(From left to right: Elizabeth, Jillian and Anna Mei on a recent trip to the countryside.) Ever since she turned 9 last December, Jillian has been telling us that she is a pre-teen. A total "first-born" child, she has always been mature for her age. Lately she has been spending a fair amount of time with Nguyen (pronounced "Gwen", sort of), the teenage daughter of Mr. Bo. Gwen speaks pretty good English, so they are able to communicate for the most part. Two nights this week, Gwen has asked Jillian to spend the night so they can all get up at 4:30 am and go to the beach to swim at 5:00 am (yep, the sun is up here at that time). Mr. and Mrs. Bo and Gwen go swim every morning. They put Jillian in the middle of all of them and away they go. They usually return home about 7:00 am, eat breakfast and take a nap or just rest for about 30-45 minutes. This has turned out to be an answer to prayer, since Jillian feels that she is able to have a little freedom and she is developing a friendship outside the household. It is a temporary fix, since Gwen will return to school in a few weeks, but still, I am thankful.
And so, my "worry" prayers have turned to Anna Mei. Our "can-do", fearless eight year-old is grounded. Up until recently, she had enjoyed many trips to Duc and Linh's house, to play, to spend the night, to go to the markets and beach with them, etc. However, when she returned a couple days ago, Linh told me that Anna Mei had left their house on her own with no word to anyone, and walked to the local market ALONE. She had not been gone long when Linh noticed her missing, but without knowing what direction she had taken off, it took awhile for a terrified Linh to find her. Anna Mei, of course, can't understand the fuss. She calmly told me she wasn't lost, no one bothered her, and she felt that she looked "Vietnamese." So, for a LONG time, unless Tony or I go with her, she is confined to our house and courtyard.
One other praise today. I was making a pitcher of iced tea and the lid of the tea kettle fell off while I was pouring the boiling water over the teabags. The steam burned my wrist and thumb, but only slightly. It is not hurting now and the redness is confined to two areas, a place on my wrist about 3 inches in diameter, and the side of my thumb. Praise God--it made me so thankful for all the near misses that I am sure we have experienced of which I am unaware.
We had a large spider sighting the other night. Outside on our "laundry patio" there was a huge, tarantula-sized spider (the body is smaller, but the legs thinner and longer). Any way, Enoch finally bravely approached the thing and gave it a snoot-full of Raid. The next day, we told Duc about the experience. The spiders are not poisonous, but quite common (this is the 4th one of seen here, but without a doubt, the largest). He also said it is good that we didn't step on it because they often carry egg sacs and if you step on them the sacs break and spiders go running everywhere. Lovely.
Tony and our guest, Myrna Middleton, are traveling to western China today to visit and pray over the children at the orphanage there.
The other day I was reading Revelation 1--and I was struck by the bold simplicity of John's first verse:
"The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must shortly take place; and he sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-John, who bore witness ..." (itallics mine) Can you imagine any preacher today telling any group of believers that he had received his message directly from an angel? He would be ridiculed, reviled, scoffed at, maligned...you name it. Yet we read John's words all the time without blinking an eye. I had never even noticed that before. But I want to live like that. I want to be a vessel so accepting, so prepared, that my Father can communicate to me anytime, anyplace through any means and I receive it. I want to have a sensitivity that notices the events and circumstances that He brings to my life and an ear that hears His whisper. I feel it is the only way to discern what He is doing and make appropriate decisions. God help me, keep me from being a scoffer, a doubter, jaded and skeptical. I want to look at life from a view of possibility, not with human blinders that decide from the outset what God "can" or "cannot" do.
Graceto us all to see with the eyes of our spirits!
