Remembering Thankfulness

In a week of stress and challenge it is easy to forget to be thankful.  So let me remember now to be thankful:  no people were injured in the rising student unrest, no property was damaged.  The board met yesterday and made a plan for a way forward to bring students back with their parents’ cooperation.  I’ve had some good time with my own students here, listening and trying to understand.  The Peacemaker Bible study we are working on as a team is extremely real and vital in the midst of this conflict!  The sense of sorrow and despair I felt the first night has lessened significantly, no doubt an answer to prayer that we would have hope.  I’m thankful for the prayers that this crisis brought out, for the encouraging e-mails and comments people have sent.  

Rick led us in some quotes from Elizabeth Elliot and John Piper as we prayed together as a team, reminding us that:  GOD IS GOD.  We can’t explain all that happens or control the outcome or judge our value by what we accomplish.  Our part is to love Jesus, as simple as that sounds it is the hardest thing for us to do.  To live in faithfulness, to continue to move towards love, to overcome evil with good, and to leave the consequences to Him.  Amen.

Meanwhile some other good things have been happening:  we have a date, July 9, set for the Pediatric Ward Opening, and the US Ambassador has agreed to come.  We have received some helpful advice and Michael has set up meetings next week that could help WHM identify a specific location for a new team in Southern Sudan.  One of our missionary families who needed to buy plane tickets had a sudden provision of a good deal.  There were some glitches with the Kwejuna food distribution on Monday but God gave Scott and Pamela the grace to give the unhappy women space by walking away, and allow them to save face but still take home the disputed food, so that a major conflict was avoided.  The sun has shined twice now this week for hours at a time . . . No small thing in this mud.  Jonah came to us with a problem in his life and we had a really good and open meeting about it, affirming our friendship.  Lydia and John start teaching HIV prevention and God’s plan for sexuality in the local primary school today.  So in spite of the strains of the CSB closure, we have to thank you for praying, and thank God for continuing to provide so generously in many other ways.  Everything in this paragraph was a specific prayer request on Sunday night in our extended prayer time.  

So keep praying for the students and teachers to find a way to live a peaceful and disciplined life together.  And keep praying for us to wisely move forward in love for God and for others.