What I've been up to....

Work!! Lots of work! Classes, lots to do with Missionary Kids (MKs) right now- classes like Biblical Parenting,  MK care and education, and, at the moment, Child Protection. Right now we're also taking Field Health which is about how to assess and treat basic stuff when you're a zillion miles away from the nearest doctor. Super practical stuff. 

One of the big classes we're taking this semester is called "Missionary Technology". It's about how to set up water filters that will help you not die from disease in a remote location... and about how to get water into your house so you can wash your hands and shower and stuff. And how to set up a solar panel system so that you can use a laptop to help you translate the Bible and have lights in your house and stuff like that. 

For your amazement or amusement- here is some of the stuff I made in missionary technology class. I'm sad to say, I did not inherit my dad's awesome "fix everything" skills. nope. Not a mechanical genius. However, my teachers are amazing, and amazingly patient. Some of the stuff we're learning to use and build they've actually invented specifically for missionaries in the tribe. They build all this cool gadgets- in order to build God's Kingdom. Tim See (lead teacher) reminds us often to use this stuff to free up your time so you can learn the language and culture and share the gospel. 

In what we chose to bring, or not bring, or have or not have... it is still all about Jesus, and being God's mirror to reflect Jesus to a lost and horrible and hopeless world. Because Jesus is ... wow. yeah. Jesus is ....amazing. 

Ode to a Rice Cooker

Things are wrapping up for the semester. Classes. Projects. Outreach. Presents. I can't believe how much has happened and how much I have learned. Has it really only been four months? Wow is that even possible?
Here are a couple of things I've learned in the classroom:
1. Practiced teaching through the story of the Bible from Genesis to Jesus Christ.
2. Learned to evaluate the premise the lens through which someone is looking at life, and recognize that they all come down to God or Self. But if its not coming out in your life, than you don't believe it.
3.  How to say a k and a p together at the same time.
4. The importance of working on a team, and being able to be a good follower.


Here are some of the truly major things I've been learning in God's classroom of life here:
1. I am called to Jesus Himself. Nothing more or less.
2. Jesus is going to have to do this work. The longer I'm here, the more convinced I am that I don't know anything about anything, and have nothing to bring to the table but simple obedience.
3. Hard things are still the best way for God to get some lesson through my thick head... I'm so glad He cares enough to do it that way.
4. God's goodness is everywhere- in everything from air to grass to silly, frivolous things like  giving us a little Christmas tree. And in much much bigger things, like great new friends and hillarious memories. Like this picture- Michelle (green coat) cooked breakfast for the whole longhouse over an open fire... when it was, what 25 degrees out? Good times! And cold times. But very good times :).

God's goodness is even in things like... a rice cooker. Ah yes- you were wondering when that would come in, weren't you? God blessed my socks off with a random little gift in the mail that I used to buy this baby rice cooker. I'm guessing I use it 6 or 7 times  a week. And there's almost always rice in the food pantry when I run out. Who knew I loved rice so much? I didn't. But God did. And He blessed me with this squatty little friend that I shall miss exceedingly over Christmas break. Not because I will miss eating rice basically every day (well- not just because of that)- but because it is such a crystal clear reminder to me that no matter how hard this semester has been (and it has been very hard), God is crazy, awesome, beautiful, ridiculous, amazing, over the top, all the time never stopping    ...... good to me.

Once (well actually several times) upon a Tuesday night

Once (well actually several times) upon a Tuesday,  there was an outreach called "Celebrate Recovery" which helps people come out of many different kinds of addictions through a relationship with God. These people had kids....

Okay- enough of the story mode. I just wanted to give you guys a little peak into what Tuesday Night's look like working with the kids. We've had as many as 30 kids before- and usually have more than twenty. there are three basic types of activities so far. First is general play. There are three areas the kids can play with varying degrees of loudness. This one (in case you didn't guess) is the quiet room- usually set up with either coloring books or playdough. Being in here provides a lot of opportunities for conversations with kids. 

 I'm not usually in there though. I'm usually with the boys- most of them around 5 years old. Need I say that quiet is something they're usually not? So I spend a lot of the night trying to come up with ways to minimize the trauma and destruction they bring upon each other and their surroundings.




Some weeks we have an organized project. In this picture we were making Thanksgiving cards, and next week we're hoping to make Christmas ornaments.

Pardon the dorky look on my face, this was the best picture of the kids...

Every week we try to have a Bible Story with the kids. These kids come from all kinds of backgrounds: totally unsaved homes, new believers, solid Christian homes...its a huge variety and a huge age span to try to communicate these truths.

 Please pray that God's love and Word would be planted deep and grow well in these little hearts.

Thanksgiving

Hurray for Thanksgiving with the family!

I always kind of look forward to long drives alone (I know-I'm weird):  a whole day to sing as loud and dramatically as I want and listen to stories. So for instance this time I started out with Christmas music (of course) then Steven Curtis Chapman. Then I enjoyed a very long time listening to "The Princess and the Goblin" by George MacDonald. Did you know there are places online that will let you download some audiobooks for free?!?! What a great thing to do when traveling! Anyway that was super fun, and made trying to outrun the ice storm much more fun (and I did beat it). Yay!

Time with Mom, Dad, Jess, Bud, Grandpa, Grandma (Mom's parents) and Ryan (cousin) was super good. We played games, watched movies (including an outing to go see Tangled which was was hillarious). Mom and I talked till at least twice- yay! Turkey and Black Friday shopping and sometime to just relax... it was nice.

Driving back today was fun too- I actually listened to the Princess and the Goblin again because I like it so much. Indiana tried to eat my car- but we (me and the car) made it out with minimal damage - go God! Got back and had a very productive-ish evening, and now I am headed to re unite with my pillow- which got left behind and greatly missed!

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