Dear Charis Family,

Greetings from Michigan!  A far cry from my writing location in Hawaii from last month.  It is C-O-L-D, COLD here.  Hopefully, we will get some more snow this week.  I am enjoying it. Why would Michigan relate to "Tidbits From Ebony?"  Well, because I have no life to offer you except just the one I'm livin' now--and this is where I am right now.  And, because Michigan is home to a one month debriefing and counseling retreat center.....and, debriefing and counseling are very much required for maintaining a healthy life in Ebony!  I am half way through the program here and working through a lot of hard issues, taking time to grieve some more and taking the time to listen to how the Father is wanting to strengthen me for the future.  I am here with three other families who are also working through many ordeals they have faced in ministry.  I am in awe, once again, of how resilient the Lord has made us and how He stands with us through so many trials and so much pain.  If you find yourself facing trials and pain right now, I hope you will take some comfort in the fact that many of your brothers and sisters around the world are also enduring unthinkable things.....and, He is showing Himself faithful on their behalf as He will for you.

This month in Ebony I got the news that a dear local friend has been killed.  I may have mentioned her in previous Tidbits.  I called her "Bossie" because that is a kind of English equivalent to the meaning of her Ebony name.  Bossie was dear to me.  She has hugged me tightly, smiled and laughed with me, cried with me, argued with me, cooked for me, taken naps with me, played with my hair, brought me toilet paper while I was squatting over a toilet, protected me, defended me, taught me, and shared her heart with me.  She was my friend.  One day I was hanging out with Bossie and her family and the next day, she was gone.  I was crushed and so angry with her family for marrying her off without telling me.  Her new husband had taken her away to a village I would never be able to visit because it is too dangerous.

Bossie struggled to get pregnant.  For women in Ebony, having babies is intricately and directly related to how much respect and value you have in your family, to God and in society.  Bossie went through two miscarriages in her first year and a half of marriage and struggled greatly in her heart.  Recently, she was pregnant for a third time and had carried the baby to nearly full term.  Bossie, her husband and several other family members had come to the city to attend a wedding celebration.  On their way home, their van hit an explosive devise (a bomb) in the road and all the people in the van were killed. Bossie and her sweet baby are gone.  I miss her.

This is also a reality of Ebony (as some of you have gathered over the past few years).  Something tragic is always happening.  It tends to hit close to home every few months or so.   Sometimes it shakes me to the core.  Other times I feel so numb that I wonder if the very numbness itself is a sign of un-health.

I used to meet guarded, disengaged, frazzled, unexcited field workers and think "What in the heck happened to YOU?!"  Now, at 34 years of age with 12 years of overseas experience behind me, I'm starting to realize.....the WORLD happened to us.  One point they kind-of drive home at this counseling place is the concept that our "souls were created with eternity in mind, not to be satisfied or apathetically compliment to the brokenness of this fallen world."  That is where the unending ache comes in.  It wasn't meant to be this way.  Isn't that a sense you get in childbirth as well??  There is a path that is so clearly what we were made for....we can just taste the character of God in it, and the things of heaven.  But, there are also times when it is so clear, "This is not how it was meant to be."

I guess that is some of what I am feeling as I grieve Bossie.  That, and "How long, O Lord?"

Recently I had a group of supporters from my passport country basically come against me and accuse me to my superiors, saying that I am "brainwashed," that I love "[a certain ethnic group] more than I love [my passport country]," and some other choice words.  (These individuals have not spoken to me personally in several years, so this was really a conclusion they have come to after just reading my writing and considering their own values.)  They are offended that humanitarian aide is being given to those whom they perceive as "the enemy."  They are offended that we, who are the actual ones suffering first hand at the hands of certain violent people, would walk in obedience to our Lord and bless those who persecute, love our enemies, and pray for them that revile us.

I have been shocked and dismayed at the treatment I've received from these countrymen this month.  The funny thing is, I spoke to them out of John 15 and 16 several years ago while visiting their church.  We so easily forget that Jesus told us AHEAD of time that these things were to come....and He explicitly told us that it was so that we would be CONFIDENT that HE is the one, that His commandments are right and trustworthy, and that we will be HELD as we follow Him even to the cross.

One of my fears after all of this happened is that many more of my friends and supporters think the way this one group thinks.  That they have been listening to my stories and supporting my work, but in their hearts is a brewing misguided pride, anger and racism.  I pray this is not true!  I want to reach out to you, ask you to consider the humanity I've brought before you in these "Tidbits" over the years. Not only the humanity, but the heart of God that sent His only son because of His great love FOR humanity.

If you like these updates, if you have learned something about the world He's made and His heart for it, would you spread that Light a bit this month and share it with others?

Would you consider His incarnation--how He became flesh and dwelt among us?

How did we seem to Him?  The Word says we were at enmity with Him.  He entered the midst of the enemy.  He came onto a scene where worship to God was filthy rags.  He came and befriended the vilest criminals and perpetual sinners.  He took food from stinky, dirty hands, blessed it and fed thousands with it.  He did not consider His citizenship/Kingship in heaven something to be guarded at the cost of losing humanity to Satan's lies.  I find that astounding.

He came.  He become one of us while remaining who He always had been.  It worked.  We have no doubt about this.

"Remember the word that I said to you:  'A servant is not greater than his master.'"  John 15:20

May we be more and more like Him in the coming year!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
Love,
Elizabeth Carmichael