Community Project in the Village

During the month of August, our team is overseeing a project to improve the only road leading to a village of refugees about two hours outside of the city. We became aware of the need through our teammate's barber, whose family is from this village.


Our team has had to navigate through sticky issue of making sure that the funds we provide don't end up in some official's pocket.


Randy and our coworker have made several day trips to check on the work and to visit with the community elders. Randy has learned to take his own water bottle, since the only things they're ever offered to drink are home-brewed vodka and water from questionable sources!


One one of these trips Randy had the opportunity to talk with the barber, Joseph. The road leading out of our city goes past a prominent holy site of folk Islam, and Joseph asked if he could stop there. People often go to this place to pray and give an offering in the hopes of gaining some extra merit with their god, or of gaining some favor, such as a job or healing from illness. As Joseph talked about what he believes, Randy was able to share the gospel. It was apparently his first exposure to the gospel, and what little bit Randy told him was more than he could take in all at once. Please pray for him as Randy is looking for an opportunity to give him a Scripture portion that highlights the life of the prophets and of Jesus.


Please pray especially for efforts at Scripture distribution in general. The Scripture portion that Randy hopes to give to Joseph is a new printing that is designed for those who have had no exposure to the gospel. Please ask that this printing of several thousand books would quickly and effectively pass from storage in our homes to the homes--and hearts--of unbelievers.

More About Marriage

Marriage is so important to any culture, and it's one of the things I enjoy learning about as we live here. So many things are completely different from our way of viewing marriage, that it would probably take me years to learn all there is to know.

This morning a friend asked me to pray for her brother. For some time now he has been interested in marrying a particular girl. My friend and her brother are believers; the girl in question is not, but said that she would accept Christ when she came to live with their family. (I won't get off onto the subject of unequally yoked marriages here.) The girl's mother apparently found this out and has not only revoked the engagement, but is forcing the girl to marry someone else. My friend's house is in an uproar, and the girl is threatening to commit suicide.

Some months ago, we organized a marriage seminar for our coworkers. Although it was good material for all of us personally, our real goal was to equip ourselves to address the incredible need for Christ-honoring marriages and families among local believers. So far, we have had very little opportunity to present this material to our local brothers and sisters. Please pray that things will come into place: translation of the material, opportunities to work with individual couples, and openings to train leaders of local assemblies to help their congregations.

Summer English Camp

In late June we traveled to the northern region of the country to help some friends of ours with a children's English camp. It was wonderful to get out of the big city for a few days, enjoy our friends' hospitality, and meet some new people.

The camp we helped with was one of several that our coworkers have organized over the summer. With each camp that they have held, the turnout continues to grow as more families hear about this opportunity for their children.

Each morning we divided into four classes and spent time learning vocabulary and simple phrases. Kevin, Sean and Julie were in charge of the mid-morning snack break. Each day's session ended with a large group review and relay races that required each child to answer a question in English before they could run back and tag the next runner.


It has also been a great chance for our coworkers to build more relationships with people in their community. Pray that they would be able to follow up on some of the friendships they have developed. Pray also that we would be able to develop similar camps for other cities in the interior next summer.

As with any group of children in any culture, country, or economic class, some of our students were "difficult" while others were absolute sweethearts. The little girl in this photo was one of my favorites.

This was a working vacation for us, so we did get to enjoy some rest and recreation while we were there. Being from Florida, I have to admit that the beaches here are not quite the sugar white sands that I grew up with, but this beach is much cleaner than anything in our city! And our friends told us that this was a bad day. . .We were just pleased that there was no oil slick on the water's surface.

We also had a "Pajama Jam Party" organized by our friends' young daughters, and it was a blast! All the little girls bobbed for apples, and as you can see Hannah Grace had a little help from her friends.


There was also a very competitive game of "Red Light, Green Light". We played many rounds to allow everyone the opportunity to be the traffic light. Pictures of Musical Chairs will not be posted, since Hannah Grace cries every time she sees the picture of herself left standing without a chair.

Monday morning we will be heading out again to visit a different coworker in the western part of the country. Please pray that our visit will be productive as we look for ideas about how to extend our work to the interior of the country.

The New Freedom of Religion

Last post I mentioned that we just received our first copies of the complete Bible in the local language. What I didn't mention is that the situation for believers and workers here is becoming progressively difficult.

In recent elections, the constitutional freedom of religion section was amended. For those of you who had to read 1984 in high school, it has been classic "double speak". The new freedom of religion places significant restrictions on both local and foreign believers. No meetings in homes, no handing out literature, no suggesting that one religion is better than another. The legal status of all religious organizations has been revoked and all groups will have to re-apply for legal status, at which time the government department that oversees religion will examine the doctrine and history of each group to determine if it is "harmful". Punishments range from stiff fines (several years' worth of salary) to prison or, in the case of foreigners, deportation.

This is a trend that has been observed all across Central Asia, not just where we live. Many workers across the region are having trouble obtaining or renewing visas. By the way, we are up to renew next month, so please pray that our paperwork goes through smoothly!

We appreciate your prayers for us, for the work here and for the local church. Ultimately, God is sovereign in all of these events and, although He may not choose to accomplish His will here in a manner that we like, it will be accomplished.

Milestone

Yesterday marked an important milestone in the work here. It has taken a long time, a lot of work, and much prayer. For the first time, the complete Bible--Genesis to Revelation--is available in our country. You probably can't imagine what that means both to foreign and local workers. There is a lot of excitement about this event and great expectations of what lies ahead.

Please pray with us that, just as He promised, God's word will not return void.

Weddings, Beggars, and More

The past week has been very busy and very interesting. This time last week I was getting ready to attend a fellowship supper with Randy for CPers with various agencies, when the doorbell rang. Since I was busy, I asked Sean to find out who it was. He returned and said it was someone speaking Russian. I have a Russian vocabulary of approximately 5-10 words so I figured it was someone at the wrong gate. They were persistent in ringing the doorbell, so I left what I was doing and went to the gate. It turned out to be the national census. So, I spent the next thirty minutes answering questions about our nationality, how many languages we speak, education (including what our degrees are in), how long we plan to live here, where we work, what grades our children are in, where they were born, where else we've lived, and a few other random questions. It felt more like an inquisition than a census!

The fellowship we were attending was a special event. Several agencies worked together to bring in a special speaker, Joanne Shetler. She is the author of And the Word Came with Power. It tells the story of her work among a headhunter tribe in the northern Philippines. Julie has been especially excited ever since she found out that Miss Shetler would be coming, since the book was one of her readers during the last school year.

Sunday night was Andy and Emerald's first wedding. This one was what they call the girl's wedding and is put on by the bride's family. Emerald's parents were very gracious and attentive, and were excessively worried because we didn't stay very late. A couple of days later Zumrud found me on Facebook and said that her mother was afraid we left unhappy. I assured her it had nothing to do with them and everything to do with babysitters needing to go home.

Beggars are fairly common here. Some sit on the sidewalk and beg from passersby, while others go from house to house, knocking on doors. This week a woman came to the door asking for work. She had a little note explaining that she was mute. She made hand motions to show that she has two children and that she had been all over the neighborhood knocking on doors. I wasn't able to give her a job, but I did have some food for her to take home. She hugged me and kissed me, and I was able to talk to her for a minute or two about Jesus. Certainly not a full gospel presentation, but it was hard to tell how much she really understood of what I was saying to her. I asked her to write her name down so I can pray for her. She wrote "Zuleykha". Because names here always have some meaning, I looked it up in the dictionary. I couldn't find her name, but it is very closely related to the root word for "darkness" or "oppression". Without a doubt, that is an obvious prayer request. Please pray for her with me.

Persecution

Ever since Hannah Grace was born, we hired a young woman to come a couple of times a week and help out around the house. It's a great arrangement--she is able to supplement her family's income and I get some help keeping up with all of the housework. This young lady is a strong believer, and although we belong to different denominations, we have had many good conversations over the past three and a half years about what it means to be a Muslim background believer.

For years her unbelieving father has made life difficult. He has ridiculed her faith, threatened, and at times prevented her from attending worship. Today my friend told me that her father said that until she turns from Christ, he won't allow her to eat any food that is bought with his money. He is threatening to turn her out of the house, although she feels like that is mostly an idle threat. But she is now completely dependent on us for grocery money.

After talking a while, she told me, "Please just pray that I can be strong, and that I can respond to my father in a Christlike way." Obviously, she is looking for ways to increase her income--another job, more hours--and although she wants prayer to have her physical needs met, those are not her greatest concern. She doesn't even want to necessarily have this persecution removed; in some ways she welcomes it as a way to see her faith refined to pure gold.

Please pray for this young woman, and so many other believers like her who suffer persecution in various forms. Pray for those of us who live among these believers, that we will know how to bear this burden with them.

Spreading Propaganda

That's what I've been accused of. Emerald and I were chatting on the internet about nothing in particular when, out of the blue, she brought up religion. Among other things, she suggested that religion is all I think about. My answer was that my faith in Jesus (not religion) affects every area of my life; I can't separate my life into categories of "religious" and "non-religious". That's when she said that I'm just busy spreading propaganda.

Coming from someone who once professed faith in Jesus, that hurt. Especially coming from someone who once professed faith. So I don't believe it was any coincidence that I've been reading through 1 Peter for the last few weeks. And it was no coincidence that the passage I read the morning after my conversation with Emerald was the following:

Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. 1 Peter 3:13-16

Now, being accused of propaganda doesn't really fit my definition of suffering. Intimidation, maybe. Troubling, without a doubt. After reading this passage, however, I actually felt blessed. Previously, in this same chapter, Peter says that we should not return insult for insult, but that we should give a blessing instead. That can be hard to do, but Peter also tells us the reason we can bless people who insult us: we have the assurance of inheriting a blessing from God.

Thank you for being so faithful to pray for us for Andy and Emerald over the past two years. It's hard for me to continue praying when things seem to be going so badly. Please pray that I can return blessings to Emerald in return for her insults.

Electronic Evangelism and Other Updates

Several of my friends have suggested from time to time that I ought to sign up for Facebook. For a long time I resisted, for a variety of reasons, but last week I finally gave in and created an account. In spite of the drawbacks, I have found one really good reason to use Facebook: Emerald. We have been in touch more during the past week than we have been over the past year. It seems crazy to me, living in the same city, but I'm glad to maintain any small connection that I can.

Please pray for Emerald. Since she turned away from Christ, she has been trying to fill the void in her life with Islam.

Other updates:

• My head is healing. The lab reports came back this week, and the spot the surgeon removed was a basal cell cancer.
• Randy also had a biopsy on a skin spot, which turned out to be a basal cell cancer.
• Hannah Grace is also having some skin problems. We have been treating it as eczema, but it isn't responding to the medication.
• In addition to the health issues, Randy's workload has increased.

On the positive side, home school is going well, even if it is exhausting work. The boys and I have made it through the first chapter and a half of chemistry. I have to admit, nothing from my high school chemistry class is coming back to me--that was only a couple of decades ago--so I'm having to study along with them. We'll see how things look in a few months. Chemistry wasn't my easiest subject.

Homemaking Is Ministry

I've been reading some good articles, books and blog posts lately. One series that has been especially helpful can be found at the Girl Talk blog. It begins with the post, Homemaking Is Not a Hindrance, and continues on with a good many articles to encourage discouraged housewives. We are often told that the childrearing years are just a season and it will be over soon. Very true. . .I'm keenly aware of this as I watch two teens, a pre-adolescent and a toddler grow up all too quickly. However, the underlying thought behind this idea is often "Enjoy your children while they're small. Then when they're grown you can do the important things that you don't have time for now." These articles challenge women to change our thinking about homemaking, and I highly recommend them.

About the time I was giving this a lot of thought, God provided a great object lesson to highlight all that I had been reading. Our house helper, a young ,single, believing woman, has commented several times on how different our family is. Last week she told about watching how Kevin handled a temper tantrum that Hannah Grace pitched while I was gone. She was amazed that Kevin, a 16-year-old boy, knew better how to discipline a child than she did herself. As we talked, I asked whether or not her church provided teaching on families and childrearing. Her response was, "We have teaching. We hear it night and day. I know the teaching by heart. Until now, I've never seen how put the teaching into practice."

Elizabeth Elliot once wrote that when Paul was talking about older women teaching younger women the Scriptural virtues of wives and mothers, he wasn't talking about studies and seminars. He was talking about teaching by example, teaching by walking alongside younger women. This is the kind of teaching that my house helper needs.

If you read the last post on marriage, you can imagine that Christ-centered families are incredibly rare. There are so few examples for young wives and mothers to follow. Although I know that I certainly don't have everything together as a wife and mother, I have been encouraged to remember that just living here and raising a family is meeting a huge need for the young women around me.

Unapproved?

It's been a while since we've seen or heard from Andy and Emerald. They wanted to come for a visit and meet my parents while they were here. First they made plans to meet us all at our English center. Andy did get to drop in for a brief moment during a break from work, but Emerald didn't make it. They said they would plan on coming by our house two days later around lunch time. Then that didn't work out, but they said they could visit the next day. Again they didn't show up. Emerald called the day my parents were leaving to say they would come by that evening. Once more, they weren't able to follow through.

Throughout all of our disappointment in this situation, there is a scripture that has both drawn me and convicted me. Now we pray to God that you do no wrong; not that we ourselves may appear approved, but that you may do what is right, even though we may appear unapproved. 2 Corinthians 13:7 I've had to ask myself how I would feel if this young couple returned to Christ, but through someone else's ministry. What if it appeared that another person succeeded where we have failed? Of course I would be thrilled if they were doing right, regardless of the circumstances, but would it bother me a little that I might look bad--unapproved? This verse has become a regular part of my prayer time over the last few months. Partly, I'm praying for Andy and Emerald. Partly, I'm praying for myself.

Staying Busy

I wasn't able to post anything last week because there just wasn't time to stop and write. Here are a few highlights from the last few weeks along with prayer requests:

Students
Last Wednesday I took the children to our English center and showed the young women how to make authentic American style pizza. They learned some important techniques, including cooking the meat before putting it on the pizza and using seasonings in the sauce rather than spreading ketchup on the pizza dough. We had a fun afternoon and the pizzas turned out great.

Visitors
The previous Wednesday I had to skip my usual afternoon at the English center because of a visit from our company's member care department. There have been some changes in the structure, and this was a "get to know you" visit from our new representative.

Volunteers
We also had a week of business training seminars assisted by a group of four volunteers from the US. Randy has been involved in those meetings most of the week, and we both attended a banquet for the participants last night. We enjoyed sitting across from a young engaged couple who are both believers. My biggest disappointment was that the couple that I most wanted to spend some time with were unable to attend. They are not believers, but are very open and interested. Please pray that we can get together with this family in the near future.

Holidays
It's the holiday season here. Today is 8 March, Women's Day. It's a little like Mother's Day, but honoring all females young and old.

The big holiday, though, is the Persian New Year. The season officially began on the last Tuesday of February, with children ringing doorbells and leaving their hats at the doors. People put candy, nuts, fruit, pastries and/or coins in the hats. Everybody is busy cooking baklava, boiling eggs and making decorative trays of wheat sprouts. I'll write more later about some of the superstitions surrounding the holiday.

Andy & Emerald update
My main goal right now is to keep in contact with Andy and Emerald. I sent her a text message congratulating her on Women's Day and she called back immediately. We had a nice, friendly conversation--no strain or tension. Our biggest hurdle is Andy's job. He works seven days a week until 7 PM, and he doesn't allow Emerald to go anywhere except school without him. Now that the weather is improving and the days are getting longer, I hope to invite them over for a late dinner after he gets off work one evening. Please continue to pray for open doors, and that they will turn back to Christ.

Thoughts on Hospitality

Romans 12:13 tells us that we are to meet the needs of the saints and practice hospitality. During our time overseas, I've had ample opportunity to learn what this really means, and what it doesn't mean. One of the biggest obstacles I've faced is my own perfectionism. I want my house to be perfect and the meal to be spectacular. I've found that this usually translates into pride and a desire for approval.

There are a couple of incidents that God has used to break me of this. One happened shortly after we moved to Central Asia. I had agreed to host an all-male team of US students with their professor, along with a couple of national students, overnight. The day before they arrived, our building's gas was cut off, leaving us without hot water or any means of cooking. We lived mostly on bread and cheese for four days and took cold showers. (Thankfully, it was July!) Needless to say, Martha Stewart would not have been impressed. Still, word got back around to me from yet another national student that our willingness to fill our house with wall-to-wall sleeping bags had made a good impression.

I still have a long way to go in learning how to practice Biblical hospitality, so I enjoyed this article on the subject. It starts off with a good reminder on the spiritual aspect of hospitality: serving Jesus by serving others. Then it gives some great practical tips on how to be prepared for hospitality.

Timely Encouragement

First of all, let me say thank you to everyone who has been praying for us over the last few days. Your emails and comments of encouragement have been a huge blessing.

Second, I ran across an article today that truly helps to put things back into perspective. Ever since Saturday, when I found out about Andy and Emerald, I knew that Randy and I aren't the first workers to experience this kind of discouragement. But this short article about a little-known woman named Mary Moffat was just the reminder that I needed, that previous generations of workers have endured tremendous difficulty and years of discouragment. If you're interested you can read the article at titus2talk.

Busy Week

There has been a lot going on this week, some good and some not-so-good. Here are the highlights.

Sunday: We had a new visitor at our Bible study for nationals. Nora is a twenty-year-old college student who also happens to be a former neighbor of ours from several years back. She hasn't come to faith, but she is reading and asking questions.

Our study for nationals is from 2-3, and our home church for Americans starts at 4. The national meeting is always in our home and the American meeting rotates among our three families. That means that every third week, as soon as I calmly close the door behind our last national visitor, I have to rush like crazy to get the teacups all washed and finish up the meal we share after home church. This week, however, not only did we have a bigger mess than usual (birthday cake for Nora), our water storage tank was stopped up. So, our fellow church members were greeted by a huge stack of dirty dishes. (It wasn't really *that* huge of a stack, but a tiny kitchen makes a few dishes look like a mountain.)

By the time we had our meal, plus cake and ice cream celebrating yet another birthday, the pile of dishes was truly amazing. I did have plenty of help washing up once the city water turned on, and it was yet another opportunity for God to wean me off of my fantasy of being the "perfect" hostess.

Monday: This was an exhausting day, but a lot of fun. We put on a Thanksgiving dinner for our students. I was in charge of the cornbread dressing to begin with, but one of our coworkers hasn't been feeling well, so I offered to make the pumpkin pie also. Since that project came up late Monday morning and our dinner began at 5 at another coworker's home, I was thankful that I had already cooked and frozen several cups of fresh pumpkin.

The students (mostly) were good sports about trying our traditional foods. They did comment that having salty and sweet foods on the same plate was excessively odd for them. They also had never realized that North America was first settled by people in search of religious freedom.

Tuesday: To add to our tiredness from all of Monday's activity, Hannah Grace lost her last pacifier. I won't elaborate on our day, but it wasn't pleasant.

Wednesday: As always, we hung out at our English center from 2-8:30. I was able to have some good conversations with girls that I haven't had the opportunity to talk with before. Please pray that I can continue to get to know these girls better and have chances to share with them.

Thursday: This was our only reasonably quiet day all week. Randy had to pick up a visitor at the airport during the middle of the night, so we accidentally overslept. I did manage to start school almost on time.

Friday: Julie came down with a terrible stomach virus during school. It was an especially trying day because of our continuing water problem, plus there was a nearly city-wide electrical blackout for over 10 hours. Kevin and Randy were able to get away for a few hours to help teach the students about college football. They watched parts of the Georgia-Alabama game and all of the Americans brought along party foods. What a sacrifice!

How you can pray for us during the coming week:

• Pray that Julie will recuperate and that the other three will not catch this--most especially the baby.
• We need some time to rest and catch up on everything that has fallen behind last week.
• A week from Monday we will host another student Thanksgiving dinner, this time at our house. Please pray for those preparations. Mostly, pray that it will be an opportunity to share the true basis of giving thanks.
• Please pray that the city will begin to turn on the heating systems soon. (Yet one more reminder that this is a former communist nation.)

Andy & Emerald

Those of you who receive Randy's weekly emails know that Andy & Emerald have been facing some difficulties lately. Emerald's parents had accused her and Andy of going off by themselves on Sundays and being promiscuous. After praying about the situation, Andy went to talk with Emerald's parents. He was able to share the Gospel with them and, although they did not respond favorably, they did withdraw their accusations.

Emerald is still not being allowed to leave home much. This is really not an unusual thing in this culture. A girl's purity is one of her most valuable assets going into marriage and parents guard it closely. Even though we highly approve that mindset, it means that I will have little or no opportunity to disciple Emerald until after her wedding more than a year from now. Please pray for this situation.

Andy had also been fighting some discouragement. He has been faithful to share his newfound faith, but without any response. Sunday Emerald sent a text message saying that Andy couldn't make it to our meeting that day, but that he will be there next Sunday with a new student. Praise the Lord with us for this opening!

Leila

Wednesday is the day that we've set aside as a family to go hang out at our new business and talk with students all afternoon. It can be a difficult afternoon if the baby hasn't napped, like yesterday, but the students generally enjoy having the children there. Kevin has made friends with two guys who sit and talk with him for hours. Randy and I also each teach a seminar while we're there.

Yesterday, after my seminar ended, two of the girls came downstairs to the conversation room and sat down with me. After a while one of them mentioned something her son had done when he was two weeks old. Naturally, I asked her how old he is now. She answered that he had died in his sleep about two weeks ago when he was two months old. Leila talked for a long time about her son and showed me all of the pictures she had taken of him with her cell phone.

That was a hard conversation. She feels like she must have done something wrong, that God is punishing her, that she didn't do a good job taking care of her baby. The other girl with us quickly said, "No, it isn't your fault. God willed it to happen." We had the chance to talk for a little while about how God created a perfect world without death, but that man's sin had brought with it all sorts of terrible things, including death.

Please pray for Leila. She's trying to stay busy, even taking classes less than a month after this tragedy, trying to find some way to cope with this awful loss. Please pray for those of us who come into contact with her. We need wisdom to know how to minister to her and to show her the only true source of hope.

Ramazan

This is an important month for devout Muslims. Many are fasting in hopes of making themselves more acceptable to their god. Here, where people are much more secular, the fast of Ramazan has about as much significance as Easter does for the unchurched in the US. I asked one of my neighbors if she were observing the fast, and she seemed a little embarassed. "Well, I'm a little bit sick and so fasting isn't good for me. Plus, I can't fast because of my job. People come into the store and want to buy vodka and if I were fasting, it would be wrong for me to handle alcohol."

Yesterday our landlady came by to pick up the rent. She has never seemed to be a religious person, and it never occurred to me that she might be fasting. When I offered her some tea she turned it down and said that she was observing Ramazan. Before she left, I asked her what the appropriate response is when you find out that someone is fasting. In this culture, there is a correct response to everything, and I realized that I didn't know what I'm supposed to say. She told me that when someone mentions that they're fasting I should say, "May God accept your fast."

That posed a problem for me. First of all, there is only one word for God in this language: Allah. To even talk about God, we have to take the time to define our terms. When I say Allah, I'm talking about the God of the Bible, not the god of the Quran. Secondly, I know that the God of the Bible is not going to accept their fast as a means of salvation. The polite response is not the correct response.

If this had been a situation where the landlady had plenty of time to sit and visit, perhaps it would have been possible to have had that conversation. As it was, she was on her break from work and was in a hurry.

There are many times when I don't feel at all uncomfortable using the polite blessings that are so important to the people here. When you meet someone with a child, it's exceedingly important to say, "May God keep your child." Even when I don't have the opportunity to explain what I believe about who God really is, it doesn't bother me to ask God to protect a child. I don't have any problem responding "If God allows it," when somebody says "See you later." That's actually a more Biblical response than what many of us would typically say. And there is even a sense in which I can pray that God will accept their fast in the sense that He accepted the good works of Cornelius before he came to know the truth of salvation by grace through faith in Christ Jesus.

Please pray that we will have wisdom to know precisely how to respond to our acquaintances and friends who are fasting--and those who aren't fasting and feeling guilty.