He is the Rock

Today I sat down and was reading through my devotional. I came across Psalm 62. One part that really stuck out for me was this:

"I wait quietly before God, for my victory comes from Him. He alone is my rock and salvation, my fortress where I will never be shaken ... My victory and honour come from God alone, He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me. O my people, trust in Him at all times. Pour out your heart to Him, for God is our refuge." vs. 1-2, 7-8

In Bulima, where I spent the Christmas holidays, we went for a walk on the Tuesday morning. As we walked, we made our way up a large hill and at the top of the hill there was a rock. I was touched as we sat there, in the quietness, just with how the Lord truly is in control. He is our Rock and something that I can build my entire life on. I can trust in Him. The verse focuses on how He is a rock where no enemy can reach us. How crucial! There are going to be days when I am tempted and the enemy tries to steal me away, but I know and can go back to that spot on that day, knowing that He was the rock that I was sitting on and the Rock that I can be confident in.

I want to ask whoever is reading this to pray for the spiritual warfare that is going on right here in Tanzania. Being a nurse is a wonderful gift, something that I am very thankful to be passionate about, but there are a lot of issues surrounding health and well being here. Many people due to cultural ties etc, often find themselves going to a witch doctor to heal their ailments. As we were driving back I was really drawn to praying for the people, the communities, the witch doctors, the families that are so intertwined in witchcraft, that they feel they can't escape. Please pray with me. It is very hard to understand how Satan works and how he takes people away, misguiding and destroying their lives. It makes me very sad and I think that as I get more and more involved in International Nursing and living elsewhere (other then North America) this is something that I will have more and more contact with. Pray for understanding and for confident hope in the Lord, who is my Rock, my Salvation. I can trust in Him. May He open my eyes to His power and control.

~Erin

Merry Christmas!

With just five days till Christmas, I sit at my desk and think about all that has happened so far. What a blessing friendship has been over the last two months. The Lord has provided for me in so many ways, I am thankful each and every day. I continue to develop a relationship with the Tans, volunteers with the CRWRC also living on the same compound, AICT. Yesterday we hosted a Christmas party for several young Tanzanian people that live on our compound. We had over 25 people in the house, singing Christmas carols, eating snacks and celebrating the birth of our Saviour. Developing relationships with people here in Mwanza has been a blessing. Language still remains a barrier, but a smile and enthusiasm goes a long way in creating trust in people. Sometimes coming from another country may seem as a setback, but I am able to walk around the Makongoro compound and from a distant I receive waves and smiles from young and old, knowing that it is Monica walking to work in the morning or out to the dala dala stop for a trip to the market. You may be wondering what I mean by Monica. Once I arrived in Mwanza, another CRWRC staff suggested to use my middle name instead of Erin, as it may be too hard to say for some Tanzanian people, and what a blessing it has been. The name Monica rolls off the tongue of many Nationals and almost sounds like people sing my name when they see me. Today, for instance, Margaret, Gordon and I went to the fundi (a seamstress) to pick up a few skirts that we got made and they remembered us, and had a huge smile on their face as they literally sang my name, “Monica, Karibu sana!” Even though my network here in Mwanza may be small, we walk down to the market and often find a familiar face and with the openness and welcoming attitude of so many of the Tanzanian people, a conversation begins and we exchange kind words! It is a wonderful feeling to be able to interact with people here, with people that the Lord has created to be unique and beautiful. As I get to know more and more people here, I am encouraged by their hospitality and generosity. Thank the Lord for the wonderful example that Tanzanian can be to everyone. This afternoon, the Tans and I were invited to a co-worker’s house for lunch. We had a great visit and were able to again experience the loving kindness of people here in Mwanza.
I want to wish everyone back home, friends and family, a blessed Christmas. This year will be quite different and I pray that the Lord will use this time to challenge me to really focus on the true meaning of Christmas, despite being away from family and loved ones. The Lord sent His Son to earth to save us all, so that we can share His Good News all over the world, stretching to each and every nation, each and every tribe, each and every people. This Christmas may you experience the gift of Jesus in your life, may you practice generosity and hospitality like many Tanzanian people do, and may you be filled with the love of the Lord. Blessings from Mwanza to you.
“For nothing is impossible with God,” Luke 1:37

Some pictures from the last few months!

Here are links to some pictures from the last few months. Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=43440&l=a2336&id=509603902

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48714&l=baac8&id=509603902

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49922&l=12af9&id=509603902

Email Issues

I am very sorry for anyone who has been trying to send emails through to my account this week. I do really appreciate recieving emails and love to hear how everyone is doing at home, and this past week I tired to switch my email system. I ended up forwarding all the messages from my email account to an incorrect account. So for the past week, I have been forwarding emails to an account that did not exsist. Due to my Internet issues, if you are able to switch my email contact information that would be great. Now I will be using erin.carter86@gmail.com. I am so sorry for the confusion! Thank you to everyone for all your prayers and encouragement. This week has been challenging and I continue to learn new things every day. Praise the Lord for those trails that I mentioned in my previous post. He continues to strengthen us during those times. Blessings during this joyous season!

Much to share!

It has been over a week since I posted last, and much has happened. God is good!The week began with new neighbours moving into the area, the Tans. They are 6 month volunteers with CRWRC, coming from Alaska. We will be working together in the same area, which is a huge blessing. We have spent much time together already and enjoy each other’s company. Now going to the market and town does not require a call to the taxi or several days of prior arrangement. Friendship is also a wonderful addition!

Work is going well. Right now I am involved in working with the staff at the inpatient unit. It is a ward of up to 30 patients at a time. Often, due to the shortage in staff, there is only one nurse working for the whole ward. Needless to say, there are days when we will both be very busy. I am really enjoying getting to understand more and more about the diseases and medications that they use in this part of the world. I have benefited from the fact that the charts the staff write in are documented in English. This has helped me understand some of the history behind each patient and the treatment regimens. Since everything still remains quite new, I am asking a lot of questions and I know that right now this is how the Lord is using me in the clinic. I am asking some of those “why” questions, right now out of naivety, but am also helping clarify some of the treatments that the doctors are prescribing. It has been a sharp learning curve as at the beginning everything was new, but now that I have become more familiar with the illnesses like malaria. Everyone at the clinic is welcoming and I have enjoyed creating relationships with some of the staff. This coming weekend the Nursing Officer has invited Margaret and Gordon and myself to her house. What a blessing! Please pray for the patients that I will care for while I am working at the health centre. Pray for their families and the trails that they also go through as family members may pass away or have to deal with the disparities of debilitating diseases. Pray for understanding as I am unable to communicate well with many of the patients, pray for guidance and perseverance on days when I am frustrated with the language barrier. Pray for the staff as they too have to deal with pressures from work and home life.

I have gotten into good a routine here. Days are filled with trips to the local market where we spend most of the time trying to communicate and understand what the seller is saying. Each time it gets better! Even starting to barter down prices that seem high. Bei kubwa! (Too much) Punguza! (Reduce) I have started also washing clothes by hand, wow I don’t know how people wash all of their clothes, by the time I get one towel washed, I am exhausted. I am learning quickly! Cooking dinners has been exciting as now the Tans and I will be splitting that job. Will be nice to have them over to my place and share time in fellowship together. Lunch has been a wonderful culture experience as I go to an African family’s house, just behind the health centre. I have been welcomed in to their home and enjoy learning new Swahili words for my 30 minute break. We have had wonderful times of laughter and enjoy learning new things about each other. Right now all of the children are home from school, so it has been busy as they have nine children under the age of 24! A full house for the Christmas season. Getting into the Christmas spirit has been quite different this year, but last Friday there was a missionary fellowship and being surrounded by others all singing Christmas carols was a wonderful treat! The Tans and I hope to head up to another friend’s place for about a week to celebrate such a wonderful time of year! Snow, cold weather, and a Christmas tree aren’t what make this time of year so special. Spending time with friends and remembering the reason for the season will be what we focus on this year. It will be hard to be away from my family, but I know that the Lord will provide during those harder times. And a phone call home on the 25th will help!

Today I was reading through Romans and came across a verse that I had memorized with my small group all the way back in high school. Amazing how the Lord reminds us of parts of the Bible later on in our life – Praise the Lord!“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with love.” Romans 5:3-5I know that there are going to be problems and trials in the future. I have experienced some since I have come here, but I am confident in the Lord that He will use those times to work on me. I pray that I will be open to His working in my life so that I too can develop endurance that will strengthen my character and eventually lead to confident hope in salvation! Praise the Lord - Amen! Bwana asifiwe – Amina!

Thanksgiving

This year has been different then other years in the past. I have been able to experience a season in my life of continual thanksgiving. Tonight I spent the evening with a wonderful group of people at a gathering to celebrate American Thanksgiving. Several missionaries in the Mwanza area got together for a meal and fellowship afterwards. The Lord blessed me with a Canadian Thanksgiving, time spent with family and friends reflecting on all that we have been given and how we are so thankful just before I left for Tanzania and now I get to experience that wonderful celebration again. I thoughtto myself tonight, just how it truly has been a season in my life, this season of thanksgiving.
This week I became more submersed in working at the hospital, although the week was dispersed with many other great experiences such as a day trip to the Serengeti and continuation of language class. I have been truly beginning to feel at home here in Mwanza. The Lord has provided me with increased confidence in my Swahili so that greetings now are becoming more regular and I can slowly begin to create sentences. I find my self in situations where I am challenged to understand, but have been blessed also with many Tanzanian friends that speak English well and are very gracious when I make mistakes. Monday, the health centre was short staffed so the Nursing Officer and I worked directly with patients as we admitted over 10 patients in the course of two hours. It was a day of learning! And that is something I am so thankful for. I was able to learn an essential skill here at the health centre, IV insertion as many patients come to the centre with malaria and need to be treated with IV medication. I never got the opportunity to learn this skill in Canada as there are different things put in place for nurses in hospitals that I have worked in up to this point. I appreciated the guidance and direction from the Nursing Officer and look forward to more skills that I can continue to develop here. Continue to pray not only for the patients that I will interact with on a daily basis but also for the staff, as there are many different stresses on those working in the health centre here in Mwanza. I am learning that having enough money to buy the medication to treat the patients and having enough staff to carry out the treatment and monitor properly are often daily challenges that we must together overcome.
I am also very thankful for my new neighbours! An American couple is moving in to the house next to me this weekend and will be working closely with me at the AICT. Margaret and Gordon Tan will be volunteering in Mwanza for 6 months as well, through the CRWRC. I will be working on a daily basis with Margaret as she is also a nurse and Gordon will be spending his time assisting the General Secretary through the church. It such an answer to prayer that the Lord provided a Christian couple to move in and I look forward to getting to know them more.
Communication to my family and friends has been something that I continue to pray for. Having the Internet here in Tanzania has been a blessing, something that several years ago may not have been as easy to access. I thank the Lord every day for the ability to be able to communicate on a regular basis, even if that is only once a week.
As I prepare for a new week, I am continually reminded of just how blessed I truly am. I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, there is nothing more precious then that. I was impacted this week by several verses through quite time and friends sharing insight. Psalm 96:1-2 and Psalm 4:8. It is incredible how the Lord speaks to us through His living word at different points in our lives and brings us back to those verses and concepts months later to continue to instil His thoughts in our lives. I am so thankful for His guidance in my life and continue to pray that I will remain in His presence. Thank you for all your support over the last month, I have felt all your prayers and am so encouraged by your kind words and emails.

No power in Mwanza

I sit here typing by candle light as I experience one of the realities of living here in Mwanza. Often we are without power! With a gas stove and several candles I can do without the electricity but makes the days a lot shorter as one seems to get tired much quicker when there is a lack of light. Although there is no power running through the wires here in my house right now, I have experienced the Sovereign power of the Lord in the last week. Monday afternoon, on my way home from language class, three young teens came up to me and stole my gold necklace right from me. I was very scared as I continued on my way home, in a very quick pace, trying not to think about what happened or I would just begin to cry. The Lord protected me that day, as I was not harmed in any serious way. His angels were standing over me as I walked and ensured that I got home safely. After a phone call home, Jan, a friend and one of the missionaries here through the CRWRC came over. I spent the rest of the day at the Michmerhuizen’s house trying to work through a few of the feelings that I was having.
The Lord provided me with peace as I continued to talk with friends and my family about the whole situation. Several things have been put into place now so that I will no longer be walking by myself. I have a great community here in Mwanza and have several numbers to call if I need to go to the store or market for food. A friendly taxi drives me to and from language class each day, which has been a blessing beyond measure. I was comforted by Psalm 91 which was given to me by my Mom the day the incident happened and several other friends afterwards. It is amazing how alive the Word of God is!The rest of the week I spent relaxing and getting adjusted to my new environment here in Mwanza. Today was my first day working as a nurse. This was a day that I had been dreaming, praying and waiting for, for several years. Just like several other firsts, it had its good times and hard times. I am beginning to understand more about the routines at the AICT Makongoro Health Centre but continue to struggle with the language barrier. Continue to pray that I would find peace in the reality of learning a new language, allow myself to make mistakes and create ways to remember important words for working as a nurse and living in Tanzania. I praise the Lord for new friends like Dave and Heather, Naomi and Esther. Each day I wake up with a renewed sense of my relationship with the Lord and pursue after Him in all that I do. And as I finish this post, there continues to be no power, but I have experienced His power in my life and want to share that with the Tanzanian people.

Journey

My journey continues in Tanzania. A few weeks have passed since my first blog and many things have changed. I type this message from my new house, a huge blessing! I have begun to get settled here in Mwanza on the African Inland Church of Tanzania compound. I have a small house to myself, set up with a bed, desk, kitchen and small sitting room, and yes running hot water!

Today I was walking up to a friend’s house, the Michmerhuizen family and was thinking about how I could decribe to everyone what has been happening over the last few weeks, and all I could think of was the word journey. The road to their house is not that long, but interesting and I am enjoying the time that I can spend thinking as I walk up for a visit. Journey. As I looked around I was struck by how so many people in this world that are on a journey, whether they are walking up the road or down, whether they are going to church on Sunday morning or selling fruit on the side, they are on a journey. In our lives, we have the opportunity to be involved in many people’s journey. Saturday night, this week was a farewell to a missionary couple working in Tanzania for over 33 years, and even though I didn’t know them at all, I was part of their journey as we all bid them a good trip back to the States.
I was impacted by their work here and am grateful for the relationships that they began with the people of Tanzania and those coming after who will continue the work. We are all on a journey. I pray that as I continue on my journey in the next 6 months, the Lord will provide new relationships to develop and new experiences to embrace. I pray that I can continue to strengthen the friendships that I have already been blessed with at home through emails and phone calls.
To get as many people caught up on what has been happening here I will give a brief overview. I got to Mwanza about a week and a half ago now and spent the first few days meeting with AICT members and visiting the health centre where I will be working. It is called the AICT Makongoro Health Centre, right in the city of Mwanza. There are approximately 30 inpatient beds ranging from young children to women and men. There is also an outpatient clinic where they provide medication and treatments for people who do not need to be admitted to the hospital. I will be working closely with the Nursing Officer and hope to get started soon.
I received my work permit on Friday – Praise the Lord! With all of the prayers and support from everyone back home, the process went smoothly. The Lord’s hand was directly involved with all that happened in regards to immigration. I started language classes on Wednesday and plan on spending more time in the coming weeks with studying and practicing. I am going to be in an environment in which speaking Swahili is imperative, thus an on going prayer request that I will grasp the concepts of the language quickly and feel adventurous to make mistakes as I learn how to interact with Tanzanians . This is all part of the journey.
I have been challenged over the last few days as things settled down, to continue to understand more of what the Lord has planned for me. I go to sleep at night with excitement about what will be ahead of me the next day, thankful for all that has already occurred. Everything here is new for me and that also brings its challenges. As I try to explain to you what is going on, there will be things that I can’t put into words. Pictures will help, but may not fully explain it all. And that is what the journey is all about. We all interact and connect in different ways along our journey. My walk up the road this morning really brought home the fact that it is okay if my journey is not so clear right now, it is when the Lord provides for me my next step that I will be thankful. I came across the following verses in my daily devotions, “For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty Saviour. He will take delight in you with gladness. With His love, He will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs ... I will save the weak and helpless ones; I will bring together those who were chased away ... On that day I will gather you together and bring you home again.” Zephaniah 3:17, 19-20. Ultimately our daily journeys may not look the same, we may not fully understand what the other person is involved with or passionate about, but the promise that the Lord has given to each of His children is that on the final day, we will all be gathered together and He will bring us home. Praise God!

Arrived Safely in Dar

I am finally here, after months and months of planning and waiting, I am sitting in the conference room of the CRWRC Office in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I have been here for about four days now with a long trip from home in Markham, Ontario. Flying across the world to another continent does present some challenges with an adjustment not only to the total amount of travel time, but also with a change in weather, time zone and culture. All of which I am welcoming in my first few days in Dar. I was greeted by Margaret and a friend at the airport after having to figure out how to buy a Visitor Visa once I landed. With that adventure behind me, we made the car ride to my first “home” – a guesthouse owned by an Italian NGO. Rachel Brink, a CRWRC volunteer from the United States, was waiting for us and enthusiastically made me feel comfortable right away. We spent the next few hours getting used to each other and became friends quickly. My first night in Tanzania was a success.
Wednesday started later, as I was given time to rest and adjust to a seven hour time difference. Margaret, the CRWRC Country Coordinator for Tanzania, and Rachel picked me up at the guesthouse and we went out for lunch. This is when I was first able to experience Tanzania in the day light. Many things to look at as we often do when we go to a new place. New landmarks to take note of and culture to submerse myself in. But the thing that I was struggling to adjust to the most was the heat. Showering just didn’t seem to cut it, as you are sweating and uncomfortable before the shower and not much different afterwards. Something that I will need to continue to submit to the Lord that my body will adjust to new surroundings. Getting shade and air conditioning when possible is a treat and greeted with much thankfulness. My first day ended with a phone call to Nishant and several emails to family and friends. Staying connected with people at home is a huge priority for me and something that I will be challenging myself to do. Please, feel free to send prayer requests or updates as often as possible.
The next few days were filled with a field visit to a community about an hour and a half away from the city. My first experience with development work left me with lots of questions and a yearning to know more about what I could do or how to relate to what I experienced. Asking questions is so important and I am finding that as I ask more questions, I only have more questions to ask! A good place to be in as I begin to learn more and more about the African culture and people. Meals have been good as we are treated with Italian food at the guesthouse, last night being a personal favourite of lasagne! Have spent a lot of time talking with Rachel and enjoyed playing cards with her. A new friend I hope to continue to connect with even when we are in different cities in the months ahead.
Some plans have been made for the weekend, hoping to go to a local market to pick up a few items and enjoy some ethnic food in the area. Sunday we will attend an International church and might go to see the Indian Ocean for some pictures. Tuesday we head to Mwanza where we will be meeting with the partner organization, African Inland Church of Tanzania. Please pray that this meeting will go well and that as I get settled in my next “home” that I will continue to see the Lord working throughout the process. I have been blessed with so much support from back home during the first few days, so thank you for that. It is amazing how the Lord works in precious ways when we are in need of comfort and assurance. I was reading through my devotions and was encouraged by a verse in Lamentations and then when I check my email later on that day my mom had sent me the exact same verse. How the Word of the Lord can connect people! Praise be to the Creator of all things.
“The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness, His mercies begin afresh each morning.” Lamentations 3:22-23
There have been a few times of sadness as I adjust and accept many changes here. I wakeup each day with a new sense of encouragement knowing that it is the Lord who will see me through each and every situation. I am excited about the next few weeks as I get to know the Lord and His will in my life so clearly.

Enjoy this picture, my first few out the guesthouse room in Dar es Salaam.

Departure Date Confirmed!

Much has changed since I wrote the first blog. Details have come together, after quite an emotional week last week, I was informed of my arrival date in Tanzania today. I will be leaving Monday October 20, 2008 and will arrive in Dar es Salam to spend a week with Margaret who is staff of CRWRC. She will orient me to the culture and learn more about what the organization is doing in Tanzania right now. Then we will fly to Mwanza, which is where I will be volunteering and meet up with the partner, African Inland Church of Tanzania, to arrange accommodations and finalize details with my work permit.

After much prayer from family and friends, I begin to prepare with confidence in the Lord. I have three weeks to get final details accomplished and say good bye to close friends and family. The encouragement that I have received over the last few months has been overwhelming especially in relation to my support raising. I was blessed to have a job this summer and I got to know many of the staff and residents at the retirement home I worked at. The last week I was there, they had a raffle for my trip, raising several hundred dollars, Praise the Lord! One situation while I was working touched my heart and I will never forget it. There was a resident who had take a lot of time since he moved to Sunrise earlier in the year to become involved in a spiritual way. He was actively involved in the Bible Study and always interested in how people were doing. I shared my fundraising profile with another resident and she passed it on to this man. The Lord worked in an incredible way that just a day before this resident suffered massive haemorrhage in his brain, he donated to my trip. I was working over the weekend and we were supporting him through palliative care and comforting his family. I went home and received an email update on my funds and it showed that he donated. I was in shock to see his name on the list and that he gave, supporting my efforts in going overseas. He would never know how he affected my trip, what an inspiration he had been to so many people and now one more. I was able to say thank you to him in the last hours of his life as he passed away just a week after his stroke, and know that he is going to be watching over me and supporting me while I am gone. Thank you Jim.

This picture is of the sign that the staff at Sunrise created to raise funds for my trip. Thanks everyone!

Please continue to pray that the next several weeks will be filled with good memories, good conversation and good worship of the One who controls it all. The One who hears every prayer and every cry. Our Father who provides in every circumstance.

“I love the Lord because He hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. Because He bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath ... And so I walk in the Lord’s presence as I live here on earth,” Psalm 116

Please email me or give me a call before I leave, I would love to connect with you. If you are available to come out we will be having a Farwell Party on Saturday October 11th, 2008 at 5pm in Markham at our new house. If you want more details and would like to come to send me off, please email me asap.

God bless and farewell.

Erin

First Blog

Hello Everyone,

My name is Erin Carter and this blog will take you through my upcoming trip to Tanzania as I volunteer in a mission hospital for 6 months. The adventure that many of you are joining with me on has begun, as I continue to prepare to leave for Tanzania in the next few months.

I just graduated from Nursing at Humber College and you can see an exciting picture of my boyfriend, Nishant and I as we celebrate such a special day. After four years of University I am excited to move on to the next stage in my life. I will be volunteering through the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee and will be partnering with an organization in Tanzania once I get there. The Lord continues to provide for me as I have had the opportunity to work full time this summer as a Nurse in a private retirement home. I have enjoyed my time, getting to know a wide range of staff members and residents. Along my path, I have met several people that have grown up in Tanzania, the city I am going to be moving to. Around the lunch table, they have been able to share stories of the beautiful country that Tanzania is and how I am going to have such a great time overseas. With all the blessings that I have received in the last few months, specifically financially I continue to pray that the Lord will provide a work permit. I have approximately $2000 more dollars to raise for my trip, which is a huge answer from the Lord as at the beginning of the summer that goal was much much higher.

At this time, I am requesting that all of you would join together with me in my fervent prayer for the country of Tanzania. Pray for those that I will meet, care for and build relationships with. Pray for the government as they process my work permit, that the process would be smooth, proceed quickly and that in due time I will receive notice back that it is clear. Pray that the next few months as I prepare to leave family and friends at home, I seek the Lord when I am face with fears of leaving. Pray that He will be my strength when I am weak.

I hope to updated this blog fairly often. When I am in the field I am not sure what my Internet connection will be like, but I will be aiming for at least every two weeks. I would love to receive emails or snail mail from all of you. My current email address is erin_carter88@hotmail.com and my mailing address will be CRWRC – Tanzania Old Bagamoyo Rd, Mikocheni B, Plot #62 P.O. Box 7615, Dar-es-Salam, Tanzania.

If you have any questions or would like to meet up before I leave, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line. I finish work on September 25th, 2008 and then will be making last minute arrangements before I leave. We are hoping to have a going away party on the weekend of Thanksgiving! Remember Saturday October 11th, 2008. More details to come!

Thank you again for joining with me. May the Lord continue to bless you.

“The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning ... The Lord is good to those who depend on Him, to those who search for Him. So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.” Lamentations 3:22-23, 25-26