:-) :-) Smiles (-: (-:

I can hardly believe that it has been over a week since I last wrote. I am getting so comfortable here. At the hospital my schedule has remained the same this week and the rest of last week. There was a group from Shorter College here and I had lots of fun with them and was able to tag along with many of the things they were doing in the villages and churches here. Most days I would spend half of the day at the hospital and the second half working with the Shorter group. God is so good. The students were really welcoming to me and I have become good friends with all of them. They left Nalerigue this morning but God used them here and they were a huge blessing to me. I will miss them. My favorite day of the trip so far was yesterday. I went around the hospital with the Shorter students singing praise songs, blowing bubbles, and giving out stickers to the patients. I see the patients every morning on rounds and they are always nice and appreciative of the care they receive but when we came with bubbles and music I saw a whole new side of them. They were happy and excited and filled with energy upon our entrance into the wards. I am humbled by how awesome God is and continually amazed that He is letting me be apart of these wonderful experiences. The patients were in pain and some had little hope and yet they smiled with just a few bubbles. I have many more awesome experiences like this to tell you about but it would take me hours to write all of them. Just trust me when I say God's grace is swelling over here.

Prayer request:
-God continual strength and direction
-traveling - I am leaving for BF Sunday
-the Shorter students are flying home Sunday
-financial support for the hospital
-more doctors to answer a call to work here long term and short term
-one of the boys who is 3 but only 12 lbs - severely malnutritioned has AIDs. He went home a few days ago but he will never get better and will not live too much longer. It breaks my heart to see such a small, innocent child go through so much pain. I pray that God takes away his pain and comforts his grandmother who takes care of him.
-the man with paralysis and burns is not improving. My prayer for him is that he will not be in pain and that if he is not a Christian that he will become one before he dies.
-there is a little boy, probably around 10 years old, with severe wounds on his legs and he has bacterial infection that is causing him lots of pain. He has been in the hospital since I have been here and I have yet to see him smile. I could tell he liked the bubbles yesterday but even that could not bring him to smile. Please pray for his full recovery but also happiness.

Praises:
-allowing me to be apart of the Shorter group
-the other malnutritioned boy who is 2 and a half years old went home a few days ago and is doing much better. If he continues to gain weight and does not get an infection he will be fine.
-the healing power of music, bubbles, and stickers
-the strong God honoring Churches in Nalerigue and some surrounding villages