Hi all,
Wow. What a week. What is the meaning of the purpose of God and/or the nature of spiritual warfare, when spiritually, w/respect to FS, we started w/dark vision & ended in glorious light … But our bodies started strong & rapidly degenerated into sickness? Weird. Still trying to see what God is saying in all of this, and we are still trying to battle strong.
First the good news: THERE IS NO MALARIA. Catherine got a blood test & it came back negative – praise God! (Good thing too, b/c she threw up her malaria antibiotics.) However, half of us have dropped like malaria-free flies. James is weak, feverish but okay … (As you might expect, his good humor & ability to keep a safe eye on us hasn’t waned much.). Jen stayed home today w/ symptoms similar to Catherine’s – chills, fever, aches, diarrhea. Anna also went down with stomach ills & fever late in the day. And Catherine is still touch & go. Please, please, please keep praying – we’re trying our hardest to fight but man, we need all of you backing us up, or even standing on the front lines of intercession for us.
Becca has been an absolute gift. We’ve been calling her our Nurse Nightingale, though we know she is far more than that. Her soft-spoken care for us, administration of meds, surgical procedures on James, etc. has really helped our team keep our sanity. And we feel so loved. At the end of the day, that feeling blankets us in comfort.
Christina, Sharon & Robert were powerhouses today. Christina, in particular, handled all the administrative work today, buying more FS bags (new designs!) & FS tees. (Next India trip team leader, anyone? She’s already raring to come back!) Sharon was instrumental in helping to pick the nice designs that our congregation would like, and in spearheading the shopping for saris for each of the FS women – our gift to them. Robert was the all around soothing presence, as he always is, and this evening, upon our return to the guesthse, he even cleaned our bathroom of gross bugs that had gathered there. Our hero!!!
Each team that NHF sends out, we’ve seen that each person plays a specific, wonderful role. This team has been no different. No number of hours spent in the bathroom, no gallons of soot & diesel we inhaled, no mountain of dirt & inconvenience can even begin to eclipse the gem that each member of this team has been.
New Hope, the FS women are beautiful. That word is bandied about so often, has it lost its meaning? But … They truly are. Some still have lost looks in their eyes, and one is scared to let his/her imagination go down the road to the reasons why. Some are bright & bubbly, whipping out an easy laugh & a quick grab of your hand to invite you to sit by them during tea-time. Others are initially reserved, holding their flash of white smiles for just that right moment of eye contact. My goodness, what amazing beautiful women… Kerry says they laugh & giggle & chatter b/c they have to – life goes on & they have not the luxury of moping, therapy, depression. They make “life goes on” seem not like a fatalistic gesture, but a declaration of hopeful promise. I may never shrug my shoulders and think such a throwaway thing again…
Tomorrow, we’ll gift the women with their saris. PLEASE pray hard for our team – we want to be 100% so that we can be @ FS together, to spend this last time together. We’ll also be meeting w/FS’s atty to see how we can properly give the surplus I10 funds to the FS Trust. Thank you, again, for your insane generosity. Pls take the time to imagine the REAL FREEDOM of a young girl who doesn’t have to stand on line anymore. She is FREE.
Please also pray that our flight home will be safe & uneventful. STRONG HEALTH for all! If you’ve never believed in or seen divine healing before, START NOW, and please join us in praying IN FAITH, that fevers will break, muscles will strengthen, cramps will cease, bowels will regulate, stomachs can digest, bacteria will disappear, chills will abate and joints will not ache. Let our faces shine upon landing (yes, 1st stop: Korean food in Flushing!), and let our greatest memory of Kolkata NOT be illness, but the beauty, the need, the fullness, the emptiness, the hope for this place. If it is true that Light shines brightest in the darkness, then Kolkata is RIPE for His Light to just burst forth here!!! Isn’t that AWESOME? If Kremenchuk is going to be the birthplace of revival in Europe (and I still belive this will be), then might not Kolkata be the place where Christ’s Spirit first begins to pour out over India? Oh dear Lord, I shiver just to imagine it (and that ain’t the fever talking!).
Anyway, so please pray for our FULLY RESTORED HEALTH. Let us be tales of miracles.
Also, b/c of the exhaustion of the team tonite, it’ll be difficult to have proper re-entry debriefing. That will be hard for us, both while we’re still here & as we re-enter home territory. Please pray for our spiritual protection as a result. We’ve been distracted by much – Kerry said he’s never seen a team drop like ours. But we agreed, if the enemy is attacking us thus, then us being here w/ FS must mean something good, right? YES! The Lord is pleased w/our exploratory journey, and we want to continue to please Him w/how we process things @ home, and we put our new education to good use for the Kingdom. So please pray for our re-entry, and the talks, debriefings we’ll have upon our return…
Please keep the FS women on your hearts. They are precious. We will see some, many, all of them at Home (we hope). What glory it will be to be able to thank them for allowing us to play a role in their freedom.
It’s an early evening for us… Please pray good rest for us this night…
Today of all days, we love you & miss you.
His peace to you,
I10
