O...the E..ndurance

It is early Sarutday morning and I feel like I am running underwater. I have this terrific cold and I am TIRED. OE....I wish I could let you in on the experience so over the next few days I will attempt to give you a perspective so that you can have some understanding. Let me tell you right away how much I appreciate several things. I LOVE our clean bathrooms. After 12 days of using a hole in the ground...there is something quite beautiful about the porcelain throne. Showers...water that flows over you that is warm ..rather then a cold spout of river water that gushes out. Level ground that you can just walk and not vigilently look to see where the next slippery rock is to grab and trip you. Dry ground that is not saturated with mud from an unending rain. Sheets and a bed, a chair, a table, clean and dry clothes. OE was simply hard work..not only physicially but mentally. Everything was more difficult to do, just going to bed with a flash light, trying to find a dry spot to change your clothes, finding the outhouse in the dark, in the rain...I am very tired and so very glad to have gone, but so very gald to be home.



Scott and I both had to deal with some major medical issues right off the bat, but then that was played out in every student there. I got an eye infection right away and had to deal with pain and blurry vision for about 4 days. Scott had the flu that had infected our students and had 6 days of a fever. He was too sick to go with us to the village for the first 2 days so I took his team...It was me and 18 studetns in a village 4 hours away from the main village of Eipomek. On the first night, of the 19 people there was only 6 of us who did not have a fever. That is the bad news...the good news is..that the suffereing was a great backdrop to the mercy and strength of God. This lesson we learned time and time again...when we have nothing to offer because of our frailty, God was glorified and He still can do His thing despite of our weakness. This was the amazing work of OE. I will post more...but I need to play catch up on the rest.