Tip of the Week-- October 23, 2014

I'm not exactly the friend you would (ever) turn to for fashion advice.  However, my experience of managing the complicated realities of living and dressing in two different cultures, does, I feel, qualify me to advise you in these matters.  In many ways, you'll be developing two different wardrobes, and this, dear reader, is a process fraught with peril.  So, from the wealth of knowledge I've gained from getting it wrong, I offer you this week's tip:

Upon arriving in the United States, shop immediately for your African wardrobe.  Make do with the clothes you’ve got for three to four weeks, then start shopping for your American wardrobe.  This timing might sound counter-intuitive, but I promise, it rests on solid logic.  If you inverse this order, you’ll have American clothes that are far too tight after three weeks of fast food, and three weeks after your return to Africa, with its subsequent traveler’s diarrhea, you’ll be floating in unnecessary bagginess, cinching your belt ever tighter.  Not to mention that immediately after returning from Africa, you are likely to convince yourself that all those bright colors will look just fine on your pasty, white skin.  While this might indicate great cultural adaptation to the fashions of Africa, it does NOT, indeed, mean that your skin has taken on the darker hues that allow you to wear the color schemes that seem just right on your African friends.

Prayer Requests

1. Praise-- The outreach to the prison went very well.  As always, I'm moved by the realities of the prison here.  It is an incredibly difficult place with harsh conditions, which becomes all the more unsettling when you consider that many of the men end up there due to unjust processes.  Since the rich in this society can almost always negotiate their way out of punishment, it is only the poor who end up in prison.  Pray for the lives that were touched.  We will be going back in December for a Christmas outreach.

2. We were all touched when a report from colleagues in neighboring Burkina Faso was shared last night at our prayer meeting.  These workers are involved with a church plant that has grown exponentially and is reaching villages all around, including across the border into our country.  There is real revival and growth.  Pray that this would repeat itself in countless villages in our region and that we as a team would know where to invest efforts.

3. Pray for Dri, a young man with whom I had a long talk about God's grace.  Pray that he would hunger after this grace and find it in the Good News of Christ.  

4. Continue to pray for the nursing department of the hospital.  We are in a time of a lot of transition, which while challenging, is ultimately a good thing.  Pray for us as we seek to raise up leaders.  Pray that we would have creative solutions to the problems that we need to overcome to make our nursing care stronger and better.

5.  Continue to pray for the ebola crisis and our colleagues Steve and Heather who are anxiously awaiting news on their adoption from Guinea.  Pray that things would move along smoothly and that there would be no more delays in this process.

6.  Pray for the situation in the north of our country, as things there are heating up again.  There have been several attacks against UN troops lately.  Pray that the Lord would quell the fanaticism of these groups and bring about peace. 

7.  The board of the NGO which runs the hospital will be meeting early next week.  Pray that this meeting would go well and give further clarity to the vision for the hospital for the future.