January Newsletter From Brian and Rachel Rich

ETERNALLY RICH         NEWS

Building a mud stove for             roasting farinha Praise God That the old lady recovered   from her sickness For health & safety this past month That the well is working after   a few roadblocks Please Pray For our entire team to get   the rest we need That all our broken modes of   transportation would get fixed   before we return to the village      Rachel and Jason visiting                the old lady     The well is finally functional   We are beginning to recognize the signs. Headaches, heart beating hard, tiredness. I’m not talking about a disease like malaria. I’m talking about mental exhaustion and stress. It seems that after about 6 weeks in the village, we are ready for a break. There was one day that I finally realized it was not my normal “brain is tried from studying all day” alert. It is more cumulative. Ed had already come to town for a break, and Rachel was feeling stressed as well. What is there to do when your brain is tired? Nearly everything takes some thought. I assumed after a few days it would go away. A week went by, but every time something stressful happened, my head started throbbing again. It is difficult to rest in the village, because inevitably someone wants to buy gasoline or wants reading class or gets stung by a scorpion (ok, that only happened once) or has an all-night party with loud music. There is a feature of Maki culture that is great for language learning, but can be difficult for those of us whose culture values privacy. They seem to have an insatiable desire to know what you are doing at all times. I’m walking through the village on my way to check on the boat. “Where are you going?” asks someone in the first row of houses. “Where are you going?” asks someone else. Sometimes they just come and watch you do stuff. At least later we can turn it around on them when they are doing something. But it is stressful to feel like you live in a fishbowl for all to see. We are so thankful to be back in town to rest for a bit. Our co-workers will be traveling to our mission’s annual conference while we hold down the fort here at the base, buy supplies, etc. Merry Christmas and Happy New year! Thanks for praying for us!   In Christ,                  Brian & Rachel Rich

To correspond even while in the village:  brian_rich@ntm.org If you would like to know more, please reply or check out our website and blog:  eternallyrich.weebly.com To support our ministry, follow the instructions under the "Give" tab.

Exhausted during the holidays

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.