When My Prayers Become Sighs Too Deep For Words!

March 6th, that was when this picture was taken. Right now I cannot even tell you how many days ago that was, but it seems like it was a lifetime ago, as so much has happened all across the world since that day.

We had gone to a new area, shared about the CHE program, taught about the Corona Virus, did a lesson on hand washing, as well as the Lost Sheep Bible lesson. We shared that we have HOPE in the midst of the chaos because we know Jesus and he wants us all to be in his flock and not be lost.

Before we left that day, we made plans to visit them again on the 20th (since I would be in Nairobi on the 13th). We all looked forward to it, but sadly, I returned on the 15th, needing to do the smart thing and self quarantine for 14 days. I did this to protect the people of Turkana in case I had inadvertently had any exposure during my week in Nairobi. I was all over Nairobi that week, doing government business in crowded buildings, shopping in malls, attending an international meeting, staying at a guest house where many people from all over the world were passing through from so many different countries.

Now, as I finish my self quarantine, the country has issued a 15 day shelter at home order. I agree 100% with this. I wish everyone else in the world understood this and was complying to their countries orders. So just as I had hoped to have a few people come back to my house to visit and do small trainings and sew masks (with social distancing) I do not think that will be possible in the short term. In fact right now I really do not know what ministry will look like up here when the 15 days are through or beyond that. Everything has changed so much and is changing still so much each day as the virus is spreading here.

I have been praying daily, looking to scriptures, waiting for God's voice to give me guidance on how to proceed. So far I have many ideas floating around in my head, but right now I mostly hear God saying draw closer to me, be prepared, but WAIT!

I have been staying connected to my CHE facilitators, helpers, CCC pastors, and so many others up here, by sending Bible verses or small prayer ideas by text. Most here have dumb phones, so I don't get fancy, but it does not need to be fancy. I am happy many have data and can respond to me with at least short texts. I am thankful that they have phones and texting capabilities--even though often I want to put their phones in "time out" because they answer them during trainings!

So I will continue to PRAY and WAIT to see how God is leading. I know that he has been helping me to get holistically healthy, especially over the past year, for a reason. I am ready to see how he will use me through all of this. I am thankful for these 2 weeks to stop and rest and draw near to him. I am thankful that I have had time to connect/reconnect with so many others, to check on them and encourage them to check on others. I will be thankful for the next period of shelter in place and will learn how to do that within the restrictions they have set.

As an introvert, I am really praying for you extroverts, I thought this would be easy. It is not.

I will continue to pray, I will make my life a prayer. I will praise God and thank Him every day.

"Make your life a prayer and in the midst of everything be always giving thanks, for this is God's perfect plan for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thes 5:17-18 (TPT) 

However, some days my prayers become "sighs too deep for words".

I am praying for moms and dads now home schooling, while working outside of the home still in essential jobs, or while working from home, in addition to the homeschooling.

I pray for those who are exposed and need to quarantine.

I pray for those who are sick and need to isolate.

I pray for those who have other health issues and cannot even get to doctors appointments in person or for telemedicine, because the system is so overwhelmed right now in so many countries.

I pray for everyone, as we all go through a broad range of emotions every day.

I pray for families that are together and under stress.

I pray for families who are separated and under even greater stress.

I pray for doctors, scientists, epidemiologists, and public health personnel who are working hard to develop a vaccine, test treatment options, and study this virus quickly, under intense pressure, to give us accurate information in a timely manner.

I pray for leaders of countries, states, counties, cities as they do what is best to protect their people.

I pray for so many other things and people and difficult situations caused by this virus or taking place in spite of this virus. 

I pray for everyone in the world, everyone, every single person, created in the image of God, that HE loves!

I pray for......

There is always a point in my prayers when it seems like too much. I can't go on. I don't have the words. I have to stop and give it all over to God. I actually wave my arms in the air and release it all to Him. It is mine to share, but not mine to keep at that point. That is when my prayers become nothing but sighs.

Sighs.

Sighs.

Father God I am thankful you are with me at that point, when I cannot even find the words to pray and all I can do is sigh.

Father God I love you and I am so thankful that you love me and everyone on the earth. I am thankful that we have your promises that you will never leaves us, especially during this time of change and challenge.

Father God I ask you to show your love to everyone, every single person on this earth today. Help them see your love through others, help them to draw near to you, help us all to draw near to you today and everyday. AMEN

"And in a similar way, the Holy Spirit takes hold of us in our human frailty to empower us in our weakness. For example, at times we don't even know how to pray, or know the best things to ask for. But the Holy Spirit rises up within us to super-intercede on our behalf, pleading to God with emotional sighs too deep for words. 

God, the searcher of the heart, knows fully our longings, yet he also understands the desires of the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit passionately pleads before God for us, his holy ones, in perfect harmony with God's plan and our destiny. 

Romans 8:26-27

Did you ever wonder why dogs chase vehicles or chickens scratch the ground?

Are you a curious person? Do you stay up late at night thinking about why animals behave the way they do? Specifically have you every wondered why dogs chase vehicles or chickens scratch the ground? If so, today your questions will be answered and tonight you will sleep well with your curiosity quenched.

Well, I hope this will be the case after you hear some of the stories my Turkana helpers have shared with me that help explain certain animal behaviours. These stories have been passed down to them by their parents, grandparents, and other relatives and friends.

Today I want to share two of those stories with you all. I hope you enjoy them.

The Chicken and the Eagle

The Chicken and the Eagle were friends. One day the Chicken asked the Eagle if she could borrow his razor blade, as she needed to shave the necks of her baby chicks. The Eagle loaned her the razor blade and said he would return in a few days to collect it. The Chicken used the razor blade and a few days passed. However, when the Eagle returned the Chicken could not find the razor blade. The Eagle was upset and said that every day when he returned, if the Chicken did not have the razor blade to give back to him, he would take one of her baby chicks. 

So that is why, even today, you see chickens scratching the ground (they are looking for the razor blade), and you see eagles snatching the baby chicks!

                                                   The Dog, the Goat, and the Camel

Click HERE to listen to the story about why these animals behave as they do around vehicles.




This was narrated by my helper, Paul Lokaliban, who is pictured at the right (note that is a still picture, please click above to listen.)




Below I have included a transcript, in case you need some help with the accent.

Once upon a time, three animals met at a station to board a vehicle to a certain destination.

That was the camel, the goat, and the dog. At the station the dog gave extra money and wanted back its money from the driver. The goat never gave and agreed with the driver to give money when she will alight at the station. The camel gave enough money that was needed and never added anything.

Reaching the destination, the vehicle stopped. The dog remained behind and requested the money back that was extra. The goat ran so quickly so that it could not be seen. The camel just walked comfortable because  it knew that it had given all the money that was needed and never wanted anything back again.

We see here that the driver never gave the dog money, because it thought now they were in company, and the money that it needed back was that of the goat.

That is why, when you see the three animals on the way you see that the camels are not moving from the road they are comfortable, they know there is nothing the driver needs from them. The goat will just move far from the vehicle because they know they will be demanded back the money it never paid, and the dog will keep following the vehicle  to be given the extra money on top of the fare.  

Thankful Thursday!

Thankful Thursday:

“We make our plans, but God has the last word.” Proverbs16:1 (GNB)

1.     What do you think happened to my thumb? Picture taken yesterday. I am thankful that it is much better today!

2.     Can you guess what this is? What the colored pieces are? Thankful for the creativity that surprises me and makes me happy.

3.     Do our participants seem shorter than normal? Thankful for new places to minister and new friends we meet there.

Yesterday, as we finished with the last camel, we were all wilting from the heat. There was more water in the truck, but we had gone through all that was in the jugs we carried out with us. The small amount of water that remained in our individual bottles, tasted like it had been boiled for chai.

My left thumb had begun to ache and I finally stopped to check it out. I wondered if the pain was due to the sting from an insect, bite from a spider, or jab from a pesky thorn off the tree we had earlier used for shade. One branch had given us all fits before it was pruned back.

At this time I am still not sure what the exact cause was, but the result was pain, swelling, bruising, and numbness around the joint, which I could no longer bend. This made it interesting as I drove back to town in my manual vehicle, shifting with my left hand (remember we drive left side of the road, right side of the vehicle here).

As we traveled we shared our good things/God things from the day. I am glad we started doing this awhile back. It helps on the hard, busy, hot days to find the good and see God in the day. It also helps me by hearing some things I would not expect or reminds me that this was the first time that person did that new task. We can then praise and encourage them. 

The next topic for conversation was a bit of planning for our next day out (ie today). As this proceeded in the Turkana language, before it was completely translated for me I had the general understanding that our facilitator was not going to join us, due to another meeting. I understand things come up, but he was the one who scheduled us to go back to this certain area and treat many camels that we were not able to treat last week, when we did CHE lessons, Bible study, and animal treatments all in the same day. That was a long day.

My first thought was “Great, I am already short 2 helpers this week, and not sure if either will join us tomorrow (ie today).” However, I was thankful he was telling us early. Usually it is a call as we head out of town or no information at all. Very typical here. I spend lots of time organizing and communicating, only to go try to pick people, who are not available to work that day. I have come to realize it is just part of life here, but that does not make it any less frustrating.

Yesterday, after taking care of business in town and dropping my helpers at their homes, my real work began. This is especially true on days we go out to treat animals back to back. I have to unload, clean, reorganize, restock, and prepare for the next day all as I rehydrate and this time also ice my thumb (after a very thorough hand washing and inspection - not finding any splinters).

  

As I did all that I prayer for the next day (ie today). I also asked my teammates to pray for my thumb, since I really needed 2 working thumbs. One of my teammates even added prayers for calm, compliant camels. What a great prayer (and alliteration)!

I slept well last night and was happily surprised this morning when both of the extra helpers were able to go today. I also discovered they had had rain in their part of Lodwar overnight. Wow, what a blessing. As we crossed the large, dry river bed on the “short cut” route to the bush, we noticed the ground there was a bit wet also. Thankfully, the river was not flowing and it was not too wet to cross at this time. I said a quick prayer for it to not be flowing before we returned later.  I had one experience in the past of waiting over 9 hours for a river to go down before we could cross to get back in to town.  I really did not want to have that be the story for today. Little did I know God had something much better planned. 

The rest of our trip out was uneventful, but we arrived at a very, quite community. No animals, no people. When 2 ladies finally emerged from one of the huts, they were obviously on their way somewhere else and told us the man with the animals had an emergency and was in Lodwar. Of course he was! This is also quite common and although I realize it will still happen, it is also no less frustrating to me. However today, it actually seemed to bother me less. Maybe I have lowered my expectations so much that nothing can surprise me now, or I have actually become a bit better at giving up control to God.

We decided we could go back to the previous community where we had worked yesterday and see about treating animals there. So off we went, but again no animals and no people. As I walked around searching for phone signal, so I could reach our facilitator, to see if anyone might be at his area today, kids began to gather and gather and gather. I never could get a signal, but eventually as I looked at all the kids, I began to see Gods plan for our day. 

I asked the kids if they would want to do a Bible lesson with us. We had been studying Jonah this week and I thought that’s perfect for adapting for a kids only lesson. They all said yes, so we gathered at their meeting tree. We always begin with prayer and I asked if anyone wanted to pray.  They were all a bit shy, so I prayed in simple phrases, which were translated to Turkana (because even my Swahili and Turkana, still gets translated into Swahili and Turkana for most people who are not accustomed with the way I speak Swahili and Turkana). The kids all repeated the prayer and it was a really fun way to pray together. After all prayer can be fun as we praise and thank God. Then we had them lead some songs. They kept singing and singing.  We told the story of Jonah and included some drama and motions to get them up and moving. Most of us portrayed the storm and then when it was time for Jonah to be swallowed by the fish, they came up with the idea of having the tire rim that they play with be the fish's mouth so our Jonah really got swallowed today. It was very creative on their part and I never would have thought of using that as a fish mouth.  

It was a great day and as we got ready to leave a cool breeze came in and energized us all, so that as we packed the truck, they hung around and we prayed again before we departed.

Now you know about my thumb (which is considerably better, although still sore, see picture below). You also know about our short participants today, but what about the colorful rings. Upon our arrival I saw the boy with this stick and I had to know what made all the colors. It’s the inside ring of a plastic soda/ water bottle cap (go get one and take a look, or see picture below if your countries caps are different). I had never seen a walking stick decorated like this and neither had my helpers. We were all impressed and at the end of our time together I negotiated a deal and purchased the stick. I am going to hang it above my new lion painting. The colors are perfect and for me its the simple things that bring joy, like colors from plastic rings used on a walking stick. 

We had a wonderful time with the kids,  studying the word of God. We will do this lesson tomorrow at the same place with the adults. I invited all the kids to return and said they might even get to help teach and definitely help with the drama and motions. I hope they bring the tire rim so even an adult Jonah can get swallowed properly by the big fish!  

As we returned to Lodwar and discussed our day, we all agreed that the whole day was good and fun. We were so happy that God had changed our plans. There was excitement in the truck that we often do not have when were are hot and tired after treating animals. What a blessing today was. How special to spend time teaching the children. I hope we will have a chance to do some more kids only lessons in different places (by the end we did actually have 2 men with us, but they let the kids be the focus.)

Then just as we were thanking God for such a great day, He had another surprise for us. That cool breeze we had felt earlier was also associated with rain. Yes as we drove I said “What is that in the road?” It was huge puddles full of fresh rain water. Wow! One large area got a pretty good rain, so much that we had to detour in a few places. Thankfully the river was not flowing, and we easily returned to town by the “short cut”. Although we are still praying for rain for many more places throughout Turkana and Kenya. 

Thank you God for making your plans known. Even when it changes our plans and we question and get frustrated (Kind of like Jonah??). Your plans are our plans and I pray we all become better at seeing the opportunities you are giving us and are willing to follow you in your plans. Amen.