Upon receiving a missive from our daughter, Emma, and our son's girlfriend, Val, in India, a friend just wrote to me:

After reading the bit about the mosquito bites, I have to ask you, altogether seriously, how are you doing???

Thank you for asking, Mattie. Emma has such a blistering mass on her arm that the doctor she is working with asked if she had a rash. And Val, our son's girlfriend, has more than dozen bites on her eyelids.

I would be lying if I said I never worry, but I am amazingly okay. I know they are doing the Lord's work. I have seen over the last two months that God has protected them in every situation, including visits in the slums with the terminally ill--people that no one else, even their family members, will touch. They have survived pressure to idol worship and a five-day road trip and sleeping on stone floors and not having clean water.  Val has become a sister to Emma, and they are being stretched in amazing ways each day. I pray constantly for God's protection and for her continued spiritual growth. It is a great comfort to me when friends say they have been praying for her, too. 

The hardest part is when we've had five to seven day stretches with no news at all. Not hearing their voices for two months now has been hard, too. When I receive an email from Emma or Val, I see so much growth, such miraculous transformations, that I know they are exactly where God wants them to be.

I'll close with an excerpt from an email that Val sent to me last night:

I think maybe spring has come to Chennai?? It's rather difficult to tell. But yesterday I experienced something I thought I never would experience here: rain! Yesterday was the Dean Foundation's 11th birthday so, to celebrate, we went to the beach in the evening. Around 10:00 or so we felt a few drops come splattering down and there were fits and bursts of a spring shower through the rest of the evening. Not exactly a monsoon, but still, rain in India! It was also the first time I have ever seen clouds in Chennai. It was overcast the entire day which was eerie because I've never seen it before, but wonderful because it cooled things off marvelously.

For the Dean Foundation's birthday, we went to a different beach at 6:00 in the morning, passed out pamphlets, and conducted a free medical clinic. Emma met a gentleman who told her that her eyes were stunning and "had a touch of the divine." When she told him her name was 'Emma' he said, "Oh, as in the Jane Austen Novel?" Come to find out, this man is an English professor at a local university. He was the epitome of a Jane Austen gentleman--Indian style. Emma and I were able to talk about the Dean Foundation's hospice work to a surprisingly large amount of people. Those walking the beach were not hostile at all about us approaching them like people in the US might be.

I really enjoyed the evening on the beach. Like I've mentioned before, it's heart-breaking to see the amount of garbage strewn all over such a beautiful area, but the ocean combined with the sand and night sky are serene and calming. We had a 'picnic' (not your grandma's picnic let me tell you) on the beach, I played my violin, and we told stories including stories of Greek mythology from Emma and stories about your husband from me (okay, it might seem strange that I was the one telling stories about Dr. Sleeth, but no one else was taking the lead in the story-telling, and they're some of the most interesting stories I know!). Dr. Nambudripad and Dr. Grace in particular appreciated tales from the life and times of Dr. Sleeth.

I can only imagine the stories that Val and Emma will have to share when they come home in May.