If I may I interupt myself..?

I may?  Great!  Thanks.

Briefly, I am wondering if you will say a prayer for my mother. It has been 2 months now since Dad died, and decisions about her living arrangements are taking their toll on her. We are all working on getting her the best care, but she's under a lot of stress. Please pray that she (Joyce) will feel God's arms enfolding her and giving her peace.  I sent her this little poem:

                     CHOOSE WHERE YOU'LL LOOK

             You cannot dodge all of life's ill-timed blows,
             so choose where you'll look as the raincloud grows:
             look in at yourself...where perception slows,
             where your fears and your doubts would keep doors closed...

             OR...

             turn your eyes to the One from Whom grace flows;
             for, as (s)he who has struggled with pain well knows,
             there's a Holy Hope that sustains all those
             who look UP through their tears and find...rainbows!
                                                                                                     -Becky Rhon

I wish everyone who reads this many rainbows!
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Now I'll un-interupt myself!   I mentioned that I started attending a woman's Bible study. It was during this time that we were asked to fill in for two months for a couple who administered a Christian camp. While there, God answered one of our hearts' desires, against human odds. Please go back to the post I wrote  on Wednesday, June 12th, and remind yourself (or find out, if you haven't read it) what happened. After 32 years, we are still amazed at His gift!

 The ladies in the Bible study were aware that we were trying to find a place for Germán to work. I was told that there was an opening in HCJB's  hospital in Shell (on the edge of the eastern jungle) for the position of maintenance director. That sounded like it would fit my husband perfectly, as he supervises people well, and can fix just about anything!  (My humble opinion!)  Besides his salary, we would get our apartment rent-free, and not have to pay utilities. AND, Dan could go to the little missionary school (Nate Saint Memorial School) if we wished.

Again, I had a dream, in which I was walking up to some big mesh gates that enclosed the HCJB compound, hand-in-hand with a former classmate of mine; later I realized that he was a grandson of one of the mission's founders, and it seemed like he was escorting me into HCJB. Then I dreamt that we were gathered in a second-story room in the hospital building, in a prayer meeting, while in other parts of the floor, one could sense witchcraft trying to find an opening. I had never been inside the hospital, so I was surprised when we arrived there and were put in the guest apartment...on the second floor of the hospital building...in the same format as in my dream!  (And we found out over the years that evil WAS trying to find its way in.) By the way, the big gates in my dream weren't there when we went...BUT while we were there, mesh gates were installed that looked remarkably like the ones in my dream.

We waited to move until Dan had finished the school year, arriving in Shell with me six months pregnant, and Dan almost 6 years old. Shell was a very small town, and the missionary compound was at one end of it. It was from this town that the martyred missionary Nate Saint and his colleagues were operating before they were killed. In fact, the house Nate Saint built was still standing, with an MAF family living there. (Now it is a museum, I believe.) 

The Nate Saint house holds a poignant memory for me. One night after a meeting at the house next to it, I left to walk back to our apartment, and declined the offer of a flashlight. I was so sure I could easily find my way. I kept to the cement walkway and suddenly...I stepped into the air! A second or two later I landed flat on my back on the ground. Thank God that someone passed by about then and helped me up. I hadn't taken into consideration the fact that the walkway split, and one part of it led up onto the veranda of the Nate Saint house...from where I fell.  (Hmmm...that sounds like something you could build an object lesson around, doesn't it?!)

My main worry was for my baby! (She was fine.)  But the next day I went down to see the "scene of the accident" and was shocked.  The veranda wasn't very high, but right under it was a row of pointed stakes! There was one place that had instead a boulder. Then there was one small space, the only one, where there were no stakes or stones, only grass and earth.  And that was precisely where I had fallen! And on my back, not my stomach. I can't imagine what would have happened if I'd hit the stone or, much worse yet, fallen onto the stakes. Isn't God awesome?

I'll see you next time, to share more of God's hand in our lives!