Frozen Chosen

Posted by on January 30, 2008 in Short--term Teams

It was 25 degrees below zero F. (33 degrees below C.) on the sign at the Dentist office on the Steese Hwy this morning. Yes–that is bitter cold and some of you might wonder why anyone would choose to live in a place like this. By-the-way it has been colder than 40 below F. this winter already. Now you really are wondering why some of us are living in the arctic. Well–this is our home. It actually takes a special person with a little adventure to stay more than one winter. I have found that as cold as it may be outside people here are really warm hearted and caring.

There will be eight of these frozen souls from the arctic and one from Illinois replacing their parkas for t-shirts and walking shorts. They will make up the team of nine going on a short-term team to remote Indonesia. This team will be training the IFC Children’s Home staff on early childhood development benchmarks, working along side the medical staff with a focus on tropical diseases (like malaria, dengue fever and leprosy), engineering projects and three will share from the Bible to encourage the entire staff.

What a privilege to share the training and talents of these nine Americans. They will share warm hearts and friendship with the people of Indonesia. They will work faithfully but the bonus of walking barefoot on white sand beaches near the Equator is not a bad replacement for snow drifts and minus temperatures.