Workshop. They inspire me and they humble me. Many of them will return to flooded homes, no electricity and shortages of supplies.

Each year we're blessed to fellowship with some amazing people who put up with significant hardships just to participate in this Prayer Workshop at a small Louisiana church.

The speakers who come keep on amazing me.

Like Terry Rush - a true mentor and hilarious, joy-filled proclaimer of God's huge heart. Terry pulls me upward and makes me better each time I'm around him.

And like Albert Lemmons, the greatest man of prayer I know... A man with 52 years of preaching experience behind him... a man whose main mission in life is to see God's people truly know Him in prayer.

Or like Barry Stephens, a loving, people-oriented preacher who always comes well-prepared and well-prayed... and who wants the Lord's church to catch the vision of what prayer can do to reach the broken people around us.

And like Larry Burrell, a powerful voice in the African American community as he and his congregation call people to search the Lord's word for the truth... rather than half-truths.

Or like Hugh Gower, who has always remembered where he was when God found him... and who can never forget God's grace. He found out that God loves him and he hasn't gotten over it yet. And he continues to work to see others find that same grace.

And the Calhoun Church still amazes me at Workshop time.

Our volunteers work so hard and so long that it must be a "God-thing". They spend their time, donate significant sums of money and invest their emotional energy in seeing that this Workshop happens.

But more than that, they are true servants. They make sure that our guests have meals, a pleasant place to meet and CDs of the sessions to take home with them. And above all, they make sure our guests get hugs, encouragement and the therapeutic atmosphere of true Christian fellowship. They are remarkable, sacrificial servants.

Whether guests, speakers or volunteers, I'm amazed at them because I see why they do it. They're connected to Him - the One who loved us and gave Himself for us... they do it because of a love that has pierced their hearts and made them alive to the higher life.