13 Months

I know it has been at least 2 or months since I have posted here.  I apologize for that.  The past couple of months have been interesting and difficult.  However, it is a wonderful thing to know that I am down one year!  Thank you for pr me through! 

Since my last post I have been to Kenya and come back on organ less ......  I went to Kenya looking for answers to my dizziness and fainting.  I came back without any real answers to that, but we did find out why I was having stabbing stomach pains, I had 2 marble size, calcititis gall stones (fun! fun!).  The Father knew what He was doing in getting me to Nairobi for what I thought would originally be 2 weeks, and He sent me at a time that at first I thought was "bad" timing.  Not so, not so.  By the end of the first week the doctor had requested so much blood to be drawn for tests I wondered if I still had any left :), and on Friday of that week he suggested we also go ahead and do an ultrasound of my gall bladder and liver.  However, by Thursday I had another lovely attack of stabbing pain, which kept me up all night.  I had another appointment with the doctor on Monday, so that morning when he read the ultrasound he announced the presence of the stones.  I told him of my cramps and pain, and he said I needed to go to the gastrinologist.  The rest went very quickly.  By the second Friday I was checking in for surgery at the hospital at 3:30pm that afternoon.  Once the doctor got in he discovered that my gallbladder problem was acute and basically non-functioning, so it was NO coincidence that I was there when I was! 

I remained another week in Nairobi, bringing my stay to 3 weeks, for recovery; then I returned to Camel Land on July 17.  Today marks me being back for one month, and I guess it's the one month marker for surgery.  I am now basically healed up and feeling better where the gall bladder is concerned!  Thank you for pr-ing even though you may not have known what you were pr-ing for at the time, the Father always knows!

I have now finished phase 3 of language and will actively begin phase 4 mixed a little with phase 5 next week.  This phase involves a lot of things that are uncomfortable and hard.  I have to interview people, do a language immersion (which most likely means living with a national family for at least 3 days), having my first language evaluation (on Tuesday, August 21 at 8:00am), and having to learn how to break apart the pieces of this very difficult language.  Please be lifting me up in this.  It's not only that this phase is difficult and uncomfortable, but I have been learning language for 13 months now, and I am tired, sick and dry of learning language.  Pr that I will press on in these next 3 to 4 months.

A huge praise and treat is coming up in December!  I am going HOME!  I will be taking some vacation in December and coming back to the US :).  I will be arriving in the US on December 13 and staying until January 7.  My parents are on STAS, so I will be with them, Lydia and her family, along with Julia and hers.  My friends down in Fort Worth, I don't think I'll have car access, and since my time is so limited I will want to be with my family pretty much the whole time.  However, if it is possible I would love to see you.  I'll be in Texarkana for a big part of the time, which is not far from Fort Worth.  If anyone would like to loan me a car or let me borrow one while I'm in the US for these 3 1/2 weeks that would be a great treat.  Please write me at racfarmer@mailboxwiz.com if you are interested in that request.

Some of you will notice that Hannah's name isn't mentioned in the family I'll be with in December.  This is because Hannah and her husband, Adam, will be coming to the States for some time at the end of August.  We are sad they can't also be there in December.  Continue to lift up Hannah and Adam, and please ask that their time in the US be good and refreshing.

Also if anyone is interested, one thing that would be a great gift whether you send it to me while I"m in the US in December, or while I'm here, are Beth Moore studies with the voice recordings of the weekly sessions.  I am just now finishing the Esther study, so any other study is fair game!  I know that most of you will just suggest I download, go to itunes etc etc.  I do use that option here some, but with our internet set up downloading one thing that is about an hour long can take up to 3 days!  I am not kidding!  Also it is very expensive to try and use my internet to download things.  This is why I am suggesting for the recordings of the weekly sessions they be put on CDs or on a thumb/flash drive. 

Please continue to pr and lift up.  Thank you for all of your pr.

Serving Him with You,
Rachel

Pictures:
1. The first picture is taken in my neighbourhood.  If you turn right off the picture and go down another dirt road you would find my house.  Of course right now it isn't dry and dusty like that right now it's wet, muddy, and green where grass is.

2. Me ( I think this was actually back in April)

3. This the front of one of the Othx ch in the city (it's actually the biggest one)

4. This is another view of the same O ch.

5. Me and one of my language teachers after we finished touring this huge ch.  She doesn't normally cover her head only around the ch. (this was also back in April I think)