One month to go!

Tommy with the winning team of dancers.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ministry has been a lot of fun this week with opportunities to teach English and two Marinao Student Organizations. We were also able to have a b. study with the family at the internet cafe we go to. They said a few weeks ago, "Kim, teach us about your God". And of course, we couldn't turn down such an opportunity. Although we missed each other a couple of times, it finally took place and there are a number of people interested. One girl said that she did not believe in any God while another guy said, "my motto is that I have to see to believe". It will be exciting to reveal to them exactly who God is and how He really has shown himself to us. We were also able to help another couple tutor 5 adorable children and do devotions with the students at the LRF. As the Philippine summer is beginning in April, most schools are ending classes this week. This will free up some time, but we're not sure what for yet! I'm positive that we will not be bored though! As far as Tommy, thankfully there have not been any recurrences of last week's incident. He's feeling fine and he was even able to judge a dance competition last night. It was funny because they had never even seen him dance, yet they put him as "chairman of the board of judges" for the competition. About half way through, the audience asked for a "sample" of Tommy's dancing so he went out on the cement tennis court and gave them a show! The crowd absolutely loved it! He did a great job, as did the three groups that were competing this week. It was so entertaining to watch, and there weren't any risque dances like another competition we went to while here, which we were thankful for. The upcoming week is going to be busy with planning a camp for the Marinao students, taking place this upcoming weekend. It's going to be three days of craziness and I know that we'll be pretty tired. We're praying for strength and patience as we try our best to assist despite the language barrier. We're planning a theme for the messages and hoping that THE Message will be clearly presented in a way that irresistible to these students (Please join in praying with us). Other than that, I have to say that we are pretty homesick. Although we absolutely LOVE the team that we're living with, it'll be nice to not live in a dorm-style atmosphere anymore. But we still have work to do here and are trying to stay focused on that. Sorry there aren't any pictures, I'll try to load some later, although there aren't many from this week.

Sometimes, Cultural Immersion is Painful

What a week! It seems like no matter how normal you think everything will be the next seven days, it always seems to turn out differently. That’s not always bad, just different. This past week, it’s been difficult going to some of our locations to minister for a number of reasons. One of those locations is simply not safe for Americans to go to right now, so we’re keeping our distance. Also, because Summer for the schools starts in April with graduations happening in March, a lot of the schools are doing final testing and prep work for the ceremonies. That being said, classes being spontaneously cancelled are not unusual. Simply put, Kim and I had a lot of time at the house where we can work on studying or preparing for a later ministry. That, however, is not the most exciting part of our past week. Around 9 PM last Thursday, I started to feel a bit of pain on the right side of my abdomen. At first I thought it was just gas from eating some of our oatmeal cookies or from drinking coffee, but an hour later, the pain intensified and it was really difficult for me to move without causing more pain. I started worrying a bit because one of my friends back home had Appendicitis not too long ago, so I had Kim go to the Internet Café and check out the symptoms for it. Sure enough, my symptoms were quite similar to what they described on the Net. Kim asked Noel where the closest hospital was, and thankfully, the owner of the house was gracious enough to drive me there, along with the rest of the team. They were really supportive and ready to help where they could. When we arrived at the Emergency Room about a half-hour later, the doctor soon began doing simple tests in order to try to figure out if my Appendix needed to be removed. Thankfully, they all turned out negative, but the pain was still getting worse. I described to him how the pain came in waves, and he stated that it, most likely, was my intestines spazzing out. They threw an IV on me and gave me some pain reliever as well as anti-spasm medicine. Oh yeah, the whole vomiting thing was gross too. That was only the second time in my life that I’ve vomited, the first being when I was about five years old. Anyway, with that out of the way, they said that I should be admitted just to make sure that the pain doesn’t develop. It was really great to see a lot of people from our team there to help me. Both Filipino and American teammates came to make sure I was doing okay. It was really neat for me to see that even though we’ve only been here for two months, our friendships were deeper that I thought they’d be. After I was wheeled into my room, most of everyone left except Kimmy. I was really hoping that she would stay with me, and she said “Ah babe, don’t worry. I’ll be right here!” She’s the best. We both slept decently, at least as well as you can in a hospital. The next morning, almost all of my pain was gone as well as the nauseous feeling I had. A number of Filipino nurses came in to check on my condition, though Kim and I could definitely tell that they just wanted to see what an American looked like! One girl even opened the door, poked her head inside, gasped, and quickly shut the door. Kim and I were laughing pretty hard! The doctor soon came in and told me just to be careful of what I eat and make sure that I don’t drink the tap water. Though I have been careful about both of those, I’ll just have to be extra cautious about the way my stomach feels. All in all, the whole hospital visit was about 5,000 pesos. That includes the room, the professional fee, the ultrasound, the lab tests, the pharmacy tests, as well as the take-home medicine. In American dollars, that’s about $120. Yeah, I love the hospital costs here!! I’m feeling fine here as I type this to everyone who is reading, but keep me in your prayers that this doesn’t come back. I won’t be going to help the team today or tomorrow as I want to make sure that everything down there is quieted and settled down. Something tells me that riding on the motorcycle up a rocky mountain path is not the best idea after an intestinal problem. I’m really thankful that everything worked out. God has us in His hands.

more videos...

I added a few more videos on the right side. There's one of the dolphins at Dolphin Island, another of the LRF students singing with some of the children on Sunday mornings. And the first one on the list is of our teammate killing a chicken for Tommy's birthday!

A birthday to remember!

Hey everybody! This week I, Tommy, will be updating the blog! A lot’s happened since our last post, sorry it’s taken so long. But the good news is that I have a warm cup of Talabunga tea and Oreos sitting next to me that I’ll be enjoying throughout writing this post! In the past two weeks we have done two Mobile Clinic runs and celebrated my 22nd birthday! There’s been more than that that has happened, but I’m going to focus on those because they’re the most exciting. The first Mobile Clinic run was really busy. We traveled to a town further inland than usual, and there were plenty of people there for us to help. A few weeks ago when we did our very first Mobile Clinic, Kim assisted in circumcisions while I helped with dentistry work, but this time, I assisted with the circumcisions while Kim helped our supervisor with taking blood pressures and other vitals. While I was getting all geared up for the circumcisions, I really didn’t know what to think. I mean, here are kids from ages four to eighteen all excited waiting for their circumcision, while I’m on the inside of the clinic thinking to myself, “Thank God my parents decided to have me circumcised early!” Their excitement soon changed to agony as they realized exactly what needed to happen. Needless to say, during the first patient I got a little nauseous (it didn’t help that the kid on the other side of the table also getting circumcised was screaming in pain), but after that, I was completely fine with the next ten we worked on. Meanwhile, Kim was trying to deal with the crowd of people. Every person kept trying to push in front of each other while in line. Somehow, the circle around her kept getting closer and closer. By the end of the day, she couldn’t turn left or right without hitting someone. After we finished, it was hard for Kim to turn people away, but we had to get going before it got dark. To quickly wrap up on Mobile Clinic stuff, the next week we only had one circumcision but a lot of dentistry work. Nothing too special happened that day, but it always seems like a lot of work and energy to do a Mobile Clinic. However, the awesome thing is that people really get to see that we care about them. Last week, we were invited to a birthday party for our landlord’s son. The tradition here in the Philippines is that the person celebrating puts on a party for their friends. The food there was definitely interesting and included spaghetti, macaroni salad, chicken soup, and rice. The big surprise was the “litchon” or the whole roasted pig that was sitting on a platter. Josephine, our landlord, kept handing us things to eat. She had us break off pieces of the pig skin and dip it in ketchup. She also cut up the pork meat for us. Honestly, it was really good! The meat was so tender and delicious, although the fat was still dripping off. The roasted pig skin was a little weird but not too bad. After that birthday experience, when it came to celebrating my birthday, Kim decided to invite people over and we had spaghetti, “pansit” which is like flavored noodles with vegetables, chicken soup from a chicken that we (Noel) killed that morning, and chicken adobo. For dessert, Kim made a delicious chocolate cake, and the team helped prepare what they call a “Mango Float.” Though the party was a lot of fun, Kim mentioned something about us going somewhere on Monday, our day off. She wouldn’t tell me anything more, but come Monday morning, Kim, Noel, and I took off on two motorcycles to an unknown destination. We soon pulled into a barge port and boarded the boat with our motorcycles. We crossed the bay to the other side, about a twenty-five minute trip, and continued on our way following a random guy that Noel had met on the boat. Supposedly he was going in the same direction we needed to go. Once we were on the right road, we continued on and found the signs for a place called “Dolphin Island.” I still really didn’t know what to expect, but we soon got on another boat and rode another fifteen minutes to a small, sandy, man-made property. When we got off the boat, we saw four dolphins swimming in a very big but enclosed area. We were going to go swimming with the dolphins! We all got our swim suits on and, with our snorkel equipment, swam for about a half hour with a guide helping us learn how to feed the dolphins. It was so cool seeing them come right up next to you and snatch the fish out of your hand! We even got to feed them while underwater, and heard their “sonar” noises. After that, we made our way out to the open ocean and the tour guide began to show us around the coral reef area. The water was a little murky, but we could still see the bottom of the ocean. We saw big red snapper fish, little “Nemo” clown fish sticking their heads out of their homes, and we even saw a man-eating clam the size of the ones in Mario! That thing was over three feet in diameter and the guide even went down to it and touched the shell, but the clam closed up tight pretty quickly. I’ve never seen one that big! Lastly, we got to feed some of the tropical fish as they came up and nibbled at the dead fish we held in our hands. We finished up the day by eating grilled shrimp and a special treat: rice! We headed back to the barge, across the bay, and back home pretty tired and just as burnt. Amazing day though!

Celebrating Tommy's Birthday with our Filipino friends!

The barge we crossed the beautiful bay on

Feeding the dolphins

All geared up after snorkeling

1 Month Down... 2 to Go!

This week ended our first month in the Philippines. We’ve officially been here four weeks and things are still a constant adjustment. On Saturday we were able to talk to our parents and we confidently told them that we hadn’t gotten sick the whole time we’ve been here! But then Saturday night that all changed. This caused us to stay home from ministry on Sunday and take a sick day! And I have to say that it was the “perfect” sick day. We slept in, made some herbal tea with honey, had homemade chicken noodle soup, watched a movie, and it was raining all day long. Besides the fact that we were both sick, it was such a relaxing day! Of course, it was Valentine’s Day on Monday but we were still sick so it was pretty low key. The Filipino culture is heavy on the romantic end of relationships, so our teammates here in the house were all excited. One of them, however, recently broke up with his girlfriend, so he definitely wasn’t as happy. Nevertheless, Kim, the heartbroken teammate, and I all went down to the pier to swim just after lunch. Because it’s so hot here, swimming is the best way to cool off! After swimming and taking showers, the three of us decided to go into town to eat at our new favorite restaurant: Inasal’s. It really is a fast-food place, but not only is their rotisserie chicken one of the best I’ve ever had, but they have unlimited rice! My record is having a breast and wing along with four servings of rice, and I’m looking to top that one day. With our meal, again because of the Filipino culture, they lit candles on the table and gave Noel (our dreary companion) a balloon that said “I love you!” …Kim then thought it would be funny to write “Who will be my Valentine?” on the back of it! I told Noel to give it to a random girl on the way back to the motorcycle, but because he is more of a Shy Guy, he “never got around to it.” We then went home and spent the rest of the night playing Yahtzee and Uno. When the girls all went to bed, Noel and I stayed up for another two hours or so hunting the gigantic cockroaches they have here! Don’t worry, I won’t spoil all of the details because I got most of it on tape! We’ll post the video once it’s edited! We also went to the market again this week, and finally took some pictures for all to see. It’s certainly an experience to walk by booths of meat just hanging there, lots of fish out on the counters and live chickens waiting to be taken home for dinner. My favorite was the “two pack deal” with two live chickens stuffed in a bag together and their heads hanging out, looking around. We walked along getting dripped on as the rain came down through the tarps that were hung at random to protect different stands. It’s always a stressful time to walk through and find what we’re looking for, but it can be really fun to see all the different things. These vendors were selling oranges, apples, and DELICIOUS mangoes:

Would you like a hunk of beef?

Or perhaps you would prefer a whole tuna?

Okay, here's the winner... We were really tempted to buy the Pig head!

The live chickens looked pretty scared... I can't imagine why.

Lastly, here is our schedule for the week. Things always change, for example this Thursday we'll be doing the Mobile Clinic instead of tutoring, but this is what we aim for:

Another week of our lives!

Sorry there have not been more updates this week, but we’ve been incredibly busy! To begin with, Tommy did a great job teaching on Sunday about Revelation 6. He spent about 4 hours preparing his lesson due to the difficult material and then prayed that God would do the rest. Although I was not there, I heard that he did a great job! After teaching in the mountains, he visited one of our teammate’s village. There, they found out that a funeral was taking place for a friend who had passed away the night before and they asked Tommy to speak! He had to say no, since he really did not even know the person, but our teammate took on the responsibility. A quick visit to the village turned into a 6 hour trip of trying to minister to the family and encourage them. Most of this week, however, has been spent with Mike McCoy, a former player for the Green Bay Packers who is visiting here. He played back in the 70’s (for any of you that may have watched football wayyyyy back then!) We have been visiting different schools in the area with Mike and have shared with over 2,000 students. Talking to the students has been an experience in itself! Standing out in the heat and humidity, sweating, everyone trying to take pictures and get autographs… and then the funny thing is that they want OUR autographs and OUR pictures! (check out the link on the right side of his page). Tommy and I find it so strange that they want pictures of US or our autographs on Mike’s football trading card. Nonetheless, these students are hearing the word and it’s worth the oppressive heat and millions of pictures to share that with them. I realized that this is actually the first time that I’ve been able to literally share the word on a trip! I’ve always listened to a pastor or leader speak, but was never asked to share. This trip is so different in that aspect, we could share every day if we had the energy to do so! People have really been expecting a lot from us while we’re here. They expect us to be able to teach on short notice (or no notice), to whip out a 30 minute message or a 1 hour English class with no preparation at all! These expectations, although sometimes frustrating, have also stretched both of us in new ways. We’ve already had so many opportunities to speak and teach! Another frustration, more so a test of our patience and faith, has been driving the motorcycle. Tuesday we had to drive up into the mountains on unpaved roads with Tommy driving the motorcycle for only the second time… and he did amazing! I held on for dear life while he skillfully made it up the difficult roads AND he made it all the way without crashing! Praise God!

Mike McCoy talking to high school students

Taking pictures with the students afterwards.

Yes Indeed! There is Dunkin' Donuts here!!

Longest Day of My Life

Hey everyone! Today I (Tommy) will be writing the blog! The past few days have been really busy, more so than any of the other days we’ve been here so far. Kim and I drove to a local training center in order to hang out with the kids there and help clean the facility. We stayed there overnight and got to experience our first warm shower since getting in the Philippines! However, that great feeling of comfort soon left as we had to wake up at 6am the next morning in order to get back to our house in time for outreach. One of the ladies at the training center kindly drove us back down the mountain, and showed us around the Iligan market, a place where you can buy local fruits, vegetables, fish, and clothes. As a guy, I’m always trying to keep an eye out for anyone suspicious to protect Kim and I the best I can, but after a while, it was hard because there were so many people there. And not only that, but everyone either just stares at Kim and I, or they yell out things like “Hello Friend!!” I think they just wanted us to spend our money at their kiosk. After buying onions, baking soda, mangoes, and papaya, we took public transportation back to our house. I was already tired! Nevertheless, as soon as we got back to the house, we met up with the team and took off in order to go to our afternoon outreach. When we arrived at the school that we were going to teach at that day, we found out that all of the classes were cancelled for a week-long regional sports competition. The 13 provinces of northern Mindanao all participate in sports ranging from track and field, to soccer, to basketball. Like the Olympics, they have this big opening ceremony that happened to be taking place in only a few hours! With a now open afternoon, all four of us traveled to the stadium which was about 45 minutes away. The stadium is huge in terms of Filipino architecture, so it was cool to see how they designed it all. We were told that we would be able to get back home around 3pm, but when we found out that the actual ceremony started at 2pm…and especially when we were still sitting in the stands at 3pm with the ceremony not even starting yet, we soon realized that we did not have time to stick around. Oh yeah! And whoever was DJ’ing up in the announcer’s box was the worst I have ever heard. No joke, they played the same song seven times in a row, seven times! That’s almost 30 minutes of the same song! Anyway, we exited the stadium and got on a bus near the highway, we were about to head home! …until all 13 of the marching bands slowly made their way across the road right in front of our bus. We were not going to be going anywhere for a long time. That night, I was going to be preaching at a local church’s prayer meeting, and it was right about when I saw the bands that I gave up on having a nap. After another hour of waiting, the bus driver soon began getting frustrated with waiting for all of the bands to cross. So, he backed up, tore up some of the grass, and soon cut right in between two of the bands! Now, we were finally heading home. I did not get my nap, but I did teach that night and I hope that everyone there was encouraged and challenged. The church wanted me to teach on prayer, so I focused on 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. It’s interesting, but I feel that sometimes I learn more my teachings than the audience does. We’ll see if it happens again, because I’m just about to start studying for my sermon on Sunday: Revelation 6.

One of the many bands that crossed the road.

Tommy teaching at the prayer meeting

Philippine's landscape. Picture taken last Friday on a trip up to the mountains.

Week 1

We’ve officially been in the country more than a week. The missionaries often call the first couple weeks of being in a new culture the “honeymoon stage”, meaning that everything is wonderful and new and vibrant! So here we are in the honeymoon stage, experiencing everything for the first time. We are meeting so many new people, starting to form our schedule, and beginning to teach classes. Tommy will be teaching at a prayer meeting on holiness and I will be teaching at a high school on Mark 1, both on Wednesday. We’ve also officially moved into the house we will be at for our entire stay. It has a toilet!! …But it does not flush ha! You have to pour water into it after business is done. And the shower situation is cold water in a bucket and a ladle-like bowl to pour with. This is not bad though since we can just boil water on the stove and pour it into the big bucket we ladle the water out of. We live here with 4 other people. Three of them are our team members. Everyone is great though and we’re able to play games like UNO at night and make dinners together… kind of like living in the dorms again! Speaking of food, so far we have had to throw away a bag of sugar, flour, rice, bread, powdered milk (there’s no fresh milk here) and cereal… all because there are ants that get into it! I would say this is the most annoying thing so far, no food is safe! Also, last night, Tommy and I walked out of the room to find 3 very large cockroaches in the kitchen and a mouse that was just climbing out of the window. (I would feel bad for anything, or anyone, that might stow away in the wine cabinets here!) Such are the joys of tropical living. However, I am relieved that we are no longer near the loud roosters and pigs, and Kelsey I never thought of a name for them, sorry! Another thing, to Tommy’s great joy, we are only a minute’s walk from a bakery and a 2 minute walk from the ocean! There’s not a nice beach here but there is a beautiful pier we can walk out on and dive off of. We have not gone swimming yet, but as soon as the weather gets warmer then we will. The weather here has been cloudy and comfortable most of the time. The Filipino’s find it “freezing cold” as one LRF student put it yesterday. On Friday the workers had a time of prayer and fasting and there was one woman who came bundled up in her winter jacket and another with her winter hat. Then again, if I was used to 100 degree temperatures and humid all the time, I would probably be cold too. As for the story referenced in the newsletter, there is a Mobile Clinic that goes around to different areas and performs minor surgeries, checkups, and dental cleanings. Tommy and I were asked who wanted to help with surgeries and I volunteered, figuring that with my nurse’s aide background it might be better than if Tommy were in there. Our first patient was actually the brother of a general in the MILF (Muslim Islamic Liberation Front) so we definitely had to do this one well! He had a small cyst on his forehead about the size of a marble. We started by numbing the area and I had the role of handing instruments to the person doing the procedure. All started out well but it was so hot in the large van that I got really dehydrated. I left to get water and they finished up the procedure. I was feeling better and went to help my team members do circumcisions on two boys. As soon as they put the needles in to numb the area, I started to feel woozy again! I realized I was not dehydrated at all but that I could NOT handle these surgeries and I was about to pass out! I certainly was humbled after feeling so confident that it wouldn’t be a problem haha! Next time, Tommy will be helping with the surgeries!

Some of many boats next to the ocean:

The Pier next to where we are living:

Houses on the ocean:

We're Here!

Asalamo Alaikom! (Peace be unto you)

            That’s the first phrase that we’ve learned in Marinao, the language of the Marinao people whom are the Muslims on this island. We arrived here Thursday night and I think today is the first day I actually am waking up feeling refreshed. The 25 hours of flying over a three day period really wiped us out, along with being on a completely opposite schedule. So here is a recap of the last few days:

Tuesday (1/18)- left Dallas at 10am, arrived in LA and visited Santa Monica beach for a few hours before returning to the airport for our midnight flight.

Wednesday- we lost this day when we went over the International Date Line, but it was practically spent flying

Thursday- arrived in Seoul, South Korea, continued on to Manila, and then on to Cagayan De Oro, Philippines where we met up with our host missionary, Tom. He drove us back to his house, another 2 hour drive from the airport. After a quick call to our parents, we went to bed immediately!

Friday- we went on our first ministry outing, visiting a village with Muslims and beginning our language training. We also were able to meet the team that we’ll be spending most of our time with and see the house we’ll be moving to today. Friday night was a party which we almost slept through but it was great to meet different team members here in the Philippines.

Saturday- A day off to go shopping for some food and out to eat, along with catching up with the homework I had to do and for Tommy to relax a bit and we were able to TALK!! We had been so tired or with people up until then, I think this was the first day that we were able to talk together of what we had been experiencing. A much needed conversation.

Sunday- Another ministry outing with the LRF students. The LRF is the Life Resources Foundation, a Bible school along with a training center on how to reach Muslims. This time we went to two villages. The first I was able to share my testimony to an older Muslim woman, then we played with the children on the beach. At the second village, Tommy was able to share his testimony with a household there. Afterwards we visited with different people.

Monday- Today we are moving to our permanent location, the “white house” as they call it. More pictures forthcoming.

As far as other details, the weather is hot and humid! It’s cool enough at night to sleep comfortably with a fan blowing on us and a light sheet, but it’s the cooler rainy season right now and it will only be getting warmer from here on out. The main concern with sleeping is the loud rooster who finds it his job to cockledoodledoo at 3am and the pig that responds with an even louder squeeling! It only lasts about 10 minutes though so we’re able to fall back asleep.

The people are so welcoming and friendly here, always giving snacks to the “Americans”. One man said that we looked like movie stars haha! Another child was practicing her English while pointing to the features and saying, “blue eyes, white skin, sharp nose” and then the last one caught me off guard, “orange hair”! We were laughing. At another house we were sitting there and the family was very interested in the fact that we were married. They asked how much Tommy paid for my dowry and laughed when they heard that in the US the girl’s parents pay for the wedding. Everyone asks us when we’ll be having our first baby too. That’s very important to this culture. The man who was asking Tommy these questions had four wives, 19 children and over 80 grandchildren!!

So far the food has been normal, lots of rice and some type of meet, either chicken or beef in a sauce. We even ate BBQ ribs with vegetables and rice for the equivalent of only 4 dollars! Try that in the states! So far the food has been delicious! Sorry there aren’t many pictures. With moving today, we are all packed up so my camera is in the suitcase. We’ll post more later.

Lastly, we are hoping to get some sort of schedule where we’ll be able to come into town and use the internet once a week. We’ll have more stories to share then!

Onward and Upward... sometimes slowly

Okay, so there have been a few things that has made this trip difficult. The organization that we are going with, Christar, has been in a transition period. They have taken on the daunting task of moving all their staff, offices, computer systems and everything else from Pennsylvania to Texas. I found it hard to move from New Hampshire to Virginia to start school with just an apartment full’s worth of stuff, yet imagine moving a whole building plus all of the staff moving their families as well. None the less, it had slowed down our process of acceptance as there was some miscommunication, nothing that hasn’t been worked through. Yet that was a time of faith as we worked with our short term coordinator to get all the paperwork in.

            Over the past few days, another difficulty has come up… vaccines. Eh! Thankfully I have had many of the required shots, and Tommy was able to get the others at a clinic here at school, yet there is still one, Japanese Encephalitis, which has been elusive. The shot comes in two doses 28 days apart. Our difficulty has been that we are not in the same state, either Virginia or Texas for 28 days!! It has taken phone call after phone call to try to straighten this out, not to mention that it is a $600 shot for each person. Over and over God calls us to faith and to trust in him, even with annoying things such as shots… and we are doing just that! It appeared that some doors were closing, yet with some determination and encouraging words from friends, we are back on track to still leave at the time we have been expecting. Thank you Jesus!

An Inspiring Dream

Below I have a poem, better described as a story, written by Amy Carmichael. I had first heard of Amy Carmichael while I was 7 or 8 at a summer camp called Goodnews. It was at this same camp that I committed myself before the Lord to full-time missions work in one way or another because of Amy Carmichael's incredible story of determination for Christ. Amy was a missionary in India from 1896 to 1951 (55 years) and worked to save children from forced prostitution in the temples there. This narration, written as though it was a dream she had, is absolutely inspiring to me and such a challenge to truly pursue what is worth while in this world. It is graphic in its description of people's lostness yet describes perfectly what we so often do not pay attention to or wish not to think about. I hope this short story challenges you as it did me.


Amy Carmichael's Dream:
The tom-toms thumped straight on all night and the darkness shuddered round me like a living, feeling thing. I could not go to sleep, so I lay awake and looked; and I saw, as it seemed, this:
That I stood on a grassy sward, and at my feet a precipice broke sheer down into infinite space. I looked, but saw no bottom; only cloud shapes, black and furiously coiled, and great shadow-shrouded hollows, and unfathomable depths. Back I drew, dizzy at the depth.
Then I saw forms of people moving single file along the grass. They were making for the edge. There was a woman with a baby in her arms and another little child holding on to her dress. She was on the very verge. Then I saw that she was blind. She lifted her foot for the next step . . . it trod air. She was over, and the children over with her. Oh, the cry as they went over!
Then I saw more streams of people flowing from all quarters. All were blind, stone blind; all made straight for the precipice edge. There were shrieks, as they suddenly knew themselves falling, and a tossing up of helpless arms, catching, clutching at empty air. But some went over quietly, and fell without a sound.
Then I wondered, with a wonder that was simply agony, why no one stopped them at the edge. I could not. I was glued to the ground, and I could only call; though I strained and tried, only whisper would come.
Then I saw that along the edge there were sentries set at intervals. But the intervals were too great; there were wide, unguarded gaps between. And over these gaps the people fell in their blindness, quite unwarned; and the green grass seemed blood-red to me, and the gulf yawned like the mouth of hell.
Then I saw, like a little picture of peace, a group of people under some trees with their backs turned toward the gulf. They were making daisy chains. Sometimes when a piercing shriek cut the quiet air and reached them, it disturbed them and they thought it a rather vulgar noise. And if one of their number started up and wanted to go and do something to help, then all the others would pull that one down. "Why should you get so excited about it? You must wait for a definite call to go! You haven't finished your daisy chain yet. It would be really selfish," they said, "to leave us to finish the work alone."
There was another group. It was made up of people whose great desire was to get more sentries out; but they found that very few wanted to go, and sometimes there were no sentries set for miles and miles of the edge.
Once a girl stood alone in her place, waving the people back; but her mother and other relations called and reminded her that her furlough was due; she must not break the rules. And being tired and needing a change, she had to go and rest for awhile; but no one was sent to guard her gap, and over and over the people fell, like a waterfall of souls.
Once a child caught at a tuft of grass that grew at the very brink of the gulf; it clung convulsively, and it called-but nobody seemed to hear. Then the roots of the grass gave way, and with a cry the child went over, its two little hands still holding tight to the torn-off bunch of grass. And the girl who longed to be back in her gap thought she heard the little one cry, and she sprang up and wanted to go; at which they reproved her, reminding her that no one is necessary anywhere; the gap would be well taken care of, they knew. And then they sang a hymn.
Then through the hymn came another sound like the pain of a million broken hearts wrung out in one full drop, one sob. And a horror of great darkness was upon me, for I knew what it was-the Cry of the Blood.
Then thundered a voice, the voice of the Lord. "And He said, 'What hast thou done, The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.'"
The tom-toms still beat heavily, the darkness still shuddered and shivered about me; I heard the yells of the devil-dancers and weird, wild shriek of the devil-possessed just outside the gate.
What does it matter, after all? It has gone on for years; it will go on for years. Why make such a fuss about it?
God forgive us! God arouse us! Shame us out of our callousness! Shame us out of our sin!

The First

Hey everyone! This is more of a test to make sure that everything is working right. The support letters are done and the Lord is encouraging us daily with verses and words from friends. It's hard to explain how we're feeling right now since there is so much between us and actually being out on the field. From raising the money, to finishing school, to Tommy graduating, a friend's wedding to go to, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years! It all seems so far away, yet then I think about the fact that Tommy and I have been married for nearly 5 months now and I understand that the time will fly by. I can't wait to write more about this new adventure that God has us on... 'til then!
~Kim