Charis Around the World

Tidbits From Ebony
by Elizabeth Carmichael

Dear Charis Family,

First of all, thanks so much to all of you for your prayers and supportive comments and emails over the past month.  Your love, support and perseverance is a huge encouragement to me and has touched my heart deeply.  Also, I want to say a very special thanks to several of you who helped me get through some dental needs I had while in the States briefly.  The brother of our very own Christi Jones generously provided his services and counsel in a time of great need for me.  His name is Dr. Brent Moses, located near Richmond, VA.  I can't express enough thanks to Christi, Dr. Moses and all of you. Dental care is probably one of those things that, if you don't stop and think about it, you don't realize how horrible it is for people who live in this world without ANY dental hygiene education or appropriate care available to them.  Western overseas workers, like myself, often go long periods of time without appropriate care and sometimes we can find ourselves in quite a bind with no where to turn.  I'm so thankful for GOOD dentists in the world!  Aren't you?!

I am grieved to report that one of my tidbits this months is the fact that the American woman I have been working closely with and assisting in her project development in Ebony has been killed "in action." She was a treasure of a friend and a faithful sister in the work and in the faith.  She will be deeply, deeply missed. Because of security constraints, I don't think I can share any more with you at this time.  A few other friends have also been killed this month.  It is a very, very slow process for my mind and my heart to take in the enormity of the loss, yet also rejoice simultaneously in the reality of the eternal gain they are experiencing at this very moment.  Ebony is a violent place.  This is a reality of life.  Death and pain are part of the joy, the growth and the living.  It is often an unwelcome mystery to us.  Yet, even in the face of these horrible, unimaginable things, God is giving birth to something greater that we can not even fathom.  Thank you for being sisters and brothers who cling to Him in hope for me and for the peoples of our globe.

After a few weeks of processing, praying and seeking counsel, I have been released to return to Ebony once again in a little under a week.  I will continue work on the project for women that I had been working on.  It is overwhelming to consider taking it on alone.  I need your prayers desperately.  I want to offer you some specific things to be praying over me and this project work in the coming month:

1. There is a women's clinic in one of the villages where we work.  This just means four walls and a door, basically. Not much else.  The midwife who had been working there got married and moved away and now there is no one.  This one clinic provides the only women's healthcare for many villages in the surrounding area.  We NEED a midwife there.  Please pray that God would raise up a skilled, mature and insightful midwife from within the local community.  Please pray also that He would make provision for her salary.

2. Pray for the agricultural component to our project.  We try to teach women to grow nutritious food or important herbs, how to prepare them in a hygienic way, and how to do all of this with very little water.  For several years, we have provided everything for this aspect of the project.  This year, the community needs to start taking more ownership in the agricultural work so that it can continue on and spread among their villages.  Please pray for all the little decisions and choices that go into a huge change like this.

3. Please pray for the women who participate in basic health and childbirth education groups in surrounding villages.  Pray for heart change within their lives and their families.  Pray that they would value life and have hope that their efforts toward holistic health CAN make a difference in this life as well as the one to come.

4. Finally, I ask you to pray for those who grieve in the land of Ebony.  May the mourners be comforted with the powerful presence and transforming truth of the living Christ.

Much Love in Him,
Elizabeth Carmichael