Prayer

Another week has passed in Sentani - that was Week 7....only 5 more weeks to go! It was a busy week at school - we did a voice eval on Monday, a 3-day reading eval, and an artic eval on Thursday. We had a staff meeting on Tuesday, Thursday morning prayer, and a parent conference on Friday. We also started meeting with a new student today, and we'll add another 1-3 before I leave. I had to fill out some forms for more paperwork, but one of the guys at the school and others at MAF do all the dirty work....I just give them the information they need and they take care of the rest. They're such a blessing!

Today at church, the message was about prayer. He said we should pray out of delight, not duty. He talked about why prayer is important: it helps us grow spiritually, it’s how we connect with God, it’s how we fight sin, it’s more powerful than the devil, it gives us strength to serve, and it causes things to happen. It was a very appropriate message for me for this week because on Wednesday I found out that my dad has cancer on his bladder. He's been sick since last Wednesday with a fever, and he ended up going to the ER in Bismarck on Saturday. They determined he had a strep infection, but couldn't figure out the source of it. In looking for the source of the fever, they found a spot on his bladder that turned out to be very early stage cancer. From what I know, everything looks promising. But before they can remove it, he needs to get over this infection. He's at home now, but he has to go to Hazen (where the local hospital is) every evening for IV antibiotics. He has more appointments in Bismarck on Wednesday, but when I talked with my mom this afternoon, she said he's still spiking a fever and is just worn out from fighting a fever for almost 2 weeks. Please be praying for him - that God would heal this infection in his body and that the cancer would be easily taken care of. The message this morning about prayer and it's power was a good one for me to hear. It's hard to be away from home and my family right now, but I know that God's taking care of them all, especially my dad. Oh yeah, my parents, Hunter, and Lexi were planning a spring break trip to Florida, but that's not going to happen anymore. :( The 4th and 5th graders prayed for him, as did the 3rd grade teacher when I shared the prayer request in church this morning. I know lots of other people are praying for him, too, so he's in good hands.

Monday night some MAF friends had me, Justine, and Joyce over for supper. We got gyros, and it was delicious! It was a wonderful evening of talking and laughing and fabulous fellowship. After all the wonderful dinners and things I've been a part of here, I'm excited to host others when I'm back home. It has been such a blessing to me here. I was a little homesick on Tuesday, so I talked Joel's ear off that night as I lamented about that. It's a good thing he's such a good listener. :)

Wednesday Eve took me to Ibu Ali, a seamstress here. I'm having an outfit made out of Batik Papua - the traditional fabric for the island. And I'm getting a shirt made for Joel out of the same fabric....families here have matching outfits like that. I'm excited, but I'm not sure Joel knows what to think about it. ;) Friday I had supper with a couple friends by lantern - the power was out at the house we were at, so we used her emergency lantern for light. It was another great time of talking and getting to know them more. I loved it!

Saturday I did my "chores" in the morning and then we watched The Gospel of John for Bible study. We had popcorn and cookies and passionfruit juice (it's delicious!!!). After that we went to the mall where there was a handicraft fair going on. Lots of wooden carvings and Batik clothing and bags and other trinkets. I got several souvenirs there. I had so much fun! It's fun to look at it all and to figure out what to get for who. Some members of my family are much easier to buy for than others.

A couple cultural things I've learned this week: having long fingernails is a status symbol for men....it means they don't do manual labor. Usually it's just the pinkie that has a long nail, but sometimes it's all the fingers. It's not uncommon for people to ask what method of birth control you're using....having only 2 kids is "ideal" here, and I think there are some consequences if you have more. So birth control is a typical topic of conversation. And I don't think I've mentioned this before - my apartment is not air conditioned, but the rooms at the school are. It's not too bad most of the time, especially since there's a ceiling fan. And there's been a nice breeze the past couple days, too.

This week we're doing hearing screenings for the high schoolers, and we get Friday off. (It's a "mental health day" - just to have a day off sometime in March so that we don't go straight through until Easter). I might have the opportunity to climb Mt. Cyclops and sleep in a tent with some other women...we'll see how that turns out. Have a good week, and remember to pray!