2000-08-12

Aug. 12, 2000
Hello from Virginia!
Dear Family & Friends,

Every morning we face school cafeteria-style food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Tonight I finally admitted – I’m ready to cook. The food has been fine, but I’ve a hankering for some Fran-style; then Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut. Jackie could always be satisfied at Luby’s (surprise, surprise). After breakfast each morning, we attend a worship service. Where else could we have a worship service on a daily basis? Praying with the Prayer Team each morning before the worship service has been a true blessing as we commit specifics for that day to the Lord.

This past week our sessions have had some hard, eye opening training. They give us so much information; our brains need some time to process it all. A professor from Golden Gate Seminary came and spoke about the spiritual warfare that missionaries, their families, and the nationals come up against. It’s not that spiritual warfare is any less in the U.S., but we hear it is more “in your face??? in foreign lands. With these realities, we are encouraged to stay in close contact with our prayer warriors. We are reminded of how very thankful we are for your commitment. We also know that if we don’t keep you informed, you cannot fulfill your commitment to God to pray for us. Please pray that we will always keep prayer a priority and to continue to be honest with you and let you know how to pray. We will have times of great joy to share, but we will also have times of discouragement, loneliness, and disorientation. It is so important to keep our children in your prayers – for their protection, their purity, and provision. Please know that our going, depends on you. This is a partnership and we cannot go without you.

On Wednesday, we boarded 3 chartered buses and traveled for two hours to Washington D.C. Talking about culture shock! We’ve been secluded in this beautiful country setting for over three weeks, and arrival at Union Station thrust us into a multi-national setting in the hub of D.C. We were asked to observe people, discuss our findings and eat something we’ve never tasted for lunch. After lunch, we were free to tour the town for four hours. As we observed, we heard so many different nations represented (Spain, Switzerland, Pakistan, Britain, El Salvador, and Africa). I admit I’ve never heard such a variety of voices. Some people were dressed in the clothing of their native lands and many dressed to fit in with the Americans. Hopefully this will help us be sensitive to another culture and realize how important it is to not offend the people of the country in which we will be living. For lunch, I chose a French Pesto Pasto salad (which was pretty tasty) and then a yucky tasting spinach Indian dish (Paalak Paneer & Paratha) served over rice. We walked to the Capital and then to a museum. It was hotter than Texas in DC! We hung out with a single friend we met back in April. Beth will be going to East Africa to train nurses in pediatrics at a hospital in Tanzania. We chose the Museum of Natural History because we heard they had exhibits from both Asia and Africa. The Asian section contained only a few things in one room. However, we enjoyed the larger African section. It was fun to learn things about where Beth will be serving in Tanzania and to see where Linda Plants is serving in Kampala, Uganda with BSF-ROS. I met some school age boys from Guinea and had fun doing some hands on displays with them. We rode the Metro (underground train/subway) back to Union Station and treated ourselves to ice cream and hot cinnamon pretzels before boarding the bus. This excursion just reminded me how much this little Texas girl doesn’t know about the real world!

Please pray for stamina to complete these final two weeks and that our time will be used to it’s fullest.
Thank you for your love & prayers. (Romans 15:30)

Love,
Jackie & Fran