Prayer Requests:

Prayer is a way to remember who God is and how that affects my life. I love that Oswald Chambers quote "We must pray with our eyes on God, not the difficulties." Guys I would SO appreciate some prayer right now!

Short Version:

1-Eyes on Christ, not fear

2-Direction for the future

3-Dependence on God for joy during neck problems

4-Humility, Teachable-ness (?), Discipline

Longer Version with Explanation:

1- We're taking a class right now called Ministry Partnership. It's about finding people who want to be part of what God's doing through you in prayer/finances encouragement/ accountability. This class is very difficult for me. I've got a great base of prayer support and encouragement (thanks largely to you guys!)- but the thought of having to raise financial support- well, let's just say- at best - it makes me sick to my stomach.

But its not my work, its God's, and its not my mission, its the whole Body of Christ's- I'm just volunteering to be the feet on foreign soil. And God is SO big- He can totally take care of it. But please pray that I would keep my eyes on Christ and what He has for me today. And that, when the time is right, the people who God has called to be part of His work via me would be excited and blessed through their part of the ministry.

2- Direction: A number of classes here assume we already know what country God wants us in, and what job description we're likely to have there. Well.... I don't know yet. I know He's called me to Himself, and given me a passion for His People to know Him better, and love Him with more and more of their lives. I want to take His light and encouragement and the Word to believers where there aren't bazoodles of resources like we have in the USA. But that only narrows it down to most of the globe. So please be praying for direction for the future-and for patience while I wait.

3. Neck's been acting up again. I've tried getting more sleep, taking vitamins, doing different exercises- and they all help a bit, but its still painful to the point of being distracting during class/work/church at least a couple of days a week. If you could pray for... Pray that God would use this somehow, and that I would depend on God, not how I'm feeling, as my source of joy during the days.

4.Humble, Teachable, Disciplined- Guys, I cannot tell you how much I need prayer in these areas right now! I am in desperate need of all three of these, not just for life and ministry here, but because these areas of weakness are affecting my relationship with God. I know the uber-spiritual sounding requests are the ones people tend to skip (yeah I do it too) but seriously guys- please, please pray for me about these three areas specifically, and that I would always love God more!

Thank you all SO much! I can't tell you how much I appreciate it! Miss you guys- and I'm praying for you as well!

I'm Thankful for.....

There's a facebook tradition in November that everyday you post in your status something you're thankful for, all the way up to Thanksgiving Day. Well according to my stats, most of you get here via facebook, so you've probably read about a bunch of the ways God has blessed me this month: but I wanted to share about the two biggest physical blessings God has given me here at MTC:

Susie Marianne

These two amazing gals are a blessing to me every single day here at MTC.

The one on the left, Marianne, is my roommate. It's so great to have someone to talk to, and laugh with. She knows all the right things to do to keep our apartment looking SO nice and inviting :) She's a great accountability partner, and a great person to discuss class with and bounce ideas and wonderings off of. So thankful for my roommate!

The one on the right is Susie, who is sort of my roommate. She technically lives in the apartment next door. But our apartments are separated by what we estimate to be about an inch and a half of plywood... and we're always in each others houses so its basically like living in the same house. She is such a sunny, encouraging part of everyday! God has used her SO many times to encourage me when I needed it so badly. She is so kind. She even lets me come and listen when she practices her harp, we go on walks together, she's a great canoe buddy, we giggle entirely too much when we sit together in classes- its lots of fun. I am very thankful for Susie :)

I have met so many awesome people here in Missouri, and I hope to stay in touch with many of them over the coming years and see where God takes them and what He does. And maybe I'll post more about some of them later. But these two have been an extra special blessing to me- and I thought I'd give you all a picture to go with the names you keep reading in my status updates. I am SO thankful for these special friends God has blessed my socks off with!

okay- your turn! What are you thankful for right now?

Latest Prayer Letter:

Hey All!

Well- they warned us in one of our classes about the delicate balance between updating so often between everybody gets sick of you, and losing touch with everybody and well... I was trying not to update too frequently. I think I succeeded .

Classes are going hard and strong. We just finished Foundational Bible Teaching today. We're also studying Ministry Partnership, and Phonetics. Phonetics is fun. It's all about hearing and making and distinguishing all the different sounds our miraculously created tongues can make. If we can tell sounds apart that aren't used in English, and then reproduce them, this will give us a huge leg up in learning both the trade language and the tribal language.

Some special blessings God has put in my life over the last few weeks include:

-my roommate and building mates. We actually call our building The Longhouse- because it reminds me of Mom's stories about Indonesia when she was little. The six of us are always in and out of each others houses and doing stuff together- it has been such a blessing to be with these other five gals!

-God's popped up some opportunities to get involved at Potter's House (the church I'm part of here). He's given me some great talks with people before and after church, and also a chance to serve on Tuesday nights watching kids while they're parents attend an addiction recovery program the church does. There is a LOT of drug addiction, alcoholism, and even messier things in the area. It is SO fun to be around kids again. Going cold turkey from 40 hours a week to no time at all around little ones has been super weird.

Thank you SO much for your prayers! I really appreciate it!

Praise:

-good friends!

-good church

-opportunity to serve

-homesick phase is ending- hurray!

Pray:

-Discipline (this is God's theme for the semester I think- something I definitely need to learn)

-A hungry, humble learners heart to become all that God has for me to become during this training time.

-On Thursdays I help at an afterschool hangout for youth in a highrisk area (apparently its one of the meth and teen pregnancy capitols of the country). Please pray that I would have God's heart for these teens, His ears, eyes, and words to say them as we interact each week!

So that's a bit of what God's up to on my end! I'd love to hear what He's up to on your end of things! Thank you so much for your interest in what God's doing down here :)

In Jesus,

Anna

Job-istry

Super cool blessing this week: I got a part time job/second ministry! Potter's House (church I'm going to) has a ministry on Tuesday nights called "Celebrate recovery" and they need help watching the kids because so many people are coming!

Guys this is such a neat opportunity to bring a tiny flash of Jesus into these little ones lives every week. There's kids from 1-13, and man do they have energy. But I've really been missing working with kids, so its a huge blessing to get to do that again. And its with the church, so I can get to know more people at Potter's House, get to know more people in the community and even get paid a little for it.

So that was my awesome cool blessing for the week- a job-istry! Although really, all jobs are an opportunity to minister. But job-istry is more fun to say :)

Starting at the Begining...

So as classes here are zooming along! There are so many different kinds of classes going on- each class is a module that lasts from a few days to a month or two. My current favorite is called Foundational Bible Teaching. its based on a course called "Building on Firm Foundations" BOFF for short... I know I know. When I was little they called it Chronological Bible Teaching- Chron for short. BOFF or Chron... hmmm.

The basic idea is that man has a wrong concept of God, and since God is the foundation of everything :). So the teaching starts at the beginning- in Genesis, and then teach through God's Story in order. We're learning about finding and teaching themes that God brings out throughout Scripture: such as that He is our Creator/Owner. His is Holy and Righteous and demands death as payment for sin, He is loving merciful and gracious. Man is a helpless sinner and has to come to God God's way. Teachers do the first couple lessons and then the students take turns teaching the rest so that we get a chance to practice.

One of the lessons that really popped out to me this time was Cain and Abel. It's not just a story about two brothers, where one lucked out to pick what God wanted him to do. It's a clear example of man trying to come to God his own way. But there's only one way to God- and that's the way God said- He said death was required as payment for sin. Cain brought his best works to God -but that's not what His Creator/Owner required. When God gently pointed this out to him, did Cain admit that he was wrong? no- he went and murdered his brother instead.

I was so struck by that deep level of hatred towards God. God loving reached out to Cain after he tried to come his own way, and instead of being grateful and turning back towards God- Cain sprinted the other direction! wow. But even though Cain did that, humanity did that, I did that- God is still all those things I listed a minute ago. That's what I really like about hearing the whole story in order- it brings a lot of those out for me :).

Birthday Blessings-

Yes its true... I'm now 25- wow that sounds old. But despite that somewhat unsettling landmark...God just packed this birthday with super special blessings. In fact the celebration lasted most of the week! -so I thought I would share some of the blessings:

Sunday:

I came back from doing laundry while talking on the phone and SURPRISE it was a party (there was lots of screaming and then I had to hang up the phone- sorry Mom!)

My longhouse-mates were all there- Susie and Marianne even made me a cookie

cake - and Susie made me cookie dough because she asked what I normally do for my birthday and I said go visit Steph and eat cookie dough.

Monday: Salaverrias

(teachers from high school) came to town! It was so fun to catch up! We went out for Mexican food. I had to wear a stupid hat while the waiters sang to me... but the

n I got a bunuelo with chocolate on it- so it was worth it :)

Tuesday: the day itself... Got a box from home with all kinds of wonderful goodies in it! My favorite of which was :

Yum!

And Jim and Connie (small group leaders) brought me flowers! So sweet!

And I got so many birthday greetings on facebook and text- and even some

cards! That was just so, so encouraging. Sometimes it feels kind of lonely and disconnected here- and those were such a special encouragement :)

Wednesday my small group had a cake and everything- its kind of overwhelming- I haven't had anything like this amount of fuss over a birthday in a long time! It was very, very sweet of all of

you and I really appreciate it.

Finally- another awesome God blessing: I have been praying

for a while about potentially learning guitar. Since I love

music and sing constantly, it seems like music might be something God might want me to use overseas too, and if that's the case- it would be best to know an instrument of some kind. Problem: don't have a guitar. Hard to learn to play one without one. So I started praying about it. And on Tuesday, somebody posted that they wanted to get rid of a guitar before heading overseas and.... long story short, by Saturday I had the guitar! God even sent enough birthday money to completely cover the guitar and a "learn to play guitar" book! Hurray! So this was a special reminder of how much God loves me- and I just thought I'd pass that on to the rest of you- because He loves you too- always and forever.

Well, a much over due post at last (there ya go Becky). Classes are humming right along- its amazing how easy it is to be busy. Sometimes I think I'm busier than I was in Philly. And sometimes I think I have way more free time. Probably its about the same, the hours are just no consistent anymore. Important Life Lesson: God's Work Hours are not only 9-5.