Gideon

I don't have the power
I don't even have a clue
I don't have all the answers
I don't even have a few

But if I were really honest
And the truth were known of me
It might sound a little funny
But this is what my prayer would be

I don't know what to do
But my eyes are on You
I don't know what to do
But my eyes are on You

I lift my eyes toward the Heavens
Tune my ear to Your command
Help me boast in my condition
You're the God and I'm the man

-Jason Upton

I am in the midst of a lot of unknown, and that has brought out in me a sense of abandonment. Even a demanding of God to speak. Which by the way, He has chosen not to do. Perhaps because He knows that I'm seeking the answer above Him. And He wants me.
The song above, is called "Gideon (Valley/Victory)" and sits smack dab in the middle of Jason's album Faith. The album moves from start to finish as a journey, (as each of his do), and right now Faith is the guide I need to help me have the right conversations with God. This song is a one of those conversations.

Pray for Burma

I urge you all to pray for Burma and to spread the word and prayers. And if you can, to give to an aid organization, I know World Vision has access to the country already.

In case you aren't already aware, a cyclone ravaged the nation-state of Burma (Myanmar) over the weekend, and there are already 23,000 confirmed dead. Many fear that number is going to reach 100,000 people. That's people - just like you me, me, and your mother. Missing and dead. And to comlicate things the military government is blocking access to much of the aid being offered. Many more thousands of people who are alive now are likely to die soon of exposure, starvation, and disease. Especially as dead bodies pile up, and poison the water supplies.

Complicate it all again, by the brutal junta regime's violent attacks on many of the tribal villages, particularly among the Karen people, who are refugees areound the world, in the thousands. And complicated thrice by issues of sex trafficking and child soldiers.

Plead to the Father for the junta regime to allow ALL aid and workers into the nation, and for the right equipment, food and supplies to reach the more than 1 million who have been left homeless. Just plase pray. And maybe also that somehow all of this will be used for good, and that democracy, and restoation might come!

Odds and Ends

Here are the Odds and Ends:

• I'm feeling enormously better from the pneumonia, all is well. We discovered the likely cause: a large radius of mold caused by a slow leak in our basement, leaking directly into my room! Really nasty, but we've got it cleaned up and I've moved back down.
• The Edmonton road-trip worked out, I got to see my grand-folks, and go to the concert. The John Butler Trio are amazing - so freaking talented, I can't even explain. And The Skylight Room is a bit of a hole. And driving home all night and going to straight to work, is not the best plan!
• My midwifery degree seems to be falling apart at the seams, as the saying goes, "anything that can go wrong - will." I'm trying to figure out the pieces, and trust Jesus that He led me into this in the first place, and He won't leave me hanging. At least not forever.
• My Kuya TonTon just called me, all the way from the Phils, just to talk! I was so blessed! He and my Ate Nona, were my Manila-parents, they run the guesthouse I ended up living in for a bit. It was so special to hear from him, and seriously bizarre to get an unexpected call, late on a cold and snowy night!
• And then there's that... last week it was Spring, the snow was gone. This week it's Winter all over again, brushing off the car, letting it warm up, icy roads, 2ft of snow! Absolutely unacceptable!!
• I'm looking forward to 2 things: next week is our staff retreat... in Victoria!! Can't wait for a beautiful place, and some semblance of heat. And in a couple weeks I'm moving into a great basement suite with one other friend, and it will be great to reclaim certain freedoms!
  
• And now I have a prayer request, for a little 2-year-old girl who's facing a deadly cancer. Please pray for Charlize, as her last chance is receiving a stem cell transplant tomorrow. Her immune system is very very low, pray for a true miracle!!
  

Cat's Out - My New Job

Well, the Official Cat is out of the bag, so I thought I would finally write on here and share with all of you my news about "The Next Step." And what I'll be doing after I head home in a couple weeks.
What I'll be doing is actually surprising to me, because I never saw it coming. I received an email a couple months ago and sat in the internet cafe with my mouth gaping, at the strange idea it presented to me! The suggestion that I consider serving the GP Church of Christ as youth pastor, or at least pray about it! In that moment I thought it was just craziness, why would anyone ask me that question? I assumed I would write back the next day and tell him, "nope, that's not for me." But I did pray about it, and in fact the idea itself grew and grew in my mind until both the praying and thinking began to push me towards the opposite answer. I began to really want to do it.
So now it is official. Starting in January I will be on staff in my home church, working full time as the Interim Youth Ministry Director. Yikes! And Yay! I'm pretty excited for this, there are just so many amazing Jr. and Sr. High-ers in our congregation! As I have been in and out of GP in the last few years I have had a lot of fun with them, leading in youth group, sunday school and conferences. And now my job is to plan those things and keep having fun, and point them all to Jesus! That's pretty exciting to me.
So the Cats out of the Bag. I figured I should finally blog this, as even my own poor brother found out by accident the other day. So now between the Chronicle and church and this blog, you all should know! I'd appreciate your prayers as I head into big responsibility, and lots of learning!

H-T-O, O-V-T-H

Another sweaty day has brought me to my internet home, a cafe called "Netopia," my daily stop to connect with you. I'm sure the man next to me wishes that I stopped for a shower before I ventured here, that is unfortunate for him...
Today we finished our vision screening project in the cemetary community and tomorrow we will finish up on the dumpsite. For the last 2 weeks I have been standing at a chalkboard, pointing out letters and hearing "H-T-O, O-V-T-H," and watching fingers point and little voices say "ta-ass", "baba"(sorry, that's my phonetical Tagalog!).
Children who have vision trouble or eye abnormalities will see a doctor on Friday, and then be given glasses or surgery as needed. But even though this testing and treatment is completely free it has been remarkably hard to round up children for the quick, (painless) test! Today in a final push we managed to see almost 40 kids, putting us at about 120 in this community.
Although I'm sure you know and understand that Manila is hot, you may wonder just why such a task as standing at a chalkboard has got me so sweaty! Well you see, this particular community has been without electricity for several months now! I can be quite comfortable without air con, but life without electric fans is a different thing altogether! I do give my co-workers (all Filipinas) a good laugh as I soak through the back of my shirts, and last less than a minute without dabbing my forehead! They seem to think I'm going to catch a cold from being so damp!
So if you're praying for me, pray maybe that I'd sweat less, or that I would continue to have polite seatmates at the internet cafe!

God's Leading Me

So the time has come for an announcement! God has really been paving the way for me, working in my heart and opening up opportunities and I will soon be able to continue my midwifery training and service!
Through the help of another midwife I came into contact with a clinic running in the city of Cebu (think central Philippines), with the same heart that you sent me out with. A heart to love and serve poor families and to provide women with excellent pregnancy care, all in the name of Christ! And I have been welcomed to move down south and join them in their work for six months! All the details have yet to fall into place but I hope to make the move in the middle-to end of June. I am so deeply happy, every buntis (pregnant woman) I see, makes me miss the personal and joyous work of midwifery - I can't wait to get my hands back to work!
It is hard to express what a journey I have been on these last few months, especially the last one - but I really want to openly rejoice because God is good in the midst of every circumstance! He has been teaching me about faith, obedience and about giving Him the glory. And He has really been awakening my hunger for Him.
For those of you who have been praying so faithfully for me I want to say a huge "Thanx", and I want to let you know that your prayers have been answered in my life!

Onward!

Life seems to be characterized by change! It really is the only constant. This weekend I moved, packed my things up one morning, stocked up a taxi, drove across town, and unpacked into my new room at the World Team Guesthouse. I will be living here for the next 3 months (so the plan is), and it is a wonderful spot - a little sanctuary at the end of the day! The house welcomes missionaries and other travellers during their stay in Manila, so new people are always coming through, it should be very interesting to meet so many different people.
I am beginning to volunteer with an organization, The Philippine Christian Foundation, that works to address the root causes of poverty in a couple of the poorest communities in Manila. One of these communities is based on the foot of Smokey Mountain, an infamous garbage dump site, lived on and worked through by whole families. Everyone from the children on up, work there, looking for recyclables and junk that can be sold. Another community is a squatter village located in a public cemetery. PCF is involved in education, health services, livelihood projects, literacy and skills training, social welfare and advocacy.
I really look forward to my time here with PCF, they are in the midst of great need and are doing excellent work on behalf of these communities. The heart is transformation and moving from charity to self-sustaining community life.
In the midst of all the "where" and the "what" changes are the emotional changes. My outlook on the year and on life is different now then when I came out here. I'm adjusting, I'm praying. I so appreciate your prayers. I look forward to entering a new rhythm, and to keeping you up-to-date with more pictures and stories.

Visayas' Secret

Just around the corner from our neighbourhood is a street called Visayas, a normal, Quezon City busy street. During the day Visayas is nothing special, but at night she tells a secret. A half dozen innocuous little shops turn on their lights, set out tables and populate them with pretty girls in skimpy outfits. The Blind Tiger, the Lavender, kind and pleasant code words for "brothel". This isn't the red-light district, this is my neighbourhood, next to the market and fast-food restaurants.
During the day the people of this land are Catholic, but by night it seems "we are losing our religion." Solomon's words are still true, "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." Do you know of a country that doesn't share this darkness? Rich, poor, Christian, godless, modest, brash - in each and every one there is the worship of instant pleasure, profit, power.
And my heart is sad; sad because these women are my sisters. If I was born on a different day, or if I hadn't been given the opportunities I've had, who's to say that I wouldn't be one of them. That your sisters, friends, daughters wouldn't be among them.
Pray for these women who are simply going to work, and pray for the broken, empty and dissillusioned ones who pay for their time. Everyday I am reminded of the secret Visayas keeps, and I can't carry that burden, let's remember to bring it to Jesus. And also make room in your hearts for the hundreds of thousands of women and children who are sold for this work every year.
For more info check out these links:

• Justice for Children International
• International Justice Mission
• I Am Coming
  

Desperate Heartache

Yesterday morning we woke to attend a birth, arriving at the clinic in confidence, awaiting the natural entrance of a new life. Hours later, at 4:00 we fought for that life, and at 5:00 we accepted that life would not come. We lost the baby.
To all the horror of that final hour, I can not give words. We did all that could be done, we fought a war for life. And we cried out-loud, begging God to act, speaking His holy word, proclaiming His goodness, we prayed desperate, faithful prayers for an hour and a half. But that tender, precious girl stayed resting in the arms of Jesus, and never woke to know this world.
The unimaginable truth is that everyday infant lives are snuffed out before they ever begin. It's a fact too sad and too wide for my mind to really know. But yesterday, I held one perfect, beautiful, lifeless baby. And I experienced the despair of her parents, sobbing husband clinging to heartsick wife. And I wept, and things broke inside me, and I was a part of one of those unimaginable moments. And now every thought, every conversation, even my sleep holds the memory of that one hour, that one baby.
Together now we wrap ourselves in prayer, we hold hands to walk home, we cry floods of tears, we unburden ourselves before Jesus. We make it through one day. And by the grace of God; tomorrow we will get through one more. Please:
Pray for Erlinda - a mother without a child. Pray for Gerlene - a women serving her people and trusting God's protection. Pray for us - small servants with broken hearts.

First Home Birth!

Friends... it has been an eventful week and feel that I've had so much to say and have not been able to say it yet! I'm going to try and give you the Reader's Digest version (as my father would say).
The girls and I have begun camping out at our midwife's place - births often happen at night, and night transportation can be somewhat sketchy here. So in the name of safety we're camping out there overnight in order to be available for births. Her husband and kids will be joining her to live up here at the end of March, and then we can stay home knowing we will have reliable night time transport.
So Alex and I camped out on Monday night and at 3:06am were rewarded with a birth, my first home birth! Melba is a first time mom, only 19 years old, and she did so good! She is also my continuity which means that I cared for her through all her last prenatals, through birth and will continue to do so postpartum. And she gave birth to a darling chubby girl - Andrea Jesusa, which is what her and her husband wanted. (Birth details, ignore if you don't want to know: ...I did 3 IEs, monitored vitals and heart tones, labour coached, cut the cord, gave oxytocin injections in stage 4, gave baby vit K and erythromicin. Melba laboured upright, and delivered in a squatting position, no lacerations - yay!)
And when I was checking up on her today she told me that they wanted me to be Andrea's godmother - which is so special! I'll be sure to show you ALL the pics when the baptism happens, but will hopefully have other baby pictures tomorrow night (my time).
So we left after the birth at about 4:30am and I was admitted to the hospital at about 7:30am! I'd been having serious abdominal pain for over 12hrs, and got to the point that I couldn't handle it anymore. So the hospital gave me a lifetime worth of meds and made me stay 24hrs. They also collapsed a vein when trying to insert an IV and gave me the biggest stinking needle ever, and I cried like a baby! I'm still not really sure what was wrong, or how to keep it from reoccuring, but for now I'm better. I'd really appreciate your prayers for good health!
Well I look forward to the days to come, we're having so many home visits, and there are so many mommies due in the next couple weeks, we should keep busy. I'll try to keep you up-to-date better and get some pictures on here soon. I really need some pictures.

The Delivery Room

Well it has been 2 days now at Fabella Maternity Hospital, and after all the "welcome/orientation" stuff of yesterday we joined in on a Lamaze class that some hospital midwives run for low-risk mothers. It was a very good class, sadly very few women get to participate, most women "risk-out" and instead will labour and deliver alone in a room full of staff/students and other labouring mothers.
Today my team and I spent in the Delivery room and OR. These patients are considered high-risk for a variety of reasons, such as first baby, high blood pressure, early or late labour, etc. So we observed 10 births today! 2 of them by C-Section. As well as 3 tubal ligations.
It was a very intense day, I can't begin to explain it to you here - but I can say that it was good to be able to offer kind words and a gentle touch to these women who are often in great pain, maybe frightened and always without their loved ones. That was a great, great privilege.
Please pray for these women, I am so glad there is a hospital for their care, even if it's not what most of us would expect . Would you ask God to give them courage, strength, to be their comfort and to give them safe deliveries.

First Steps in Manila

Kamusta-ka from Manila! We arrived here on Thursday and have been settling in and building our home since. We have a wonderful little place in a gated yard with access to our landlord's beautiful garden. Right outside our door we enter the world of Metro Manila; loud, smoggy, many many smiling faces, crazy traffic, curious stares, poverty and wealth side-by-side. It's hard to descirbe this city in mere words, and its far too early to pretend like I really know anything of it.
While everyone is consistantly very, very friendly and ready to help, I must say that I am tiring of the constant stares and commotion that us going anywhere causes. I am a head taller than most of the population here, and I know it the moment I step out of my gate. I hope that I will learn to block out the attention.
On a very, very happy note yesterday I met my Filipina-preceptor and we went full-on into a prenatal day! I know I've posted about a couple other prentatals days that I've be apart of, but this one is different because I will actually be attending the births of many of these women! You don't know the excitement, wonder and almost confusion that brings me! I am so glad for this chance to learn and serve.
On Tuesday we will begin a 2-week rotation through an enormous maternity hospital here that sees some 80+ births/day!!! We will have the chance to see dozens of births, and observe and assist in all of their departments! I have heard from previous midwives that their experiences at Fabella (fa-bell-ya) Hospital has been extremely intense and often heart-breaking. Life here just doesn't play out the same as at home.

• Please PRAY for me and the other girls these next 2 weeks, we are going to need strength, trust in God's goodness, and open minds and hearts.
• Pray also that we will be able to bless these precious mothers who need a touch of love, and for our interactions with the hospital staff - that we would learn from each other.

Melancholy

Oh Friends, today is a hard day, yesterday too. School is over, and all my dear classmates are going, going, gone. The hard thing about being involved in short-term communities (ie: DTS, or this summer), is that you put your whole heart into people - because you can't put only a bit, you just can't. But when the community moves on, as with these things it really should. Well, your heart goes with everyone who leaves. So my heart is a little tender today, sore, and melancholy.
But Lord I am grateful for this summer, for this community that shaped me, and loved me and and danced with me (literally)! This has been an incredible gift, and it is you my friends at home that have helped get here, to be apart of this life that God is calling me into, giving me, and leading me on.
I'm coming home to you friends. In a few short days I will be home. For the short term atleast, as it most always seems to be. But none-the-less I will be back in your community, loving and changing with you.
This summer has been wonderful, inexplicably good. And I look forward to the time when I will meet these friends again on distant shores, whether that be in a few months in the Philippines, or Heaven. But as for today, today I am sad. And quiet.
Bye.

A God Who Answers Prayers

Having prayers answered is such a rush! Because I think sometimes in the waiting we really have a hard time expecting that God is working, and acting on our behalf. I'm not good at waiting. I am good at worrying.
And what has been interesting about the clinic closure this summer is that I have not been excessively worried about what will be. From the beginning it has been clear that God is so fully in control, that I could not doubt His plans or timing, but that my only posture right now is to trust. And so I have not been consumed with worry, I have not lent much time to it at all. But questions have formed in my mind, wondering how long this could go on. And if my easy expectation of a January departure was simply pie-in-the-sky. I won't tell you that those have disappeared, there are no easy answers.
But yesterday - yesterday we got amazing news, the kind that is so completely orchestrated by God that I can only respond - of course! Of course He was at work, of course He had far better in mind. Of course I can continue to trust Him in these next few months.
Earlier this week the Department of Health officials in Manila met with our staff in the Philippines and admitted that all of the charges they had brought against us were trumped up! All of them! The thing is that several DOH officials have their own "laying in" (birth) clinics that are for profit. And they see the Mercy clinic (not for profit), as competition, stealing from the paying population, rather than giving to the poorest of the poor. But along with admitting the charges - they have given them up, which puts Mercy in the clear!
Here is where we stand now:
- the DOH feels that if we stay where we are we will continue to face a lot of pressure, they are suggesting moving our clinic to another area of the city,
- we are hoping to get the OK to open the clinic temporarily, while we sort out the details of a different location,
- we are working with Filipino doctors and midwives to open a new clinic in Puerto Gelara, an island over,
- the DOH wants to write a memorandum that commits to work with Mercy in the future and to help us run clinics!
So to those of you who have been praying - here is the result of your prayers, your efforts on behalf of the poor!
Now - don't stop, keep praying:
- we want to open our current clinic and provide care for the women of Welfareville, there are still hundreds/thousands of women who NEED a place to be cared for that is safe and free.
- we want to empower the Filipina midwives to serve their people and hope that they can be more and more involved in running these clinics.
- we work with a Filipino doctor who is giving everything to be a part of caring for the poor and he is facing a lot of pressure and embarassment over the state of medicine and politics in his country.
- all of our staff and the medic and children's workers teams will be going to the Philippines in the next few weeks to begin to work and serve, they will be doing a lot of travelling and working with the sick and abandoned.
Thank you - this is your ministry, and God is at work!

One Prayer Answered!

If you folks remember I had asked you to pray for one of my classmates about a month ago - Suzette and her boys. Well God answered your prayers the little sis of one of my classmates has come to watch them for the rest of the school! She's such a sweetie, and is bonding great with the kids! We're so glad Suzette is back in class fulltime. Praise God!

Plans Change, Clinic in Transition

Dear friends - we're having another shockingly HOT day, it seems that a summer in Boise is the perfect precursor to the Philippines! And of course all heat is compounded when you shove as many girls as possible into a vehicle without Air Con!
I've had a fun weekend with lots of kids - yesterday I got to take 5 kids to a local river for a day at the beach, followed by an afternoon at an outdoor pool with friends, then this morning I was on schedule again at church - this morning with more than a dozen rowdy 2-year olds! Lots of fun.
I have news about our clinic! No, it isn't open, please keep praying, we wanted to be open for these women yesterday (or a month ago). But things are moving forward, our lawyer is still hard at work there, and things are taking shape and forming now for what the future is going to look like!
Our school directors announced this week that they're selling their place and moving to the Philippines - they're going to do whatever it takes to set up places for us to serve and get our experience. This could mean many small, Filipino run clinics, working in hospitals, etc. We are going to wait and see what God will do!
But this means that our timeline has changed - at this point I will not be going to the Philippines in September. It is going to take time to set up and get running. So please pray for all of the pieces to fit together. I hope that the next couple weeks will see more of the details unfold - this is a time of major transition. And for all of us students our dreams, expectations and plans are changing. We are having to trust that God is at work and in control (which of course He is). PLEASE PRAY.
Thank you - you are such an encouragement, I am so glad you stand behind me!

Prayer Request : A Midwifery Family

Another prayer request, there is a woman here in the midwifery school who has run into a big snag. She's mom to 4 little boys, and lost her husband about 2 years ago, they had planned to do the school together.
Now she is a student here, away from her family, and raising her boys on her own. She is such an awesome women, and we love that they are a part of our family here!
Well, the girl who was looking after her boys, needs to move back home, leaving Suzette without childcare, and not able to complete the summer semester. We're really sad about this and we are praying that God performs a miracle to find care for her boys!
So I'm asking you to pray for a miracle and for a loving, caring person to join their family for the summer and spend time with her fabulous boys. She needs someone starting in about a week and a half. We know that God can provide, and we're doing what we can here to fill all spaces to let her atleast attend the midwife classes - but we want her to be involved in the whole school!
Thank you for praying - you are blessing every student here when you do (did you know that?).

Prayer Request: Clinic Update

Hey thank you so much for your faithful prayers!
I wanted to give you all an update with our clinic in Manila. Our director (Vicki) got back from PH last night and the current state is that the clinic is still closed (they have received a Cease and Desist order). The officials are saying that we failed a sanitary inspection (and just as a sidenote, the way to solve the sanitary issue is the removal of the foreigners!!). Also our directors could face criminal charges for practicing midwifery without a licence (to explain: they are licenced midwives, they attempted to register in PH and could not, and were told that was fine). Technically the law in PH states that to practice midwifery a women not only has to act as a midwife, but receive pay for her services. We never charge for our services, therefore, none of our midwives are technically performing midwifery.
Have I thoroughly confused you yet?? I'm just trying to give you the facts, I don't exactly know how to connect the dots.
In normal operation every birth in our clinic is overseen by a Filipina midwife, and even now these midwives cannot practice. Right now all foreigners (midwife students, etc.) have left the area, some are joining other ministries throughout PH. And we are hoping that the clinic can reopen just for births to be run by the Filipinas and a Filipino doctor. Because right now, every day women are coming to our clinic, IN LABOUR, and are being turned away! After all of the hospitals have turned them away, after they have travelled long distances, we still have to send them home! It is awful for them and their babies, and it is awful for everyone who has to explain to them that we can not help.
So, the goal is that the clinic will eventually reopen, the sooner the better. We have a Christian lawyer in PH who is working on our case, and trying to get a judge to read the laws to interpret them. (Apparently the exact details are in question). This case could be a landmark either way - we want it to open the doors for other ministries and NGOs to get into PH and provide midwifery without any hassels.
At this point we don't know what this Fall will look like. I am schedule to go in the first group of students, leaving in mid-September. But if the clinic is not open we are going to look into other options. I don't have a lot of details on that right now. But we're waiting and hoping, praying and trusting!
So there are a lot of things that I have said here. Sorry, I'm not very organized at the moment. Hopefully you can find the prayer requests in what I've said. There are so many things to pray. But we trust God - He is not going to allow any official to throw off His plan, or to stop His work from being accomplished. Amen!

Prayer Request : Clinic is Shutdown

Friends, it means so much to me to know that I am not writing these notes into obilivion, that my journals and prayer requests are not bouncing off the ceiling, but reaching your your eyes and hearts. Thank you for reading, and thanx for praying.
Rigth now I have a prayer request for you regarding our clinic in Manila. Mercy In Action has previously done all the work necessary to meet national standards for birth centers in the Philippines, and have received their licences to practice. In the past some officials have even said that our clinic is a model clinic that should set the standard for many others.
But now we seem to have fallen out of favour with what is considered the 2nd most corrupt agency in the Philippines, the Department of Health. For some yet-to-be-explained reason they arrived at our clinic a couple of days ago and shut them down. This means that all of the women already experiencing prenatal care, and all of those whose birth's are immanent, and those who show up in desperation because the hospitals have turned them away, all of these women are no longer receiving care! As well all of our midwives who are already over there serving, are now left without the ability to help, and without the ability to complete their practicums.
While this is a bit of a scare we really are trusting that God wants us there, and wants us to serve these women and that He will open up the doors for the clinic to reopen. Please pray with us for this!! Pray also for Vicki, who is our director, as she has made a really quick trip to Manila to try and work through this with the officials and the clinic staff. Please pray for the women who are not receiving this care right now. Pray that God would be protecting them, and providing ways for them to receive that care they need through this critical time.
Thank you all, I love, and I thank God for you!

Prayer Request - Lost Little One

Friends I'm going to ask that you'd be praying for one of my new roomies - Hannah is already a good friend, but early this morning received a call with some really bad news. Her dad and step-mom were expecting and the baby was due any day, last night her step-mom went into labour and delivered, but the baby lived only a few minutes. Apparently the baby swallowed some meconium while in delivery.
It is very sad and completely unexpected. Hannah is really handling it well, and knows that God has called her to be here - right now, so she is staying. Please pray for comfort for her family right now, pray that she'd be able to focus as she begins such a heavy workload and one that is so focused on babies and childbirth.
Thank you all for your continued prayers - I can already see that God has been preparing each of us students, and preparing this time for us. I feel different than I've ever felt in any missions/school experience and I keep questioning if all of this could really be real. Leaving was hard, but being here is a great, great gift!