House Fires and Such

It's quite the title I know. But since John updates his blog so much more often than I, you've probably already heard the story... but I'm going to tell it anyway. Last Tuesday, Mr. and Mrs. Dean went to another missionary's house to have a meeting, so it was just the kids, John, and I. Pastor Dean told us that Charissa could handle everything if we wanted to go home, so around seven thirty, we were going to head out. But for whatever reason, we decided to stay a little longer. Early that night, Elsie (their youngest daughter) was playing around in the kitchen. Neither John nor I thought anything of it, and we just kept on doing whatever it was we were doing. Well, she stopped playing and got in the bath. She got out a while later and we were all sitting around in the living room, when John asked if there was steam from the bath floating in the kitchen. That's when we saw the orange, flickering glow on the kitchen wall behind the counter. Just as John was asking who lit a candle over there, we realized what it was. Elsie had plugged in a heating coil and left it there getting hotter and hotter. Eventually it lit a large box of stickers on fire and we had ourselves a good one and a half square foot fire.... in the kitchen. That was a little exciting to say the least. We didn't know of any fire extinguishers, so I began to fill up a pitcher with water. Meanwhile, John was contemplating trying to pat it out with his hands. Fortunately, before that idea came to fruition, he found an already full pitcher of water and put it out. So that was quite the Tuesday night. Praise the Lord that John and I didn't leave earlier, because poor Charissa wouldn't have had any idea what to do. Then the very next morning, God showed Himself just as strong in a very different, but equally amazing way. At school during the break, Alfredo (our Italian classmate), John, and I started talking about religion. He doesn't really know what he believes other than that everyone should accept what everyone else believes. We had a great opportunity to share the Gospel with him, but as we were just getting started, the break ended. Alfredo knows English very well, so that's what we were talking in. Once the break ended though, I knew that if we didn't start talking in Mongolian, she'd move on to the lesson. So I started trying to talk to him in Mongolian. Now, I struggle with this language. No doubt about it. But God was so good! Words were coming out of my mouth that I didn't even know I knew! He gave me an incredible opportunity to witness and and incredible ability with the language. And another great thing is that the teacher was listening intently to the whole conversation, looking for any mistakes in our speaking, so she heard it too. God really provides when we just look to Him instead of relying on our own strength.