Driven2Educate

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.
Eph. 3:20-22

Time to move...again. This will be our 6th move in 3 years. I'm exhausted just thinking about it, but we have much to be thankful for. We are moving back into the house that we rented out three years ago before we hit the road in our RV. Our children are giddy! The family who has been in our home are full-time military doctors and were recently transferred to another station. They have been great renters and have taken good care of our house. Since it's not really a good time to sell and we haven't had time to re-rent it, it looks like we'll be moving again. After our many travels we now realize that we don't need all of that space, and if we're honest, don't even really want a big house any more. In addition, although God has provided for all of our needs, our income isn't quite what it was before I retired and we would be much more comfortable financially with a smaller mortgage or rent payment. 

I can't help but wonder, "Why has God allowed this? How can we make the best use of this resource while we have it? What are you up to, God?"

We have plenty of room to house missionaries who are back in the U.S. on furlough, traveling through Memphis on support-raising trips. That's one ministry a large house can facilitate. We also have room for...more children (gasp!) Dan and I have discussed the option of adopting more children, but as of now, do not have the money to cover the cost. We'll see if God moves us in that direction. It could be something neither of us have thought of. He works like that, you know. So, the next step of our journey leads us back to a familiar place. We'll have to wait to see if it's just a stop along the way or something more permanent. 

Top 10 Most Deadly Animals:
10. Poison Dart Frog
9.  Cape Buffalo
8.  Polar Bear
7.  Elephant
6.  Saltwater Crocodile
5.  African Lion
4.  Great White Shark
3.  Box Jellyfish
2.  Asian Cobra
1.  Mosquito (malaria)

We have been studying Life Science. Last week it was protozoa.  That may seem boring to some of you, but I found it very timely because Plasmodium is a member of this group, and Plasmodium, carried by mosquitos, causes malaria.  Since mosquitoes are the world's deadliest animals (carrying malaria) and more than 80% of malaria deaths worldwide occur in Africa south of the Sahara, I thought it might be a good idea to learn a little more about it.

* Between 350 and 500 million clinical episodes of malaria occur every year. 
* About 2 million deaths occur every year due to malaria.

Read more: World's Deadliest Animals

Tomorrow we start taking medication to try to prevent malaria on our trip. I'm also going to start tracking each person's normal body temperature. Not everyone holds steady at 98.6 degrees and we need to know what "normal" is for each one of us. That way we'll recognize a fever right away, which is important when you're dealing with malaria. But first, we have to concentrate on trying to get these pills down. Somehow the task of teaching our children to swallow pills got pushed back on the priority list and it just hasn't happened. Tomorrow Mason will have to swallow a pill that's about as big (and chalky) as a regular Excedrin and based on our past experiences I'm not expecting it to go well. Griffin, on the other hand, got off easy. His pill is about the size of a saccharine (did anyone else's grandmother used to put those little pills in their coffee?)  He shouldn't have any trouble. Add to that the daily vitamin and the daily probiotic. We'll see what happens. Please pray for open minds and open gullets:) 

We're back in Memphis. School has started again and Dan is as busy as ever taking care of our church's IT needs. Some things never change. Some things, however, do. Like our plans.

We have spent much time praying over where God wants us to go and what He wants us to do next. We expected to spend some time helping PBT get their new building finished, but after a visit to the site in Dallas we realized that God had other plans. The building was a little behind schedule at the time and they weren't ready for Dan's help. So, instead of staying in Dallas, we have settled in Memphis and Dan will travel back to Dallas to help periodically. We are grateful that God quickly provided us with a source of income and a place to stay (with friends) until we could move into an apartment. We are so excited to be back among friends and in familiar surroundings, but we frequently see evidence of the impact that our stay in Africa has had on us.

Here's one example. Recently I was walking in nearby neighborhood and got choked up. I was in tears as I walked by all the beautiful houses, many with three car garages, and realized that most of my friends in Africa lived in a space smaller than an American garage. We have so much compared to most of the people in the world. Many of them live on less than $2 compared to $100 a day average in America. Sadly, I think that many people don't realize just how fortunate we are because they've never come face to face with the reality of a third-world country. How I wish every American had the opportunity to befriend someone who lives in Africa or South America--to get to know them on a personal level. I think things would drastically change all over the world.