Sorrow and Joy!

Dear Friends,
Greetings from dusty, dusty Malakal! Today has had many walks in it which would surely thrill my female doctor in the states and the male cardio doctor in Ethiopia....at least none of them were done in intense heat.

My student who is helping me in the renting of the house which I hope to move to at the end of January or early February gave me great encouragement today. We had walked towards the college to meet with another student whose father owns the house. On the way back to my current home we passed many young women. I found myself wondering what their fates would be in life. Were they to marry young and spend their lives cooking on charcoal stoves for the many children which they would begin to bear very quickly after their marriage? Young women who have not been exposed to anything else but what their culture dictates don't even know that there are options for them out there, that we live in a big and international world.

My student began to talk of encouraging girls to sign up for the Diploma Program at the Nile Theological College where I teach and where he is a student. I suggested that they sign up for the Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Theology degree programs....I think that he is saying they may be intimidated by a four year program for now. Perhaps the place to start IS with the three year Diploma Program and then encourage them to go on for the BA or BTH and to encourage those that follow on their shoulders to go into the degree programs.

God has sent me a student in this young man who understands that this culture and society is not naturally encouraging of the development of women, young or more mature, into strong and independent people. The culture does not encourage the cultivation of their minds or thought processes. This young student is indeed a great encouragement to me!

I then said that after we have more female students then we must see to it that the church begins to ordain them! Yes. As a speaker at the previous semester's Opening Conference said, "If you give the women a reason to come, they will come!"

Please pray for God to open wide the gates of this Theological College to female students. Please pray that God will open wide the eyes of those in the community whose encouragement for the women will be necessary in order for them to seek an education. This seeking will be an indication that the Kin-dom of God is at hand!
Blessings,
Debbie