The sermon today, by Rev. Amos Kariuki, our associate pastor whom we share with the Hygiene UMC (but God, why would a town name itself Hygiene?), and the topic was"Talk Things Over ith God." The worship theme itself was on prayer, and the children's time was also on prayer as talking to God and thanking God. The main point of the sermon was that you don't have to follow a specific pattern or call God Thee or Thou, as Jesus specifically told his disciples that He called them friends. So Pastor Amos recommends simply talking with God, and then listening for God's response. I thought this was a pretty good sermon, especially for pulpit exchange Sunday. (Pastor Amos did say that one of the assistants at the church in Hygiene was very concerned about who they could get together to lift their pulpit and put it in a truck--rim shot.) Anyway, I always have my two bits worth to add. 1. I find that answers to prayer often come to me in scriptures I learned as a child or have studied over the years. 2. Sometimes I find it easier to WRITE my prayers, and sometimes I can hear God's response by writing what I'm feeling God wants me to know. 3. The sermon brought to mind a passage from the book "Papa's Wife," written by a minister's daughter. In the book, the Minister's Wife was in her kitchen shouting at God about the condition of her child's shoes, and scolding God for not providing new ones. That woman had a terrific, albeit not too reverent, relationship with God. She took the lilies of the field example to heart! 4. Sometimes prayer patterns can be helpful. The two passages Pastor Amos cited were Mark 11:24 and Philippians 4:6, to encourage us to pray. In Mark I noticed that in the following verse Jesus suggested that if we were praying and noticed we were angry with someone, we should go clean that up and then come back and pray. I suspect that noticing our own anger and resentments is in itself sometimes an answer to prayer.