I've Been Tagged!

So, I've been tagged by Judy. . . I am supposed to list seven random things about me. I don't keep in touch with enough other bloggers for me to tag seven more . . . but I'll do my best to at least make my own list! Sorry, Judy, for the delay. I hadn't checked my blog in a while.

1. As I am typing this with my right hand, I am cradling a one-week old baby in my left arm. And loving it! Which explains why I haven't checked my blog in the past week.

2. Our two children each have 3 birth certificates, issued by the governments of the Philippines, U.S.A., and Canada. Maybe that's a random thing about them, not me. But since I filled out all the forms to get those certificates, I should get to count it.

3. I am currently teaching a class every Monday morning to 24 ladies in our IGSL Partners in Ministry program. Most are young enough to be my daughters, but one is old enough to be my mother! When I walk into the classroom, the young ones smile and say "Hi!" but the older one stands up straight and tall beside her desk and says, "Good morning, Ma'am!"

4. I am a medical wannabe. I am a teacher, but I should have been a nurse. I love helping people when they are sick, or in pain, or having babies. My daughter is a nurse. My sister is a nurse. My sister-in-law is a nurse. My niece is a nurse. And I am just a wannabe.

5. I spend a few hours each week practicing English, one-on-one, with an assortment of people who are trying to pass our IGSL English Proficiency Test next month. They are from Bangladesh, Nepal, China, Thailand, and Tibet. Did you know that most South Asians cannot pronounce the word "asked," and that "grilled fish" is a tongue twister for most East Asians?

6. I am hoping and praying that everything will fall into place for me to travel to Bangladesh in January. I have never been there before but I am very eager to make this trip.

7. After all these years in Asia, I think most American food is boring. It's not spicy enough or hot enough for me. Except chocolate. I still like chocolate.

Missions Emphasis

For the past several weeks, the kids in our Achievers' International School have been learning about missions. They learned about Adoniram Judson, Hudson Taylor, and William Carey. It was a very significant time in their lives, and many of them announced that they plan to be missionaries when they grow up. I really salute the teachers for all the hard work they put into this! On the last day, I toured the classroom to see their displays. Do you want to come with me to see their rooms?

First we have to get a passport!

This is our tour guide Prena, who will teach us about the life of Adoniram Judson.

This cute little guy is wearing a label so we will know who he is supposed to be!


This little lady is responsible for the map that shows Hudson Taylor's trip from England to China.
Here I am sampling Chinese food and learning about the chronology of China Inland Mission.


Another stamp is required for the next phase of the tour!

This is William Carey, when he was still a shoemaker, before he became a missionary.

These little tour guides are trying to remember all of the details of William Carey's life!

The class wrote a letter to William Carey to thank him for going to India.

This is Teacher Becky, who coordinated the whole project.

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Congratulations on a job well done! I thoroughly enjoyed my tour.

Choosing Life

Last year I posted about a seminar we did at IGSL called “Life before Birth.” That seminar came about because I realized that many of our students and graduates do not have a clear understanding of what abortion is and why it is wrong. I invited a Christian doctor to visit our school and teach the women in our wives’ program about the topic. A few months later, I developed another version of the seminar which I taught to our third-year degree students in their Social Issues class. While we were on furlough recently, God brought me in contact with Claudia Walter, a friend of a friend who has a passion to equip Christians in Asia to respond to the tragedy of abortion. (How a met this lady is another story!) This is a photo of Claudia with her husband, Deiter.

Specifically, Claudia dreams of equipping Asian pastors to equip the believers in their areas of influence. She is a nurse who was a missionary in Nepal for many years. After that she began directing a crisis pregnancy center in the U.S. We heard that Claudia and her husband were going to be in Asia, so we invited them to visit our school and present her seminar. She has done a lot of research and a lot of work in putting the seminar together, making it connect with an Asian audience.

You know, even after God has shown me, time after time, that our students need this seminar, somehow I still keep dragging my feet. I don’t know why. I think it is a spiritual battle. I keep resisting the big amount of work that is necessary to promote it and set it up. Last week, when I was still feeling that way, I came across this passage in Proverbs 24:11,12 during my quiet time.

Rescue those being led away to death;

Hold back those staggering toward slaughter.

If you say “But we knew nothing about this,”

Does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?

Does not he who guards your heart know it?

Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?

I can’t claim that I know nothing about the situation. There are 26 million abortions performed in Asia every year. Many of our students are unaware of the problem, but I am in a position to educate them. And they are in a position to influence thousands of other people, who can in turn influence others. So God keeps reminding me that I have to do my part.

So we did it! Last Saturday we offered the seminar for about 60 participants, and yesterday for about 25 more.

After the presentation, the students were divided into small groups according to countries, to talk about how they could apply the training in their countries.

My heart ached when a group of students from a communist country said that their government requires families to have abortions if they have more than two children, and that if they speak out it would be considered an “anti-government activity.” So we talked about creative strategies of sharing the information in small groups, so it would not attract attention.

We asked for their input and feedback, and got many good ideas about how to make the seminar better and more relevant. I smiled when one participant from Thailand said, “The pictures are nice, but it would be better if their faces were Thai.” I agree 100%. So our dream is to see this seminar evolve into many versions, where the people in the photos look like the people in the audience, and where the language on the screen is the language of the people listening. Our students have the ability to do it. So . . . pray for the next phase of Choosing Life – where our students will change it to make it fit their world.

We need your prayers . . . we want to produce a prototype which our students can adapt to their own needs. We plan to make several versions, one more “scientific,” one more biblical, etc. Pray for me!