Wow - I don't know what to say!!! Many of you know that I am currently in Israel on tour with Pilgrim Tours and Van Hodges from The Village Church - which supports my parents and is the church that my Mom grew up in and was married in.
The LORD has been silent for a long time in my life but now he has spoken and it seems every day he is revealing more and more to me.
I am so blessed, joyful, on fire, rocked to the core of my being at His love and goodness towards me.
Since arriving in Israel less than a month ago He has shown me the next stage of my life - to serve Him here, in the Holy Land with His people. I don't know yet all that He has for me. But I do know that by this time next year I will be working here in Israel, LORD willing with OMS.
I traded in my trip to Petra in Jordan to stay with OMS's national worker, Moshe and his family and get to know the ministry here better. I could not have realized the HUGE blessing that this would prove - and I'm only on day one of three!!!
My Hebrew is coming along - I am better at languages than I ever imagined - have learned the Hebrew alphabet already and can read some - slowly and haltingly - I don't know what all I am reading but that will come in time.
I continue to learn every day. Today I was able to play Round Robin with 4 Jewish boys this morning and learned the numbers 1-11 at the same time. :D
I want to thank you all for the love, prayers, and support you all have give to me. I hope that you will continue as I take this next step in my walk with our loving Savior.
There are still many things that need to be ironed out - but in His providence God has seen fit to reveal that which is next at the same time that all OMS Field Leaders will be in the States for the next month! So all things will be worked out in their time.
I am also excited to see so many different things in my life that at the time seemed to be random but when viewed through God's eyes they reveal a masterpiece. Just one of these is that the Friday morning that I left Haiti I had an impromptu meeting with Prudence - the Head Nurse at the Clinic and Dr. Rodney the Clinic administrator - for the past 6 months we have been talking on and off about getting another nurse to help me in my work - but the amazing interns which have been being sent my way have made it so that it has taken a back seat. This meeting was to discuss hiring one or more of Dr. Rodney's best 3rd year nursing students to come under my tutelage so that I can move out of the position of head vaccination nurse, head malnutrition nurse, and head pregnancy triage nurse, not to mention TB nurse helper. I thought that this was to be able to move me into more wound care type work - this may still be true - but for now I asked for a year to work with these students to train them up. For the first time since starting to work in Haiti I saw mutual respect, and unity between my two bosses! A miracle in and of itself!!!
I look forward to this next year of tying up loose ends in Haiti and transitioning to life and ministry here in Israel.
There is a godly man much like my father here, who is very strong and is a yes is yes and no is no type of person - I can already feel myself thriving under his leadership. I brought my Nook with me to Israel - which was a little odd - but I felt impressed to do so - odd in that I have a nook app on my phone. And it is heavier than I would've liked it to be. This was an other one of God's workings - on my Nook in full is my Birkman test results - which Moshe would need to read :D He came to the Hotel we were at in Tiberias to talk to the team he arrived early so that we could have an impromptu job interview that went really well. During the interview I was able to to read through my results and and realized that I need a strong leader in order to feel safe, secure, and to grow in who I am. This meeting was a success from my perspective anyway ;) Moshe is a little hesitant that I will not be able to make the long haul - give up and turn around after only 3 or 4 months when I realize the Holy Land isn't so holy. He doesn't know me yet. Haha - or my tenacity - or that I have been tested in the fires already - High School in England, as the only Christian - apart from my family, suffering rejection and verbal abuse every day for 5 years, learning to take God at His word and believe His promise of graduating from Pensacola Christian College - even if it took 6 instead of 4 years; and now the past almost 4 years in Haiti facing Dengue fever, discouragement, language acquisition, fighting against long held traditions steeped in Voodoo, and much much more. No, he does not yet know me. But he will.
I have only joy in my heart as I write these words to you, my brothers and sisters. I have been amazed and learned so much not only about myself, but about Jesus, God, the Heroes of the Faith, ancient civilizations, and His Word.
I think this is probably long enough,
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
Shalom,
Elida
