People Who Keep Showing Up in One Thousand Gifts

You all know about my One Thousand Gifts project I started a year and a half ago. I am now in my third list of one thousand gifts! I try to avoid repeating the same gifts over and over, but God keeps giving me new twists on the same gifts, and I have to record them again! So, I thought I would introduce you to some of the gifts in my life, people I thank God for over and over. They are the ladies who work in my office. These photos show us playing a game with m&m's. The m&m's have nothing at all to do with this post.

Anyway, the lady with me in the first photo is Citadel. She works in our Student Services Department as our visa coordinator. It would never be possible for our school to train over 100 international students from 20 countries without this tiny but courageous lady. She fights through the bureaucracy at the Bureau of Immigration, day after day, getting their documents stamped, and getting their visas approved. She should be paid a million dollars a month.

This is Shelby, my assistant. I could not survive without her. She knows everything and everyone who has any connection with my department, and keeps it all running smoothly. When I have to be out of the office to deal with issues that need attention -- like taking a sick student to the hospital, meeting a scholarship donor, teaching a Bible study --Shelby holds everything together. We have worked together for nine years, and when she is out for a day, I feel like my right arm has been cut off. She should be paid a million dollars a month.

This photo shows Belle on the left and Grace on the right. Belle is our full-time English teacher. We have many applicants who want to study at IGSL, but who don't have the necessary proficiency in English. Usually we tell them to spend a year studying English and then apply again. But if we believe the student has great potential and is from a people group that is very "unreached" and has little opportunity to learn English in his own setting, then we bring them to IGSL and entrust them to Belle. She is currently teaching incoming students from Vietnam, China, Tibet, Bangladesh, Nepal, Laos and Thailand. She is a very loving, patient and creative lady--perfect for this job. She should be paid a million dollars a month.

Grace, on the right, graduated from our school two years ago. She is from the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. When she graduated, instead of heading home, she came to me and offered to work for one semester in my office, in appreciation for the scholarship she had received. After recovering from my astonishment, I accepted her offer. While she was helping in my office, our professors kept borrowing her to help in their classes, because she is a gifted teacher. In fact, none of us wanted to let her leave. Her semester of volunteering turned into two years and now we have invited her to join our faculty full time. She should be paid a million dollars a month too, and she doesn't get paid anything at all!

There is one more lady who is part of the Student Services Department, and that is our dear nurse Leah. I will make a separate post for her. These people keep showing up in my One Thousand Gifts list, because they bring me so much joy! We laugh together, and believe God together for miracles. I love serving our students together with these ladies through the Student Services Department.