A really long week

I just got back from spending five days at Miango for our writers' workshop, and boy, am I glad to be home! It was good but exhausting. We did have hot water and power almost the whole time, so I got to take a few hot showers... Granted, they were "squatting" showers because we had a tub with a hand-held shower fixture rather than an actual shower. *sigh* Oh well. I can't complain. But I certainly did not get much rest. I feel like a walking zombie. And it was really hot, at least for me with my little internal heater burning me up! The good thing is that we have first drafts now for all 52 of our year 1 lessons! Yay! We also had some really interesting and intense conversations about our lessons, including an hour-long discussion on "dating." But I don't want to get started on that topic. Nosiree.

It was really a time of spiritual attack, though. I know I mentioend before I left that two of our key Joint Project staff had losses in their families. Well, I didn't know all the details, and I want you to know them.

We have a small staff at Joint Project. There are three full-time workers, and three of us who are more part-time, plus our chairman/CEO. So that's seven. About two weeks ago, our office manager Rev. Nore contacted Adena to tell her that his mother had died. (She'd just been diagnosed with TB) So Nore traveled that week to bury his mother. When he returned, about a week ago, he received a call from his wife, who had gone to her hometown to care for her mother (who had recently had a stroke). Nore's wife told him that her mother had just died. So Nore traveled to be with his wife and bury his mother-in-law.

That's not all.

The same week that Nore lost his mother, our chairman, Jonathan, called to say that his uncle had passed away, and that he would be spending time with his family and attending the burial down south. Just after the burial, he called to say that his uncle's sister-in-law had been killed in a car accident on her way back from the burial.

It was awful. THEN on Monday, one of our writers didn't know up, and he called to inform us that his nephew had been killed, so he needed an extra day to be with his family. On Tuesday, Adena got a call that her son had been injured playing soccer at school. It wasn't serious, but still. And on Thursday morning, another of our writers, Mercy, told us that she had just found out one of her dear friends and mentors had died suddenly of a heart-attack in her late thirties.

So we really felt under attack. You can imagine.

And then I chose to write the lesson entitled, "Why Does God Allow People to Suffer?" It truly was a growing experience, reading what others have written--especially Dr. Dobson--and praying through the thoughts in my head. I came to the conclusion that we're asking the wrong question. Instead of asking why God allows us to suffer, we should ask how we should respond to suffering. We are so tiny and insignificant. It's totally arrogant to think we should be able to understand God, or that He owes us an explanation! As Dr. Dobson put it, it's like an amoeba trying to understand a human. I think people here in Nigeria, who face death daily (literally) have a much healthier grasp on who God is and who we are in comparison.

Anyway, I learned a lot. But I'm SO glad to be home. Tomorrow we're hoping to move our furniture into our house at Evangel, and start sprucing the place up, including putting up drapes in the living room to make it more private. Yes! Oh, and I look forward to sleeping tomorrow!