Attack on Bible College

Blogger was down for a time and I was afraid I wasn't going to get to post this urgent prayer request.

One of our Bible Colleges was attacked today -- buildings destroyed, students beaten.... I can't give you all the details here, but PLEASE stop by http://www.gfa.org/militants-attack-gfa-bible-college and pray for the students and the leaders.

Things I miss

Things I miss...

• Walking in the back door at home and hearing "Welcome Home" being hollered from the basement and the kitchen and the living room all at once.
• The simple "Good Morning" from one family member to another.
• Seeing Mother and Daddy kiss when he leaves to do farm work.
• Karen's cake decorating shop
• Hearing the chimes from the upstairs door.
• Riding with Daddy to see the new baby calves.

Gandhi Night #3

We enjoyed watching Gandhi this evening. It was the third time I've seen it and it is interesting the different things that catch my attention each time. You can see the notes from first time, but this time, one of Mirabehn's comments and Gandhi's response caught my attention.

Mirabehn, a daughter of an English admiral, has come to live with Gandhi and his wife. She is sitting in their house perhaps the first day or two after her arrival. In the course of conversation, the topic turns to homespun cloth.

Gandhi to Mirabehn: Ba will have to teach you to spin too.
Mirabehn: I would rather march.
Gandhi: First spin. Let the others march for a time.

How many times do I say to God, "But I would rather do [fill in the blank]"? So many times I want to do something grandiose, but the Lord is asking me to do something simple. It's not the work he wants, but the heart.

Persecution and Prayer

Yet another report of severe persecution has come in - http://www.gfa.org/bible-college-students-beaten-two-in-critical-condition. Five of our Bible College students were attacked and all are in the hospital at the last update I heard. We had an incident two weeks ago where a girls team was beaten - highly unusual. I think about Sara and Steph and Dani that live with me and how it would affect me if they were the ones beaten. Or my sister Susan. The Bible College students were probably younger than these ladies.

I've spent a lot of time in prayer recently -- that's a good thing. Living with people is always a stretching situation and I want to make sure I'm taking things before the Lord and not just doing things on my own. He's given me a lot of grace so far. Please pray that I continue to seek Him faithfully and trust Him.

Okay - now I'm back to working on my training for tomorrow morning. We're training the staff on www.tntware.com - a program that helps them keep track of their personal prayer and financial supporters (like you).

I praise God for you!

Psalm 63

It's been a busy week -- interns still settling in, the "honeymoon" period starting to end, all of us still learning. Well, hopefully we'll continue learning for some time now!

Saturday was a fun day with basketball and volleyball and food and fellowship in the afternoon. Sunday was a day of rest for me. A Nepali friend, Nanu, came to church with me Sunday morning. Nanu and myself and roommate Jen enjoyed doughnuts together after church and then a walk at Arbor Hills.

I've learned a lot about Hinduism the last few days from Nanu. Lord Shiva's birthday was Friday, apparently. I had to ask her if he was a real person.

"No, no," she said. "Lord Shiva is like the head gods in charge of all the gods."

"Oh!" said I, surprised. "If he's a god, then why does he have a birthday?"

"That's just the day he was created," Nanu explained to me. "And he also met his wife goddess Parvati on this day."

I wanted to ask who created him, but I wasn't quite sure how to ask that politely.

Bills and Training

From the not-so-glamourous side of life, I've worked on paying bills this evening and and getting ready for Thursday IT Training tomorrow morning. Thanks for your continued prayer for the intern girls as they are in the middle of their third week here. We can all still use your prayers for lots of grace.

Persecution Report

One of our ladies ministry teams was badly beaten last week.  You can read about this unusual situation at the www.gfa.org website or by stopping by this article at Mission Network News: http://www.mnnonline.org/article/9573.

 

A personal reminder for myself for today: God is just as faithful when we can't see Him working as when we can see Him working.

A night of evangelism

We just got back from a short night of evangelism at Sundance Square in Ft. Worth. We were there about two hours -- striking up conversations with people and sharing about the Lord as He opened doors. Please pray for Ariel, Gladys, and Sasha - three teenage girls I got to share with. I left them each with a copy of John's Gospel -- pray that they read it and that the Lord will put more Christians into their lives.

It's always a stretching time, going out to do evangelism. What do I say? Who do I talk to? When do I hand out a tract? Lord, how do I share my faith with people I meet in my everyday life?

Finally... a post!

You won't know this, but the posts stopped abruptly after I moved into my new house and lost my evening computer/internet ability. (Thanks, Jen, for letting me use your laptop for so long at the apartment.)

So many things have happened -- I've been needing your prayer more than ever and updating you less frequently than ever. Let's see if we can catch you up to date:

• Jan 17 - Ice Storm hits Dallas. Dorinda moves from apartment to new intern house.
• Jan 18-24 - Dorinda unpacks new house
• Jan 25 - First intern (Dani) arrives for Road to Reality (RTR) internship program.
• Jan 26 - Dorinda's at the office, Dani's running errands. Work on getting settled in.
• Jan 27 - Next two interns arrive. Steph and Sara arrive Sat afternoon. We have get-to-know-you-spagetti dinner that night with August RTR interns. Unpack.
• Jan 28 - Church together. Sara's boyfriend flies back to MN. Unpack.
• Jan 29-31 -- Full days of orientation at office. Supper at staff homes. Dorinda runs frantically back and forth between orientation sessions and job responsibilities.
• Feb 2 - Closing intern orientation and All Night Prayer.
• Feb 3 - Dorinda is sleepy...

Pray:

• For unity at the house -- that we would be able to grow together in those things the Lord is wanting us to grow in.
• For the girls as they face homesickness -- for some, this is their first real time away from home.
• For grace learning things in the office -- new people, new names, new responsibilities, new computer programs...
• For me to have balance for my responsibilties at the office and my internship responsibilities.

Funny (and real):
Meal prayer by a non-Indian visitor to the mission field:
Dear God,
I'll eat it.
You keep it down.
Amen.