Prayer Request

Please pray for a young lady named Eygadu who came to my front door on Thursday. She pulled back a blanket covering her leg to show about an 8 inch (length) by 2.5 inch (width) wound that was badly infected. The wound lies directly on top of the front shin bone.

She is on antibiotics and I have been cleaning it two times a day. It is now a clean wound but there hasn't been a great reduction in the swelling. Please pray that this wound would heal (she has lived with this pain for almost 2 months already after seeking help from several places) and that she would come to know the Lord as a result of this wound.

Pray that I would have wisdom in knowing whether to send her out to a hospital that would be very costly or keep her in Gesses. She has come from a village several hours away and is staying with relatives.

March 26 - A day in Bahir Dar

Today, we took a day for some fun.  This morning, we drove to the lake front and hired a boat to drive us to the mouth of the Nile to look for hippos.  After our 20 minute very slow boat ride, we arrived and within minutes saw a family of 3 hippos. They seemed to be peering at us suspiciously but once the motor was cut, they moved around quite freely.  We thoroughly enjoyed watching them play.  

On our way back we also saw some beautiful Egyptian geese and a fish eagle.  God has made some beautiful creatures!

 From there we went shopping at a small shop for dry goods, visited several homeschool families that have a joint school and then enjoyed an afternoon at the pool.  The water is unheated so it was pretty frigid but fun all the same.  Rolf spent the afternoon hunting down building supplies.  It is actually an incredibly time consuming process attempting to find supplies that should be easily available but it seems people were more interested in chatting than in making money.

March 17th - Nadia turns FOUR

I love the age four.  No more temper tantrums.  Mostly independent with personal needs.  Still willing to cuddle.  Tears and smiles over small things often within seconds of each other.  

Nadia's giggles are so natural that they bring a smile to all who are near.  Her shyness has bloomed into just the right mix of sweetness and fear.   She chooses wisely who to trust and once she makes a friend, it is clear to all.

Nadia loves to have her "own time" and she does not like being pushed around.  She will let out squeals of frustration if Sonia has disrupted her "set up" too many times or Joel has gone too far with his teasing.   She often does a little dance, hop, skip around the room when she is happy usually accompanied by giggles until she collapses on the floor.

She knew exactly what she wanted on her cake and was thrilled to have Kalia bake and decorate her cake using her playmobile.  She especially enjoyed licking all the icing off each item as it was taken off.

Birthdays are special times and I love each and every one.  Happy Birthday, sweet Nadia.

  

Joy filled trials at Gumuz women's conference

I have seen time and time again how the Lord uses us in our weakness and once again, we all entered with weakness. Askale has an injured shoulder, Ramonda has a bad cold, one of the woman leader's husband was in a bike accident, the other woman leader's child is sick, and this morning as I was putting pony tails into my daughter's hair, I discovered lice. This is the first time in all our year's in Ethiopia for our children to have lice.  

In preparation for the first Gumuz women's conference, we asked for a covering of prayer. The list was long: protection, that God would bring the women to the conference from near and far, for the Holy Spirit to touch each woman's life. More on that in a future blog. We also prayed specifically for all those involved in the program: the Gumuz men leading the singing, the Gumuz women leaders who would for the first time host such an event, for Ramonda and Askale as they taught and for our family.  

So 10 minutes before the program began, I found out that all our kids have lice plus some adults have nits. Since there was no time to deal with this "crisis", we sent our children to their homeschool classes with the Moes, and Ramonda and I went up to a full day's program! I left my dear husband in charge of washing all the bedding and all our PACKED SUITCASES of clothing!!!!  

Yes we are leaving for North team meetings tomorrow at noon and had all our bags packed! Never mind it is the time of year when we need to ration water.  

But in all this, the Lord filled each one of us with incredible peace and even joy! No we were not surprised at these trials but I was surprised that I could joyfully accept the inconvenience of this trial. That is ONLY because of the Lord and because of your prayers covering us during this time. So we thank you.  

The Holy Spirit is evident in this confidence and the Lord is being honored in so many ways. We give praise. We do appreciate prayer for continued joy as we finish combing through hair, repacking and finishing the conference well. We will be travelling 5 hours tomorrow with the Moes and Ramonda so we are hoping for a joyful time of debriefing together!

Surrounded by Fire

Each year, all the bush grass and field grass is burned in large circles or lines of fire. As the fire draws near to your village, you take charge of the fire. This year, our staff were ready and they intentionally lit backfires in order to keep the fire from coming close to our open yard. They also wanted to save a large area of grass for the roofs of their houses. They finished this task at dusk. 

At 10 pm, Rolf got a phone call from our guard saying the fire had come. Apparently someone had relit the fire and now the fire was really close by. So several guys lit backfires around our open compound. We could hear the fire crackling and the sound of voices until 4am! They lost all the grass they had hoped to use. Everyone was tired this morning but it seems they actually enjoy the drama and excitement of impending disaster.

Be Joyful in Trials

"Consider it pure joy my brothers when you face trials of many kinds because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4 

This is not particularly the easiest verse to read. I certainly don't want trials and after a week filled with many kinds of trials, I find myself wondering when they will end. Then I realized that it is actually foolish to expect them to end. I may as well just embrace life for what it is: full of trials.  

In Gesses these trials somehow seem more dramatic, more frequent and more exhausting. So how can I accept these trials joyfully instead of dreading them? 

One way is certainly to sing about the value of trials and so I decided to work with the Gumuz translators on a song pertaining to these verses. The community is going through just as many trials as I am! We are going to face trials until the day we die. Can we face them joyfully and believe that they will strengthen our faith and be used for His glory? It is certainly something we have to intentionally choose to do though and we can only do this with the strength of the Lord!  

In order to face trials with joy, I need to be walking closely with my heavenly father. I need to be listening to Him, filling my mind with His word and quick to call out to Him in times of need rather than attempting things on my own weak strength. 

Rolf has been able to get some rest the past couple of days and though this caused some stress for others, it was good for the community to see that we too are human. 

May these verses remind us all that the trials we are facing have purpose. Let us persevere so that we can grow and mature in our faith. We may as well accept the fact that this growth will also be painful at times.

We also need times of rest in order to persevere. Rest from the burdens we find ourselves carrying. Rest from the physical, emotional and spiritual stresses that come our way. Jesus modeled this and so we know that we are not expected to persevere with no end in sight. We need to be refreshed so that we can carry on. And that .... is easier said than done.