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
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