8 June 2004
Dear friends and family!
Standing in an airport in London waiting for the connection to Accra, Ghana :-)!...
These last few days before have been so quick and filled and so I find I can only do this now, but I was asked to post info on how to reach me, and here it is:
Discovery C/O GILLBT
Box OS-3063
Osu-Accra
GHANA W AFRICA
And Please email me at this account instead of my others while I am away: discovery_ghana@sil.org. You can also find updates on my group and progress as a whole on GoGhana.org!! for right now this is all i am able to type down; i go to meet up my group for the first time from here..
With profound love,
Monica
Posted on 8 June 2004 at 9:20 AM Comments (0)
12 April 2004
Good Lord!Dearhearts, I don't know if anyone checks this anymore, but it has long been on my heart to keep it up. It is nearly a year, and so much has been occurring.. I long to catch it up, but realistically, at least right now :), need to focus on graduating :), But this is my heart; I wanted to attach this letter, for right now, it is what is going on, what my heart has been preoccupied with, and what I long to share,.. Praise God, Mon " March 28, 2004 Dearest Family and Friends, Hello, hello! I am thinking of you all as I write this with a full heart about two things in my life right now that, though separate, God has intertwined and made important to one another, and I needed to first tell all of you, and then ask for accountability. You all are my family, and the ones that I thought would share in this joy with me... Many of you know that I have struggled during the last two years with an autoimmune disease called Ulcerative Colitis. The diagnosis in itself was a blessing, because at the time we just really needed to know what was wrong. The two years since were so much more than just this sickness, but it has saturated a lot of my thoughts and school-life. I worked to deal through the sickness itself and the emotional and physical stress that it brought. But since Christmas, it began to get worse and more constant. During these same two years, however, I (probably like every other 20-something)!, was trying to work out what to do “when I grow up”, what I love, and what I have been called to by God. I have felt a calling to over-seas missions for some time, and God began to direct my decisions, clarifying my desires and interests, and showing how He does take delight in our hearts and uses the silly things we enjoy to have meaning and effect in His Kingdom. The childish love of words and language and a fascination with culture that I have grown up with have brought me to love the idea of linguistics and has turned my heart to serve God with Bible Translation. As I began seeking this out, I was offered the opportunity to go to Ghana with “Discovery,” a short-term mission program of Wycliffe Bible Translators, in order to go see this work for myself and whether this is truly what God is moving me towards. Because of the state of my health and the worry that I hadn’t given up to God yet, I came near to not applying, but as the deadline drew near, I was drawn to ignore any limitations my body was causing. Within a week, I was accepted to the program, pending my health and the doctors’ permission, and we began to pray seriously for God to “do something with this body” that would keep my family and doctors from fearing it or it just not being possible for me to go right now. I had to have a medical procedure done last week that would allow the doctors to find out what was making me feel bad. As the week began, I started feeling noticeably different, but we just waited for the scheduled procedure. When the doctor came out after it, his face was beaming… They didn’t find anything. I mean that they didn’t find anything at all- All evidence of the Colitis is gone, there was only smooth, unharmed muscle tissue, and they said that my organs look like I’ve never had Colitis! Take a moment to really think about that.. :)! My Lord has given me a gift, and as much as our generation shies away from the language of miracles, God has flung off all obstacles from this desire to go, and has made me well, in direct correlation to our prayers for this missions trip. They won’t say that it is a cure, but that I am in official remission and that if it looks as good as it does now in 6 months when they test me again, that I will be able to get off the medicines that I have needed these two years. Needless then, (but so exciting!) to say: I am on my way to Ghana after graduation! My trip is scheduled for June 7th through July 31st, when I will meet up a small team of others that are interested in Linguistic missions and the support roles on the mission field. We will spend a week with one another between two of the cities in Ghana in orientation, and then will receive assignment-villages with a partner. We hope to spend several weeks within these villages working with the team of missionaries that are there now and experiencing translation, both with language projects that have been begun, and those languages that have not been written down yet (oh heart!) Before this trip can take place, I needed to gather you all and to ask for you to be my netting; first of all to celebrate with me!, but also to pray and to support me in this heart-journey. Please, pray specifically for how soon the trip is coming, for my continued health, and for the edification and preparation of the others that I am going with. I also ask you to pray for the financial needs of this trip and for the support I need to raise quickly. Please, consider sharing this with the body of believers that you meet with? This trip is still dependant on this, and because this whole story that I have told has occurred in the matter of two weeks, we will get to see my God touch hearts in little over a month and bring these things to pass. Monetarily, the cost of the trip is approximately $3700, which includes my room and board and getting there. I am expected to have half of the money by April 15 and the balance by May 25th. There are four weeks now until graduation, and a month later we set out!! Please, pray for both of these forms of support, and for the readiness of my heart- I can’t do this by myself- without your interest, prayers, shared joy, and support in raising the money to go serve. We aren’t afraid anymore, and I am overflowing, for what other response is there to God’s earthquakes? There is so much I want to tell you about this month and all that God has done!- the less reduced version for anyone that likes details :). Thank you, loved ones, for reading through this, for having been my support in the past, and for the love you have shown me,. I love you, and do look forward to hearing from you..
With celebration,
Monica
Posted on 12 April 2004 at 12:39 AM Comments (0)
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