January 31, 2002

CJM

Thanks for keeping us up to date. I wasn't sure I needed to pre-select all the texts we will be using through Lent right now, but I see that others have. Although I generally select the text on a more week-to-week basis, I will be more than glad to adhere to a predetermined set of texts for the purposes of our time together. So far, I've only gone so far as to select Matthew 4:1-11 for 2/17. If it will help to pick them all right now, just let me know. Thanks for all your patience and help.

By the way, my mother-in-law had a massive stroke over the past weekend and my wife has gone to be with her in Pennsylvania; she had surgery yesterday, and the outlook is cautiously optimistic. We would appreciate your prayers.

January 31, 2002

JEA

Thanks CJM for the email. You can be assured of our prayers. Yours is another vote for the Matthew 4 text for the 17th of February. If you read back through the other communications to date and my response to them you'll see that we are trying to decide a few things concerning the lenten season and our mode of working together. After thinking things over please let me know what you think about text choices, mode of exegesis (a full six steps from everyone or only one full step and general familiarity with the other steps from each with a rotation of emphasis), and the names and addresses of each member's colleague/conversation partners (one ordained and one lay person minimum). We are making good progress. I'll post the rough translation for Matthew 4 soon. Peace