Life around here for the last month or so has been a true cultural experience. For Muslims, the holy month of Ramadan is one of five pillars of the Islamic faith (the 5 pillars of Islam that Muslims are called to: reciting the confession of faith, praying five times a day, giving alms to the poor, making hajj - journey to Mecca, and fasting). Each year, the exact date Ramadan starts depends on the sighting of the moon, which means that this year, it was from August 22nd to September 20th. From sunrise to sundown people refrain from eating, drinking, and marital relations for the entire 30 days. It made for no normalcy of daily life. At 2AM every morning, a “drummer boy” would go through the streets banging a drum to awaken the women so they could get up and cook. The families would be up to eat around 3AM because they had to be done by the 4AM call to prayer. Because of this, the city pretty much shut down from 11am-5pm. every day, with everyone home resting. The bazaar would open again around 4-5pm. so they could get their food to make dinner – which would be ready at 6:30pm. As soon as the evening call to prayer began, they could eat (which meant that the streets were empty at sundown too!). Then, at the end of Ramadan they have their “big celebration of the year” – Eid! It lasts for 3 days and they celebrate by giving each other gifts, eating sweets, and visiting each other’s homes. I joked that they were all celebrating my birthday, because Eid began on September 20!
As for my birthday, as with most things here, things never go as planned. Originally we were going to go to Erbil to celebrate with some friends there, but because of Eid, we ended up staying home. Though I must say that our overnight stay at the Sheraton earlier in the month (which included a massage!) – graciously “taken care of” by our new friend Doug from Dallas, was definitely an “early birthday treat”! D’Andra invited over some of the other Americans over on my birthday and we celebrated 3 birthdays (another gal, same age as me, and a 16 year old boy –their birthdays on the 17th and the 18th, respectively). We had the ever famous chocolate chip cookies and the “traditional” Red Cake! It was a fun evening. I also got to talk to lots of family and friends on Skype and phone calls on and around my birthday which also made the day very special! The highlight, though, probably was receiving a stack of cards from my biological family and my Faith family. There was even a video of people wishing me a Happy Birthday! It was a little piece of joy!
The months of August and September have been interesting to say the least. I guess the “biggest thing” for me (that has spanned the last 2 months), as many of you know, was that I fell and hurt my foot. I am rather protective of my ankles (after the “job” I did to mine in college), so this time I favored my ankle and instead my toes curled under my foot while in sandals and I stepped all my weight down on it. After a month of going through the various shades of black, blue, purple, yellow, etc. and it still causing pain, I finally went to have it checked out.
Taking advantage of the socialized health care, I went and got an x-ray of my foot for $1.50. The doctor here said he thought he saw a crack in the outside bone of my foot. I sent the x-ray back to the states to my cousin who works for orthopedic surgeons. One of them looked at it and did not see a crack, but rather the beginning of an avulsion of the tendon at its insertion - that pretty much means that there is a small tear in the tendon. Either way, there’s nothing they can do for it, it’s just going to take another couple of months to completely heal. It is getting better, currently I have gone several days without icing it or taking any ibuprofen!
The title of this blog may puzzle you a bit – so let me tie it all together. Prayer has been the summary and backbone of the last 2 months. Not only prayer, but prayer and fasting. Ironically, the spiritual lessons God has been teaching me tie in ever so well with the cultural lessons (prayer and fasting is what the month of Ramadan is all about). There have been many ups and downs of this journey. We are all created as 3 part beings – physical, emotional, and spiritual. All of my “beings” have been tested over the last while; and while I have taken some big hits physically (my foot and struggling with the lack of exercise) and emotionally (I have been missing my support system - family and friends), I believe this time has strengthened me spiritually. I can honestly say that never in my life have I had to rely on God (and only Him) more than now. Circumstances have provided many opportunities to go back to his Word for Truth, comfort, peace, and promises I know will never fail. It has been a trying but enlightening time for me. The times that I have had in the Word and Prayer have been unlike any other I’ve ever experienced. I am coming into a new appreciation for the role of intercessory prayer in our lives and circumstances. I am so often a “doer” and I know God calls us to “be” more than “do” (the Mary / Martha lesson), so I believe that through my circumstances here in the last few months, God has taught me that our time spent in prayer is just as (if not more important) than the “things” we “do”. Whether that is prayer for your own circumstances or prayer on behalf of others, NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF PRAYER! I have gained more passion, heart, and desire through my times of prayer than I ever could “doing” things. God has revealed much in this time. We still need to be doers of the Word and not only hearers, its true, but everything goes hand in hand. For everything, there is a season.
I could go on and on, but I will leave you with one last “ah”. The line that summarizes things for me is “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone!” In a way, this makes me sad, why can’t we realize the great things before they are gone?!…..but as I have unpacked it, I am realizing the fundamental truth that we don’t always want to admit, God knows us better than we know ourselves. And the greatest blessings in our lives are often the things we take the most for granted. Although I have been taken away (literally physically removed from) all the things and people I love, it is for a purpose. God never does anything without a reason in the greater picture and never for our harm, but rather our good. The verses from Luke 14:26-27 (26"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.) have been a challenging lesson for me to learn, but I believe that God is using this season of my life to draw me into an even deeper relationship with him. What I am learning from my experience is that it is not at all wrong to love your family (or friends) or even your own life; and in fact you should! However, if you are putting them (or anything) before God, that’s when there’s a problem. I know God has created me as a people person and I love being with (and thrive when I am) my friends and family. But as with many things, our strengths are often our weaknesses (or temptations). Not that I wasn’t before, but I am so much more appreciative now of what God has given me – aka. the people in my life! I also am coming to a deeper realization of how God designed us – that our families truly are the core of who we are. We don’t get to choose them, God places us within them (for a reason). Because we live on earth tainted by sin, there will be good and there will be evil within each of us and our families; but for whatever reason, it is where God has placed us. During this season (and hopefully always) He is my all in all; and I thank and praise him for the people in my life, from afar. And while I know that this separation is temporal for me, I am also reminded that life here on earth is short (in light of eternity), and we need to take advantage of every moment. Even in the Word we are never promised tomorrow. Which is all the more reason to live for what’s important; the acronym my mom always used was JOY (Jesus, Others, You). Tell the people in your life that you care about them, tell them what they mean to you, how special they are, and most importantly that you love them! We only have 1 life to live, so we each must decide what is important (JOY) and spend our time, resources, and energy on that.
As I look ahead to October, there are still many details to work out but we will hopefully be starting to teach English classes, the university students return, there is a team coming for 2 weeks to do leadership training with the Ministry of Education, and hopefully 2 contractors from the states will be coming over and construction will resume on the Freedom Center. The weather is finally cooler, people are back from vacations, and we are on the verge of many new opportunities (everyday provides interesting experiences!).
As always, I thank you for all your emails, calls, thoughts, and prayers. Keep them coming. Love and miss you!
P.S. Prayer request - I have misplaced my camera battery charger and extra battery. Please pray that I find them so I can continue to take pictures!
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