Answered Prayers

For years I felt that our school needed a nurse, particularly for our international students. It's very confusing and frightening to be sick in a foreign country, and it's normal to get sick when you move to a new place where the "bugs" are different. I was usually the one who took care of our sick students, and although I love that ministry, I just couldn't handle the volume any more. And I have no medical background at all, aside from the fact that most of the women in my extended family are nurses. (I don't think that counts as medical background.) SO, for years I asked God to provide us with a nurse, especially to keep all the families in the dorm healthy. We had a few short term ones that didn't work out. We kept praying.

Finally, three years ago, Jan Ray and Leah arrived on the scene. Jan Ray was a pastor who was entering our Master of Divinity program. His wife was hoping to work while he studied. And she happened to be a licensed nurse. Not only that, she happened to be a Bible School graduate AND had worked as a pre-school teacher too. She was such a gift to us! A skilled nurse who walks with God and loves kids! She has been a wonderful asset to our department and has freed me so much.

There was just one sad note in their story, one that we often prayed for. They had been married five years, and still had no baby. She had had a miscarriage several years ago, and after that had never gotten pregnant again. Then, nine months ago . . . you guessed it! We learned she was expecting. We were all so excited. Baby Lois is due any day now. So, Nurse Leah has gone to stay with relatives for a while, and will come back after her two months maternity leave. I miss her already, although she just left a few days ago. But I don't mind giving her up for a short time, because it's so exciting to see our prayers answered.

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.

Favorite Photos from Chittagong

Our last few days in Bangladesh were spent in and around Chittagong, in the southeast part of the country. The contrasts were extreme. We started in the Bandarban Hill Tracts, visiting K.L. and Jasmine, some of our first IGSL students from Bangladesh.

This is a tribal area, and is totally different culturally from the rest of Bangladesh. The tribes in this area are ethnically related to the Chin tribes in Northwest Myanmar, and both their language and their appearance is more similar to what is found in Myanmar. This photo is from a village school.

We also visited a Christian boarding school that was established to educate children whose home villages have no schools. When we arrived there, the kids were all lined up to perform for us and present us with flowers! Celebrities . . . again!

One of my highlights was meeting K.L.'s father-in-law, an old pastor who told us stories of how the Gospel came to their area.

It was encouraging to see how the tribes who have already been Christian for many years are now taking the challenge to bring the gospel to unreached tribes. K.L.'s tribe (Bawm people) are one such group. In this photo, you can see K.L. and Hirak along with two young Bawm evangelists who have started a church in an unreached Mru village.

K.L. is showing me the correct way to play the drums.

This elderly man and his family are the first believers in the Mru village. Reaching this village entailed a lot of hiking!

We did our women's conference for the third time, this time in a very old Anglican Church in the city of Chittagong. The plaque on the wall said that it was built in 1844. It had high ceilings, stained glass windows, wooden pews -- all very British and very traditional.

And then . . . we raced to the airport for our trip home. It was a wonderful twelve days. I am so grateful to God for letting us take this trip and experience the world of our graduates.