Acclimation

Tonight we had a large crusade here in Gracias that Shannon was helping with so the kids and I went for a while.  It was great to see that many people praising God and while I don’t want to take away from what God is doing in the peoples lives here, I wanted to share a quick observation about what he is doing in Emma’s life.  I know many of you have been praying for her and I want you to know that your prayers are being answered.  As many of you know, Emma is very shy and does not like strangers at all.  This has posed a real problem here, because as a whole this culture has no sense of personal space and thinks nothing of playing with a stranger’s hair or holding hand when walking with friends.  Emma does not enjoy people touching her and it takes a long time for here to warm up to people.  However, tonight it dawned on me how quickly Emma is becoming acclimated.  We were squished with tons of people and it did not faze her at all.   Then several kids wanted to play and she ran off to play with them.  One of the girls I recognized from school (I think she is a year older than Emma).  When Emma wanted to run somewhere different, she took the girls hand and off they went.  Seems small I know, but for Emma it is a big deal.  Also, yesterday at school, every time I saw Emma, her hair was styled differently. Apparently in her class someone is fixing her hair.  Also a small thing for most people but considering that Emma cried the first week of school because “all the girls kept touching her hair and would leave her alone,” I think she has come a long way.  Thank you for your prayers.  Please continue them and know that we have a God who listens.