The Garbage Dump

Have you ever felt like the local garbage dump? You know, the place where people come to dump their trash? Well, that seems to be a pretty good description of being a missionary sometimes. It seems like the closer we come to Jesus, the worse things get around us. I know that we can expect that, since we are on Satan's playground, and he is not all that happy with the invasion.Within the last week, we have been accused of being shoe thieves, poor teachers, and too hard working. (Those are the only things that we were accused of that I can talk about...the other stuff was pretty bad)  Two of our students were on the verge of leaving due to our rather lax work program! They don't want to work at all....ever! And, they would prefer to not have to work at learning either, I am not a good teacher since they have to work at learning on their own sometimes. (I make them look things up in the dictionary a lot)This attitude is the result of living in a refugee camp. Everything is handed to them and they never work. If they wanted to work, there would be nothing to do. The scary part of all this is that I have heard numerous rumors about the government's plan to shut down the refugee camps and send people back to Burma. Whole generations of families are in those camps, and they know absolutely nothing about work of any kind. I have tried to warn my disgruntled kids about it, but I don't know if they will listen or not.I have two girls who are very temperamental. They are grumpy a lot, and it is usually a mystery as to the cause, since they don't want to tell us. The constant grumpiness can really wear on a person. At times, there are big eruptions between those two, and then it takes us hours to get them to calm down again. Last night, they got mad at each other, and suddenly, blaming each other did not seem mean enough, so one started to say how much she wanted to leave, and how she was going to tell her teacher at school that we do not feed her or let her drink water, and we make her work! It is really hard in a situation like that to remain focused on the real problem and not let self get its feelings hurt! After several hours of patiently working with them, we were able to get cooperation and happiness again...at least from one of them! (I leave out names to protect the innocent!)So, with three of the children tottering on the edge, it is a tight rope walk trying to meet all their needs, and maintain peace. It is the most exhausting work I have ever done, and probably the cause of my frequent headaches! (Since I wrote this, we had to evict one of them for complete rebellion. We found out that he was instigating rebellion in the others)This morning, as I was praying about the situation, God told me not to worry, He had trouble with his kids too. He then reminded me of Moses and the children of Israel. The older ones all had to die in the wilderness, and never did see the promised land.  And that was in an even more controlled environment than I have, with the meekest man that ever lived as the leader. I am NOT as meek as Moses yet, but God is working on that little problem.I ask myself why I am doing this very often. Always, I come to the same conclusion. If I don't try to help these kids, who will? If nobody will help the hard to reach ones, they will be lost forever, with no hope of a future in heaven. God didn't tell us that we were to go only if people appreciate it, or if things are easy. Another thing that is becoming clear to me is that the more trouble and struggles we have, the closer we come to Jesus, and the more He is helping us to perfect our rather defective characters. Please pray that we will be hid in God so that we won't take all the lies and garbage personally. Also pray that God would help us to do our best in every circumstance, no matter how tired we are. And if you have any good or cheerful news...please pass it on. Sometimes we just want to hear something encouraging.Before I quit....THANK YOU to all those who sent me the words to the song I was looking for! I have the words, and when I make the last verse biblically correct, I will pass it on.