54. Stepping Out in Faith
In her autobiography, In the Arena, the author shared that she was working in a village up the mountains when a runner from below came with the news that Japanese soldiers were coming. They were burning, and killing many. Her choices were poor; either wait for the soldiers, or go over the mountain. The village guide told her that winter storms were starting on the mountain, so going up likely meant to die in the snow. He would guide her, but expected to die.
After prayer, she decided to go over the mountain. As they went, snow began to fall — behind them, covering their tracks. They made it safely over the mountain out of China. Her conclusion, and my encouragement, was that we have to go in faith as far as we can, and then God takes over.
We came to MIBS in faith, and certainly, as far as we could go. Now the Lord had to take over to help us.
I came back from my little retreat in the woods, planning, in faith, to teach the course in communication, even thought my throat was still congested from the diesel smoke. That night, they couldn’t start the generator, and, even with parts flown from Guam, they could not start it until after we left. At last, no diesel smoke, and I could talk and begin interacting with the students!
I was advised that I should never be alone with a female student. They had to wear ankle length dresses, even swimming. The first class day, I sat down on the curb at the entrance to the classroom to greet the students. They came in crawling on hands and knees. I asked Lima, who spoke English, what was going on. She told me that students are never to have their head above the teacher’s head, so they had to crawl because I was sitting down low.
There were 12 juniors and seniors in the class from Palau, Pohnpei, Yap, Truk, and the Marshall islands. Lima, from Palau, and Paul, from Pohnpei, who also spoke English, helped translate when the other students couldn’t understand.
At last! We could function and teach. But apparently, that was not our main purpose there. We were to learn about ourselves, and God.
For what we learned, check in next week.