Charis Around the World

Tidbits From Ebony
by Elizabeth Carmichael

In Her Shoes

Greetings from back on the ground in Ebony! Thank you for your thoughts as I travelled back.  It is hard to know where to begin in updating you on how things are going and what my thoughts are this month.

Thanks so much for your prayers over the women's clinic in the village area where I am now working.  I came back to find that the head doctor somehow found funding to hire an OBGYN and her student assistant, as well as a pharmacist for the women's clinic that has been without any health worker for many months.   Also, God has been so good and so gracious to give wisdom and insight to me and my staff as we discuss goals toward handing the demonstration gardening project over to the community.

I think I have shared with you already that the believing community here in Ebony (as well as many of the "Cousins" we all work with) has been grieving deeply due to the loss of many friends to the hands of violent men.  Someone just pointed out to me recently that Job lost seven sons and three daughters which is the same number of each that this community lost all in one day.  This is not the first time we
have grieved such things, nor will it be the last, I am sure.

During a recent prayer time, I heard someone refer to this work I am involved in as an "orphaned project."  It DOES feel like that on many days.  The "mother" of this work has been killed.  However, the Father of all involved is alive and at work in our midst!  (The mother is alive too, but off enjoying fruit from a much more spectacular garden than the one we've got right now. Someday, we'll join her.) :-)

It is an amazing and unexpected blessing to me that the Lord led me to study the book of Esther from April through July of this year.  Diving in deep to some of the ins and outs of her life, and the Lord's ways,
was a challenge and an encouragement at the time.  Those roots are even deeper now that they have been watered by pain and poverty of spirit.

As a means of expressing their support of my return to Ebony, and especially this project, some have referred to this time in my life as an "Esther" moment.  I must admit, I've also thought about Esther who
was prepared and positioned "for such a time as this."  I've also thought of her and the "If not you, then who?" type thinking that went into my decision to come back.  Yet, I really don't feel like an Esther at all.  And, the longer I am back here, the more I'm convinced that I am definitely not the Esther in this story.

Picture with me for a moment--little, dirt covered boys flying kites in the middle of a dirt road........a group of petite six year old girls running, on their way to school, covered in black coats with flowing white scarves around their heads and necks.......a man pushes a wooden cart laden with parsley, trying to make a day's wages to bring home to his family........a woman on her way to a health education course walks swiftly along the rocky path, carefully watching for obstacles through the slits in the veil that completely covers her face......

THESE people are Esther.  It is their time.  They are going to have to rise to the challenge or perish.  They are going to have to take risks. They will have to be brave. They will have to challenge the norms of status quo, leadership structures and oppressive enemies.   They are the ones being beautified and brought near to an all powerful King.  May they enter His chambers boldly to seek His mercy and grace.

I think I might be more like Mordecai, Esther's uncle.  As I studied the book recently, I thought of the wonderful people in my own life who parallel the ministry of Mordecai.  My friend who has died is one of those people.

Oh, please pray that God would give me, like Mordecai, the grace to serve, to speak boldly, to know when to be silent, and to fast and pray passionately for the salvation of these people whom He loves so very deeply.

This man is teaching a lesson about grafting trees at our demonstration garden, located on the grounds of a women's clinic. 
These ladies are from the village and are being trained in health education as well as nutritional gardening.

Stories From the Field:

As a childbirth group, I thought you might be interested in the fact that I spent the morning yesterday discussing the issue of female circumcision (in another language, mind you!) with a group of Pushpin ladies.  Sometimes female circumcision occurs in Ebony in a similar fashion to what we have heard about in Africa.  But, there is a more common procedure here which also involves trying to "close up" the female genital area.  In order to get our point across about hygiene and the moral implications of such practices, our team and I simplified some of our language by saying, "Do not put a 'curtain' up that God did not make.  There is already a curtain for everyone and nobody's curtain is the same.  Our trousers are another curtain.  So, it is a mistake to try to build any other type of curtain for that area."  It was an interesting discussion, to say the least.  Thankfully, these particular ladies did not have much experience with the subject.  We only wanted to make them aware of the issue since they work as community health workers in very, very conservative areas.

The subject they DO have much experience with however is that "terrible" issue of genital or nipple swelling that happens to some babies immediately after birth.  These sweet, well meaning ladies, had decided amongst themselves that the solution is to pinch and rub the baby's nipples which would eventually (over a couple of days) make the swelling go away.  Oh my.  We gave them a proper lesson on the normalcy of a mother's hormones causing this tenderness and swelling for a baby.  We encouraged them by saying that, if they just leave it alone and help the mother feed and take care of her baby properly (any chance to put a good work in there for those things!), then the swelling should go away on its own.  We emphasized that the only time nipple stimulation is indicated in to help the mother's uterus contract and prepare her for breast-feeding.  One of the ladies reflected on the conversation, "Yeah, it probably hurts the baby when we do it them!"  Ya think?!  Sometimes all I know to say is, "Oh my."

 

A Tender Man's Heart

I am writing you right now from the desk and chair of our sister who was killed a little over two months ago.  I've got two great pictures of her in front of me that are sure to be permanent fixtures in our office now.  The driver for our project has had a very hard time grieving the loss of this dear friend. He once told me "I've known our sister since she was a 'baby' (newly arrived) in Ebony!  I helped raise her here!"  Today, he was OK to cry in front of me and we shared several moments of grief and conversation together.  It is so hard in this culture to relate to the men in their grief when, sometimes, all I want to do is give them a big hug.  I am just trusting our Father is hugging them for me!  The driver put his hand on some "indoor slippers" belonging to our sister and said, "Elizabeth, these are her slippers.  I see them every day when I walk in this office.  They need to be used.  You need to wear them."  They are really gross and probably stinky and they are not even my size, so this is was definitely one of those moments when I really miss our sister and the laugh we would be able to share together over this little exchange.  I began to cry and told him, "I can't wear those.  I am not her.  And, I will not be able to do the work like she did it."  He started crying too and looked at me in my eyes and said, "Yes, you can."  Then, we both started crying so hard that we had to just turn away from each other and walk away.  I know it is sad to read something like that, but it was one of the many sad moments today that will stay in my heart for a long time.

A beautiful sunset in Ebony, following the memorial services for eight friends were recently killed.

"Please grant me the grace, fairest Lord Jesus, that some day I might experience a spilling of heaven's glory on the fields over which I watch.  Grant me an echo of some angelic song amid the monotones of my day-to-day work.  And grant me a heart to behold heavenly things in the humblest of places."

(From a book called Moments With The Savior by Ken Gire.)

Thanks for reading, and for praying.

His,
Elizabeth C.

Our International Charis Family
Your stories from around the world touch us and we pray for your safety.
Thanks, Love and Blessings to every one of you!