God's training for Arthur

Starting here at the Bamboo school has been a huge learning experience. God has been working hard to get the jitters out of my system to make more room for Him. Over the last month I've learned from the Bible, Momo, and the kids what God wants when he asks us to stand strong for him. When people ask for my permission to do things I'm tempted to just say yes. But over the first month that I've been here I've learned that being agreeable is not what God wants. He wants us to stand for what is right, to defend the poor and embrace righteousness.
Recently God has been working at the Bamboo School in ways that I don't understand. Our village asked us not to burn our plastic trash. In the past all the "rubbish", as Momo Cat calls it, has been burned. Usually lots of bamboo, school milk containers, and random trash all get burned, and our school property is litter free. But the smoke has stirred up other fires. The pastor, the village head man, and another eldery man came with complaints and asked us to stop the fires or move off the property. I was shocked that all the things God had done for the community through the school have been disregarded because of a little smoke. Rumors and village gossip will do that though.
That night, Momo told us that two years ago God tugged on her heart to move and start a new project for Him. Through all this she felt the tug again. We are going to pray for God's guidence; for His will to be clearly shown.
Since this visit, we have been told that the originator of the complaint was the pastor himself, no one else has a problem.......... but culture here is that we do not directly take problems to people... an indirect approach is the usual way..... May we all grow from this smoky problem.
By the way I am Arthur, the new missionary helping out Momo this year.

Chillo

This week we gained one more.... Chillo, aged 17 years, male.
Chillo has been around the village for a while. He seemed mentally retarded, and physically challenged. However when I took him to the doctor, an Xray revealed that his left chest cavity was undeveloped, placing great strain on his lung capacity and heart. The ribs pull the spine out of line so his walking gait is irregular and painful. He apparently had polio as a child, and the restriction is getting more pronounced as the rest of him grows normally. He has to work to sustain himself, yet work is painful and life threatening..... Hence Chillo has come to us. I have discovered a very special quality in Chillo... he always puts others first. He is a willing worker and has the ability to learn English quickly. Praise God for the new one, with a helping attitude.

Arthur continues to meet the challenges of missionary experience. He had his frontline lesson in clothing care, when he discovered a scorpion in his discarded swimming shorts!! Fortunately he saw it before the shorts met the body!!

God is generously supplying help for us. We have assistants coming from Canada, Usa, Australia and New Zealand. Some are for a month, some for 6 weeks and some for many months.... and the timing is perfect for each... What do we expect from a God who knows my needs in advance and all things are working for the good of his kingdom!