Dear Friends, Here is my January prayer letter!! I wanted to get it out weeks ago…and I feel like a broken record saying this! Hehe. I really appreciate all your prayers. This month I am just going to leave it in the body of the email. I had issues last month with my attachment, so I am hoping this gets around that problem. I apologize for the lack of artistic formatting! Pictured: Chelsea and Selestine (Pastor Ben’s daughter) when we had all the youth girls over for an evening of fellowship. The last picture is from that night as well. Before Lauren and Kyle left we all took a walk to John Mark’s house which is pictured in the second, third, and fourth photos. The second to last photo is of me and Piaro, my translator.

January was an uneventful month and at the same time one of the hardest months yet. We have all been blessed to see God continue working in our lives and the lives of the people here. On the 15th Sarah was able to get a flight out. It was a true miracle because at that time we were having a ton of wind. It would sometimes feel like your house was going to blow away! But the morning of her flight it was sunny and no wind. It was a true answer to prayer. It was also hard because that was the transition to Sarah not being in our clinic devotions in the morning. It has been so different with her not there. We are all really excited for her though! She opened Kotidanga Baptist Academy on February 3rd. On the 16th of January, the day after Sarah left, there was an emergency that came to the clinic. Thursdays are our day off, so we just have someone on call. Usually that is Manandi, but she had been out since Christmas, so we had been taking turns covering for her. It was Chelsea’s day to be on call. When she went out to take care of the patients, she saw that there was an extremely small, malnourished, and sick baby. She did everything she could for it and started it on our baby milk program, but she knew that the baby was really sick. When she came back to the house she said it was one of the sickest, most malnourished babies she had ever seen. The adoptive mom who brought the baby had walked for days to get here. She had adopted the baby, but didn’t have anything to feed it. We are unsure how long it had been since the baby had had anything to eat. It was an hour later that we were notified that the baby had died. There were also other children who were sick, and we needed to go take care of them all so that they could all make the two-day hike back to their home in order to bury the baby. I actually started another baby on our baby milk program that morning, and it was so sad because sitting out on the clinic porch was a mom with her dead baby. It was probably the hardest time yet for me at the clinic. There was something devastating about treating that other baby that I knew had gotten here in enough time, while knowing that another mother was crushed because her baby hadn’t gotten here fast enough. Pray along with me that through sharing the gospel we can give glory to God through this situation. I am praying for the mother’s spiritual life, as we don’t know if she is a believer or not.

I am so thankful that throughout the next week we didn’t have any more serious emergencies or patients in the clinic. The Lord knows what we can handle physically and spiritually, and it is a blessing to be held in His protective hand. I think that through reading the Word and praying together after this happened, all of us were stronger for it and able to rely on God all the more. The body of believers is a beautiful thing to be a part of. There is a video with the song by Shane and Shane “Though You Slay Me” and afterwards John Piper says:

Not only is all your affliction momentary, not only is all your affliction light in comparison to eternity and the glory there, but all of it is totally meaningful. Every millisecond of your pain from the fallen nature of

fallen man, every millisecond of your misery in the path of obedience is producing a peculiar glory you will get because of that. I don’t care if it was cancer or criticism, I don’t care if it was slander or sickness, it wasn’t meaningless. It’s doing something. It’s not meaningless. Of course, you can’t see what it is doing, don’t look to what is seen. Your mom dies, when your kid dies, when you got cancer when your 40, when a car careens into the sidewalk and takes her out, don’t say it’s meaningless. It’s not; it’s working for you an eternal weight of glory. Therefore, therefore, do not lose heart but take these truths and day by day focus on them. Preach them to yourself every morning. Get alone with God and preach his word into your mind until your heart sings with confidence that you are known and cared for.

Just a beautiful reminder that there is a purpose for everything, and God is in control. “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:37-40

Last week then, we had another emergency that came in during clinic hours. God knew what was needed and thankfully, Chelsea, Lauren and I were all open and free when she came in. Loti was carried in by a group of men. She had tried to commit suicide by drinking bleach mixed with soap powder. She was completely and totally unresponsive, barely breathing. Honestly there is not a ton that we can do in these situations, but we quickly started doing what we could. Nothing that we did should have made her responsive or honestly was that ‘lifesaving’. We were just praying over her as we were working. And during our care of her she became responsive and started talking with us! I have never seen such a miracle before! She even became responsive enough that we were able to have Pastor Ben come and talk with her and share the gospel with her. Pastor Ben does not believe that she is saved, and so it is so huge that she got to hear the gospel and hopefully it will take hold of her heart. It was so humbling to be part of the Lord giving this lady a second chance to hear the gospel and be saved. Praises:

Julie is now home! It is such a huge praise that she is doing so well! She is able to walk and really has no complications from her illness.

Sarah was able to get out and back in with no complications. Sarah’s uncle was able to come back with her!

Prayer Requests: For more nurses to come to work in the clinic. At this point the clinic has no potential

nurses coming to work in it after Chelsea and I leave this summer. It is a huge prayer request that God lay it on someone’s heart to come. They would need to come within the next few months so that Chelsea and I could adequately train them and they could get a handle on culture and language.

For Sarah’s school. It opened its doors February 3rd! It is exciting but will be a huge change for us and for Sarah.

For the continued spiritual growth of the new believers here.