Do you remember the nursery rhyme that we learned in childhood, the one that ended with "...and all in the house that Jack built." ?  One thing just lead to another in the house that Jack built. I have felt an odd sort of affinity with Jack recently.  A series of events has occurred which, had I known what was coming I would have felt quite intimidated, but God in his loving kindness, allowed me to take one step at a time. 
   It all started with one man...the chief's uncle, who had a two month old wound on his foot that would not heal.  He came to me one morning asking for help.  I was happy to help him, but felt a little nervous, him being in the paramount chief's family and all.  Since he could not walk well, I went to his house every day to assess the wound, clean it, and apply a dressing.  The wound was quite large and deep and I was sure that it would take several months for it to close.  This meant paying for a honda taxi everyday to go and come... and I wasn't sure where the money was going to come from.  I kept telling myself that after a few weeks I would be able to cut back to every other day and train family members to change the dressing.
   God is good.  Mr. Balansama's foot healed at record speeds that were amazing to me.  The wound generally shrank by 1 to 2 mm each way, every day.  AMAZING!  On top of that, I have gotten to be good friends with Mr. Balansama and his family.  In fact,he and his family have now given me a Kuranko name... they named me after his mother.  And, if I pass by that side of town and don't stop by to say hello, I get in a little bit of trouble. :)  As his foot began to heal, other patients began to appear on his front porch to be seen, usually 2 or three new ones each day;  his younger brother, with high blood pressure and kidney problems, his wife with a stomach ulcer, and many others.  When his foot was well, and I was ready to sign off on his case... he asked me to see his neighbor, the Fula Paramount Chief for Koinadugu District.  In no time, I was also seeing every one in his family who was not well.
    I did NOT see that one coming.  So now, I see two or three patients a day at the Fula Cheif's house, and two or three patients at the Koranko chief's uncle's house.  In addition to that, going into town each day (now every other day) has led me to form a friendship with my Okada driver (honda taxi) who is a Fula (fulani) by tribe also.  I have had the priveledge of getting to know his family as well and am now trying to learn a little Fula along with my Kuranko ( yes, I do mix them up some days).  A 12-year old girl in the Okada drivers house was not feeling well, so she was warming herself by the fire one morning and her lapa (skirt) caught fire, burning the full length of her outer thigh up on to her buttocks.  This poor child has allowed me to clean her burn, change her dressing each day, and even pull off the dead skin without ever crying out or even shedding a tear.  She has been so very brave.
   Had I known when I started, where this would lead me, I would have probably stayed home... after all, I am not exactly twiddling my thumbs in between homeschooling, teaching the Bible School students, preparing a clinic, and having one-on-one bible studies in addition to running the home.  However, I have gained a lot of experience in treating different illnesses, some of them a little daunting.  I have also gotten practice in trusting God through this.  He has provided every day for the honda taxi... a lot of times it was close, but He provided.  He has blessed the medicines that I have given to make them successful.  And, I have been reminded every day that "..He has prepared, in advance, good works for us to do..."  and "...He who called you is faithful and HE will do it."  It's pretty cool, because all I have to do is just be faithful to show up... and I get a front row seat to the miracles.  Is my Dad (heavenly Father) cool, or what?

It rained today…

I mean it REALLY rained today…a good heavy downpour.  As many of you know we don’t have running water….at least not in the traditional sense.  I like to say that we DO have running water… you run to the well to get it, it runs into the bucket, on the way back it runs down your back or leg (depending on how you are carrying it)… and then it runs into the sink as you pour it.  That being said… whenever it rains we take all of our buckets and put them out under the edge of the roof to catch the water as it runs off.  We don’t have any eaves troughs, but Roy recently put a cut piece of 4 inch pipe about 4 feet long along the edge of the overhang, so the water comes out of both ends of it at a pretty good rate. 

     But, I digress.  As this torrential downpour came unexpectedly, the kids and I ran to quickly put all of our buckets out. We needn’t have hurried.  In about 15 minutes we had filled all of our five gallon buckets, poured the water into our water barrels, and filled them again for a total of 10 times.  Yes, that is 50 gallons of water in less than 15 minutes.  When our water barrels were full, I lined the full buckets up in our hallway…and the rain kept coming.  I had nothing left to put water in, I was out of buckets. 

    Why am I telling you this!  As I walked down our hallway past the row of buckets….I had a lightbulb moment.  See , I have to confess that I have been a little discouraged, perhaps even lost perspective.  I have been sick with a fever and headache for the last month.  (Yes, that is not a type-o).  I have run a fever continuously for a month.  It is finally resolving, but I don’t sit still very well…and not feeling well enough to do anything started to get on my nerves.  So, I got crabby….and then I got discouraged.  The enemy really started to do a number on me.  In the middle of all of this God sent me to the same scripture multiple times.  I am telling you, I would start out turning to Paul’s writings or the gospels and yet I would still somehow end up in II Samuel.

  A woman whose husband had died had fallen on hard times… she and her sons had run out of food and had run out of money.  She came to the prophet Elisha asking for help because she had nowhere else to turn.  He told her that God wanted her to go and borrow as many jars as she could from her neighbors.  She did as she was told and then she began to pour the meager amount of oil that she had left into each jar.  God did a miraculous outpouring of His blessing for her that day… and she filled ALL the jars.  As she filled the last jar, the oil finished. 

     God spoke to me in my discouragement and pointed out that  I needed to be about getting ready for his blessing.  Never mind what is happening right now, the blessing is coming…. But here is the trick…

  What if the woman had only borrowed a few jars? 

I have often heard people talk about “according to the measure of your faith”  but was never really sure what that meant.  I think it is about having enough buckets.  His blessing, like the rain we had today, will come in HIS time and in HIS way.  Do you and I have the faith to be ready for it?  When the rain starts falling, it is a little late to run out and buy more buckets.  The widow didn’t have the chance to go borrow more jars.  She could have, in the name of practicality, borrowed just a few jars and said, “we’ll see how it goes and then if we need to we will go borrow more”.  Guess what?  She would have run out of oil.  As many jars as she had the faith to borrow… that was how many were filled. 

    I struggle with the balance between practicality and faith.  We value being realistic…. But are we prepared for the norm…. or are we prepared for an overflowing abundance…
“beyond all we ask or imagine’ (James)… of GOD’s blessing?  I have come to the realization that I am not prepared.  So, once again God is stretching me (do you hear the creaks and groans?) reshaping me into someone who will hopefully be more like him.  In the process, I am being stretched and enlarged into someone with a greater capacity for catching the outpouring of HIS blessing.  I just can’t wait to see what happens. 

For now…

 I am going to buy more buckets!