Craig is too busy to write the blog this
week (someone still hasn’t finished their sermon for tomorrow)… so it is my
turn to share what I’ve (Amanda) been doing, and maybe a little of what Craig
has done as well (obviously not enough of his sermon).
I have had quite a bitty week, though quite
busy as well. Last Sunday night was the biweekly Bible study in Esther with the
girls aged 18-23. For those of you who don’t remember I’m going through Beth
Moore’s group study in Esther and then adjusting it to make it a biweekly study
that’s more culturally relevant. For example, in her first chapter she talks
about her visit to a famous person’s massive house and she talks about how this
person is using their large sum of worldly possessions for God’s glory, which is
a great, but for people who don’t have so much, I felt some tweaking was in
order. This week we covered a lot of chapter 4 (yes, we’re only in chapter 4),
but the girls were very participatory and I think we all enjoyed it. We looked
at the most famous “for such a time as this” statement (Esther 4:14) and even
discussed predestination and free will.
Craig and I spent our day off actually
taking a day off. We had no housing issues or land issues to deal with, so my
dutiful husband swept, mopped and cleaned the bathroom in the morning while I
did the grocery shopping. I feel like I have the better end of the deal in this
bargain, but amazingly enough he thinks he has the better end of it too, so
all’s well that ends well.
But in the afternoon/evening we played
Zelda!!! For anyone that knows me well, they will know that I never had a video
game console growing up and still cannot use any video game remote control. But
I love puzzles and figuring stuff out (not so much the fighting bad guys part),
so the concept of a game like Zelda fascinates me. So the way we (yes, as a
couple) play is that Craig uses the remote control and I sit cross-legged on
the couch and become my mother; anyone who knows my mother will understand this
as well. I sit on the couch and essentially direct: “No, the other door on the
left”, “Look under that thing there.” etc. Our fellow missionary KC has pointed
out that we must have a relatively healthy marriage to be able to play together
like this. It could be said that if we wanted to maintain our relatively
healthy marriage, we shouldn’t play together like this. Admittedly there are
moments when tempers boil, evil eyes are pointedly given and the thoughts
“you’re doing it wrong” or “just be quiet” pass through certain people’s minds,
but generally it’s been an enjoyable experience. It’s really nice to have
something we do together for fun, which isn’t just watching television.
But for anyone who is getting worried, we
did not only play Zelda this week (we did complete one dungeon though). This
week there was an ear-focused surgical campaign with surgeons coming in from
the States, Paraguay and/or (not quite sure) Peru. The reason I don’t know is
that I had exactly zero interaction with the campaign and it felt great. As you
know I have helped with the surgical campaigns before and seen how exciting
they are, but they are also extremely stressful and as I have not officially
been trained as a hospital nurse, I also felt a little on edge working slightly
out of my comfort zone. This week I stayed in Audiology, but as there were not
many patients due to the fact that there were no doctors attending, I spent a
lot of my time helping out in Admin. And I loved it. I even started writing
receipts for payment by the end of it, with carbon copies. But in all
seriousness, it was nice to help out where help was needed and to do it well to
the best of my abilities.
I got to meet up with a friend, Liria, this
week. Liria used to work at the Foundation and I used to try and meet up with
her weekly while she worked here. However, I have not seen her since coming
back from Santa Cruz, mainly because her phone was stolen and I couldn’t get in
touch with her. Finally, we bumped into each other and this week we hung out
for a couple of hours. Liria needs a lot of prayer. She is a 23 year-old who is
not very confident and also very distrusting of other people in a lot of ways.
She is very sceptical of people who call themselves Christians as she thinks
they don’t, a lot of times, practice what they preach. She is also somewhat
self-absorbed, not that her life does not have its share of problems and
trials, but she likes to dwell on them. Sometimes I do not know if when I talk
about serious things she tunes me out. But I really believe under a lot of
that, she has a good heart and I pray that God breaks through all the exterior
self-imposed protection to reveal Himself to her.
And a praise item I have is that the young
girl Grecia that I have been meeting up with on Friday mornings asked me
yesterday to start doing some type of discipleship or Bible study with her. I
was hesitant to start a study with her right away, though mentioned it as a
possibility, because I didn’t want her to feel like she was being forced into
doing something she didn’t want to do herself. So for the last month, we’ve run
errands together, made pizza and cupcakes and yesterday we painted our nails
(thanks Jay and Jo for the Sally Hansen nail stickers). I am going to get the
materials together this week to start a discipleship programme using the “Vida
Discipular” books and hopefully going to start next Friday. I explained to her
that this would require commitment and she understands. Please pray that God
causes her desire to grow in her faith to really take hold and that she gets
excited about this study and the new things she’s learning. I have a feeling
her sister might have pushed her towards this, but regardless, she did approach
me, so please pray the desire is real and deep-rooted.
As for what Craig has done… well, sermon
preparation. He is taking the second sermon on the new series that has been
started on the purpose of the church. Please pray for him as he speaks
tomorrow. He and KC were also back in the school on Wednesday morning talking
to kids one on one about their thoughts and questions on their completed Emmaus
books. More children received Christ!!! Efforts are now being put into
encouraging them to find local Bible preaching churches and sharing with family
and friends the new decision they’ve made.
Prayer
- Craig speaking tomorrow – pray that the congregation would really understand and get passionate about this evaluation process the church is going through.
- Grecia - as she and I begin this discipleship time together - that her desire to grow in her faith is real and deep-rooted.
- Liria - that she would come to a saving faith in Christ.
- For the new kids that accepted Christ in the local school.
- For the successful surgical campaign that finished yesterday.
Craig & Amanda
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