The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Caught (49 page)

11. Read John
8:31–32
in several translations.What are the conditions for “knowing the truth” ? How does God's truth make us free? What does this scripture mean to you? What is one way you can apply this scripture to your own life situation?

12. When
Becky
is offered a job at Bagel Bakery but would have to work Sundays (Little Andy's visitation day), she struggles with “half-answered prayers.” What about you? Has God answered some of
your
prayers only “halfway” ? Share some prayer journeys and what God has shown you (or not!) along the way.

13. The Yada Yadas had a
“house blessing”
for both Florida's and Chanda's new homes. Have you ever experienced a house blessing? In what way might it be significant for you and your home—or the home of someone else in your book club?

14. When
Stu
finally decided to suck up the courage to visit her parents at Thanksgiving, n spite of years of no contact, she said,
“If I don't invest anything in my relationship with my parents, it's going to die.”
Are there relationships in your family that are withering and about to die from neglect? What are the obstacles to investing in these relationships? Can you pray together about this?

For more information about
The Yada Yada Prayer Group
novels
or to contact author Neta Jackson,

go to
www.daveneta.com
.

Find out how the Yada Yada Story begins . . .

I almost didn't go to the Chicago Women's Conference—after all, being thrown together with 500 strangers wasn't exactly my “comfort zone.” But I would be rooming with my boss, Avis, and I hoped that I might make a friend or two.

When Avis and I were assigned to a prayer group of 12 women, I wasn't sure what to think. There was Flo, an outspoken ex-drug addict; Ruth, a Messianic Jew who could smother-mother you to death; and Yo-Yo, who wasn't even a Christian! Not to mention women from Jamaica, Honduras, South Africa—practically a mini United Nations.We certainly didn't have much in common.

But something happened that weekend to make us realize we had to hang together. So “the Yada Yada Prayer Group” decided to keep praying for each other via e-mail. Our personal struggles and requests soon got too intense for cyberspace, so we decided to meet together every other Sunday night.

Talk about a rock tumbler!—knocking off each other's rough edges, learning to laugh and cry along the way. But when I faced the biggest crisis of my life, God used my newfound girlfriends to help teach me—Jodi Baxter, longtime Christian “good girl” —

what it means to be just a sinner saved by grace.

THE YADA YADA PRAYER GROUP

isbn 1-59145-074-8

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BOOK 2

When they get shaken up, The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Down

I had never felt so violated! The Yada Yada Prayer Group was “gettin' down” with God in prayer and praise one night when a heroin-crazed woman barged into my house, demanded our valuables and threatened us with a 10-inch knife—a knife that drew blood.

We wondered if we'd ever get back to normal after this terrifying experience. I assumed we would (although “normal” doesn't usually describe the 12 of us mismatched women anyway). After all, we'd been through a lot already as spiritual sisters. This was just one more hurdle to conquer, right?

But then a well-meaning gesture suddenly incited a backlash of anger in the group, forcing us to confront generations of racial division, pain and distrust—and stretching our friendships to the limit. Initially I thought, Surely I, Jodi “Good Girl” Baxter, am not responsible for other people's sins—am I? But a shocking confrontation in my third-grade classroom forced me to face my own accountability, and God used the Yada Yada Prayer Group (and my own husband, of all people) to show me what true forgiveness really is.

THE YADA YADA PRAYER GROUP GETS DOWN

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BOOK 3

God gives the
Yada Yadas a
crash-course in
forgiveness

After all that we Yadas have been through in the past eight months, I told God I could sure use a little “dull and boring” in the new year! That was before Ms. Perfect herself—Leslie “Stu” Stewart—moved upstairs in the same two-flat as us Baxters. And before Delores Enriques' son wanted to throw my Amanda a party for her 15th birthday, Mexican style. And before Avis—
our
Avis—started being courted by a man we don't even know!

I guess I should have realized that with 11 Yada sisters as diverse as a bag of Jelly Bellies, life would always be unpredictable. At least Bandana Woman, who held up our Yada Yada Prayer Group at knifepoint last fall, was safely locked up in prison . . . or so I thought. We visited her, like the Bible says; even sent her something for Christmas. But then she ends up back in our face. I mean, how far is forgiveness supposed to go?

All I know is that the longer we Yadas pray together, the more real things are getting, not only with each other but with God. Dull and boring? Not a chance.

THE YADA YADA PRAYER GROUP GETS REAL

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BOOK 4

The Yada Yadas got tight in the
past year, but they're about to
learn the real meaning of
togetherness

We'd done it: we'd taken a mismatched, diverse group of women and cobbled together a prayer group that really worked for all of us. Now that spring was here, we were celebrating our one-year anniversary—and a wedding, an early parole and two baptisms in the lake! Everything was feeling pretty great. But it's when we're in our comfort zone that we're most likely to let our guard down.Without warning, lots of little things seemed to become big problems. With a white supremacy hate group targeting a local university, our very diversity almost became a liability. It took a vicious attack on Nony's husband to make us see that we had to get tough—and fight back together.

Oh, there are still plenty of loose ends flapping in our faces; there always will be! But now those verses about the different parts of the Body needing each other—Paul's letter to the Corinthians, I think—really mean something to the Yada Yada prayer warriors.

THE YADA YADA PRAYER GROUP GETS TOUGH

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Your chance to “yada yada” with God

A prayer journal to go with a series of fiction novels? Whoever heard of such a thing! Yet the Yada Yada Prayer Group novels have impacted thousands of lives as these rollicking prayer sisters have inspired a heart-hunger in readers to “yada” (know and be known intimately by) God and each other, and to “yadah” (give praise to) our Lord.

Now you can join author Neta Jackson on a journey that will take you even further into the three books' themes of grace, forgiveness and redemption. Each of these 60 daily devotions include an excerpt from one of the novels, Neta's personal reflections from her heart to yours, thought-provoking questions with relevant scripture and prayer guides . . . and space to respond with your own thoughts, prayers and praise.

Using this journal will not only change you, but may even ready you for the next step: your own prayer group of “Yada Yada” sisters. For Jesus said: “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in the midst of them” . . . and where Jesus is, something glorious happens!

THE YADA YADA PRAYER JOURNAL

isbn 1-59145-285-6

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