It all started the night Jason left to go back up to his school. I was innocently sleeping, when I awoke to a disturbing sensation in my tummy region, telling me that I had better make a mad dash to the outhouse. I had been feeling pretty tired for a couple of days, but not at all sick. But, the next few hours told me that I was very sick! My mad dashes to the outhouse became slow crawls to the outhouse, and I was beginning to feel very sorry for myself, and rather mad at times that there is no bathroom in my house, or at least close to it! The next morning as I was laying in bed, feeling totally wiped out, I was contemplating that “no bathroom in the house” issue, and I was thinking of all kinds of choice words for whoever planted that outhouse so far away, when the words of this article popped into my head. “Endure hardship as a good soldier”. I knew that those words are found in the bible somewhere, so I figured that God was trying to tell me something. In my fever racked brain, I tried to place exactly how that could fit into this situation. ( like I said, I was really sick)  Well, trying to get to the outhouse without fainting in the wrong spot could be considered hardship, couldn’t it? Watching out for snakes and scorpions when you are so dizzy that you can hardly see might be rationally thought of as hardship, right? Ok, so I had my hardship. But then the word endure came floating in to my consciousness. I couldn’t do much besides endure unless I died, but maybe it meant more than that. Could it also mean that I was not to complain about it? That one was harder, because I really wanted to complain! But, as I thought about it, I decided that if God gave me those words, then it was Him asking me to obey them. So, I stopped thinking complaining thoughts and started looking for something to be cheerful about. Through the doorway, I could see Pearl giving Travis his Karen lesson, Travis was reading to her, and once in a while she would say “no, no , no Travis” and start giggling. Pretty soon Travis would be laughing too at his silly mistakes. It is easy to make some pretty funny or embarrassing mistakes when learning a new language. I got to thinking about how blessed we are that all our students are so good. They have gotten to know us now, and are not afraid of us anymore, so they feel free to just be themselves. It is like having a great big family. ( I hear that my family is going to grow to nine members soon, as two more students should arrive shortly) How easy is it to complain about the outhouse when you have such wonderful students? The girls and Travis watched Hannah for me  while I shuffled back and forth to the outhouse, and they did not complain even once! (they did have reason to complain at times. Hannah is not always good!) In the afternoon when my fever was high, I asked the Lord to help me endure like a good soldier, and he immediately sent a wind to cool things off a bit. That is not the first time the Lord has done that for me, but it always amazes me just the same. So that was one more thing to add to my thankfulness list. Now, as I lay here, I can hardly think of anything to complain about at all! God is always good to us and gives us just what we need when we need it. If I did not have any trials in the mission field, I would not feel like a real missionary now would I? So, praise God for the hardships that he asks us to endure!